A Community Faith

Jim:

Deuteronomy 26:1-11
When you read through verses 6-9 notice that the personal pronoun is first person plural: “When the Egyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us…we cried to the Lord…the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression…” and so forth. Neither the writer of these words, nor the original readers were present when those events took place, but they claimed them as their own as though they had been there. As Christians we continue to understand the events of salvation history to be our stories, too. The communion liturgy is one place this is very evident. Here the officiant of the meal will often include words that retell the history of God’s people and use the same first person plural pronouns as used in Deuteronomy 26. For me it is helpful to be reminded that I belong to a community of faith and that the community has a long and continual relationship with the one who has called us into being.

2 Corinthians 8:16-24
Community plays a very important role in the reading from 2 Corinthians, too. In verses 20 and 21 Paul writes, “We intend that no one should blame us about this generous gift that we are administering, for we intend to do what is right not only in the Lord’s sight but also in the sight of others.” Paul is referring to a collection he is taking on behalf of the members of the church in Jerusalem, one to which he hopes the Corinthian Christians will contribute generously. Not only does Paul feel connected to and responsible for the church in Corinth, but he feels the same connection to and responsibility for the church in Jerusalem. It is his intention that the Christian community show mutual concern for one another, gentiles and Jewish Christians alike. And Paul intends for his actions to be above reproach, in the sight of God and of the community to which he obviously feels accountable. Paul recognizes the web of relationships that we share when we are called to be God’s people. Ours is a community faith.

Luke 18:9-14
One of my first sermons in seminary was based on this text, and while it was a dreadful bit of preaching, the passage has remained one of my favorites. I think it is important to note that while ours is a community faith, it is also vitally important for us as a part of that community to take responsibility for our own lives and our own actions. Nonetheless, the Pharisee and the Tax Collector represent types of people with whom Jesus’ audience would have been familiar and with whom they would have come in contact on a regular basis. It is important to realize that we do not live in a vacuum but that life is filled with relationships and encounters that help to color and shape our faith.