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| Billie Silvey |
| June 2006 |
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| The Greek word koinonia occurs 20 times in the Bible. It means fellowship, sharing or communion. It refers to Christ’s sharing with us by taking on a physical body, as well as the sharing he allows us to do with him by allowing us to take on a spiritual life in him. It also refers to the sharing we do with each other as members of his body, the church. I have experienced many forms of sharing in the churches I’ve been a part of--from the little church in Happy, Texas, of my childhood through the Los Angeles churches at Vermont Avenue, where we reared our family, and Culver Palms in later life, with a sprinkling of college and military churches from Falls Church, VA, to Bremerton, WA, in between. Koinonia refers to sharing material things (Romans 15:26-27), sharing emotional empathy (Philippians 3:10), sharing the Lord’s Supper (1 Corinthians 10:16), sharing salvation (1 John 1:3), sharing in spreading the gospel (Philippians 1:5), sharing the Holy Spirit (Philippians 2:1), and sharing in efforts to do good (2 Corinthians 8:4). The church has been a fellowship to me in all these areas. I have shared food, clothing and shelter with Christian brothers and sisters, and they have shared with me. I have shared joys and sorrows and rejoiced and wept with theirs. I have regularly shared the bread and wine that represents Christ’s sacrifice for each of us and draws us into deeper fellowship with him and with each other. I have taught others, helping some come to Christ and others to draw closer to him, just as they have taught me over the years. We share Christ’s gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit, which makes us living stones in his holy temple. And, being more an activist than a mystic, I have worked with thousands of other Christians in one effort after another over the years to make Christ alive in this world. Despite the good results of koinonia, it isn't all positive. Fellowship and close sharing can cause people who aren't a part of the "in group" to feel left out. It can create a style that fails to allow for deviation. How can something so good create evil? It’s because it's made up of people like us--individual Christians who are both generous and selfish, kind and cruel, caring and indifferent. We are the church, the fellowship, the body of Christ in the world. “If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in darkness; we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from every sin” (1 John: 1:6-7). That’s the good news of koinonia. |