Community

Community. I have been thinking quite a bit about community recently. True community is hard to come by in our society yet it is what we were designed for. We were never meant to do life alone. We see this early on in Genesis, when God creates everything including man. It is very soon apparent that something is missing. God says, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” (Gen. 2:18) We were created for community because God is a community God. He is, after all, a triune God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We were created for community and we all need community.

I think of community because we celebrated the day of Pentecost on May 31. Pentecost Sunday is the final Sunday of Easter. We celebrate Pentecost (see Acts 2) as the “birth” of the Church – this corporate faith community. The Church emerges - out of a frightened band of followers - after the resurrection of Jesus and after he goes back to Heaven (celebrated on Ascension day). The Holy Spirit who comes forms the church by making the Risen Christ manifest in power.

The church is a community called together by the Spirit of the Risen One. As such, it is different than other “organizations” such as the Rotary or Kiwanis for example. “The Greek word for church (ekklesia, from which we derive “ecclesiastical” means “those who have been called forth or summoned, much as one is summoned to appear in a court of law. And we are called as a body of interdependent parts, not as separable individuals (see 1 Corinthians 12:4-31)… Participation therefore is not something we do on the basis of personal choice or need; participation in the Body of Christ is inherent in being Christian… Therefore Christians participate in the church not so much for what they can get as for what they can give, for what they can offer as an alternative to the dominant ways of the world.”

Our society tends to isolate us more and more. Families are distant, geographically and too often emotionally. People move quite a bit. We seldom know our neighbors. Isolation and loneliness are rampant.

I believe that what the church – at its best - can offer is a community that cannot be found outside of it: A community which points to Jesus, as the source of everything; a community where love and forgiveness and healing can be found in the midst of the craziness of this world; a community which worships the God who gives purpose and meaning to life; the God of our salvation.

I hope and pray that we are – that we can be - that kind of church.