“Life in community is not easy,” I heard myself say, over a cup of coffee at Starbucks, as I was counseling a teen in my parish who recently spoke to me about difficulties she was having with her youth group.  And yet, as we talked, it seemed clear how much she valued the relationships she had formed with the other young people in our church – how much they had made her into the person she is today.  I realized, in fact, that her anxiety actually stemmed from the tension of potential conflict with those that she cared so deeply about – a tension that I learned, as a Micah intern (part of the Episcopal Service Corps), can often be important as one tries to “do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God.”

When I began my Micah year, I found a copy of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s book, “Life Together,” sitting on a table in my new room.  As I flipped through the book, my eyes fell upon this passage; “the serious Christian, set down for the first time in a Christian community, is likely to bring with him a very definite idea of what Christian life together should be and to try to realize it. But God’s grace speedily shatters such dreams.”  This seemingly paradoxical statement was surprising to read but I soon came to value the wisdom of Bonhoeffer’s words for any Christian wanting to be of service in the world.

Micah taught me, whether through my community of fellow interns or within the urban church  where I worked with refugees from Sudan, that oftentimes it is the intentionality and care that we invest in seemingly simple, every day relationships that can often be most important.  And this often means conflict – it means learning to truly listen to and value those who may be very different than you.  Conflict is often the medium God uses to help us grow.  Conflict, particularly amidst communities that we seek to serve, usually signals that we care enough to remain engaged.  Micah taught me, as Bonhoeffer understood, that conflict can often be a surprising sign of grace.

As a Young Adult Service Corps (YASC) missionary in Brazil and now as a parish priest, this lesson continues to shape and inform my sense of mission within the communities that I serve.  In Brazil, I came to see service almost solely as a practice in community building – an end in itself as opposed to a means to an end.  The mission was the often forgotten work of living amidst the day-to-day tensions that arose in this small community that I lived in on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro.  The mission was about trying to find God’s presence and to make God’s presence known in and through this community life.

This lesson has been amplified as I continue into my third year as the assistant rector at Christ Church in Andover, MA. This is the longest I have been a part of any Christian community since I was a child and so it has meant learning to live and serve amidst this dynamic and creative tension in new ways.  Life in community isn’t easy but in a world where people feel increasingly isolated, the lessons it has to teach us might ultimately help us to bring about the healing we seek for both ourselves and our world.   

by The Rev. Adam Shoemaker, Diocese of Massachusetts 

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