Community

I had this sort of "ah ha!" moment last night reading Brueggemann.  He was writing about the challenges of Biblical Interpretation in an increasingly pluralistic society, and in a post-modern world where, "a perspective has the power to makes sense out of the rawness of experienced life, even though it cannot be 'proven' or absolutely established" (Texts under Negotiation p. 10).

So I am reading this and I come to his line, "In Christian faith, the specific form faith takes is of a certain ilk, practiced from a certain perspective that one embraces in the face of other, rival perspectives.... This posture does not claim to be objectively true, but it claims to be a position where one will stand at cost and at risk, so that in the end, the test of its validity is non longer logic or fact, but the expenditure of one's own life, which is the only thing that has final worth" (p. 10)

My first thought as I read this was, "This is why the witness of the believer Believing Community is so important." Yes folks, I caught myself half way through the word believer, and realized that it is not about how well I live out the Christian life on my own.  It is all about how I live out my Christian walk in community.  I really can't think of a more Anabaptist thought.  For me this marks a bit of a change.  Not that I haven't thought that community is important, but as I read more and more I am being reminded that when the Bible says "you" it usually means the church, not the individual.