16. Church as a community of at-one-ment Dr. Zac Varghese Page

Dr. Zac Varghese*

‘We are all in it together’ was an emotional statement, which attracted attention during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, when it came to the equitable distribution of vaccines across the world or removing the patent rights on vaccine production in developing countries or helping poor countries, this solidarity fragmented and got shattered into pieces; we do not hear it any more from the people who exercise power in various sectors of society. Now, we are members of a wounded and divided churches across the world and not all in it together.

The 2015 Lent talks for a ‘Churches Together in England (CTE) Group’ in North London were given by Revd Dr. Leslie Griffiths of the Methodist Church on the theme: ‘I believe in One, Holy Catholic, Apostolic, Evangelical, Charismatic, Radical and Liberal Church’. The main thrust of the theme was that over the centuries various churches and groups have confiscated and owned these Spiritfilled words for their own exclusive needs and for controlling members of various churches and directing them in different ways. The five weeks’ journey with Lord Griffiths was an amazing liberating experience to realise that one does not have to move out of one’s denomination to declare without hesitation that one belongs to Christ.

Jesus came to the world as Immanuel, to show us by example that ‘we are all in it together’. He redemptively showed the world how to restore relationships with God, self, with others and the world. He handed the responsibility of healing the fractured world to His followers, the Church. The Church has been described as the body Christ, the bride of Christ, the family of God, the people of God and the temple of the Holy Spirit. The Church is also thought to be ‘a community called atonement’. Therefore, at-one-ment of bringing people together through God’s self-giving love is the good news that Christians are expected to propagate by living the Gospel. The Church is also thought to be a community of pilgrims, walking towards a promised land flourishing with kingdom values. Unfortunately, we have divided churches at every level and across the world. We need to work with total humility and single-mindedness to remodel churches, parishes and prayer groups and homes as communities of ateone-ment.

As the Advent begins on Sunday 27th November in 2022, it is good to remember that the foundation of the Christian faith is encapsulated in the Advent story, which begins with Mary’s faith, her obedience to a vision and her reply to angel Gabriel: “I am Lord’s servant. May your word to me be fulfilled” (Lk 1:38). Advent prepares us for the coming of God into the world as the ‘Babe of Bethlehem’ to share our human condition and help us redeem ourselves. Our entire lives are expected to be transformed because of the events of Advent, the obedience of Mary, the mother of Jesus – the ministry of Jesus, His death on the cross and the resurrection. It is the story of our God becoming Immanuel to live among us to establish His kingdom values on the earth. It is an amazing event of the creator and the created becoming one to have an ‘abiding experience’. ‘The Word becoming flesh and making his dwelling among us’ is the central event in the history of mankind (cf. Jn1:1-14). It is encapsulated in the theology of ‘atonement’.

Atonement indicates the condition of being ‘at-one’ after two people had been estranged from one another. In St. Paul’s writings, atonement has other implications, such as justification, redemption, reparation reconciliation. A short summary of atonement can be seen in 1 Cor 15:3: “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.” Theologians have expanded the meaning of this verse to create theories of atonement. In Israel’s long history, they had a ‘Day of Atonement’ (Lev 23:26ff). Elaborate priestly ceremonies were observed on that day to expiate the sins of the whole nation (Heb 9:6ff). In contrast, we see the once-for-all nature of Jesus’ atoning sacrifice. Jesus was crucified for our offences and raised for our justification and salvation (Rom 4:25; Rom 5:1-10).

At-one-ment only becomes meaningful when we have a sense of brokenness or our lives and being out-of-joint, as we notice today in society as a whole and particularly in churches across the world. It is most important to realize that churches are called to create communities called atonement without struggles for power, but experiencing brotherly love in every aspect of communal living. The Gospel that we preach and live should be all about atonement. We should be able to speak effectively and live accordingly about the atonement achieved through the once-for- all sacrifice of Christ on the cross, continually re-enacted and remembered in every act of our living

and in the liturgy of the Eucharist. As Christians, we are expected to be an inclusive community of believers to do the mission of Jesus Christ and somehow, we have become an exclusive community; we also exclude people because of their colour, race, religion, faith, and gender.

