Church Community for the Kingdom

7/29/2019 Church Community for the Kingdom

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CHURCHCOMMUNITY

FOR THE

KINGDOM

JOHN FUELLENBACH, SVD


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PART I:

THE CHURCH

IN SCRIPTURE

AND IN VATICAN II


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PART II:

MODELS OF THECHURCH


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Every human person, nomatter what his of herfaith and religion, mayeffectively be saved byfollowing his/her ownreligion and conscience.


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SALVATION MUSTBE HELD POSSIBLEOUTSIDE THECHURCH-Lumen Gentium


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All this holds true not forChristian only, but also for allmen of goodwill in whose heartsgrace is active invisibly-Gaudium et Spes


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SALVATION AS BOUND TO

COMMUNITY

Salvation is conceived as communitarian is

rooted in the TRIUNE GOD.

God is FAMILY and the ultimate goal of

creation is to participate in the communitarian

life of the Truine God.


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Being a Christian as a Call to Mission

To be called by Godmeans to be drawn into

Gods own plan and intothe mission of the Son,

which extends into the

mission of the church.


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The Keys of the Kingdomthe meaning is not that

only those who join the

Catholic Church will enterthe kingdom.


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JESUS AND THE KINGDOM

Throw like fire into this worldLuke 12:49

This fire is not to be understood as an

abstract idea or as a worldview but as a

world-transforming power.

Its sole aim is to extend the life of the Trinityinto the whole of creation, to draw all that

exists into Gods own communion and love.


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Jesus without the reign of Reign ofGod is an incomplete Jesus, Jesuswhose life and mission are notshaped by it is not way, the truthand the life (John 14:6)


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Gods Plan for the World

The deepest desire of every

human heart is complete

union with God, a union

that includes union with all

of Gods family and

harmony with the universe.


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The Dream of God for Creation

In a broad sense the Bible as a whole is thestory of the dream of God, beginning in

Genesis with paradise and ending withparadise restored in the great concludingvision of the Book of Revelation.


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The first paradise is twoindividuals in a garden, and thesecond paradise is communaland urban- the new Jerusalem,the city of God.


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THE DREAM OF GOD IS A SOCIAL ANDPOLITICAL VISION OF A WORLD OFJUSTICE AND PEACE IN WHICHHUMAN BEINGS DO NOT HURT,DESTROY, OPPRESS OR EXPLOITONE ANOTHER.IT IS THE DREAM EXPRESSED WITHMANY IMAGES AND BY MANYVOICES IN THE BIBLE.


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The dream of God is a vision of

SHALOM..

-a rich Hebrew word often translated

PEACE.

For this vision Jesus lived, labored,

suffered and died.

THIS IS THE VISION HE ENTRUSTEDTO HIS DISCIPLES: As the Father sent

me, so I send you(Jn. 20:21)


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The exclusion of some(hell) is possible

and cannot be denied as a real

possibility.

However, if some really will be excludedfrom the banquet, it is not ours to

know or to decide who they will be.

ONLY GOD WILL MAKE THISDECISION.


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What is impossible for

human beings, God canstill make possible (Mk.

10:27)


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The Kingdom cannot be separated

from the person of Jesus of

Nazareth if Christianity is to

remain true to its name.the good news is CHRIST.

(Redemptoris Missio)


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Christ is universal in thesense that He is available to

all who bear His peoples

proclamation of the Gospel,

but effective only to those

who believe.


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The early church came tounderstand its own identityand its mission in differentways, as the NewTestament clearly indicates,depending on the differentsituations and cultures intowhich it planted the gospelof the kingdom of God.


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JESUS AND THE CHURCHOnly by returning to the Jesus as He

presents Himself in the Gospels will we

find anew foundation for our self-understanding not only as individual

Christians but also as Church.


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The Churchcannot solve the crisis of its

historical identity and its societallegitimation in a purely interpretativeor hermeneutical manner, but only by

practical identification.

The Churchs crisis is due to a deficit in

discipleship and to difficulties inadapting to Jesus.


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The way out of the situation in which we findourselves today can only be once again a way

into fellowship with Jesus the Lord.


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SIGNPOSTS OF DISCIPLESHIP:

the obedience of the cross

poverty

freedom and joy attitudes and behavior that counted so

high in Jesus own life


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They (the bishops) felt theurgent need to return tothe root of the Christiancommitment, to the Jesuswho walked the earth anddied for a vision the worldtoday needs so badly.


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COMMUNITY OF DISCIPLES

A new conception of thechurch.(Avery Dulles)


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The basic vocation of any Christian is

first and foremost to be a DISCIPLETo follow the Lord as He walked over

this earth.

The emphasis here is on following the

LORD rather than following the

CHURCH.


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The church must be seen as the

community of those who have

made it their lives profession to

follow the Lord and, as such, to

build a community calledCHURCH.


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Discipleship gives to theindividual as well as to theChristian community aunique identity andpurpose.


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THE EXODUS STORY

God intends to lead all of

humanity by choosing one

particular people to be the

sign and instrument to

accomplish this goal.


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SCHEME OF ACTION IN THE OLD

TESTAMENT1. People are in distress

2. They cry out to God

3. God hears their cry and sees theirdistress

4. God intervenes and alleviates the

distress


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The Exodus opens up a new vision ofwhat it means to be human in theeyes of God.

The covenant with the people isGods view of how he envisions a

society in which human beings will

live as Gods children in JUSTICEand PEACE with one another.


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Jesus main mission must be seen in thiscontext of a broken covenant.

The dominant social vision of Jesustime was centered on HOLINESS andPURITY.


