Last summer I spent a week in this little country village in central France call Taize. I was there with a team of 12 from Seattle Pacific University who's intent was to explore Christian worship. I think it was the first or second morning at the village when I was hit by one of those simple/profound truths...
Before I go on, you need to know a little about the nature of the Taize community - you should just check out the website. In brief, though, it's an eccumenical Christian monastic community that is managed by about 100 brothers. They come from both Catholic and Protestant traditions, from countries all over the world, and have chosen to live in committed community. Three times a day, the town bell clangs and everything is shut down and everyone goes to the church for a "prayer" service. The service consists of "Taize" chants, with about 10 minutes of silence in the middle. It is a very reflective and calming time.
Taize attracts people from all over the world. The week we were there, there were something like 3,000 youth from 70-some countries. Needless to say, everywhere you went, you were surrounded by countless languages and different people from different cultures. Anyway, back to my story...
And it was on that first or second moring that I found myself in the back of this huge mob waiting to go through the breakfast line. I hadn't found anyone from my group after the morning prayers, so I stood there waiting, and listened. I remember looking out over the sea of people and hearing people talk and talk and talk and and yet not hearing a word of English. And although I was in France, I don't think I heard much French. I was hearing people speak in languages I didn't even recognize, and they were coming at me from all directions... just a jumble of words I couldn't understand coming from people that were from such different parts of the world than I was. And I thought to myself, "So, this is what it feels like to be a minority." And as I looked across the sea of people, feeling alone and small, I felt God smack me on the side of the head. I realized that I wasn't standing among strangers. No, I was catching a small glimps of the Kingdom! People from all over the world were gathered in this small village for one reason: to worship God! We were united under the same purpose, we were seeking the Lord together in this place, and we were worshipping in all our languages and in the midst of our narrow cultures together. This is why we sang the chants during the prayer services in so many different langauges - because there were people who actually spoke each language. We were worshipping together, in an incredibly diverse, yet an incredibly rich representation of the Kingdom.
What a simple concept. What a profound truth.
Posted by brant at May 28, 2004 11:26 AM