Christianity, as some have joked, is not about “20 impossible things to believe before breakfast.”  In other words, we do not need more people who believe something about Jesus competing with those who believe other things about the Qur’an or the Buddha or Science. Instead, we need Christians to act like Jesus by embodying a passionate commitment to God’s way of love and mercy, justice and grace in this time and place. Instead of a list of doctrines, Christianity is a set of practices that cultivate habits of loving God and neighbor. These practices help form a community of faith called the church.

The traditional Christian way of loving God is the practice of contemplative prayer: setting aside time and space each day to spend in God's loving presence. Jesus often withdrew from the crowds to spend time alone with God. The traditional Christian ways of loving neighbor is to practice the works of mercy as named by Jesus in Matthew 25: feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, welcoming the stranger, clothing the naked, caring for the sick, and visiting the imprisoned. The “Great Commandment” practices of loving God and neighbor are how Christians have sought to live as citizens of the kingdom — what some have called the “commonwealth” — of God. Indeed, it is not until after Jesus’ ascension that the “disciples were first called Christians” (Acts 11:26). Until then, the disciples of Jesus were simply called “followers of the Way” (Acts 9:2)  — that is, people who tried to practice ways of loving God and neighbor the same way that Jesus did.    

One of the earliest examples of the way of Jesus in action is the Jerusalem church in Acts 2: “[They] were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts.” We see similar examples from the fourth century with the desert Mothers and Fathers and the early monastic communities; in the Middle Ages with the Waldensians, the Beguines and the Franciscans; and today with New Monastic Communities like the Simple Way in Philadelphia, Church of the Sojourners in San Francisco, Rutba House in Durham, and The Open Door in Atlanta — as well as the L'Arche Communities founded by Jean Vanier, the Catholic Worker Houses founded by Dorothy Day, and the Christian Peacemaker Teams founded by the Mennonites. Each of these communities, both historical and contemporary, demonstrate that the commonwealth of God is not just a dream. The commonwealth of God is a practical, pragmatic way of transforming your life in this world through practices like contemplative prayer (“loving God”) and the works of mercy (“loving neighbor”).  Jesus’ life was shaped by these two central practices. What, then, is your answer at this moment — in this life — to Jesus' call to “follow me”?