Sacramentalism and Community

(While I was traveling last week, I did some writing on my new iPhone. Here's one of the things I was thinking about)

While traveling the west coast to do college fairs I brought a couple of books with me for reading material. A smart traveler will bring light reading to help pass the time. Sadly, I am not the smart traveler. I brought to serious books:

The Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne



and

For The Life of the World by Alexander Schmemann



Revolution reads easy enough, but confronts the reader with such challenging ideas that it is not possible to breeze thru. Life of the World, on the other hand is an inspiring book but so dense that it requires sustained concentration to benefit from and even begin to understand.

Neither book has made for the easy plane reading that would be my usually fare for such trips. Somewhere in the air between San Fransisco and LA, though, I realized that it was highly significant that had these two seemingly very different books together in my bag.

Throughout my trip my peers have been asking me about plans for the future. I have said seminary is my plan. But the truth is that I am still very unsure about what I want to do.

I love the church and the sacramental world that is the topic of Schmemann's book. I also am captivated by the depiction of community and a life of "ordinary radicals" that Claiborne writes about.

I realized is that these two books represent what I want to do with my life. Or at least the vision for my future that I find most captivating. I want to do is bring together the ideas and visions of these two very different books just like the two books are physically stashed right next to each other in my carry on.

What would a sacramental, charismatic, evangelical community among the under-served and poor look like? Could I learn what it means to bring the joy and beauty of what we have at Resurrection to the intentionally loving community that strives for justice?

That is a life calling that I would love to walk. Seminary, internships, overseas and even loving and living in our apartment now can be training and preperation for that sort of calling.

We're landing now and even though I didn't have an easy-to-read, page-turning novel to read, I think this flight was well worth it.