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Okay! Hot dog! This is the first time I have actually gotten the blogger to work on my own without Divine Intervention (or at least Alan's Intervention).
Last night, we spoke briefly about religious communes. I commented that there were very few actually "orthodox" Christian communes out there. It seems like the ones that succeed are the wierdos! Think of all the communes and communal groups you've heard of--at least the major ones--and you'll see what I mean: the Shakers, Oneida, the Branch Davidians, etc. The Shakers believed Mother Ann was the female incarnation of Christ... Oneida shared sexual partners (or, rather, the leader "shared" everybody's wife if you want to be exact)... and so on. The real Christian groups falter more often. Why are the ones that seem to work and function the longest usually wacko?
Well, first, I think it's harder to be "orthodox" (ok, it's a really formal sounding word that gets people ticked off and thinking about nit-picky arguments over doctrine, but that's not what I really have in mind) and still hold a community of believers together in love. Unorthodox groups usually reject the Trinity. A quick study will bear me out on this point. Faith in the Trinity gives Christianity the vision of a perfect society existing in God. There is role-diversity but co-equality. Jesus can say his Father is "greater" than he is and that he "does his Father's will," while the two enjoy a basic, essential oneness and equality in Godhood, power and glory. That's a hard vision of society to bring into actual being. How many times do our leaders allow themselves to be "on the same level" as the people who submit themselves to them? How many times do we look at the different "roles" in our society as being different in terms of prestige? How often we try to "lord it over" one another! It is hard to bring the Trinitarian life of God into actual, social existence because it runs against the grain of all we've been taught. Cultic groups that throw out the Trinity (and the Incarnation of Christ too for that matter) don't have this problem: if you're an absolute Monotheist minus the Trinity, you have a totally different "vision" of the perfect society--one where an autocratic dictator sends down external laws to be obeyed. That "vision" of society is easier. It's the broad highway we find ourselves on each and every day in our culture, instead of the narrow one that Christ calls us to, the one where we must "in honor, prefer one another," let the "greatest among you... serve," and keep the "unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace."
Second, cultic groups often simply attempt to reproduce the personality of the leader within all the individuals involved. Our God is one, but is still three distinct Persons. Orthodox Christian teaching requires us to allow each other's creative impulses and opinions to interact. We've all heard that Proverb that says, "As iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpens his brother." Iron can only sharpen iron where there is some friction! When leaders hammer down on their followers and create a questionless environment where nobody ever disagrees, nobody gets sharpened! Sure, it's easier that way, but it accomplishes nothing in the way of spiritual progress. Friction wears down an engine, but without any friction at all an engine will never accomplish anything or move anything whatsoever. Better to occasionally have to change the oil and repair the parts than to let those parts spin forever without contacting or rubbing together and never move! Just as the bread and wine in communion become the body and blood of Jesus without ceasing to be bread and wine, so are we joined to Christ without ceasing to be individuals with distinct personalities, likes and dislikes. The high road of interaction and real community (instead of conformity to a list of rules and demands) is a hard, narrow road--exactly the hard, narrow road Christ called us to--and "few there be that find it."
Whether we live in a "commune" or simply interact as a Christian community, there's something to be learned here. When we let Jesus Christ be our example and the pattern for our lives, and the Trinity be our blueprint for society, we set ourselves upon a difficult but rewarding journey. Let's follow it, take the path less travelled, and find a better life in the place where it leads.
| posted by Robert | 12:42 PM | |