The body of Christ, Part Five

Missions

      Here in this word is found a change on the face of Christian theology. The old definition of "missions" as a segment of the Christian church's outreach is disappearing. An example can be found in Van Engens thoughts on the turning away form old thinking. He says in Dyrness-Karkkainen's theological dictionary, "It is rather that all theology is intrinsically missiological since it concerns the ...the mission of God"[1] Here we see the tying in of God’s inner nature as being missional, as concerned with His love. The giving of the inner communal nature of the trinity overflows to what Moltmann will talk about as Christ's mission to earth. This interpenetration of the triune God is expressed in the word Perichoresis. This word represents the movement of the inner life of the triune God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. This movement of the inner life also expresses itself in an exterior life with creation. As Pannenberg was able to explain the process from Origen to Athanasius on the development of the Father and the son, he clarifies the statement that the Father cannot be the Father without the Son. Thus he opened the door for the preexistence of Christ.[2] This is important for the missional aspect of Jesus to earth. The inner relatedness of the Triune Being of God has an external expression that took its form in the Anointed One being sent to earth. Pannenberg argues that in light of Easter the historical Jesus proves his triune existence with the Father. Moltmann agrees with this understanding of Jesus and his mission as being a part of the trinity. He says "We ought not to interpret Jesus’ resurrection merely in eschatological terms. In its inner most process it is Trinitarian too." [3] It has to been seen as movement of the triune God as the Spirit of God raised Christ from the dead. But in a larger sense the movement of Christ to earth has to be triune as it is the creative force for the creation of the church. The ecclesia, which becomes the expression of the trinity upon the earth, is the expression of the trinity because it expresses God. God is triune and so is the copy of the body of Christ. The very involvement with this thought brings into play the existence of the trinity in our mist. Salvation is in the knowing. The knowing is in the loving. The love is God. This simple semi- syllogism is the basis for John's discussion of the body in his first epistle (esp. 1 John 4). Intrinsic to the workings and flowing of the body is the existence of God at the intersections of the members. This we have discussed previously but it warrants readmission here as we are emphasizing the purpose of Jesus’ mission in the Trinitarian light. Here Buxton brings the focus of the mission of the fellowship into clear focus. "Mission, however, is something that not only creates fellowship in all its richness: ... it derives from the faith-community's fellowship with the triune God."[4] Christ was sent to establish in the world his body as a representation of the kingdom of the God. This is the same message that Christ preached and lived. We are given the same message and mission. We are to be the expression of word and deed implanted as it is in and among God's creation. Again Buxton states the "mission of the church is the proclamation, in word and deed, ... it is the freedom for fellowship with God, man and nature."[5]                                          

            In many ways the freedom that Christ felt in His fellowship with the Father is to ours also. In our mission to the earth and God's creation, we should not restrict the understanding of what that may look like or how it may play out. Christianity in the past has defined Church as that which happened in the four walls or in the presence of certain clerical authority. Christ said, "where two or three of you gather in my name, there I am in your midst"(Matthew 18:20). Since the Second Vatican council, the redefining of the mission of the church, Ad Gentes,[6] has helped to redefine the nature of what is church. The impact has been a ripple affect. Thought originally to have only to do with the Catholic Church the breaking down of traditional ways of thinking has had its effects felt as far as the Liberation theology, the Charismatic movement and Roman Catholic Church. This is because the mission of the church has been redefined as Trinitarian in its dynamics. The authority of the hierarchal church is shifting to allow for the focus to be more on the movement rather than on the structure of  the fellowship. Again from Fiddes we read  "When transferred to the concept of Trinity, we should not think of a perichoresis of actions exercised by one subject, but simply the perichoresis of actions themselves (italics mine).[7]

            This challenges our security and safety of traditional actions toward God and in reality toward one another. Because in the end, the ecclesia, the soma, is us. We are related as Christ was with the Father in the dance of interrelatedness. We dare not focus on our movement but upon the movement of that which is between ourselves and the other. It is here where God is and it is out of this that the mission and energies of the church will flow. In his work entitled The Creative Day of the Kingdom, J. R. Stevens states that "there is a creative, positive ministry" that God has given to the church to lose all creation from futility (Romans 8). This ministry will affect areas of science and construction that will change the way mankind lives. The body of Christ is just starting to see its affect on the earth that goes beyond the four walls of our churches. The power of the resurrection which exposed the inner power of the triune God has yet to be 'resurrected' in God's church which is really the implanted body of Christ on the earth. The mission of Christ according to Moltmann had its proof and justification on 'Easter' when he was risen from the grave by the Father. The church too will have its justification when we have our resurrection morning and are empowered by the Triune God. Paul says that without the resurrection, we are to be most miserable (Corinthians 15:19). This approach to mission is also seen in the work of John Taylor in his untraditional role as the Bishop of Winchester, England. He pushed against the traditional liturgical roles used in the church at that time. Buxton points to this radical interpretation of the mission of the church with similar outlooks as Stevens. "Taylor also points us away from a restricted interpretation of mission."  He goes on to say that it is 'wide-ranging in its scope' and that it copies the 'enormous breadth and range of the mission of the Creator Spirit.[8]

