Being Different

I was challenged recently by DOOR'sdevelopment director to read a book-Resident Aliens: Life in the Christian Colony that the Dweller's in Miami read during their year in community. Since it was written by an author I have long heard of but never had the opportunity to read I began. While being frustrated by Stanley Hauerwas' constant denunciation of both Richard Niebuhr (I really enjoyed Niebuhr's Christ and Culture) and the translation emphasis of theological concepts to philosophically accessible language, I did appreciate his emphasis on the unique role of the Church in our society.

He makes the point that rather than trying to logically undermine demanding Scriptural passages like the Beatitudes we ought to ask ourselves what kind of community would we need to be in order to live out the call to be perfect like our heavenly father is perfect. Clearly we cannot do this on our own, but the call to live out the Biblical description of reality must be done at the level of the Church. This clearly means that the church must be different than a socially designed helping agency intended only to make our society better. We are not called as the body of Christ to help people but to follow Jesus and in following Jesus we learn what help means. The Church, Hauerwas says, is crucial for our epistemology, as we are not called to convince people to do what they already know they ought. Our task is to live faithful to Christ by being a subversive colony of believers in a hostile world. This lifestyle will require suffering, but "no ethic is worthy that does not require potentially the suffering of those we love".

The radical nature of Christ's call I am certain of, but I am also as certain that I have no idea what this level of intentional community looks like.