Christian Community in Action

Good Morning.

This talk is entitled “Christian Community in Action, and it marks a slight shift in our emphasis from our prior talks. Beginning with this talk and continuing through the remaining two talks, we will begin to focus on our work following the weekend itself.

I know that you have had a wonderful experience so far this weekend and that you are excited, tired, and looking forward to returning home, but I want to urge you to redouble your efforts to focus on the remaining talks. These talks are the culmination of the weekend and are very important.

So, what exactly is a Christian Community, and why is it important to us? The eighteenth century Anglican Priest John Westley, observed that

“There is no such thing as a solitary Christian.”

Why not, you may wonder?

The answer is found in the summary of our Church’s teachings, the catechism, found in our prayer book. There on page 855 we read that

“the ministers of the church are lay persons, bishops, priests and deacons”, and as we learned in the Laity talk, while each part of the church has specific roles and duties, they must all work together in community to be effective.

Christian Community is a great force for change and, 98% of that community is the laity. We must not think of Christian Community strictly as the church though. Just as there are many environments we are all a part of, there are many Christian Communities as well. Our job as a lay person is to bear witness to Christ wherever we may be according to the gifts given us, to carry on Christ’s work of reconciliation. While solitary pursuits like prayer, meditation and study strengthen us and prepare us for our work, the real work itself is done within the community of Christians, and together with other Christians we create a great synergy by adding our gifts to those of the larger community, the body of Christ.

The call to be in community and to be active in that community comes from the baptismal covenant, our ordination to ministry as lay people.

In that covenant we have committed ourselves to continue in the apostle’s teachings and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and in prayers. We do these things in the community of faith that is the Church.

Likewise we are called to persevere in resisting evil and in penitence.

We are called to tell the story of faith and to seek and serve all persons loving our neighbors as our selves. Finally we are called to strive for justice and peace among all people. Later today, in our closing service you will hear and say these commitments again, I hope that they will renew in you a commitment to work within the community of Christ with added vigor and commitment.

In our service to the Community of Christ we become renewed and transformed and we begin to transform our environments as well.

Growth in Christ allows us to become apostles sent in Christ’s name to change the world.

Each of us is different and we have different gifts. Our role in the

Christian Community can be seen as being like the roles in this Cursillo

Weekend.

We have priests among us this weekend to provide spiritual leadership and we have lay leaders in Steve, our rector, and Jan, our head Cha Cha, to direct up and keep us on track. We have a music team with very special gifts to lead us in songs and worship.

Each of the Cha Chas has very specific duties to perform and the De

Curia leaders facilitate our discussions in our groups.

Finally, each of you who are here as participants, share your gifts and help to make the weekend what it is.

Without all of us the weekend would not be the same.

That covers the people in the room, but the community is larger than that. Your sponsors and the clergy who recommended you play a part as do all of the people back in your parishes that support you and the countless Christians around the world that are praying for you and who support us all this weekend. There are others in your convocations and in the diocese giving their time and using their gifts to see that this weekend is successful as well. The Cursillo weekend is only an example of Christian Community in action. There are many more. Like Environments, they are too numerous to count and they overlap and exist in many forms, Environments exist for us to transform. Christian Communities may be transformed as well but they are principally the agents of change for transformation.

Just as each of you belongs to a number of environments, you belong to

Christian Communities as well. I know that because I know that you are all mature Christians selected by your sponsors and the clergy at you church to be a part of this weekend and to share yourselves with all of us here this Cursillo weekend. They recognized a spiritual maturity in you and a readiness to begin a further growth in your Christian apostolate.

Now in just a few hours this phase of your Christian education and experience will be ending and you will be set to begin the work of transformation of you environments with the help of those Christians who sent you here and supported you here this weekend. You should recognize that some of your fellow Christians are

Cursillistas, while others are not. Some are members of your church family and others are not. The Christian Community is vast and we must all work together for Christ regardless of denomination or other qualifications.

I attended Cursillo way back in 1985 and at that time I was relatively new in my faith and in my church. I felt a need to contribute but had difficulty finding a place I could fit in and contribute. One of the first attempts on my part to share my gifts was as insignificant as one could imagine. I had worked installing air conditioning duct back in my undergraduate college days. When I found that the duct work in the church was failing, I determined that I could easily fix it and perhaps save the church some money. So I did just that. It was a very minor contribution in the whole scheme of things and I did not really see how I was furthering God’s work very much, but it was something I could do, so I did it.

I still recall my surprise when one of the ladies practicing in the choir while I worked, stopped me as I was cleaning up to leave and shared her personal thanks with me for my nearly meager gift of service. I was shocked that anyone noticed much less cared enough to tell me thank you. She understood better than I did that we were all laboring for the same purpose and prize, no matter how small our contribution.

In time I found other ways to contribute, and as I did I learned how to work together with other members of the community to further Gods work in the world. While my lack of experience in matters of the church limited my ability to contribute at first, the community reached out to me and helped me find ways to contribute. My Vicar and other more experienced members of the church helped me to take on more responsibility. The counsel and direction of others led me to more substantive contributions. One special assist came from my Cursillo sponsor. He helped me to become a regular participant in group reunion.

That group made a tremendous difference in guidance for me and I urge you to get in a group reunion yourself as soon as you can. I am getting ahead of things though. Group Reunion is the subject of the next talk and I will leave the details for that talk.

So, I began my service and participation in Christian Community doing manual repairs around the church. I took part in men’s group activities and bible studies where I not only learned but I also fed my spirit from the fellowship in those groups. Eventually I took on more responsibility and became usher and then a lay reader. Over time I learned to accept more responsibility little by little. I became a member of the vestry, church treasurer and eventually senior warden. I served as stewardship chairman and as a stewardship representative for the diocese, visiting other churches to help spread the information about how our church was active in the world doing God’s work with the gifts that churches provided. I really found that I enjoyed stewardship work and meeting and talking with people about giving. It was something I had never dreamed I would ever do. I have also had the privilege of serving on several Cursillo teams and currently serve as treasurer for Cursillo in the

Diocese of Texas.

That’s how I have worked in the Christian Community. Others have different stories just as they have other gifts. Some work in Prison

Ministries, in hospital volunteer positions and as members of medical missions, Some work with children and with the poor and homeless.

Hospice work and visitation to the aged and infirm are wonderful ministries that some people I know participate in. Some of my closest friends work as Chaplains to police forces, as directors of programs benefiting handicapped children andworking to help with the ecumenical bible study group BSF. Still others are involved in ministries to military families and food ministries.

Of course some of these things are more fully integrated into the

Christian Community than others, but when individuals serve as Christians, they always bring Christ into the efforts through their actions.

God will lead us, we only have to open our hearts and allow Him to do so.

The most important part for us to remember is to be intentional in our actions. We all have talents and God will use us if we let him. We must both plan and act to be a part of the Christian Community that he leads us to. We must follow where he calls and use the gifts that he has given us and we must encourage the other saints we meet along the way.

There are a few conditions for effective action:

1) Love – Work as part of a team and love those with whom you

serve.

2) Generosity – Give Jesus your best and he will take care of the rest. 3) Faith – Trust the Holy Spirit to help, don’t be afraid.

4) Responsibility and Initiative – Act as the Body of Christ in a strong

determined and persevering way.

5) Gifts of the Spirit – These equip us to live and work for Christ

Christian Community in Action is an extension of Christ’s hands into the world. You are meant to be those hands. Each time that we reach out in love in Christ’s Name we open the door of hope to those who might not encounter Christ in any other way.