Community, Part 2

Community, Part 2

For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.[1]

The importance of being part of a supportive community cannot be overstated, whether considering spiritual growth, salvation, or simply living a good life. Communities, as I use them here, are groups of people who share something of importance in common. They may be large and diverse, like many church congregations, or small and intimate. Most of us belong to numerous communities. For all of my criticism of churches, offering a variety of ready-made, interest-based communities is a strength of many of them. For the past three-plus decades, the closest friends of my wife and me are people we met at church. They are our non-biological family. We have raised our children together, vacationed together, and buried our parents together. We have celebrated graduations, weddings, and essentially all of our important and many mundane life experiences, if not in person then by recollection. In both good and difficult times we share food, company, and companionship. Our community assures that we do not rejoice or suffer alone. The world would be a more accepting, loving place if everyone could experience the type of community with which we have been blessed.

Unfortunately, some churches and other social groups are difficult for a new person to find a community within which to blend. Established friendships and traditions can create barriers to entry. Some churches have a strong focus on getting new folks looped into small groups to allow them a better opportunity to find community. Others leave people to find their own way, usually unsuccessfully. For those who do not find a community, church quickly becomes a lonely and uncomfortable place. That is a sad commentary when we claim the title (Christ) of one who was constantly reaching out to those with no stable or comfortable place in society

In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus gives a seemingly impossible instruction in his teaching about loving others. He says, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”[2] Many of us today feel enough pressure to be perfect as it is, let alone having Jesus pile on with divine expectations. But I think his instruction, like so much of his teaching, is a call to community. We cannot be perfect as individuals, hard as some of us try or pretend to be. We can, however, approach perfection in community. I am strong in some areas and weak in others. I find some persons easy to love and others nearly impossible to willingly share the planet’s oxygen with. I know a lot about some subjects and little to nothing about others. If I enter community with one other person, such as through marriage or another committed relationship, that person will have strengths to help cover some of my weaknesses, will be able to be caring to some I cannot bring myself to love, and will have knowledge to help fill some of  my areas of ignorance. Two of us will not be perfect as individuals, but we can be closer to perfect together. If our community expands to 3 or 10 or 10,000 people, the shared skills, behaviors, and knowledge approaches perfection even more closely. Jesus calls us to perfection in community, as does God, resulting in more of God’s creation being loved and cared for.

My church has provided a free hot breakfast every Tuesday and Friday morning for 30+ years. It requires 20 or more volunteers each day to cook, serve, and clean up. It requires people to donate money to purchase the food. It requires church members to provide the space and facilities to host the breakfast. It is an impossible task for an individual to single-handedly provide a good meal to so many hungry folks and to do so on a regular basis for so many years. It requires a community. And while individual volunteers come and go, the feeding of the poor in our community is perpetuated because it does not rely on the dedication or perfection of any one person. Rather, the meal is a function of the community.

When Jesus encourages us to be perfect as God is perfect, he reminds us that God’s perfection manifests through the lives of those willing to serve as instruments for God’s work on earth. Building a perfect world, whatever that might be, or bringing heaven to earth is not up to any one person, although it does require individuals willingly serving with others as God’s hands and heart in the various ways they are gifted to serve. A perfect world comes closer when we work together for a greater good or to meet a larger need. It is in that way we find our perfection, not because it makes us a perfect individual, but because it allows us to take our place as part of a more perfect life in community with others.

This is the 32^nd in a series titled Crucifying Christianity, Resurrecting the Way.Life Notes are my explorations into mysteries that interest me. They are invitations for readers to explore more deeply into life’s mysteries. Engage with me or explore contemplative spiritual direction at ghildenbrand@outlook.com.

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[1] Matthew 18:20

[2] Matthew 5:48