            Even though the range of the mission of the church is being greatly challenged as to its restrictive nature, the core of missions has not changed. That is because the purpose and prime cause of missions is the otherness of the triune God. Because God is a triune being and shares his being with the inner others, this compels him to share with others on the outside, i.e. the world he inhabited. The giving of his Son is at the core of Him giving himself to the others in the trinity and they in turn giving to each other. According to Buxton the orientation of the mission that is based on others "reflects a celebration of otherness in all its diversity and richness, patterning the triune life of God."[9] 

            Why is this so important?  We live in a culture of death. Moltmann insists that the mission of the church is to resist this culture and preach the kingdom of life. "In this divine sense mission is solely a movement for life."  Not life that allows the existence of death, but life that overcame death is the mission of the church.[10]  God sent himself in the form of man to bring life. "I came that you might have life, and have it more abundantly" (John 10:10b).

            In the end Christian life should be an overflow from our participation in the divine dance that is going on between the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The life, living in oneness is the source of our love and knowledge of knowing God. The life of God that took on as His mission the responsibility of loving mankind must find its expression in the communal interpenetration of one another in our fellowship here on earth as Christians. This expression will show in our oneness and just as importantly in our love for one another. In fact John indicates in his epistle that this is one way that we know we "have passed from death unto life is our love of each other." The act of love between the members of the community not only becomes the sign to the world that Christ lives and the resurrection is real, but also is living proof that we have over come death and thus entered into eternal existence.

Summary

            The world exists as an outflow of eternal love. This, according to Grenz, is from the relationship of the Father, Son and the Spirit. He suggests that God's purpose for the earth is its participation in this Trinitarian existence.  It is the "social Trinity" that created the world with the intent on its becoming a part of this "community".  "God is the eternal fellowship of the trinitarian members, so also God's purpose for creation is that the world participate in "community".[11]

     This community was created by the love of God which Grenz says is the "essence of God'.[12]  But this love is not completely and solely agape love. That is, traditionally the love of God has been expressed as the selfless love of the Greek word agape. Some feel that God's love includes the selfless expression but goes beyond this. The expression of God in the community and toward the community involves other aspects of love that may have been corrupted from their original purity. According to Moltmann, men and women are beings that possess eros love for one another. He points to the Song of Solomon and asks, "Does this erotica book belong in the Cannon?" His answer is a definite yes.  This love is exciting and full of desire for one another. Mankind has soiled the term that can be pure and passionate toward God. Moltmann says "The community of love is an erotic community: God's loving community with his beloved creation is erotic; the forces which differentiates and unites all creation is erotic; the rapturous delight of lovers in one another is erotic."[13] LaCugna uses the term "plenitude" when referring to the way that eros should be viewed. It has been corrupted by many but should be reclaimed by Christians as an example of the expression from fullness and not from human need.[14]

          Remembering the Nicene definition of the Son, fully God, fully man (my italics), we see that God has invested Himself, and how could he not, in mankind. If His essence is love (Grenz) then this is going to be expressed in knowing and being fully involved with the triune being's love. As stated in 1 John to love Him is the knowing. This knowing is a full triune commitment of humanity to one another. This is the body, soul and spirit commitment reflecting the makeup of the community of the Creator. This interpenetration of humanity to humanity is no less than the participation with God and humanity. The oneness is not stopped at some point nor does it avoid the triune expression found in humanity.  We may find that every form of love finds expression in the community of God and His creation. Less would be less. 

