February Focus - Covenant Groups

What Difference Community Makes

Jesus was often alone, but never lonely. The Gospel tells the story of Jesus' time in the wilderness. Forty days Jesus was alone, but he was not lonely. "The angels ministered to him." When he was teaching and healing throughout Galilee and Judea, Jesus sought opportunities to be alone to pray but then he returned to the company of his disciples.

Jesus regularly sought the solitude of retreat and prayer. But his life was not lived in solitude. He grounded himself in community. He not only begins his ministry building a community of disciples around himself, his ministry is a community-building ministry.

In continuity with the witness of the Old Testament, Jesus formed 12 disciples as the nucleus of community very much the same way God formed the 12 Tribes of Israel into a community at Mt. Sinai. The Covenant of Moses was the means of experiencing God's grace at Sinai. The new Covenant of Christ's body became the means of God's grace at Golgotha.

Sinai leads to Golgotha. The old covenant of Moses informs and anticipates the new covenant in Jesus. In both old and new, God moves among a faithful covenant community.

The power of community manifested in the covenant continues today. The Book of the Acts of the Apostles tells the story of how the power of Jesus continued to touch and to heal people through the lives of his disciples. The continuity of Jesus' ministry with the ministry of the earliest church led the first generation of faith to refer to their gathering as "the Body of Christ."

The power of God for transformation continues today in perfect continuity with the witness of Scripture. Baptism has taken the place of circumcision as the sign of one's inclusion in the covenant. Communion has taken the place of temple sacrifice as the means of restoring (or maintaining) faithfulness in covenant. But the basic means of grace remains the same. God calls people to faithful participation in the covenant community enlivened by God's grace.

Some have trouble understanding the regenerative power of baptism and the transforming power of communion. The primary reason for this is because they have never experienced it. A second reason for this may be, in the absence of faith, they view both baptism and communion as magic tricks.

Sacrament gets reduced to magic when a person expects God to work miracles without the personal investment of one's life in the relationship with God and neighbor that covenant creates.

Baptism regenerates when the person baptized surrenders to the regenerative power of the Holy Spirit who works in baptism as a sign of inclusion in the covenant community. Likewise, communion transforms as the person who eats the body and drinks the cup participates in the life of Christ who is at work in the covenant community.

The work of salvation began when God liberated the slaves in Egypt and gathered them in covenant at Mt. Sinai. It was completed when Jesus gathered his disciples and demonstrated God's faithfulness to the covenant by his death on the cross. It is fulfilled among us who continue to gather in community, being baptized in his name and sharing table fellowship in the eternal meal.

All of this is only so much theological wind unless real people embrace the challenge and the opportunity to live in covenant together. Gathering with other people in Jesus' name manifests the power of God at work among us.

In our parish the place where we gather in Jesus' name to share the nitty-gritty details of life is in a Covenant Group. This is why participation in a Covenant Group is a one of our six marks of a disciple. One cannot know God's power if one does not know God's people. Participation in a group where people talk, listen and pray brings the covenant alive.

Would you like to know the regenerative power of baptism? Are you looking for the transforming power of communion? Get to a Covenant Group. You will see the power of God at work in baptism and communion come alive in the faces of people you will meet.

Monthly Focus Archive

2006:

Easter Focus: New Covenant
Lenten Focus: A Covenantal Response to Poverty
February Focus: Moving Forward

2005:

December Focus: Longing
November Focus: The Gift of Years
October Focus: Stewardship
September Focus: Foundations
Summer Focus: The Book of Acts
Easter Focus: Tapestry
Lenten Focus: Rule of Life
January Focus: The Next Wave

2004:

December Focus: Surprising Grace
November Focus: Free Indeed
October Focus: Money Madness
September Focus: The Outrageous Promise
Summer Focus: Into the Fullness
June Focus: Thick Faith
Easter Focus: All Things New
Lent Focus: A Hungry World
February Focus: Commitment
January Focus: Unity

2003:

December Focus: Hope
November Focus: Worship
October Focus: Stewardship
September Focus: Seasons of Faith
Summer Focus: The Gospel of John
May Focus: Faith
April Focus: Resurrection
March Focus: Truth
February Focus: Covenant Groups
January Focus: Sabbath

2002:

December Focus: Shut Up and Sing
November Focus: Spiritual Gifts
October Focus: Stewardship
September Focus: Intentional Faith