Maintaining Focus: In the company of friends

Excerpts from “The Resurrection Life” by Eugene Peterson

Questions for discussion:

1. How do we often think living the Christian life is a sole life project?

2. How do American men have difficulty with following Christ within the context of a tight knit community,?

3. How is a company of friends helping you live as a follower of Christ?

4. What stands in your way of building relationships that demonstrate the resurrection life (as Eugene Peterson describes)?

5. How can a small group transform your life far more than living the Christian life on your own?

“IN THE COMPANY OF FRIENDS

Spiritual formation not only should not be—but also cannot be—professionalized. It takes place essentially in the company of friends, of peers.

Jesus’ resurrection takes place in the company of friends who know each other by name, some of whom we know by name. The resurrection is not an impersonal exhibit put on display before crowds. Resurrection is experienced in a network of personal relationships. The named people remind us that the resurrection takes place among men and women like us—puzzled, bewildered, confused, questioning, and even stubbornly doubting friends. And yes, also singing and believing and praying and obeying friends.

All this derives from the Trinity: personal relations, not impersonal formation.

Matthew provides us with the first canonical account of a company of friends being spiritually formed into the resurrection life (see 28:16-20). Two women, Mary Magdalene and “the other Mary,” in Matthew’s telling of the story, are met by the risen Christ on a Sunday morning and are ordered to tell the disciples. Jesus calls them “my brothers” (verse 10, MSG). He tells them to go to Galilee where he will meet them.

They do it—eleven of them (the Twelve minus Judas). They go to the mountain they had been directed to, and Jesus meets them there. But it was an oddly equivocal meeting, for “some doubted” (verse 17).

How can that be? “They worshiped,” true, but “some doubted.” Which ones? Wouldn’t you like to know which ones? How many? Was it a few? Was it most of them? A majority? A minority? And for how long? Was it momentary? Did it continue for days afterward? Maybe through a lifetime?

Here’s the thing: Jesus doesn’t seem to require a unanimous vote before proceeding. He goes ahead and addresses all of them simply as a company of friends—worshipers and doubters alike. And his address is a command to continue the work he has begun in and with them, accompanied by his promise to be with them as they do it:

“God authorized and commanded me to commission you: Go out and train everyone you meet, far and near, in this way of life, marking them by baptism in the threefold name: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Then instruct them in the practice of all I have commanded you. I’ll be with you as you do this, day after day after day, right up to the end of the age.” (verses 18-20, MSG)

Three verbs activate their resurrection life: train, baptize, and instruct.

There are no spiritual elites

“My first observation in this regard is that recognizing and responding to Jesus’ resurrection is not a private experience. It takes place in the company of others. We know about the two closed-room meetings in Jerusalem on successive Sundays—first with thirteen and then with eleven. Paul also cites the experience of the resurrection occurring among companies of friends—the Twelve, the “more than five hundred,” and “all the apostles” (1 Corinthians 15:5-7). Earlier we noted the two at the Emmaus supper, the seven on the Galilean beach, Matthew’s two Marys, Mark’s three women bringing embalming spices to the tomb, and Luke’s four-plus women on their way to care for Jesus’ body.

The two partial exceptions are the first and the last reports that have been given to us. But they are only partial, for Mary Magdalene’s meeting with Jesus in the garden—the first report—was in the context of much coming and going and reporting as the resurrection news was flying about. She certainly didn’t hold herself aloof as a privileged “first.” And Paul’s meeting with Jesus on the Damascus road—the last report—was in the company of others who heard but didn’t see what was going on. The immediate consequence was Paul’s submission to the company and wisdom of others. Paul, in his Corinthian letter, makes a reference to this and refuses to put himself even on a par with the resurrection witnesses, describing himself as bringing up the rear and disclaiming any position. ”

“A PERSONAL AND RELATIONAL KIND OF KNOWING

A second observation reinforces this personal and relational aspect of life formed by the resurrection of Jesus: Twice in these stories of resurrection friends, there are references to the Trinity, the company of the Godhead.

When in Matthew’s account Jesus commissions his disciples from the Galilean mountain, he orders them to make disciples everywhere in the world, “baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (28:19).”

“THE CONGRUENCE OF ACCOUNTS

My third observation notes the congruence of the Gospel writers’ stories of resurrection with Paul’s six resurrection texts. Resurrection brings our lives into the operations of the gospel. Resurrection gives spiritual formation its energy and character. Here are the six texts:

Romans 6:4: “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.”

