Sunday, November 20, 2005
Koinonia works both ways
By The Erudite Redneck
Koinonia is usually experienced as a positive, at least in my experience.
Joy. Hope. Expectation. Thanksgiving. Shared in fellowship with other Christians.
It works in the negative, as well.
Yesterday evening, two people who had spent the day helping clean up the church I've been attending were caught up in a high-speed police chase through the city. The fugitive crashed into the car they were in.
The man was killed instantly; the woman is in critical condition; the fugitive got out of his car unharmed and ran afoot before being caught.
The man was a deacon, the woman a steady volunter. Both were examples of the social gospel, Matthew 25: 31-46, in action, their friends say, and not just because they happened to be volunteering at church yesterday. They say it was their way all the time.
The wreck directly rattled the pastor and others in the congregation.
I do not know the man, or the woman. I know only one person in this church by name, the pastor himself.
But koinonia works both ways: I took away part of their grief, some of their questions, some of the burden of despair.
I can feel it. If that means someone else feels it less, then that's OK.
That's koinonia working with a negative to create a positive. That an element of the peace that passes our understanding.
The Prayer of Confession:
Lord of Life, help us to remember that our faith does not command us to love Jesus as if he were in some other world. Indeed, we are commanded to love Jesus in this world by loving the Other. When we are kind and compassionate to the stranger, we are kind and compassionate to Jesus. It's that simple -- even though it's not that easy. In Christ's name we pray, Amen."
END
Koinonia is usually experienced as a positive, at least in my experience.
Joy. Hope. Expectation. Thanksgiving. Shared in fellowship with other Christians.
It works in the negative, as well.
Yesterday evening, two people who had spent the day helping clean up the church I've been attending were caught up in a high-speed police chase through the city. The fugitive crashed into the car they were in.
The man was killed instantly; the woman is in critical condition; the fugitive got out of his car unharmed and ran afoot before being caught.
The man was a deacon, the woman a steady volunter. Both were examples of the social gospel, Matthew 25: 31-46, in action, their friends say, and not just because they happened to be volunteering at church yesterday. They say it was their way all the time.
The wreck directly rattled the pastor and others in the congregation.
I do not know the man, or the woman. I know only one person in this church by name, the pastor himself.
But koinonia works both ways: I took away part of their grief, some of their questions, some of the burden of despair.
I can feel it. If that means someone else feels it less, then that's OK.
That's koinonia working with a negative to create a positive. That an element of the peace that passes our understanding.
The Prayer of Confession:
Lord of Life, help us to remember that our faith does not command us to love Jesus as if he were in some other world. Indeed, we are commanded to love Jesus in this world by loving the Other. When we are kind and compassionate to the stranger, we are kind and compassionate to Jesus. It's that simple -- even though it's not that easy. In Christ's name we pray, Amen."
END
Comments:
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ER, I think this is a good post, because it helps us all face something we try to avoid: our own mortality. This is the type of situation that should tell each of us how precious life really is, because one life can be taken so quickly in a freak situation such as this.
I hope we all take heart that we should enjoy all that's given to us. It's something like this that makes it easy for me to sing Garth Brooks' If Tomorrow Never Comes to the ones I love.
For if tomorrow really doesn't come, will they know just how much I love them. Did I try in every way to show them every day, that they're the (special) one(s). And if my time on Earth were through, and they must live each day without me, is the love I gave them in the past, going to be enough to last, if tomorrow never comes.
I hope we all take heart that we should enjoy all that's given to us. It's something like this that makes it easy for me to sing Garth Brooks' If Tomorrow Never Comes to the ones I love.
For if tomorrow really doesn't come, will they know just how much I love them. Did I try in every way to show them every day, that they're the (special) one(s). And if my time on Earth were through, and they must live each day without me, is the love I gave them in the past, going to be enough to last, if tomorrow never comes.
Great song, that.
This post is helping me focus, and discard, my usual self-absorbed Sunday melancholy.
This post is helping me focus, and discard, my usual self-absorbed Sunday melancholy.
It is a good point that the act of worshipping in common is much stronger that any singular act of worship can be.
# posted by 
: 4:25 PM
: 4:25 PM
ER, This was a very sad tale.
Please know that those affected by this tragedy are in our prayers.
I think that is is amazing that the Lord is using your blog to help spread the burden of grief more evenly among His people, no matter where they are.
He is an amazing Being...
Please know that those affected by this tragedy are in our prayers.
I think that is is amazing that the Lord is using your blog to help spread the burden of grief more evenly among His people, no matter where they are.
He is an amazing Being...
:-) Tug, I b'lieve that you and I will be close on the other side, and I also b'lieve our earthly differences either will be reconciled or so blown away that we'll wonder what all the fuss was about on this side.
Not that it ain't all worth rasslin' about while we're on this side, brother. :-)
Not that it ain't all worth rasslin' about while we're on this side, brother. :-)
Enough already.......
OK, back to the contentious, backbiting, argumentative, asinine, activity that this blog is supposed to be. Next thing you know I'll be complimenting teditor, and admiring Mark for his logic and that just won't be right.
OK, back to the contentious, backbiting, argumentative, asinine, activity that this blog is supposed to be. Next thing you know I'll be complimenting teditor, and admiring Mark for his logic and that just won't be right.
# posted by : 11:58 PM
: 11:58 PM
Come on, this place is more than just a place to bitch and carry on! Even the Erudite Redneck Roadhouse takes a break to actually meditate and reflect once in awhile. :-)
Of course, good news don't sell papers. There's ll be a bur under my saddle again before long, I'm sure.
Of course, good news don't sell papers. There's ll be a bur under my saddle again before long, I'm sure.
ER, It is said that only the good die young. More often than not, I have seen that truism manifested.
My prayers go out to those affected by this tragedy.
My prayers go out to those affected by this tragedy.
I was going to add a response to drlobojo's acidic remark about me in that last comment, but unlike drlobojo, I felt that it would be inappropriate, given the tragic topic of your post.
Well, Mark, be careful. I know just enough about Drlobojo in the real world to know he has earned his acid and his right to cynicism.
By the way, pointing out the fact that you are withholding a response, the assumption being that such a response would be beneath you, makes sense only if you are seen upon a high horse.
So, it's a wash. You might as well have gone and said something mean yourself.
By the way, pointing out the fact that you are withholding a response, the assumption being that such a response would be beneath you, makes sense only if you are seen upon a high horse.
So, it's a wash. You might as well have gone and said something mean yourself.
Damn it, if we aren't piling on Mark again. ER if we force the boy away who's going to balance the teeter totter?
And ER, Acid and Cynicism? Hell I'm just a romantic-realist gone south is all. I am all sweetness and light with crust. OK, a thick crust maybe.
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And ER, Acid and Cynicism? Hell I'm just a romantic-realist gone south is all. I am all sweetness and light with crust. OK, a thick crust maybe.
# posted by : 11:57 AM
: 11:57 AM << Home