        This all consuming living in the 'spaces' (Fiddes) with the triune God, giving and receiving love from one another, is the atmosphere for pastoral care and ministry. This 'dance' or 'movement' of members create the expression of ministry itself. The fostering of this community allows for the body of Christ to take on the dimension of being a living organism rather that an organization. The latter demands maintenance and energy to keep the system working. The minister becomes an overworked mechanic or maintenance engineer. The larger the system the more impossible it’s ability to function in divine love and it becomes machine like in its programs and organization. The former lives off of the life that "every joint supplies". Each member then becomes a mature member in love expressing its love in these 'spaces' between the members. The members are not only expressing compassion but are receiving as well as giving. The reflection of the triune God is created in this community. The care of the pastoral ministry then becomes a process of bringing others into this 'divine dance'. The participation of one with another is the inter action and interpenetration of God with mankind, which may be seen as the ultimate incarnation.

            We have looked at several areas of ministry, prayer, worship, community and missions as examples of how the pastoral ministry may function in relationship to the community defined as the triune expression of God. The expression and definition of what this means and what it may look like was examined through the lenses of several theologians. Their explanation of living in the spaces and the dance that takes place in the true community of God is a wonderful picture of the intensions of God. It is the redefining of our Nicene Creed. Maybe better than that it is the application of God to mankind. This application or explanation is crying for actualization. The community described is yet to be fulfilled. We live in the "already, not yet" tension of Christian existence but that is not a theological excuse for not pressing for fulfillment of the triune God in this earth.  That His prayer, that is found in John 17:21, may be answered. The interpenetration of the Son with the Father and us with them by the Spirit, then the world "may believe".

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     [1] Dyrness-Karkkainen, 551.

     [2] Pannenberg, 371.

     [3] Jurgen Moltman, The Trinity and The Kingdom, (Minneanapolis, First Fortress Press, 1993) 88.

     [4] Buxton, 184.

     [5] Ibid., 184.

     [6] http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_decree_19651207_ad-gentes_en.html

     [7] Fiddes, 73.

[8] Buxton, 185.

[9] Ibid., 186.

[10] Jurgen Moltmann, The Source of Life, (Minneapolis, First Fortress Press, 1997) 20.

[11]  Stanley Grenz, Theology for the Community of God  (Grand Rapids, Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1994) 112.

[12]  Ibid. 113.

[13]  Moltmann, 261.

[14]  From Buxton, The Trinity, Creation and Pastoral Ministry, 174, footnote 133.

The Body of Christ, Part Four

Prayer

            Peterson in his article about "prayer" published in the DTIB says that "prayer is language used in relation to God."[1] This is a little simplistic even for a dictionary of Theology. This puts the focus of prayer between man and God, mano y mano. He does not even address the function of the corporate prayer. Buxton, on the other hand, points to the prayer of Christians as not part of the old "hierarchical two-cause "[2] which leads us to keep God too much in an unapproachable light, but something we can be a part of as a community. 

Wolfhart Pannenberg

         Pannenberg offers something else that is helpful to our understanding of how prayer works in corporate body of Christ. In his Systematic Theology, Vol. II, Pannenberg traces the beginnings of the theory of  'force fields' back to the Stoics of ancient Greece. He then leaps over the works of Newtonian physics to the more modern "field" theories of today's quantum physics. The idea of 'fields of forces' he folds into the workings of the Spirit. This theory can certainly be seen in Paul's discussion of the Spirit and how it searches all things even the deep things of God (1 Corinthians 2:10). Pannenberg writes, "But insofar as the field concept corresponds to the older doctrine (meaning the Stoics) it is not a mistake, but does justice to the history and concept of Spirit, if we relate the field theory of modern physics to the Christian doctrine of the dynamic work of the divine Spirit in creation."[3]  Even though Pannenberg continues on to develop a more naturalistic application of this field theory it is quite applicable to the description of how the Spirit can make search of all things and at once be in touch with all things else. It can become the 'nervous system' by which each can feel and sense the needs, joys and burdens of one another.

       Whether or not the 'field theory' holds water or is simply modified does not change the fact that prayer is a corporate reality. It is how we support one another in the body of Christ in simple prayer. The scriptures tell us that often we do not even know how or what to pray for but that the Spirit makes intercession for us in words that are too deep to speak (Romans 8:26). So it makes perfect sense that the mind of Christ is working through the Spirit in a joining of our hearts before the throne of the Father.

Corporate Prayer

            The triune workings with a synergetic dynamic that connects all parts of the 'interconnected' members allows the pastor and body to be one in their focus and force as they pray as the Spirit leads. This takes the burden and some times false responsibility off the pastor or the one leading intercession to produce the "prayer list". Certainly there can be a prayer list but it can be compiled with much less pressure and more trust in the workings of the Spirit. It can be less mechanical and more organic, less organizational and more like an organism. An organism has organization. The more developed an organism is, the more organization it will exhibit. That is not to say that it is an organization. The true organism is first an organism and secondly organized. Life came before organization. An organization and therefore communication is controlled by some part that is the "authority".

