Woo-hoo for "being" healthy!

Okay, this week seems like a dull blur in my mind, but the fog seems to have lifted and I feel much, much better. Therefore, as an act of gratitude I hereby lift the "healthwatch" curse that has been on this blog over the past week, and pledge to post nothing about my nose, throat, or other congested area for a period of no less than two weeks. Hoorah!

Luke Timothy Johnson in Scripture and Discernment: Decision Making in the Church, Abingdon press, 1996

...Some groups tend to be defined more by the tasks they perform, while others by simply "being" a certain way. It is not always possible to distinguish one from the other since both kinds of groups make both task and identity decisions. Nevertheless, it is fair to say that groups defined by "being" a certain way (a "community of the pure," a "witness to the truth," a "school of the Lord's service") will find decisions concerning identity more difficult and threatening than those Concerning tasks. For groups whose purpose is fulfilled by a certain kind of "doing," on the other hand, "task" decisions will be more difficult.

When I read this, it made me think about some of the resaons we miss each other in the church, and come away without understanding each other's perspective. I think we're all over the map in how we understand her. some of us think of her as identity driven, some of us think of her as a task organization. Probably most of us think of her somewhere in between, with different purposes that sometimes seem to be in conflict with each other, if not in some sort of ambiguous relationship with each other.

This self-understanding of the church is something I think about all the time. Who are we? What are we supposed to be doing? The more I think about it, it seems like the problem isn't that scripture says too little about those things. It's that it says so much! I mean, in reality, isn't that what so much of scriptre is doing, telling us who God is so we can understand who we are, telling us what he did so we can understand what we're supposed to do? Our understanding of identity and task is response to our understanding of his identity and task.

So where do we come out? I think He is the creator, so we are the created, and we are partners in his creating. I think he is the Savior, so we are the saved, and partners in his saving. He is revealer, so we are the ones who have heard him and who continue to proclaim him. He is Lover, and so we are loved, and we are part of his loving. Is this a good way to start?