The Origins of Community are Found in the Passover - Part 2
~ by Roberto Battistuzzi
Applications
There is a wonderful Teaching Letter on Discipleship at Bridges for Peace. One thing it explains is the very difference between the Hellenistic and Jewish thought when it come to the Scriptures. The Hellenist (now Western) thought will dig into the Scriptures, say how wonderful they are, dissect them, but the Jew will say “great scripture, how can I APPLY it?” This is what we have to do. How do we apply our faith in practical ways that will show the World that we are “in this world but not of this world” (Jesus in John 17).
The community structure that the Lord desired for His people just struggled to get going. For example, the buildings became the “Church”. Hence all the churches and cathedrals built over the centuries. People were not taught the correct definition of “church”. Therefore, people thought that they were Christians if they went to a building once a week, but that their life during the week was their own to live. Like everyone else around them, there was no difference, except the weekly pilgrimage to the local “church”. Praise the Lord the Reformation came along and something began to move. But it has been very difficult to break away completely from the Roman leaven. We see today many Protestant denominations still shackled with the idea of Church as a building where people come once a week (if that). Ask anybody if they are a “Christian” and they will say “Yes”. But ask them to define the term and you will get a myriad answers. Most answers will be “Oh, I belong to such and such a denomination." Or “Yes I am a Christian, but not a good one.” Here in Italy you will hear, “Yes I am Catholic, but not a practicing one”. My reply is “ Are you Italian? If yes, are you a practicing Italian?”
This brings me to the phrase I coined some years ago : “A Jew is a Jew is a Jew, a Christian is a Christian is a Christian.” Early on in our walk with the Lord, we were taught that we had to live our lives 24/7. We had to live-out our faith in our homes, work, community, society. Pastor Rob Krause did an excellent series on “Centers of Gravity” and then began to put into practice these teachings. This is when I came up with this catch phrase.
I lived in South Africa for 26 years and worked for a large Jewish Retail Chain for 23 of those years. So, I was privileged to have mixed with Jews and get to see how they lived and worked. Up until then “Jews” were this mysterious group of people that one never mixed socially with, butt of many sick jokes, and often held in awe. South Africa has a large Jewish community. I was quite nervous the first time I was invited to meet a family. One of my school friends from Kenya married a Jewish girl with an orthodox background. The amazing thing was that the Lord saved her first in the revival in the early 70’s and then me. Now, I had a close born-again, Jewish friend and greater contact with the Jewish Community.
One of the great principles we have to understand, which should cause us to radically change our ways of thinking and living our Christian life is this: A Jew is a Jew in his faith, in his home, in his work. You cannot separate these. They have an incredible network worldwide. Wherever you go in business you are bound to find some Jewish person involved. They help each other all the time. I have known of business entrepreneurs that have gone to family and friends for financial support to start a business. Over the last few years, in my involvement in the export business, I was collaborating with some Jewish American businessmen. It was incredible to see how “this one knew that one" in some of the highest decision making positions for the largest USA retailers. One thing I have learned is this: it does not matter which nationality they are (American Jews, Italian Jews, Russian Jews, South African Jews, etc.), they are still a community.
So what does all this have to do with us Christians? I am firmly convinced in my heart that the Lord desires His Church to begin to understand what He had in mind regarding His people. The Jewish nation born out of the Patriarchs first and now His blood bought the Church and Bride. Looking at some of the definitions of the word, as defined in the Hebrew (part 1; above), we see that a community is a “witness”. We are to be witnesses in the world. First and foremost declaring Christ but also living our lives in such a way that is coherent with what we declare with our mouths.
Very recently, a doctor friend of mine was very impressed by the way a “community of believers” displayed love and support to a family who had a premature baby. In light of this article, one thing that struck her was that they had breaking of bread with the family. In our own “community” at Serenissima, an Italian family was struck by the family spirit and love displayed towards one of our members in celebrating her birthday. In their own way, relatively small incidents but powerful witnesses to unbelievers.
Two years ago, Serenissima cleaned up and repainted one of the main bridges of Sacile and a small park. The Mayor and members of her Council were impressed that a “religious “ organization had spent time and money to do this. My family and I have personally been blessed over the years with help in times of difficulty by the Community of Believers. As I said at the beginning, the topic is huge and we need to chew on small bits at a time. So in the next installments we will look at other aspects. For example, the Universal Church, Local Body, Family, Business and how we should conduct ourselves in it and many others.
Roberto Battistuzzi currently serves as Deacon to the Serenissima Bible Church of Northeast Italy where he specializes in ministry to the Italian people. Roberto & his wife Adele have two sons as well as providing full care for Roberto’s 92-year-old father, Pasqualle. Roberto works as a liason and translator for the US military at the regional hospital & Adele works in Church Administration.
