Here we are at the fourth Sunday of Advent. The waiting and anticipation, the quietness and candle-lighting is leading up to the moment of the Nativity. On Christmas Eve we will gather to “let every heart prepare him room!” All of our songs and Scriptures and candles will help us hold vigil outside of Mary’s delivery-room, anticipating the birth of Jesus in history, welcoming the mystery of Jesus being born in us, and looking forward to the fullness of Jesus’ reign in majesty. History, mystery, and majesty. (I didn’t come up with that.)

On that first Sunday of Advent, way back on December 1, we explored how to wake up and stay awake to God and God’s work in the world. Does anyone remember the answer? 

Prayer is what wakes us up and prayer keeps us awake. When we pray we are saturating our broken world in prayer just as Jesus did. When we pray our eyes are opened to both the physical realities of our world and spiritual realities of God’s Kingdom being built. Prayer is our anchor to the hope we have in Christ Jesus. 

I have a hunch that many of us keep our prayers to ourselves. Maybe it’s because of saying the wrong words or sounding silly. (There’s really no wrong way to pray, I promise!) Maybe it’s because we consider ourselves to be private people and prayer is personal. And one one hand, I would agree. Prayer is personal. Prayer is our consider connection to the Holy Spirit. But what if we expanded our practice of prayer to include others? 

The Psalm we read this morning is not a solitary Psalm. It’s a perfect example of living our faith in community with others. Psalm 80 is a communal prayer. It’s a group of people who confess their brokenness and their frustrations, a group of individuals looking around and joining arm and aim with others, petitioning God to “Restore us, let your face shine, that we may be saved!” This is a group of people who is committing together to “never turn back from God.” “Give us life,” they declare,” and we will call on your name!” 

What would it be like to have a group of people watching over one another in love, seeking God’s best for one another, desiring to follow after God together? 

It sounds lovely, but in reality it’s really challenging. Because while we are wired for community and connection, the other people are what make life so difficult, so painful, am I right? I mean, wouldn’t we all be the most amazing Christians if it weren’t for everyone else? 

Years ago Kevin and I lived in a tiny studio apartment, like one room doubled as our bedroom, living room, dining room, and office. We loved it. During this time I was beginning to explore personal spiritual disciplines in a new way, feeling drawn toward a daily practice of solitude and silence with God each morning. The problem was, we lived in a studio apartment. There was no alone time, no personal space. But I figured something out. I would wake up each morning before sunrise and climb the steps to the landing that led to the upstairs homeowner’s dwelling. On this 4 foot square I would situate myself with a candle and my bible and journal, praying and reading, sometimes weeping or sleeping. Kevin was willing to accommodate my earnestness, respecting my desire for complete silence until I came down the staircase again. 

Looking back I see how un-accomodating I was in my earnest desire to seek God and be transformed into Christ’s likeness. I forgot that I couldn’t live my entire life in solitude. I forgot it was unreasonable and inconsiderate to ask my spouse to not move a muscle for however long I was up my sacred staircase. And I always seemed to forget that whatever I was learning from Jesus in those times of prayer and scripture was supposed to accompany me in my living with my husband. It’s crazy how quickly we forget what fruit of the Spirit we are cultivating as soon as we are back in the presence of other human beings. 

Around this same time I picked up a book by Robert Mulholland entitled An Invitation to a Journey. In it Mulholland defines spiritual formation. He says,

Spiritual formation is the process of being transformed into the image of Jesus Christ for the sake of others.

M. Robert Mulholland

WHAT?! For the sake of others? I thought this being-a-Christian business was just about me and Jesus? Who said anything about others? 

But the Holy Spirit was using Mulholland’s book to help me identify the flaw in my holy plan: practicing spiritual disciplines all by myself would only get me so far in my process of becoming like Jesus. Not only are my personal spiritual practices for the sake of the wholeness of my community, but together in community with other believers we are live out spiritual rhythms that help us follow Jesus together.

I just finished a book called The Class Meeting: Reclaiming a Forgotten (and Essential) Small Group Experience by Kevin Watson. Way back in the 1700s, John Wesley developed three circles for Christian spiritual formation: Society Meetings, Class Meetings, and Band Meetings. Each of these served a distinct purpose for cultivating transformational Christians. The Society is a large congregational gathering for worship and sacrament. The Class is a small group of 7-12 men and women who meet weekly for soul care, “watching over one another in love.” The Band is an intimate circle of 3-4 individuals who are committed to weekly confession of sin and freedom in Christ. 

Concerning the “class meeting” Watson writes: 

A class meeting is a small group that is primarily focused on transformation and not information, where people learn how to interpret their entire lives through the lens of the gospel, build a vocabulary for giving voice to their experience of God, and grow in faith in Christ.

Kevin Watson

Rather than being focused on transferring information or ideas about Christianity, the early Methodist class meeting was focused on helping people come to know Jesus Christ and learn how to give every part of their lives to loving and serving Christ.

John Wesley felt very strongly about the class meeting. He insisted on the necessity of these groups, believing them to be a crucial aid in helping people become like Christ and grow in love of God and others. Wesley went as far as to say, 

Never omit meeting your Class or Band…These are the very sinews of our Society; and whatever weakens, or tends to weaken, our regard for these, or our exactness in attending them, strikes at the very root of our community.

John Wesley

Ok, Wesley, I hear you! Strong words, yes, but based on my personal experience with the class-style and band-style meetings, I agree with Wesley entirely. Having a consistent group of people who ask me weekly, “How is your life in God? How is it with your soul?” is the most effective way I have grown as a disciple of Jesus. It’s how I receive the healing and wholeness of Jesus and find the courage and clarity for bringing that healing wholeness into my corner of the world. These people receive my confessions, they notice where I’m growing, they help me pay attention to God. They love me entirely, embodying Christ’s love. These people are also the ones who share the ins and outs of our lives in a way that provides a support system in times of need. 

The crucial nature of Christianity is that it demands a life lived in community with others.

We cannot be spiritually transformed into the image of Jesus Christ without the help of others. We cannot learn all we need for the Christian life by ourselves. John Wesley believed this. BT Roberts believed this. I believe this.

Do you believe this? 

It is so easy to come to church with the same privatized mindset I had with my staircase faith, isn’t it. We have this invisible spiritual box in which me and Jesus do this Christian faith thing together. Just like I insisted that Kevin remain perfectly accommodating to me in my staircase faith practices so as to not disturb my most holy time, most of us come to church with a pretty specific idea of what need this hour to be in order to get the most out of it. We convince ourselves that the whole point of coming to church is to grow in our faith, to be fed, to sing songs that encourage us. 

But the larger truth is church is this: we come together every Sunday not to be served, but to serve God together. We come to do a work together, a work that is literally impossible to do alone – the work of a community worshiping God. So for a while we set aside our personal needs and hopes and demands. We come to bear with one another, to forgive one another, to lift up our voices with the voices of the people around us as we sing songs we may or may not like, as we pray prayers we may or may not believe, as we read scriptures we may or may not understand. And we trust that the Holy Spirit is using this community to transform us into the image of Jesus Christ for the sake of others.

And in the new year ahead of us I plan to focus my time in 2020 is by inviting our congregation and our wider community into life-changing and super practical discipleship in the style of Wesley’s “class meeting,” nurturing smaller gatherings of people who will care for one another out of love for Christ. 

I’m looking into 2020 and the new decade it brings with hope and intention, praying that Jesus will raise up leaders who value soul care and transformation and that he will raise up a community of believers who seek His healing and wholeness together.