I wish to summarize in a brief series of notes the New Testament’s presentation of Koinonia. This Christian partnership is 1) based on shared belief 2) has tangible advantages 3) comes with its own protocol and 4) is a discreet concentration in practicing the Christian religion.
But those four points can be illustrated by a family meal…
Have you grown up in a house where your family, at least once a day, would eat together? If so, you are well into understanding the important New Testament word, Koinonia. Koinonia is translated by “fellowship” or “partnership.” Luke uses it first in the New Testament, in his account of the newly formed church, which I’ll render in a popular paraphrase:
That day about three thousand took him at his word, were baptized and were signed up. They committed themselves to the teaching of the apostles, the life together, the common meal, and the prayers. (The Message: Acts 2:41,42)
“They committed themselves to…the life together.” That’s a good rendition of koinonia. And a good, accessible (but alack! becoming less so) picture of koinonia is the convivial scene around the family dinner table.
Our dining room has the potential for being one of the most cheerful spots in the house. It’s a large room holding a large table with an artificially distressed hutch on one side and an authentically weathered piano on the other. We have two beige linen-curtained windows looking out on the expanse (ok, the seven feet) of our side yard.
But still, something is a little chilly about the room, and I think we need something on the walls going away from the austere, maybe even something excessive. Tonia, how about some Impressionists!
Around our large table sits a bunch of individuals. For sure, you could never confuse Colin for Tonia! These are two people coming at things from different, sometimes competing, angles. Of course, in honest moments I have to admit that her angles are normally right and mine, at their best, are merely (a)cute.
I’m at the head. Tonia sits on my left, with her back to the kitchen entrance. She’s up and into the kitchen and back at least twice in the average meal.
And then the smallish individuals: Ben is at the end and has an open seat (never to be filled!) across from him. Between him and Tonia sits the Terror. To my right is Paul, a fellow third-born with two brothers. (We often commiserate at our lot and complain together of our antecedents.) The chair next to Paul holds Kai and all his quirks.
We’re all different. That’s most true if you compare Tonia and me. But we’re all different. Sure, sometimes I’m chilled to see my uglies have been passed down, but never in the same degree as they’re in me. In Ben I see Tonia’s purity, but he has other traits she doesn’t have. Our brooks of depravity have unluckily come together and formed a swollen stream with Tess! You get the message—we’re different.
Yet we find ourselves night by night gathered around the table.
But hurry to my point: We’re not eating our meals together by accident: A combination of commitments, common blood, shared histories, and—yes—commands bring us together. We have basis for our frequent meals together.
Such is true with Christian koinonia. This partnership is formed among dissimilar individuals. We look around the Christian table and sometimes cringe to find so very few points of connection with our fellows.
But our close partnership can’t be called such merely because we happen to dwell beside each other. That could be just an accident of history. And it can’t be on the basis of superficially shared interests. I know EBCers don’t sit next to each other because we all like classical music and clever conversation or have shared political views. This is the Unitarian mistake—gathering around shared interests and common causes under a vague religious auspice.
I give you our one connection, the basis of our koinonia: our belief in the true stories of Jesus Christ and the significance of those stories.
I have heard of persons within our assembly who voted (gasp) for Mr Obama. And I have heard of persons within our assembly who voted (gasp) for Mr McCain. Is there space at the Christian table for Democrats and Republicans? How can third-borns sit by first-borns?
Two questions; two answers. Of course. And they must. Not because holding-in-common isn’t important, but because only one thing must be held in common: detailed faith in the history of the Christ.
That which we have heard and seen we declare to you, that you also may have koinonia with us; and truly our koinonia is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ – 1 John 1:3
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