Community and Autonomy
February 1, 2015 | Patrick Preheim
I am sharing my thoughts on community and autonomy this morning because of an e-mail exchange with Tammy, so if you do not like this topic it is all Tammy’s fault! When circumstances made it impossible for our Board chair Trish St. Onge to give us a State of the Union speech for Nutana Park Mennonite Church today, I asked vice chair Forrester about issues she felt it timely to address. She wrote,
For Feb. 1st I was thinking a variety of things and here are my thoughts on theme possibilities:
- The Giving Tree
- Your Spirit and How It Gives
- Being a Community - How We Flourish When we Work Together
- The Power of a Team
I don’t know - those are all a bit random but maybe they will inspire someone like you to enhance and evolve an inspirational topic for a Sunday morning. Good luck!
Ha!, good luck indeed! So let me begin with a story from this past week. It was Monday and I saw Helen walking the long mile to my office. The cordial exchanges and reflections of the morning were long over, so this had to be business. A person from a nominations committee had just called. She wanted us to name names. She wanted us to give up our friends. She wanted contact information to follow up with people about potentially serving on the board of the Canadian Mennonite. Sure, the Canadian Mennonite is not the Gulag of potential service assignments in the Mennonite realm, but I was uneasy about making any referrals. Mennonite congregations throughout the province have run the request for names all of January, and no names were forth-coming. People haven’t volunteered, do I really want to offer a name of a friend so that this well meaning person can guilt them, harangue them, shame them into volunteering their time?, all the while using my name as leverage? I like the Canadian Mennonite, but this person’s request uncovered my resistance to sacrifice for the magazine. This episode plays itself out weekly if not daily.
Last week’s spotlight carried a request from Mennonite Church Canada for additional funding. Now I like the idea of a Mennonite Church Canada Community, but upon seeing their “ask” I was not motivated to sacrifice additional funds for them; my internal scales weighed a meal out with friends as more significant than MC Canada. I like the idea of Ecumenism and ecumenical community, but this January I failed to sacrifice a morning, noon or night to attend any of the Saskatoon ecumenical worship services during the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity; my internal scales weighed time with my wife as more significant than ecumenical relations. Hey, many of us like the idea of Sunday School for the children—a type of children’s community, but a near equal number of us have proven unwilling to sacrifice our worship hour for the cause; for many of us investment of time in our current children’s Sunday School program has been weighed on our personal scales and found wanting. These examples all point to a dynamic between communal identity and individualism.
This tension between autonomy and community is at the heart of Paul’s metaphor of the body, and it is the reason I asked that this section of Roman’s 12 be read. I offer a brief reflection of this church as body imagery from Seminary professor Boyung Lee.
Although the Body of Christ strongly emphasizes the necessity of unity, it is very critical of a communalism that rules out the importance of each person’s individuality in the name of communal harmony...Without individuality, it is too difficult for Christians to claim and keep their identity as new creations of God in a world that often defines people based on class, sex, and race. Individuality coupled with commitment to the well-being of others makes each person a responsible partner of a larger whole. If the body’s unity results in destroying individuality, then the unity is no longer unity; rather it is totalitarianism gussied up as unity...
However, such emphasis on individuality should not be confused with autonomous, independent, and isolated individualism. In fact, Paul sees individualism as inauthentic existence that has nothing to do with Christian personhood. The individual in the Body of Christ does not have real existence apart from the whole...The parts of the body are not only constitutive of the body but also interdependent on each other. Every individual is equally important and is required to contribute to the well-being of the whole body. Nurturing an individual relationship with Christ as an autonomous and independent person is not authentic self-actualization because being a Christian is to be a part of Christ’s body with other members. End quote (Boyung Lee, Transforming Congregations through Community, p. 37).
I agree with Boyung Lee that it is not healthy or theologically proper to be a part of the body and not contribute to its well being. My struggle is that many days I feel a part of too many bodies each seeking its “pound of flesh”, using a Shakespearean quote in keeping with the body metaphor. I am a member of the Nutana Park Mennonite body, the Mennonite Church Saskatchewan body, the Mennonite Church Canada body, the seminary body, the Bethany Manor body, the Buena Vista neighbourhood body, the ecumenical body, the Mennonite Central Committee body, the Clan Preheim body, and maybe most importantly the 1515 Coy Avenue body (that is my home address for those who do not know). How do I or any of us prioritize the places and people which get our time, talent, or treasure? How long do we stick with an organization, a church, a marriage that shares some of our values, but not all? I have not done a psychological or sociological study on the matter, so I offer my lay and probably lame observations.
