the.living.space
a locale where bodies meet, eat & drink.
In the face of chaos, confusion and indeed the very trauma of life, I am constantly haunted by the questions of “whom.”
○ Who am I? ○ Who are you? ○ Who are we together?
Can there be a space where these questions are realised and extrapolated?
meet
Colin Gunton deepens these questions through his exploration of human community and the church. He portrays the church as a living space filled and enlivened with embodied people.
“The Church is the place — the living space — where the kingship, priesthood, and prophetic work of Jesus is appropriated — taken on board.” (123)
For Gunton, the church is a society which has a distinct orientation towards God through worship and thanksgiving. Significantly, this is a space inhabited by the Spirit. He claims that “the Spirit’s first function is to realize the life of particular human beings […] into the reality … of Christ. (121)
eat & drink
To truly be a living space, the church must be a place where bodies are tended to, rejuvenated and filled. Gunton makes the compelling claim that “bodies are those dimensions of our persons by and through which we relate to other human beings and the world. What we do in and with the body forms and anticipates what we shall be.” (131)
A prime location for the feeding of the body now and the anticipation of what will be is found in the celebration of the Eucharist. Church’s distinct way of being in the world, is modeled after the life of Christ, and symbolically represented in the sacraments. Gunton states that “the eating and drinking together of the elect community anticipates the true human community…expressed by images of the eschatological banquet at which all God’s children will be reconciled to him and to one another.” (134)
Moreover, the Lord’s supper where is ‘found the nasis not only of an ethic of community, but also an ecological ethic which does not deny the need for active intervention in the structures of nature but presupposes that this should take place only to the Glory of God and good of the creature, especially the human creature.” (134)
In this idea, the sacrament of the supper is more than a religious practice, but a space of communal metric whereby the assembled Church has opportunity to take up the earth reflection of the heavenly Christ who poignantly demonstrated his commitment to self-sacrifice, and mutual sharing at the table.
imagine
Imagining the church as a primarily a living social space gives new breath and depth to how we are in our bodies at church. As a space of encounter with God, bodies meet, are fed and bear the potential of healing for each other.
