Koinonia

Koinonia

“All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need.” —Acts 2: 44-45.

In her brilliant sermon on June 3, 2018, Patricia Matthews reminds us of the winning word in last year’s Scripps National Spelling Bee that weekend: Koinonia.

You can read Patricia’s sermon online at the website of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, Little Rock, or listen to it on St. Mark’s Facebook page. Fourteen-year-old Karthik Nemmani from McKinney, Texas, correctly spells this word of Greek origin meaning Christian fellowship or communion with God. It refers especially to fellowship with other Christians in community. Patricia reminds us that this 91st National Spelling Bee with the 515 participants who qualified was televised on none other than ESPN, a sports network on which we more often watch football or basketball or baseball or soccer!

When I heard the winning word that weekend and Sunday from Patricia, my heart skipped a beat. Koinonia had been on my heart for almost a week. Langley, our oldest granddaughter, had graduated from high school and was headed to the University of Georgia. I had been praying about how I could support her in this decision. The answer came as I was reading a review of two books about Clarence Jordan in The Christian Century.

I want to remind Langley about Mr. Jordan, who is perhaps one of the most outstanding graduates of the University of Georgia. His competency in Greek led him to produce his “Cotton Patch” version of the New Testament, as he strove to communicate the Bible’s message in everyday language. Jordan also founded Koinonia Farm as a farming community of believers sharing their lives and resources, following the example of the first Christian communities. Out of this movement came Habitat for Humanity International by Millard Fuller, and later The Fuller Center for Housing, as well as Jubilee Partners and much support for the Civil Rights Movement.

Also that Sunday after church a group of women met to begin discernment toward creating a Daughters of the King chapter at St. Mark’s. Daughters of the King also seek koinonia—specifically fellowship with other women who want a deeper spirituality and relationship to God through prayer, service, and evangelism.

I am going to keep koinonia on my heart for a few more days to see if I observe any more serendipitous connections of synchronicity in our world.

Joanna joannseibert.com

Purchase a copy of A Spiritual Rx for Lent and Easter from me, joannaseibert@me.com, from Wordsworth Books in Little Rock, or from Amazon.

Peace of God

Peace of God

“Jesus doesn’t offer peace of mind. He offers the peace of reconciliation.” —Diane Roth, “Living the Word” in The Christian Century (3/14/2018).

Turtle Tracks by Marci Hixson

This response by Diane Roth to Lectionary Readings for the Second Sunday in Easter from John 20:19-31 is another wake-up call for us to reconcile with those with whom we are having difficulty: loving that neighbor who is so different; loving our relatives who look at our political scene wearing a very different pair of glasses; seeing Christ in the most unlovable person with whom we work; loving those whose belief systems are the exact opposite of ours. I could go on for several more pages of examples.

A verse that haunts me that is often said at the Offertory is Matthew 5:23-24: “So when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift.”

Family systems models tells us that we must make every possible attempt to get back into relationship with any family members from whom we are estranged.

The heart of twelve-step recovery is looking at the resentments we have toward others, recognizing our part in causing the estrangement from others, and then making amends, seeing how we are alike instead of seeing our differences.

All of these teachings are reminding us that when we cannot love our neighbor, it is hard to love God; for the God of our understanding always also lives in our neighbor, just as God lives in us.

This is an important message for us to share with spiritual friends. We may not be the trained person who is able to help our friends reconcile with each other; but we are called to share our experience that reconciliation with our neighbor is a straight pathway to the peace of God.

Joanna. Joannaseibert.com

Purchase a copy of A Spiritual Rx for Lent and Easter from me, joannaseibert@me.com, from Wordsworth Books in Little Rock, or from Amazon.

Cynthia Bourgeault: Mystical Body of Christ

Cynthia Bourgeault: Mystical Body of Christ

“What Jesus so profoundly demonstrates to us in his passage from death to life is that the walls between the realms are paper thin. Along the entire ray of creation, the “mansions” are interpenetrating and mutually permeable by love. The death of our physical form is not the death of our individual personhood. Our personhood remains alive and well, “hidden with Christ in God” (to use Paul’s beautiful phrase in Colossians 3:3) and here and now we can draw strength from it (and [Christ]) to live our temporal lives with all the fullness of eternity. If we can simply keep our hearts wrapped around this core point, the rest of the Christian path begins to fall into place.” Cynthia Bourgeault in The Wisdom Jesus (Shambhala 2008), p. 133-134.

Bourgeault is pushing the envelope on our relationship with those who have died by also interpreting our relationship to the resurrected Jesus. She reminds us of the passage from John (14:2) so often spoken at funerals, “ In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places [mansions]. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?”

She is telling us that Jesus demonstrates to us that the walls between these dwelling places or mansions [if you are a King James reader], and our homes are very thin and are permeated by love. This speaks to Paul’s thoughts in 1Corinthians (13: 8) “Love never ends.” The love we have for each other never dies. Our body dies, but that love never dies, and in some mystical way our individual personhood in love reaches out through the mystical body of Christ to continue to bring love into this world and the next.

We connect to this love “hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3) when we open the “eye of our heart’ through spiritual practices such as centering prayer meditation, lectio divina, the welcoming prayer, chanting, especially the Psalms.

Joanna. Joannaseibeibert.com