Therefore, it is important to repent, reconcile and transform to become agents of God’s mission (missio Dei). This is to build a community in which ‘God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven’ and through which one finds both union with God and communion with everyone. It is clear that something is seriously wrong the way we conduct ourselves as Christians.

What is that we lack? We lack the fundamental awareness that we are the children of God with the privilege and honour to address God as ‘our Father’. This awareness should ignite love and compassion to alleviate suffering of others and to promote well-being of everyone. We also need to pray for our brothers and sisters in other parts of the world who are persecuted for working to establish God’s kingdom values such as: justice, love for others, fellowship, spirituality and truth. Fr. Stan Swamy3 , the tribal rights activist of India and a Jesuit priest, who underwent imprisonment and died at Mumbai on July 5, 2021, and the late Archbishop Oscar Romero of Salvadore4 , who was assassinated on 24th March 1980 are in our collective memory as shining examples of courageous people fighting for God’s kingdom values. St. Paul wrote to Colossians: “As God’s chosen ones, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another. If anyone has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them altogether in perfect harmony” (Col 3:12-14). We must create the habit of constantly opening ourselves to the reality of one human family under the fatherhood of God to live and work in God’s household. By the ‘costly grace of God’ we have the freehold to live under God’s household.

The Beginning of the Church

Only in Matthew’s Gospel we read about Jesus mentioning the word ‘Church’; it was at Caesarea Philippi in a well-known passage: “And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock, I will build my church, . . .” (Mt 16:18). Jesus mentioned the word Church a second time in the context of confession and resolving disputes in Mt.18:17. We also read how Holy Spirit came upon the Church on the day of the Pentecost in response to Peter’s sermon when “three thousand were added to their number” (Acts2:41). It was the inauguration of the Church as a community of at-one-ment. This group along with the disciples of Jesus became the ‘one holy, catholic and apostolic Church.’ The mystical union with Christ was central to St. John’s overall theological appraisal of the Church. According to St. John, the church is made up of those who abide in Jesus and in whom Father and the Son abide, like the vine and its branches (Jn 15ff; Jn 17:23). The mutual indwelling of the Father in the Son and the Son in the church is also the means to unity, the ultimate expression of God’s love. Jesus gave a new command to the members of this mystical body called Church, “A new command I give you: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (Jn13:34). Jesus’ high priestly prayer in John’s Gospel highlights this love and unity: “I in them and you in me –so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me” (Jn 17:23).

The principle of love is capable of making the Christian community (ecclesia/Church), more inclusive and tolerant of differences. Genuine mutual love can posit communion at various levels, rather than impose a strict adherence to a doctrinal purity and uniformity. Such an understanding is essential for building ecumenical relationship with other churches and faith communities. To promote the mission of interreligious dialogue and heal the wounded past and present divisions there is an urgent need to promote ‘friendship’ among the different religious traditions. Jesus expects the faith community created by Him and His disciples would be united to him as branches to the main vine (Jn15:1-11). The members of such a Church would bear much fruit of the Spirit as described by St. Paul: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentles and self-control (Gal 5:22-23). In St. John’s gospel and epistles, mutual love and communion of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit is the very foundation of the Church. The mutual indwelling, perichoresis or coinherence of three persons in the trinity, is the foundation for believer’s communion with one another. However, it is time to rethink about atonement merely as Jesus paying a ransom for our sins and redeeming us; here the emphasis is on personal salvation and individual’s spiritual formation. David Bosch wrote: “Salvation in Christ is in the context of human society enroute to whole and healed world.”5 The Indian mystic, Sri Aurobindo wrote: “A solitary salvation leaving the world to its fate was felt almost distasteful.”6 He continued, “Nothing can be saved until everything is saved. . . There can be no paradise as long as a single man is in hell!”7 Therefore, the principle of love is capable of building the faith community more inclusive and tolerant of differences. Genuine mutual love can create communion at various levels instead of imposing strict adherence to doctrinal purity and uniformity.