Authority

         Historically authority has been very structured, whether it is in government or in the church. But its purpose was usually driven by the desire to create unity. Early in Christianity the Roman Emperor Constantine declared Christianity legal, but some credit this ploy as a political move toward unity.[4]  Close to this same time the church took a step toward centralizing authority by making bishops the center point of the "church".[5] Neither of these steps follows the scriptures. They caused more confusion than unity. If we read again the scripture in Ephesians it clearly points to the maturity, unity of the body as the final point for needing the administration of gifts and for the authority of the apostles. These are given "until" we reach the unity and the fullness of Christ (Ephesians 4:11-14).

         Searching several theological dictionaries it is surprising how "authority" is left to the scriptures alone. Only the Catholic Bible Dictionary addresses the placement of authority in humans. It does not deny the authority of the scriptures but not sola scriptura.[6]  The main path to maturity is not from a hierarchal administration. The path is through these places of meeting of the saints. It is where they connect and the manifestation of God is revealed. We change and grow through the revelation of God to our hearts (2 Corinthians 4:6). The fullness of Christ is "grown" in the body from the joints of the members. It is more a 'grass roots' movement than a 'top down' administration. According to Banks, Paul uses the word for authority e∆xousi√an less than a dozen times in his writings.[7] So then how does Paul see the manifestation of He who has "all authority" happening? He sees it happening through the community of believers, the church. The importance of the 'social spaces", the movement of the dance, rather than the dancers themselves cannot be over emphasized. It is God that we are coming to know and be at the intersections of our perichoretic involvement. The maturity or perfection of the body has to take place for Christ to return for his bride. The eschatological nature of this is profound. It is through his church that God is going to manifest to principalities and power His awesomeness.

         Historically the authority of Christ has been mildly ineffective and the church has been a source of embarrassment. The reason that the church has been so ineffective against sin in and out of her doors is her misunderstanding about the church and its authoritative role. The history of authority has shown that there needed to be "the one" in charge. It could be the one God, one judge, one pope, the one pastor, one apostle. Today we still look to leaders for the answer and for our walk with God. The idea that authority is manifested through the many-member body, has not been adequately researched. Paul explains it rather well when he discussed the gifts that Christ left the church. J. R. Stevens stressed the idea that every member of the church should be gifted and that this is related to the overall authority of the body. "Every member of the Body of Christ should have a definite and distinct ministry. To fulfill this ministry (they) must have imparted to (them) the authority, the anointing, the enablement by the Spirit to complete the task.(Lordship of Jesus Christ)"[8]. The authority and the enabling come through the interrelatedness of the body members with one another. Where this interrelatedness happens the interpenetration of the body with the triune God, authority of God is manifested. This is why Paul says in Ephesians 3:10 that unto principalities and powers the manifold wisdom of God will be shown through the Church (italics mine).

Andrei Rublev

           Through this ministry God has taken and committed himself to today's church. Pannenberg believes that God has opened himself up to commit himself to the human race by sending His son as savior.[9] This requires that we respond with a commitment to where he is and what he is doing. In the days when Christ walked in the flesh our commitment was to God in that flesh. After the work was accomplished then our commitment has now changed to be committed to where we find Christ. And that is in his corporate body. It his here where we participate with him in what He is creating now in the earth. Oden has pointed to Christ as the center of our ministry but beyond that the center of Christ’s ministry is his corporate body. It goes beyond what Oden says "Christ's own ministry for and through us, embodied in distortable ways through our language, through the work of our hands and quietly through our bodily presence." [10]  It goes into the presence of Christ in his many-member body. Stevens takes it further with not only applying the triune nature to the body but emphasizing the God head as the authority over and in the body of Christ. "That oneness will be manifested in Christ coming forth in all of them as one Body. Just as the Father came forth in Christ, so the Father and the Son will now come forth in us. If you believe that the fullness of the Father dwells in Christ, you must believe what He has said—that the fullness of God will dwell in us. There is no distinction in it."^[11]  We must realize that all we study in God is related to this idea of the three in one nature of our eternal God. He lives this life of community. We will find in this paper that we are relating all acts of ministry to this point of the Trinity. It is simply that all our ministry is done effectively only in love. We see that love has to have an object or it has to be expressed otherwise it is not real active love. This love was shown and expressed in God's missional act of expressing his love toward the earth by sending his son. As Buxton writes "...the Trinity, which is the prototype of life of the church on earth".[12] This thought is hugely organizational and more importantly it is functionality of our action together in God.

