Sorry to be late with the blog this week; as Barbara used to say when we were working together, I'm not sure what I've been doing, but it's taken me all day (or two!) But one of the things I did yesterday was spend some time with a young man who comes into the church at various times. At the moment, ife is particularly tough for him, and I am very grateful to those who, yesterday, were able to provide exactly what was needed. And so was he, and he spent some time telling me just how much it meant to him. The phrase he used several times was "I don't know how this church does it; it's so amazing!" After saying this, in various forms, he then went a little further - "I suppose it's something that has been handed down". I'm not sure exactly what hemeant by it, but it has remained with me as a wonderful description of something important in the life of any church; the formation of a way of being, a culture, a set of habits - I am not sure exactly what to call it - that determines how we will act, and what kind of people we will be.
The thing about this way of exploring and creating an identity is that, unless we pay close attention to just how we are forming such who we are, we will be formed unreflectively, by habits and patterns that are not actually those of the Kingdom.
Part of what is happening when we gather - to hear the story of Scripture, and to explore it together at XChange, in home groups, in Sunday Club; to share bread and wine - and all the other food we eat together; to sing and to pray,- we are given opportunities to develop certain ways of being. We learn to listen and talk carefully and to know ourselves as part of bigger story, to serve one another, and to identify who we are through a pattern of self-giving that is cross-shaped.
One of the challenges of developing this kind of life is to move it from beyond the formal things we do together, and let these patterns invade the normal stuff of our life - the encounters which happen unexpectedly, the moments when we are taken off guard, the times when we are called on to act without time to reflect or to put up our guards.
My friend yesterday was reflecting that, in the matter of caring for people, meeting them where they are, and being practical in our response, is deeply engrained in who we are as a community. This is a matter for deep gratitude. Those who have gone before us have helped to shape a community of the kind that for those of us who live its life now, we are shaped into this generous and effective caring.
Which leaves several questions for us here and now. Not the least of which is, what are we shaping and handing on as the continuing identity, sense of what it means to be here and to be the people of God? And what are we doing to make sure it becomes deeply embedded in us and in the life we offer others?