Let me express the views of Pope Francis of the nature of the Church today and his hope for the future. The Jesuit priest, Joseph Xavier, writes about the ecclesial vision of Pope Francis in the following way: “Pope Francis envisions a missionary Church of the people, a Church that want to meet the people where they are, without any precondition. For the question ‘instantly posed by the Gospels is not how far men are from the manifest Church or how far they are from the kingdom of God. For the Pope, every faithful has a participatory role in the Church. He reminds the Church leaders that lay people are “the protagonists of the Church and of the world. “Pastors or Bishop conferences cannot usurp their place. It is important ask ourselves: Where are the laity today? Do they have a say in the Church? Who represent the Church in political and cultural spheres? According to Pope Francis, clericalism fails to notice the talents and the competence of the laity because it is more concerned with dominating spaces than with generating initiatives; “In reality, lay people who have an authentic Christian formation should not need a helmsman-Bishop, or pilot-monsignor, or the input of clergy in order to take on their proper responsibilities at all levels, from the political to the social, from the economic to the legislative! They have, rather, the need of a Pastor Bishop! In short, What the Pope seems to be aiming is not a Church for the people, but a Church of the people.”8

In a previous article I wrote: “In an ideal communitarian church, we may find a shared leadership; in such places everyone is equally responsible for the proper functioning and wellbeing of all its members. Anyone who takes a designated-task accepts it with humility on behalf of everyone, but not as a status symbol or a power broker. The essential characteristic of such a faith community is the decentralization of power. By seeing every part has a significant role to play for the coordinated activity of the entire group, no one person is likely to dominate the group and all members begin to value their worth as individuals and skills they have to bring. Recognizing the special gifts that people possess is important because such skills are likely to be needed at different times. These gifts are endowments for the future growth of the church and should be invested profitably for the common good of all the members. Those who are gifted with special skills can help others, particularly young people, to gain similar or better skills for the growth of the Church. This fits in with the idea that Church is very similar to family, a family of believers. One of the cardinal principles of Luther’s reformation in the 16th century was the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers. He saw the Church as a spiritual community, but not as a hierarchical structure.”9 Key to the understanding the Church as a community called atonement is the notion that Jesus identified with us as Immanuel so that we can identify with him. Jesus’ story has to become our story as St. Paul wrote to Galatians: “I have been crucified with Christ, I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live now in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal 2:20). Baptism, Eucharist and prayer are three fundamental practices that shape the Church as a community of atonement. Furthermore, St. Paul asks the question: “Do you not know that you are the temple of God that the Spirit of God Dwells in you” (1 Cor 3:16-17). Therefore, Christians are expected to be joined together as one family, the body of Christ, as ‘One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church’, which is the dwelling place of God.

Let us pray continually and earnestly for churches to be awakened by the power of the Holy Spirit to break all boundaries and walls of division and grow in love for mutual enrichment. May our Lord empower us to make the FOCUS slogan, for the generosity to give and the humility to receive, come true in our daily living in a community called atonement.

References:

1. The Hindu. 6 July 2021. ISSN 0971-751X. 2. Pope declares Oscar Romero, “hero to liberation theology, a martyr". 3 February 2015. religionnews.com/2015/02/03/pope-francis. 3.David Bosch, ‘Transforming Mission’, Mary Knoll, New York, Orbis, 1999, p399. 4. Satperm,’Sri Aurobindo’, the Mother’s Institute, Delhi, 2003, p41, 5. Ibid, p226. 6. Joseph Xavier, SJ, ‘The Church of the People: Ecclesial vision of Pope Francis’, VJTR 80 (2016), 585-608 7. Z. Varghese, Expanses of Grace; CSS, Tiruvalla, 2017, page 110.

*Dr. Zac Varghese, London, U.K., was the director of Renal & Transplantation Immunology Research of Royal Free Hospital and Medical School in London. He is an Emeritus Professor and supervisor for doctoral studies. He is also a prolific writer on religious and ecumenical issues; he continues to work relentlessly for the ‘commongood’oftheworldwideMar ThomaDiasporacommunities.