"The Spirit who is glorified 'together with' the Father and the Son is also the wellspring of the energy which draws people to one another, so that they come together, rejoice in one another and praise the God who is himself a God in community . . ."[13]  This closeness, the love and rejoicing Moltmann is talking about is an outward example of the connectiveness that is taking place between members. It is this ecstatic release from the Body of Christ that the world will see and believe that we are Christians. It will be a witness to the world. It is the best evangelical tool we have. Christ's prayer in John was that we would all be one so that world would see and believe. This oneness of interrelatedness is not a luxury but a necessity.  It is not only an eschatological viewpoint but it is a missional gateway.

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     [1]  Vanhoozer, Peterson 616.

     [2]  Ibid., 182.

     [3]  Wolfhart Pannenberg, Geoffrey W. Bromiley,  Systematic Theology, Vol. 2, (Grand Rapids, Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1994) 82.

[4] Fiddes, 62-63.

[5] Ibid., 77.

[6] Searches was made in Theological Dictionaries such as Dyrness-Karkkainen, Elwell, and Vanhoozer.

[7] Banks, 174.

[8] J.R. Stevens, The Lordship of Jesus Christ (North Hollywood, The Living Word Publication, 1968.) 29.

[9] Buxton, 117.

[10] Thomas C. Oden, Pastoral Theology: Essentials of Ministry, (San Francisco, Harper and Row, 1983) 3, in Graham Buxton, The Trinity, Creation and Pastoral Ministry, 55.

      ³⁶ J. R. Stevens, Beyond Passover North Hollywood, Calif.: Living Word Publications, 1977) 144. 

    [12] Buxton, 168

    [13] Jurgen, Moltmann, The Spirit of Life (New York, Fortress Press, 2001) 309.

Body of Christ, Part Three

      The purpose of the gifts is for the suma wherein the joints are fitted together and the supply of love is at the joints. The members according to Paul are supplied by the joints, or better, what happens at the joints. The joints, or in the spaces between the members, is where the love happens and supplies or nourishes the members. That is how it "builds it self up in love". [1] This is not only how we come to know God but is how we come to realize his calling on our lives and our ministry which is expressed out of this relationship.

       The community of God expressed in his triune being is expressed in his community of believers. The term "community" is defined in Vanhoozer's Dictionary for Theological Interpretation of the Bible as "Scriptural awareness of being participators in a concrete, visible fellowship of disciples in covenant with each other."[2] This covenant is not just with one another. It is primarily with God through Christ, and then enacted with one another in the fellowship of  believers. This community of participation God has committed to the body of the flesh and blood here on the earth. As Graham Buxton said in his book The Trinity, Creation and Pastoral Ministry, "In our call to live ethically in the church and in the world, we actually need one another because we are created for relationship and can only realize our full humanity in community with God and with one another".[3] Again Buxton says in his book Dancing in the Dark, that communal life reflects the authentic ministry of the church, and this "communal life" is liken to a beautiful dance.[4]

            The analogy of the dance then is more about the movement of the members than about the members, because it is from this interaction between the members that love, i.e. God, appears and is known. It is for a mature, complete, united body that Christ is returning. It is from this oneness of Ephesians that is the answer then of Christ's prayer that we all may be one. This oneness will be the witness to the world. This is the evangelical result of "body ministry" but the purpose is the praise and glory given to the Father in true worship (Ephesians 3:21).

Worship

         Much has been said about worship and worshippers. In the Global Dictionary of Theology worship is found under Liturgy and Worship[5].  The reader is left with the feeling that worship is connected directly to the ecclesial gathering. While Vanhoozer in his DTIB connects it to the "public gathering of people to perform religious activities, he does point to the triune God (italics mine) and "each other" as the Christian manifestation.[6] In the Gospel of John 4: 23-24, Christ told the Samaritan woman that the Father is seeking worshippers. We are not often told directly about what God wants. Here it is plainly stated by Christ. Jesus also included the working of the spirit (Holy Spirit) and himself (truth, e.g. John 14:6) as the Trinitarian expression in human worship. How does this work with the idea of perichoresis?

