This last Sunday before Advent
is known as Christus Rex Sunday. Christus Rex means “Christ the King”. In
looking at the risen and crowned Christ, we can perhaps forget that there were
times in the life of our Lord that He needed the assurance of God’s presence.
In the wilderness, on the Mount of Transfiguration, and most deeply in the
garden. Throughout His life, Jesus found God in prayer, and also in community
and fellowship.
The first thing Jesus did was to
form a community. He asked some rather unexpected men to follow him on his
journey. Among them were fishermen, a tax collector, a questioner, and
(ultimately) a traitor. Yet, with these men, Jesus created a community that
supported Him in ministry and whom He entrusted with ministry.
We might look at them and say
that they were an unlikely bunch to build a new ministry with. After all, at
the most crucial time, when He needed them most, they abandoned him and fled to
protect their own skins.
Still, Jesus trusted them with
the message of a new Way of Life. After the Resurrection, He tells Peter, “Feed
my sheep” (John 21: 15-17) and commissions them all to “Go to all the word and
proclaim the Good News” (Mark 16:15). He tells them “go make disciples of all
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the
Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And
remember, I am with you always.” (Matthew 25:19-20)
We are part of that community
that Jesus started. It is essential that we remain in community with each other
for mutual support, and because it is with one another that we can experience
God in the Thin Place that is Community.
The past 2 weekends I have
experienced two separate communities coming together for retreat and leaving
inspired and invigorated for ministry. On Nov. 9-10, a group of Women in the Diocese of the Rio Grande came together and did some joyful visioning of
ministry. Last weekend, a group of men and women who have been active in the
renewal movement known as Cursillo came together to start rebuilding that
ministry.
In both cases, it was within the
community of friends old and new that God was discovered and the Holy Spirit was
felt in the love, sharing, friendship, and yes the work of planning, dreaming,
discussing, and working together.
We can, sometimes, fall into the
trap of thinking we can do it all by ourselves, but it is in and within the
community that we really can accomplish ministry and hear the voice of God
saying ‘Go, proclaim, preach, heal, teach for I am with you always when 2 or 3
are gathered together in my Name!’
Next Sunday is the first Sunday
of Advent! The church year starts again.
