The Communion of Saints

Our recent move from Kwajalein has stirred a lot of things in my life and I have been so busy in the transition that I haven’t had much time to write or to share what has been stirred up by the move. One of the things that has been stirring has been a broader understanding of the classic Christian understanding of the communion of saints.  

I have most often thought of the communion of saints in regards to the dead and not the living. Perhaps this is because All Saints Sunday is the time of year when we remember those who have died in the faith; we hear the promise resurrection and honor both the people and the promise. It is a wonderful Sunday and one I am thankful for each year. The only downside, if there is one is that perhaps it has limited my thinking of what the communion of saints means. Truth be told that really isn’t the fault of the festival Sunday, just my own ignorance.

What the move has done is to show me how I have been and am in communion with the saints in each and every place I have served. I remember how when I moved to Kwajalein I ached for the people back in the States who I grew to know and love and wished they could have been with us on this new journey. The same has been true of this move. I have and still do ache for the communion of the people we grew to know and love while serving at Island Memorial Chapel. At the same time I have found my heart opening for the saints who are part of Peninsula Lutheran Church. They are all part of the communion of saints.

I am in fact in communion with both sets of people because we are all in Christ and have been reborn by the Spirit and call God our Father. My missing them doesn’t impact the fact that we are in communion and when I look it that way I realize that the communion of saints is broad, deep and eternal. It really highlights that communion with Christ and each other is central to the nature of what life is about and it is something we should be striving for. The realization of the communion of saints is why the early church called each other “brother” and “sister”. It is why they shared their time, prayer life and possessions. They realized that they had an eternal bond through Christ as a gift from the Spirit to the glory of the Father.

In a broken and fractured society where individuals and individualism reigns the recovery of communion and community is central to the healing of relationships and spiritual growth. I think this is why Jesus prayed “that they may all be one” (John 17:20). 

Borrowing

 We are moving back to the States tomorrow  and one of the unique things about moving from here is the length of time it takes to get stuff from point A to point B. Our household goods will be flown in two shipments, one that has already left and one that will leave this month, hopefully this week. From here our goods are flown to Hawaii, put on a boat and make their way to somewhere in California and then up the coast to the Seattle area.

Needless to say this process takes four to six weeks and so we had to pack our stuff out five weeks before we planned on flying out. It is interesting living without the bulk of your household goods for that many weeks. The government warehouse supplies things like beds, couch, desks and a TV. They also have what is known as a “hospitality kit” for the kitchen which has four plates, four cups, 8 glasses and some silverware. It is okay but some have also called it the “hostility kit” since it doesn’t quite cover the needs of cooking and baking.

This leaves a person in an interesting position of having some things that are needed but other things like a vacuum cleaner, ironing board and iron baking dishes etc… are on a boat, or a plane or a truck heading east (we hope). Needless to say we had to borrow a lot of things from our friends here on island. It reminds me a lot of Acts 2:44 “all the believers were together and had everything in common”. Our neighbors are members of our congregation and they have been invaluable in helping us through this time of transition. They have graciously loaned us so many of the basic things we have needed and done with a wonderful sense of grace and kindness. It is another way Jesus grants us “daily bread”.

Learning to borrow has been an interesting journey. I hope you noticed that I wrote “learning to borrow” since I am discovering that borrowing is a learned skill. In the States I rarely borrowed anything. There are times when I might have borrowed something like a car from my parents while mine was in the shop or maybe a coat when I forgot one or a piece of outdoor gear from my brother-in-law. I can probably count on one hand the number of times I have borrowed something from someone who wasn’t part of my family.  I can’t remember ever borrowing anything from a neighbor.

In my experience of living in the States borrowing is something that is seldom practiced. I think that part of the issue is ready availability of goods and services. Here are on Kwaj there is a scarcity of goods and services to the point of people hoarding certain things. The latest shortage here on Kwaj has been Diet Coke (actually all diet drinks). We have been out for weeks and when it does come in people will stock up. In some sense it is rare to need a neighbor in the States since the goods are there. On a deeper level I think that needing a neighbor shows weakness and perhaps failure.

As a performance oriented society we don’t have much room for weakness and failure. We are a people who pride ourselves on succeeding and showing it though the homes that we own, our job title, the cars we drive and the clothes we wear,. To need something from a neighbor would mean that we somehow failed at the American Dream and most of don’t want to admit defeat or failure. It is humbling to not be self sufficient in terms of the things we need. I have that to be a wonderful part of my Kwajalein journey. To have to borrow has been good at teaching me humility. It has helped me receive grace since that is what our friends are showing us and it has made me thankful for people who are willing to invest themselves in us for the sake of obeying Christ’s command to love your neighbor.  I hope that is has helped me to rethink what it means to live in regards to my stuff and my neighbor.  I hope that it has opened my eyes to the wonderful possibilities that we who live as part of the body of Christ have in terms of how we share and make our resources available.

Daily Bread

Bikes are an essential part of life here on Kwaj as a car is an essential part of life in the States. With the highly corrosive environment here (think tons of rust) bikes are always breaking and needing repairs. Everybody’s who has been here long enough has a bike with lots of random parts and many have bungee cords holding things together. They say that a new bike will last a year out here with no maintenance. With regular maintenance they last a year and day. Needless to say bikes break down regularly and most folks have a spare bike since it is hard to get parts and make the fixes in a timely fashion.

Kim and I had a spare bike that we “gave/loaned”  to some really good friends of ours since he was waiting for a new fork which is hard to get for the frame he had. Since we are moving soon we figured no big deal. Unfortunately my bike went down (broken bottom bracket) and it was so rusted that a fix was impossible. That left us in a little bit or a lurch since we didn’t want to buy a bike and didn’t want to leave our friends high and dry.

Our other neighbor had wanted to buy his wife a new bike for awhile and when he found out we were in a pinch he bought his wife a new bike and loaned us her old one until we move. As I rode the borrowed bike to work it reminded me of how God has answered my prayer for daily bread. I find that it is easy to take for granted the many and varied ways God moves in response to this simple request for daily bread. This gift of a borrowed bike was a way God opened my eyes to see the vastness of daily bread being given each and every day. It awoke within me praise, thankfulness, contentment and confidence in the future.

There are so many things that need to be put together for an international move and each one of those will be a form of daily bread and God who has provided the bread in the past will be the God who will provide the bread in the future. It also reminded me that we are called to be part of bring daily bread to the world as we share our resources with those who have less than we do. In this way we are used by God as an answer to prayer as my neighbor was used by God for my daily bread.

In what ways has God given you daily bread and how might you be called to be an answer to someone's prayer for daily bread?