            Buxton brings our focus to this point of the triune nature of worship as he says, "The theology of the incarnation reminds us that all humanity has been caught up in Christ's ascended and glorified humanity, so making it possible for us to participate by the Spirit in the Son's perfect communion with his Father.[7] The fact that Christ included the trinity when talking to the Samaritan woman means that the worship that the Father seeks involves humanity in the communal triune nature of God. In fact Jesus used the term "truth" not only meaning Himself but also signifying that there is no other way to worship the Father. If we think of the many ways that mankind has sought to worship God, then this is a tremendous opportunity for humanity.

        Mankind as individuals must learn to worship before they can participate in the corporate nature of worship to the Father. We are triune beings (1 Thess. 5:23).  According to J. R. Stevens, "While true worship originates in the human spirit, the soul and body are the channels of expression for that worship. In pure worship, the human spirit dominates the soul and body." [8]  While true worship is the workings of the spirit it is done through Christ in us and presented to the Father. This is done most effectively in and through the corporate cooperation. Again Stevens compares corporate worship as to a symphony. " The Greek word symphoneo means "to cry together ... all is harmony and in order."[9] This symphony is directed by the Spirit but is put together in Truth before the Father, so that all is blended into the oneness Christ prayed for in the Gospel of John. The beautiful workings of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are reflected in worship of the community back to God. To Dyrness the whole idea of the Christian life is to enter into this community of worship. The worship does not end with the individual worship. This again is not the American ideal of the individual finally reaching actualization by being able to worship God by himself. To Susan Wood it is "a world in which the interplay of elements mutually inhere and cohere in such a way that each part derives its meaning from the whole at the same time that it contributes to the meaning of the whole."[10]  William Dyrness states, " ...the goal of the Christian life is the practice of corporate worship...."[11]

        Corporate worship can or should not be narrowly defined as only one aspect of the church. This is why the triune being of God is vastly important. It cannot be narrowed down to just the three individually. It is the interworking of the three can create so much more than "eye has seen or ear has heard or even entered into the heart of mankind" (1 Corinthians 2:9).  Worship from the communal triune perspective draws in all that has been created. Dyrness again says, "...that all of life in whole and in part...should serve and reflect God's glory. [T]hat it is not hard to see that service and worship are ...two sides of the same reality".[12] Worship then becomes the outgrowth of a life lived with the triune nature being at the core of the individual. This life denies that the Christian is ever "solitary" in that the indwelling of Christ brings him into the Triune fellowship. Beyond this point the Christian is "born" into the corporate body by the same force of "knowing" God. This all happens, as stated before, at the intersection of Fiddes "social spaces". John simply states that if nothing is happening at these "joints" then the person is not "born" of God. He is not, by his own action, a part of the "dance" that is happening, not in the mover but in the movement. The body expresses itself as a communion organism. It is not an organization as much as it is an organism. "The Church is an organism, not an organization. A tree is an organism, but a car is an organization. You bolt a car together; fill it up with gas, and it runs. But it is not a living thing. A tree is alive. You trim it and prune it, and it produces fruit because it is a living thing. I have never seen a car produce fruit. There are churches that are organizations. The people are bolted or glued together. They are held together by various motivations. But the real Body of Jesus Christ is fitted together, and it grows through that which every joint supplies."^[13] The movement does not happen because it is scheduled or planned as much as it is the interaction of the organism that is reacting in concert with the Spirit. As an organism we exhibit characteristics of all living things.  All living things respond to stimulus. Well-developed organisms have a nervous system to help communicate across the creature. Banks, in his book on Paul's Idea of Community, says that " the body has a common nerve."[14] He goes on to say that we all share in a common life together. We as the body of Christ have interconnectedness, Fiddes calls it  'zone of interconnection'.[15]  This allows the members of the body to be aware of one another's needs. As Paul puts it "when one member suffers, all members suffer with it." (1 Corinthians 12:26).  This opens the door for new interpretations not only of worship but more effective prayer.

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[1] John Stevens, This Week, Volume XIII( Los Angeles, Living Word Publication, 1984) 554.

[2] Kevin J. Vanhoozer, Dictionary for Theological Interpretation of the Bible (Grand Rapids, Baker Academic, 2005) 128. Stanley Grenz.

[3] Graham Buxton, The Trinity, Creation and Pastoral Ministry (Eugene, Wipf & Stock, 2005) 167.

[4] Graham Buxton, Dancing in the Dark: The Privilege of Participating in the Ministry of Christ (Eugene, Wipf & Stock, 2001) 21.

