Spiritual Formation and the Common Life we Share

As we have been moving through 1 Peter together we have been thinking a lot about what it means to be God's holy people and to live as God's holy people (1 Peter 1:10-25). We have been careful to note that the pre-requisite for being God's holy people is not moral achievement. Rather, our identity as God's holy people arises from his presence with us, coupled with his loving intentions for us. The theologian, Earnst Troeltsch, put it this way many years ago: "The divine holiness is no moralism. God did not give the world his law and then abandon it; instead, he searches for the creature with love and passion, creating the very holiness that he demands. Here we find no cold law, no crushing commandment that seeks fulfillment in human compliance; we find a holy love that embraces us and incorporates us into itself, thereby bringing us to faith."

At the beginning of any discussion on spiritual formation must be an appreciation and worshipful acknowledgment of God's loving intention towards us, his desire for us to live in a life-style that yields for us a harvest of human flourishing. This is the grace we respond to that launches us in the right direction. Growth in this life comes from learning to say yes more and more to God's loving intention towards us, and learning to say no to patterns of thinking and living that rob us of the joy God intends for us. The questions that are most important to us then are questions about how to be more and more under the control of God's love. Much can be said about this but any discussion is not complete that does not recognize the role of Christian community in the spiritual formation of its individuals.

This is how we talked through this theme in our preparation for the sacrament of communion this Sunday.

Here is roughly what we said: "As we come together to receive the sacrament of communion we are returning to something we talked about a couple of weeks ago. We were considering Peter's encouragement to his readers to love each other deeply from the heart. We noted that this is the kind of common life that makes human flourishing possible. If we are to ever understand how to be generous with our possessions and time, if we are ever to understand how to forgive those who hurt us, if we are ever to understand why envy corrodes our every attempt to have joyful friendships, if we are ever to understand why the nurturing of lust robs us of love, it will be because God's love has been brought to life for us through our immersion in a community which is known for loving one another deeply from the heart." (Remember: Peter's admonition to love one another deeply from the heart is his way of talking about what the community is known for in contrast to what they used to be known for. They used to be known for living according to the ways of paganism, but now they are known as those who love each other deeply from the heart. This is not a sentimental invitation to perform loving actions when they seem appropriate, it is an invitation to perform for one another all the time the same love with which we have been loved by God. Another way of saying it is that we are to be God's love to one another.

So, our prayer as a church must be that we are a community marked by God's reconciling love. New Testament scholar, Stephen Fowl, offers a helpful picture of how we ought to measure the quality of our common life in Christ: "compassion and mercy are necessary if Christians are to exercise forbearance and forgiveness. For Christians, this is crucial because the quality of common life in Christ is not simply judged by the holiness of believers' lives (though that is certainly to be encouraged). Rather, Christian community is more definitively judged by the forgiveness that enables and calls Christians to be reconciled and reconciling people. Indeed, it is the quality that is most attractive to a broken and alienated world."

Though Fowl does not say it quite this way I think he would be happy with this thought: our growth in holiness, our progress in spiritual formation, comes through a lively participation in a Christian church that is famous for performing God's reconciling love for one another. May God grant us this community at Grace Chicago and in all the churches.

Questions for discussion

1. If lively participation in Christian community plays such an important role in our spiritual formation what are some examples of how to participate lively in Christian community between Sundays, or between community groups, etc. How do we get this in the midst of our mundane day-to-day experiences?

2. Have you ever noticed that being reconciled with someone through the asking for and granting of forgiveness also yields fruit in other parts of your life? Can you offer any examples and speculate why this is the case?

3. What about when circumstance don't really allow for actual reconciliation between you and someone who has hurt you deeply? Is there a way to benefit from the spirit forgiveness in a situation like that?