Many of us choose to give because we were taught to give. Somewhere in my elementary school years my parents taught me to count my earnings, calculate 10% of the net income, and write a check to the local church. Back in the second grade I had no concept of the tithe, or church budgets, or a theology of generosity. It was just something we did. Through the years I have come to understand the joy of offering my tithe as well as the faith development which comes from giving, but in those early years I gave because it was taught and modeled to me. I give my time, my talent, my treasure, even my strong opinions on some matters because I learned those behaviours from my parents.
This example is actually a sub category of broader ethnic or cultural influences on an individual’s willingness to sacrifice for a larger body. In the Boyung Lee book I cited earlier he addresses the fact that some cultures (like Korean, Tongan, certain African regions) have strong communal values which take precedent over individuality. This differs from large swathes of Western European culture which values individualism with our right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness (Ibid., 10-15). Those of us raised in this European philosophical environment often think about the benefit we get from sacrifice of time, talent, treasure, rather than just assuming that sacrifice is normal. Rightly or wrongly, we want return for our sacrifice.
Mission, then, becomes a defining point in our decision to give time or talent. We are willing to sacrifice unity of opinion so long as we believe there is a greater mission being served. We willingly give a Saturday of time for a relief and development sale. People sit on boards of institutions they feel make a difference in the world. When we believe a greater good is being served, we give.
I also give when there is a personal connection. For example, I have chosen to serve on a board because I knew and liked the other board members—the social dimension was the draw for me. When youth or young adults summer service trips I write a check to the sponsoring organization regardless of who they are—the personal connection with the young person is the defining reason to give. And sometimes I offer time or treasure because someone I respect has made the request. Sometimes we give because of the people who ask.
In addition to duty, mission, and personal connection I also give time and treasure because it brings me joy. Maybe we more deeply experience the sacrifice of Jesus when we give; maybe in giving we find freedom—release from attachment. Whatever it is, the joy of the Lord is often present when I offer of myself. I feel “God with me” when I give. There are, no doubt, other factors which motivate individuals to give of themselves to the broader community, but I want to devote a bit of time to considering how this all might relate to congregational life.
Christ is and needs to remain our centre as a congregational body. This means that every political or ethical position we hold needs to be subservient to our confession of Christ. Romans 12.2 calls for our minds to be renewed. Philippians 2.5 echoes this sentiment—that we are to have the mind of Christ. Both of these passages suggest we not let matters of reason, of our minds, consume us. In the past this congregation has done an amazing job choosing to not to divide over political or ethical differences. Worship has continued. Conversations have continued. Differences have not divided. Important factors which will keep on this path are a sense of mission and continued commitment to friendship.
One mission I see of this congregation is to have a Sunday morning worship which invigorates people for their works of mercy during the week (acknowledge a few of those gathered). The occupations and volunteer service of our congregational people is truly amazing. In the words of our Board intentions, we need joy filled worship to recharge those batteries for service mid week. So thank you worship leaders for conscientiously choosing language which points us to God and roots us in Christ. Thank you choir members and directors and musicians for leading us in music which lifts us. And those of us who preach will continue our efforts at meaningful sermons. The responsibility we all carry, though, is to bring open hearts and minds every Sunday we walk through those doors. Our lives are transformed when we offer ourselves up to the living God. A masterfully crafted sermon or well played music is nice. It is lovely. But it becomes transformative when we deliberately choose to open our hearts to the God and Christ who transubstantiate the ordinary into exquisite. So, we all have our parts to play. We must offer our spirits to have them renewed. Worship as the platform of mission, though, is but one anchor which will keep persons investing themselves in this congregation.
The on-going cultivation of relationships is equally essential. If you agreed with me that we choose to sacrifice ourselves for the community, in part, because we know people then you will need to agree with me that fostering relationships within the community of faith is critical. This means investing in people. It means greeting those new to our faith community. It means inviting newer people into our existing friendship circles. It means making time mid week for conversations which simply can not happen on a Sunday morning. It means learning to receive the gifts others have for the up-building of the body. It means the vulnerability of being blessed by a stranger. It is strong relationships which permit a community to agree to disagree; to abide together even when the worship style chaffs; to endure the hurt which we give and take. Again, Nutana Park Mennonite has a rich tradition of nurturing life giving relationships across the generations. It is something, though, which requires steadfast attention and commitment.
Alas, we are out of time. I close with a quote from John Vanier. “One of the marvelous things about community is that it enables us to welcome and help people in a way we couldn't as individuals. When we pool our strength and share the work and responsibility, we can welcome many people, even those in deep distress, and perhaps help them find self-confidence and inner healing.” (quoted from Community And Growth) Amen.
