Here in this text Jesus is speaking with his disciples during the last supper. He has just announced that he will be leaving soon – he will be going somewhere they cannot follow, at least not for the moment. Understandably, the disciples are a little concerned at this news, and so Jesus comforts them “Do not let your hearts be troubled, trust in God, trust also in me”. He explains that where he is going there is enough room for all, and that they already know they way… for he IS the way, the truth and the life. He is the living embodiment of the road they are to follow and the life they are to live. Jesus tells the disciples that if they have seen him, then they have seen God, the Father, the God-head. Then, to comfort the disciples further he explains that the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, will come to them as a helper “to teach them everything, and remind them of all that he had said to them”. Jesus started this community on earth and the disciples are worried about not having their leader – they don’t want to be left alone.
This is one of many passages within the bible that alert us to the Trinitarian nature of God – one God as three persons – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The trinity has been doctrine since the early days of the Church, “trinity” is not a word that you will find in the bible, though the pervasive sense of it is throughout – from Genesis right through the New Testament. It has always been an inadequate attempt at explaining the nature of God. It is a mystery and will forever remain so. We are incapable of giving full expression and voice to the nature of God, and yet we still hold to the doctrine of the Trinity – we haven’t discarded it in its difficulty and mathematical inelegance. We live with it, we experience it, we dwell within it. And we do so because our knowledge of God is intertwined with knowledge of ourselves – the trinity says something profound about how we, as followers of Christ, experience God, each other and ourselves.
If God is Trinity, three persons of the one God in relationship with each other, then God is a community. Migliore says that “In God’s own life there is an activity of mutual self-giving, a community of sharing, a “society of love” that is the basis for God’s history of love for the world as narrated in Scripture” [1]. Within God’s own being there is otherness. The Creator is not the Son not the Spirit, and the Son is not the Spirit. So where we are afraid of the other, God embodies perfect love with the other. God finds fulfillment in being community. Each person of the trinity is their own, but only holds that personal identity because they are in relationship with the other two.
God experiences community within God’s self and wants to share it with us. God, who is love, shares that love with us so that we might dwell with God. God makes space for us. God becomes habitable. As we are made in the image of God, we also find fulfillment in community. Just as God’s identity is one of community, so too our identity is fully found and established within community.
I don’t know about you, but I actually find this pretty challenging! I like being an individual, I like being self-sufficient. I guess I know that humans are social and find fulfillment within community, there wouldn’t be so much hand-wringing about social media if it weren’t true. Nevertheless, I do try and convince myself otherwise. Most of the time I am a classic introvert, I could very happily spend my days absorbed in books and hobbies and chores at home and not interact with another soul. Or at least that’s what I tell myself. I love it when I have a very important project to do that takes all my time because then I have the perfect excuse to shut myself away and not be bothered by anything else – or anyone else. This week for example, I nearly didn’t go to bible study or have dinner with a friend because I had a very important sermon to write. Luckily, the irony wasn’t lost on me that this sermon is about community, so I didn’t cancel. Usually, however, I’m very good at deluding myself into thinking that what I do is more important than who I am.
We are all social beings, we all need to connect with others to live full lives. So, because we are not God and do not have a perfect indwelling of community within our very beings, we join up with others. We are born into families, even if that family is just one other person, where we first learn what it is to be in relationship. We form friendships and partnerships with people because of who they are, how they make us feel and the love we have for them and they for us. We form organisations to address problems, we form professional networks to identify opportunities, we join protest movements because we’re moved by a cause. We very often make connections because of who the other person is or because we want to do something. It’s not like that with the church though – we are here because of who God is. We are here because we worship God who is self-sharing, other-regarding, community-forming love. Jurgen Moltmann describes the church as an icon of the trinity – a community of equality and freedom that illuminates the image of the triune God. We are a community because God is a community.
