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C. Eucharist and ethical engagement as expressions of koinonia


49. Thus on the basis of the Christian understanding, we may say that the eucharist and ethical engagement are both expressions of God's covenant. Put differently, using the language of our earlier discussion of koinonia, we may speak of a "continuum" between the koinonia given and experienced in the eucharist, and the koinonia given and experienced in ethical engagement. Stated again schematically:
 

a) The koinonia experienced in the eucharist and the koinonia experienced in ethical engagement - these two dimensions of the covenant - are, each in their own way, an anamnesis. That is, they are an active remembering, a "re-presenting" of the covenant between God, humankind and creation, a testimony to God's mighty acts (1 Pet. 2:12). They make visible to the world God's initiative in Jesus Christ for the salvation of humankind and creation, and God's insistence upon just relationships between human beings, and between human beings and the whole creation.
b) Both dimensions are filled with the confidence of the certainty of the coming kingdom of God, and are signs and foretastes of this kingdom. They engage the church to be open faithfully for the future.
c) One of their common goals is the realisation of life lived in full dignity. This will make persons joyful and thereby also make God joyful.

50. Furthermore, these two experiences of the one koinonia are strongly interdependent: one cannot exist without the other. This is apparent in 1 Corinthians 11:17-22, where Paul criticizes the celebration of the Lord's Supper among the Corinthian Christians on the grounds that it treats some members of the community unjustly. This emphasizes that (again stated schematically):
 

a) Eucharistic koinonia has always an ethical manifestation. If this is not the case, the koinonia is betrayed and degenerates into spiritualism.
b) Ethical koinonia is always grounded in the life of worship (most especially, in the eucharist). If this is not the case, the koinonia is imperfect and degenerates into activism and moralism.


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© 2001 by Stiftung Oekumene | eMail: ECUNET@t-online.de | Print version

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