Romans 8:11: “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit which dwells in you.”

Ephesians 2:5-6: “[God] made us alive together with Christ . . . and raised us up with him, and made us sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”

“Philippians 3:10: “That I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death.”

Colossians 2:12: “You were buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.”

Colossians 3:1: “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.”

Here are the elements to notice:

“As Christ was raised . . . we too”

“He who raised Christ . . . will give life to your mortal bodies”

“Raised us up with him”

“That I may know . . . the power of his resurrection”

“You were also raised with him”

“If then you have been raised with Christ”

All of Paul’s pronouns are in the plural—we, us, you, your. The one exception—Paul’s “I” in Philippians—is hardly an exception, for he is giving witness to what he is intending for them to experience. He’s not setting himself apart as an expert or as a privileged example of resurrection living.

THE HOLY BREATHING

A fourth observation: Paul’s insistence that we participate in the same resurrection as Jesus is congruent with Jesus’ actions and words to his assembled disciples on the evening of his resurrection when he “breathed on them, and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit’” (John 20:22). “The Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead”—that’s Paul’s phrase in Romans 8:11—is the same Spirit that Jesus breathed on them. Jesus’ followers live resurrection-formed lives, not by watching him or imitating him or being influenced by him, but by being raised with him. It’s formation-by-resurrection.

There’s an interesting echo of the Creation story in this. The word John uses for Jesus’ action in breathing the Holy Spirit on them—emphusaõ—is the same verb used in Genesis 2 for God’s breathing the “breath of life” into the human form he had just made, resulting in a “living being” (verse 7).”

“A culture of autonomy sets a high value on independence and self-sufficiency. It’s supposed to be a good thing not to have to ask anyone for help. It’s held up as an achievement to get where we want on our own. Every automobile, every computer puts us a little more “in charge” of our lives. But at the same time, it isolates us from others. We don’t need others.

But what if there are things, experiences, values, and pleasures that we can have only in the company of others—like resurrection? A studied and cultivated independence diminishes the capacity for resurrection and dulls our awareness of resurrection.

At the same time that autonomy physically separates us from personal relationships with others, a culture of professionalism separates our sense of common life with others. If we have learned to rely and depend on a professional class for our health, our automobile repairs, our legal affairs, and our religious well-being, the ordinary people with whom we live—the ones we have the most to do with (our acquaintances, our neighbors, and frequently the members of our own family)—diminish in dignity. And when we ourselves are constantly treated by the experts as either consumers or victims, we too are left without much sense of dignity.

THE PRACTICE OF RESURRECTION

The resurrection life is a practice. It’s not something we practice like practicing musical scales or practicing our golf swing. It is practice in the more inclusive sense in which we say a physician has a practice—work that defines both his or her character and workday. Physicians don’t practice on sick people. They enter the practice of healing. We use the word practice similarly in phrases such as the practice of law, the practice of diplomacy, the practice of prayer. This is the sense in which we practice resurrection—we engage in a life that is permeated by the presence and companionship of the resurrected Jesus in the company of friends.

I’m interested in recovering this comprehensive sense of the Christian life under the conditions of our dailyness and ordinariness—our practice. It’s not something that we go to retreat centers and conferences and special gatherings to practice but rather the life of resurrection that is practiced in the dailyness of home and workplace.”

“Lord Jesus Christ, we come to you with a deep sense of gratitude, care, concern, devotion, love for you, and desire to live responsively to you. We sense that we’re with friends in your company of followers—friends who share the life of resurrection and want others to get in on it, notice it, and begin participating at the center of what you’re doing rather than on the periphery. We pray for strength and discernment to understand the culture we are in—the deadening effects, the seductive lures. We pray that whatever has been said in these pages can be used—some of it, at least—to sharpen what we’re doing. We ask your blessing on your church—scattered and dispersed and so much of it in despair. We pray that wherever we are and whatever places we go back into—whether it’s pew or pulpit—we may be part of this resurrection life, knowing that you are present and doing your work. You’re not anxious about what is going to happen or whether this is going to work or not. It’s worked a long, long time and will continue working. Mostly, keep us faithful, attentive, adorational, sacrificial, and personal. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.”

- Excerpt From Living the Resurrection by Eugene H. Peterson