“We are all Hokies now.” So reads a banner that appeared at a Baptist church near our home. It tries to express the empathy that most Virginians feel in the wake of the terrible murders at Virginia Tech. The school is so large and its alumni base so vast that almost everybody knows somebody who is a Hokie.
But there is another and deeper sense in which we are all Hokies. The violence is a reminder to all of us of the fragility of life. The immediate reactions are horror, shock and fear. If those students and teachers in the bucolic environs of the Blue Ridge are not safe, then who is?
It is understandable, therefore, to discuss what we can do to make sure something such as this never happens again. Should we tighten gun laws or relax them? Should we exert more control over those who are mentally ill? How do we predict whether or not someone is angry or psychotic enough to commit such an awful crime?
The deeper question, however, ought to cause us to realize how essential the bonds of community really are. I don't mean essential merely to attend to the potential murderers among us. Community makes us able to endure the inevitable intrusions of violence and evil into our lives.
The most radical action the church can take is to form community as the body of Christ, so that we cease to understand ourselves as consumers or citizens or voters and understand ourselves as part of one another.
But what does this really mean? The sheer size of many of our organizations makes knowledge of one another almost impossible. And even in those places where we do have knowledge of the other, our tendency often is to see ourselves as separate so that what happens to you does not, in the final analysis, affect me.
And yet in the body of Christ we find a different vision. We each belong to the whole body. This is different than “belonging” to the corporation or “belonging” to our job, both of which can easily lead to idolatry. Belonging to Christ's body is rather what it means to live faithfully before God.
Belonging, in this instance, frees us from those false ideologies that break down true community: violence, deception, alienation and so forth. To belong to the whole body is rather to see ourselves and each other as gathered and called to be a people for the world.
In this body, names are important. It matters that Jacob became Israel; that Lydia, a Christian convert, welcomed Paul and Silas into her home; that all those who have died are now a part of the wider communion of saints. In the body of Christ, we remember names and particular stories because in doing so we are remembering God at work in the world.
To belong to the whole body means God has given us gifts for the purpose of building it up. Admittedly, this fact is sometimes difficult to see, both in ourselves as well as others. What about that person whose prayer requests go on and on and on? What about that person who refuses ever to sing a hymn? Before we get too lost in these kinds of questions, it's important to remember that Scripture's words are indicative: “You are the body of Christ and individually members of it” (1 Corinthians 12:27).
Such an emphasis means that being members one of another is not our own doing. God created the church just as God created Israel. God calls us to be part of a reality that he is creating.
Large-scale statements are, in the final analysis, about who we are as we move in our day-to-day lives. Robert Brimlow, in his book What About Hitler?, addresses the oft asked question of how Christians ought to respond to violence. His conclusion: Peacemaking is not a way to solve anything. It is a way of living our lives so that we are not destroyed by the violence we encounter.
May we embody the peace of Christ in our daily lives.
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— Beth Newman is Professor of Theology and Ethics at Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond. [email protected]