Community is Excruciating
by Bishop Kym Lucas
About a year ago, I asked Bishop Rob O’Neil to lead a retreat for those in the ordination process. During his time with us, he said something that I have been praying over ever since. He said, “Community is excruciating!” He then said the word “excruciating” was a most apt description because the word is based on the words “ex” (out of, from) and “crux” (cross).
Our community, the community that is church, the Body of Christ, is indeed from the cross. We are called together by our baptism and the shared mission of that baptism: reconciling all people to God and one another. We are baptized into Christ’s death that we might not only share in his resurrection, but also share communion with God and one another. And communion is so much more than what we do around an altar; communion is deep spiritual connection and giving of ourselves to one another.
Our communion makes us the Body of Christ, and our shared baptismal covenant makes us a spiritual community. And yes, real community can be excruciating! It can be painful to speak and to hear hard truths, but the Body of Christ must be committed to speaking the truth in love. As the community of Christ, we inhabit the space between Grace and accountability. In that space, we often find ourselves colliding with one another or crashing into our own egos.
But when we focus on the love God showed us “from the Cross,” when we allow the Holy Spirit to form us in that love, we become a community that looks and acts like Jesus. We become the Body of Christ: a body in which all members are cherished and function for the good of the whole body. And we take up with joy the work of serving the world in Christ’s name.
As I consider the year before us, I find much that is anxiety-provoking: civil unrest, the economy, the future of The Episcopal Church, the future of democracy, the future of our planet…Yet I am convinced that if we, the baptized, can embody our baptismal vows, if we can model both the challenge and the beauty of community, if we can claim the space between Grace and accountability, loving each other into the likeness of Christ, then we will be the healers and reconcilers we were meant to be.
I feel blessed whenever I see the Episcopal Church in Colorado doing this hard, faithful work. Congregations around the diocese are asking hard questions about who they are and why they are. They are confronting the crucifying realities of their context and discerning how God is calling them to be advocates and peacemakers in this broken, violent world. And there is nothing easy about this work; it takes patience, humility and perseverance. It will likely feel excruciating from time to time. But this is what it means to be the Body of Christ: continually working through the excruciating truth of Good Friday, confident in the imminent joy of Easter and the redemption of the world.