[5] William A. Dyrness, and Veli-Matti Karkkainen, Global Dictionary of Theology, (Downer Grove, IVP Academic, 2008) 279.

[6] Vanhoozer, Jeremy Begbie, 858.

[7] Ibid., 177.

 [8] John R. Stevens, Worship (North Hollywood, The Living Word Publication, 1968) 28.

 [9] Ibid., 31.

 [10] Susan Wood, "Participatory Knowledge of God in the Liturgy" in Buxton, The Trinity, Creation, and Pastoral Ministry,(Eugene, Wipf & Stock Publishers) 178.

 [11] William A. Dyrness, A Primer on Christian Worship (Grand Rapids, Eerdmans Publishing, 2009) 49.

 [12] Ibid., 49.

       ²³  J. R. Stevens, Some Things About Love (North Hollywood, CA: Living Word Publications, 1975) 125.

 [14]  Banks, 60.

 [15]  Buxton, 182

The Body of Christ, Part Two

      Before examining the ministry areas of the body of Christ, we will look at this expression called,  participation. We need to unpack some of the terms that are germane to this paper. Participation of the Father, Son and Spirit are described by Fiddes as perichoresis. Even though St. Augustine in the 4th century, wrote of the "mutual interpenetration and interdwelling" of the triune nature of God, it was Pseudo-Cyril, who first coined this term.[1]  But it was John of Damascus, an eastern theologian that advanced its description. John described the action of perichoresis (Greek) or circumincession (Latin) as agreeing with the Nicene Creed where the Father, Son and, added later, Holy Spirit are one ousia or one essence. This to John naturally leads to the perichoresis, as they are all one essence.[2]  Paul Fiddes continues this tradition by unpacking further the application of this meaning to the church eternal, here on earth. Fiddes says "according to the workings of the trinity, God the father with Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit working together in oneness to create not just the earth but the salvation offered it and the life we have together in the perichoretic dance."[3] This dance according to Fiddes is not about the movers but about the movement.[4]  Thus we see in the body of Christ that two or more participants can occupy the same "social spaces" in this interpenetration or perichoresis of love. Thus imitating on earth and in the community of Christians the very act and semblance of the triune nature of God. Countering Kant's criticism of the trinity as nothing practical, Boff, in his book Trinity and Society, says it is the "prototype of human community dreamed of by those who wish to improve society" the "model for any just, egalitarian ... social organization." Further he says, "each person receives everything from the other and at the same time gives everything to the others."[5]  All though he does not take the implication and application to where Fiddes does he points to the communal aspect of God with man.

            The idea that the participation, the interpenetration, the "social spaces" of the Christian community is a reflection of God himself is seen clearly in 1 John 4:7. Here John points out that the love that is shared between members of the community is the point at which we come to know God and are "born of God". Is this the same as being one with God?

               =Agaphtoi√, a˙gapwÇmen a˙llhvlouß,

                  o{ti hJ a˙ga◊ph e∆k tou: qeou: e∆stin,

         kai… paÇß oJ a˙gapwÇn e∆k tou: qeou: gege√nnhtai

                  kai… ginw◊skei to;n qeovn.[6]

            Certainly the author (here taken to be John) is saying that to know God one has to love. This love has to have an object as it target. If the loving is the knowing then Fiddes is correct in saying it is in these "social spaces" that God happens. The word for 'knowing" ginosko is a deeper knowing than an intellectual understanding. It is the same word used by the Septuagint (LXX) for when Adam knew Eve in sexual relationship (Genesis 4:1). This is in every way an interpenetration of knowing. The interrelatedness of this love (perichoresis) is not necessarily about the movers but the movement. This equates fully, not only to John's works, but also in Paul's description of how the body moves and grows. We see in Ephesians 4:16,

            e∆x ou| paÇn to; swÇma sunarmologouvmenon kai… sumbibazovmenon

       dia˝ pa◊shß aÓfh:ß th:ß e∆picorhgi√aß kat= e∆ne√rgeian e∆n 

       me√trw/ eÔno;ß eÔka◊stou me√rouß th;n au[xhsin tou: sw◊matoß

       poieiætai ei∆ß oi∆kodomh;n eÔautou: e∆n a˙ga◊ph≥

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[1] Fiddes, 71.

[2] Rev. Angus Stewart, John of Damascus and the Perichoresis; Covenant Protestant Reformed Church, (Balleymena, Northern Ireland) http://www.cprf.co.uk/articles/covenant4.htm.