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He understood His community tobe a place where all people

would be brothers and sisters,where justice and compassion

would reign under the

Fatherhood of God.


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KINGDOM AND CHURCH IN THE

GOSPELSThe word church-found only twice

on the lips of Jesus (Mt. 16 and 18)

kingdom-92 times in Jesus own

words.

In comparison: (VATICAN II)Church-2, 000

Kingdom of God-75


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Ekklesia

Simply means public gathering(Greek)

The early Christian community perceivedthe term ekklesia from this original

meaning:

God had called or convoked them and

established them into a sacred

assembly


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The early Christians called

themselves different names:

Followers of the way

The koinonia

Christians


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But the most important andlasting name the Christiancommunity, universal as wellas local, gave itself fromthe moment of its birthwas

EKKLESIA


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It is therefore correct to say that

the kingdom of God and the

Church are two key New

Testament concepts, both arecrucial for the understanding of

Gods plan for humanity.

Th Ki d Vi i M di d


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The Kingdom Vision Mediated

through the ChurchSome scholars claim that the

ineffectiveness of the church in

many sectors of its apostolate today

is due to the fact that we have noadequate image of the church into

which people can plausibly fit what

they think they ought to be doing.


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IF WE COULD FASHION AN

INSPIRING AND REALISTICIMAGE OF THE CHURCH, WE

MIGHT BE ABLE TO ACT

CONFIDENTLY AND IN SUCH A

WAY THAT OUR SELF-

UNDERSTANDING WOULD BEREINFORCED BY FEEDBACK

FROM OTHERS.


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Although Jesus may have seldomif ever used the word church, it

is amazing to see with how much

ease the early Christian

communities linked Jesus to the

church and the church to thekingdom and Israel of Old.


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the Church originated fromthe death and resurrectionof Jesus, through the workof the Holy Spirit.

It remains a provisionalentity. What is ultimate isthe kingdom of God.


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The better the Church

understands its interim status

and is determined by the

ultimate (the kingdom) , the

more it will be able to

correspond with Jesusministry.


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The kingdom demandsthe transformation of

all human reality, andthe church must be an

agent of thistransformation.


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The council starts off bydescribing the church as themystery of Christ. In it isrealized the eternal plan of theFather, manifested in JesusChrist, to bring humanity to itseternal glory.


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God has inaugurated the kingdom in the world

and in history in two stages.

First, the kingdom was initiated through the

earthly life of Jesus, his words and works,

and fully inaugurated through the Paschal

Mystery of his death and resurrection. Thiskingdom, present in history, must now grow

through history to reach its eschatological

fullness at the end of time. ..


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it seeks to be, first, objective-rational and theological; second,

pastoral-witnessing, creating,

and strengthening our faith; andthird, spiritual-nurturing,

enhancing, and vivifying our ownfaith (Fuellenbach)


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Karl Rahner, envisioning thechurch of the future, voiced

the same concern. Facing the

crisis of the church in Europe,

he insisted that the members

of that church would have tobe mystics.


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What he meant was that in a world ofsecularism only those who had a deeppersonal experience of God and who intheir lives could make this experienceaccessible to a totally secularised worldcould survive in their faith. Secularism isa worldwide phenomenon and affectsevery society.


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Secularism may stem from explicit

unbelief, the denial of the existence

of God or of

any religious dimension to humanlife. Such unbelief is rarely the

product of a formal,atheistic,

rational philosophy


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In the face of secularism the

model of small faith

communities can be seen as

one answer to help the

individual believers to

preserve their faith.


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As the saying goes,faith that is notshared dies.


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Individuals may not be able tomaintain their enthusiasm forChrist and his message withoutthe support of a community thatshares with them that enthusiasmand joy which come with a trueencounter with Christ and hisSpirit.


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THREEFOLD MISSION

To proclaim in word andsacrament that thekingdom of God has comein the person of Jesus ofNazareth


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To create church communities(localchurch) everywhere and, in sodoing, present the churchcommunity as a place where thekingdom of God makes itself visible.


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To engage in dialogue with the world and

with the other religious traditions.

First: to challenge society as a whole, to

transform itself along the basic

principles of the kingdom now present:

JUSTICE, PEACE,

BROTHERHOOD/SISTERHOOD ANDHUMAN RIGHTS


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Second: to engage indialogue with otherreligious traditions inwhich Gods kingdommakes itself present aswell.


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The Churchs mission is to revealthrough the ages the hidden

plan of God and to lead

humankind toward its final

destiny.


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The CHURCH is not

placed at her ownservice: she entirely

oriented towards the

Kingdom of God that

is coming.


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For only the Kingdom,as the fullness of

Gods manifestation,

is ABSOLUTE


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THE CHURCH OF THE FUTURE

WILL HAVE TWO MAJOR

ISSUES TO DEAL WITH IF ITWANTS TO REMAIN FAITHFUL

TO THE KINGDOMENTRUSTEDTO IT:


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1. To inculturate the Christian

message in a way that it can be

understood and offer salvationin respective cultural contexts is

demanded from all localchurches, wherever thay may be.


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2. Solidarity with the poor and

marginalized of the world, refers tothe basic root of Jesus message of

the kingdom.If the church puts its concern for

these people in second or third

place, it will not have much to say inthe future.


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If the church loses the poor, those

left out, the ones who do not count,it has betrayed the very purpose for

its existence, which is to proclaim

the good news of the kingdom to

the poor in the way Jesus

understood his mission.


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Christ yesterday, today andtomorrow!WE KNOW HE WILLNOT LEAVE HISCHURCH.

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