On Community

Dear Friends 


I am writing shortly after the funeral of Lesley Whitley. The shock and sadness at her death were felt by many, as was evident from the number of people who attended the service. This was reinforced by the response of people offering to help, at short notice, with catering, flowers, music and bells. This all showed me something, as a newcomer to the parish: how Lesley (and Tony too) had become deeply interwoven into the community of the church (as well as the wider community). And it highlighted the sense that the church is indeed a community. 


We sometimes hear someone described as "a church-goer". I confess that I'm not overly fond of the term as it seems to imply that church is simply a place to which we go. (It also seems to be a way of avoiding saying that they are a Christian.) Now, of course, church is a place we go to but, far more than that, it is something we belong to and are part of. It is something we are. The New Testament puts this in several ways - two of the most familiar are that the church is a family and that we are the Body of Christ. 


When God entered the world at Christmas, he didn't just appear as some immense spiritual entity - with or without a long white beard. In the birth of Jesus, he came to us in human form - in a body and as part of a family. And when Jesus called the first disciples (something we hear about in our gospel readings in the coming season of Epiphany) he called them to be a community, who for all their differences belonged together, worshipped and learned together, suffered and cared together. And they also offered their gifts to Jesus and each other as part of that community. 


The theme of offering also runs through from Epiphany, with the wise ones offering their gifts to Jesus, to Candlemas at the start of February where Mary offers her greatest gift, her son, back to God for his service. Sometimes in church life we speak of someone "volunteering" in some way or other. But again, I am not too sure about this way of describing what is going on. During Epiphanytide we celebrate the feast of the baptism of Christ, and along with that our own baptism. And just as his baptism was a moment of profound calling for Jesus, so our own baptism means that we too are called - to offer ourselves, our gifts, our desire to serve Christ in a whole range of ways great or small. Most of those acts of self-offering will take place in our daily life and work. But some of them happen in our church community. By offering ourselves we are saying that our participation in the life and worship is not simply about what we are getting out of belonging, but also about what we are putting into it. 


Now, simply by being a caring and prayerful presence in our worship and fellowship, and by giving financially on a committed, regular basis, we are making a vital contribution to building up the Body of Christ, which is something we can all do. However, many of us are called to offer more than that. Of course we have rotas and tasks that need doing; that is just a function of being a human organisation. But as the Body of Christ, there is a spiritual dimension. We are not volunteers but disciples - called to serve Christ by offering what we have to him. In doing, so we enrich our worship, our fellowship and our mission, and express that we are indeed a living community of faith. Over the coming weeks, I hope we will have more chance to reflect on this and either to renew our existing offering, or offer something new - a chance, I hope, to ponder our response to all that God has offered to us in Christ. 
God bless you all and a Happy New Year! 


David