[3]  Fiddes, 72

[4]  Ibid. 72

[5] Leonardo Boff, Trinity and Society, (Maryknoll, N.Y., Orbis Publishers, 1988) 146-47.

[6] Greek New Testament , American Bible Socieity.

The Body of Christ, Part One

Sir Issac

           We live in a society as Americans that has, at its very core, a thorough going belief in "rugged individualism."  Our heroes are singular. They are strong men (usually), some women, who at the right time took action to overcome obstacles. We love "superheroes" that "do justice in the American way".  The list of our leaders and inventors, our explorers and conquerors are, for the most part, made of individual names and dates. Abraham Lincoln, Daniel Boone, Davy Crocket, Sergeant York, et alii, took a certain action and helped establish America as a great nation. In school, learning history boiled down to individuals doing solo acts of greatness or destruction. Sir Isaac's Newton's famous line, "If I have seen further it is only by standing on the shoulders of giants," is a funny way of saying, "I am a great farsighted individual that because of other great individuals (like me) was able to see where lesser men could not."

            But is this who we are as Americans, and as humans? Were we created to live life in "quiet desperation"(Thoreau), alone and solitaire? All our greatest efforts and failures left to rest upon our shoulders for good or bad, better or worse? Or is this "pure hokeum"?[1] Some say our puritan background helped lay a foundation in this country for Christian communities. The dream of America by many who pilgrimed here was to live in communities of love, examples of the kingdom of God. For this reason the community was prized above the individual.  John Cotton said in his pamphlet, The Way of Life (1641): "If thou beest a man that lives without a calling, though thou hast two thousands to spend, yet if thou hast no calling, tending to publique good, thou art an uncleane beast."

Svitozar Nenyuk - Holy Trinity

         What this paper will show is that God, in His creation, did not make the individual except to belong to a faith based community. The individual finds his fulfillment in the out workings and varieties of the corporate. Even in the workings of the greatest of all "individuals" that walked en terra firma we see the dependence on the Father and the Holy Spirit as a sharing of roles to accomplish His goal, and by extension His Church here on earth. According to Buxton the church is "...the community of God's people which reflects the communal life of the Trinity".[2]  The Christian life is a reflection of the triune God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit who live communally. This triune community is an interpenetrating being, ousia. Fiddes in his book Participating in God, says that "By the end of the fourth century (it was thought) that the nature of God, that is ousia or substancia, should be thought of as a communion of persons."[3]  Christianity likewise is set up by God to be the same sharing community of believers. He is not sharing his glory with any other, except the whole body of Christ.  

         Christ did not give his life for any individual alone or to establish a fabulous televangelist and his ministry/business. He came and gave his life for His church, ecclesia, and His body, soma.[4] As Robert Banks reacts to Paul's "high esteem" of the body by saying "It is the body of Christ... wherever Christians are in fellowship this is the body of Christ in its entirety. Christ is wholly present there in the Spirit."[5] It is the life and ministry that flows from the unity of the body (Ephesians 4:13).  "This overarching framework for understanding God's redemptive work, in which the community of the Trinity takes an active part on the economy of salvation, is helpful in thinking about the nature of the church's ministry...we are encouraged to interpret ministry as that which flows out of the corporate life of the church." [6]

         The thesis of this paper will examine how this participation of God, defined as living communally as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, continues through the ministries of Christ in his body. Because God is vast and His earthly expression equally as vast, this paper has limited its examination to four or five areas of ministry in the corporate Christ. This participation in the corporate nature of the body will be shown in areas of community, worship, prayer, authority, and the missional aspect of the church. The purpose of this work will be to delve into what is being studied and written about participation of God with man.  Drawing from a backdrop of the interpenetration of God and man informed by the scriptures and guided by the Holy Spirit.

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     [1] Essay: The Rugged Individual Rides Again, Rodger Rosenblat, 10/15/84,

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,923739,00.html#ixzz0yldujhAi

    [2]  Graham, Buxton, Ministry as Praxis, (hand out from Class number, Fuller Seminary, 2010) 1.

     [3]  Paul Fiddes, Participating in God, a Pastoral Doctrine of the Trinity (Louisville, Westminster John Knox Press, 2005) 71.

     [4]  For the purposes of this writing, the terms soma, and ecclesia, will be interpreted as meaning the community of Christians as well as the body of Christ which is the full representation of Christ on the earth.

     [5]  Robert Banks, Paul's Idea of Community,(Peabody, Mass., Hendrickson Publishers, 1994) 59.

     [6]  Buxton, 3.