Despite my recalcitrant and introverted nature, God hit me over the head with the reality of God’s community back in 2009 and I haven’t been able to stop thinking or talking about it since. I was at NCYC listening to a talk by Shane Claibourne and I had the “ah ha” moment – I don’t remember exactly what he was talking about – but I had the realisation that the church wasn’t about getting together so we could do lots of stuff, we do lots of stuff so that we can be together. The ultimate purpose of the Church is to be the Church – to be God’s community and an outpouring of God’s love in the world. I was astounded. My memory of that time is that I rushed back to my church and started telling everyone all about it. Our church was going through a bit of a lull, quite a few people had just moved away and we were grieving. Our main missional activity – two student houses with 4 rooms in each – had just one student living there. And he wasn’t even a student anymore – he had finished his degree but just didn’t want to leave the house empty. The lease on our flat was up and so I managed to convince the church to let us move into the other house and we would do community building stuff. It took six months from the initial proposal until we moved in, and in that time we made preparations and we all got pretty excited. We had heaps of plans. We would hold bible studies, host dinners, have board game nights, movie nights. We would jumpstart the church again, breathe new life, people would get to know each other better and in time, the church would be renewed. In the end it actually did work out that way, but not in the way I imagined. One month after we moved in I got really sick. So sick it took all my energy to work my 9-5 job, so I had barely enough energy left over for the community. So instead the tables were turned. I had envisaged being the one organising things and hosting the gatherings, but instead I had to learn how to “just be” in community.
So that’s where we were, and we just had to get on with it. I had planned for my house to be open to the community so that I could build it… instead, I found I needed the community to be with me because I was far from “whole”. In retrospect it felt like the community built itself – now I would describe that as the work of the Spirit. Some nights at bible study I wrapped myself up in a blanket and stretched out over the whole couch. Everyone else still came and had bible study around me – and I didn’t say anything at all, but I was there. We used to have “open house” nights on Friday nights where everyone was invited. On more than a few occasions I came home from work on a Friday to find random people sitting in my kitchen chatting, or watching TV on my couch. One night after Sunday evening service I came back and found eight people sitting around my kitchen table. I hadn’t been expecting them and hadn’t been grocery shopping in more than a week. Somehow, miraculously, after 30 minutes of scrounging through my cupboards there was enough food for all of us. Whilst I had planned to be a “host” in that community – that wasn’t always the case. I also found myself being a guest, being taken care of by the people I invited into my space, into my life – and that’s when I really felt part of the community. It was in those times that I was made whole. I learnt that who I was was more important than what I did.
When we are the hosts we can trick ourselves into thinking that what we are doing (even when it’s “building community”) is more important than actually being community. When God is the host, we are guests. We, all of us, are guests here each week. Yes this community is ours, but it’s ours this morning because we showed up – not because we were here last week, or because we’re on committees, or planned worship, or know where the cups go in the kitchen. It is ours because right now in this moment we have entered with each other into the triune God.
We are here because of who God is. Being community is what we are called to and needs to be part of everything we do, it’s how we do things. From large worship services to small groups to friends just catching up. When we get together just as friends, with no other motive, “building community” happens pretty naturally. It’s when we get together to do something – to work together on a project, or plan an event, or be on a committee, or study the bible, it’s easy to forget who we are. So I encourage you to do this one thing – which I see being done here in this community anyway, but it never hurts to have a reminder.
Every time you meet with each other to do whatever it is you’re there to do, make sure you first meet each other to be with each other. Make it a priority, actually set time aside at the beginning of your meeting to get to know the people you’re with. Sure, ask them how they are, how their week has been, what they’ve been up to – but don’t stop there. Be curious – ask them questions which reveal a bit of who they are. Yes, this will require something of you – after all they’re going to ask you same questions. It will be challenging. It is worth it. Amen.
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[1] Migliore, Daniel L., 2004, “The Triune God”, Faith Seeking Understanding – An Introduction to Christian Theology, 2nd Ed., Eerdmans Publishing Company, Michigan / Cambridge
Other resources:
Moltmann, Jurgen, 1999, “The Triune God: Rich in Relationships”, The Living Pulpit, Vol 8 No 2 April-June 1999, http://www.pulpit.org/
Scott, J. Martin C., 2003, “John”, Eerdmans Commentary on the Bible, James D.G. Dunn & John W. Rogerson (eds), William B Eerdmans Publishing Company, Michigan / Cambridge
Helen Travers 