Sam Keen, toward the end of his book Hymns to an Unknown God, makes a comment that seems remarkably important in today's world. "What we are discovering in American society is that we can't build a good society on the principles of self-interest and entitlement alone. Without generosity there can be no community."
This seems painfully true. As we look at the politicians in Washington explore health reform, as Oregonians look at supporting, or failing to support, funding for state programs, the principles of self-interest and entitlement do not seem to be leading us into generosity or community. Instead we seem to be producing enmity and polarization. Our society seems to be turning into an armed camp.
Frankly, as one of my church friends noted today, it is frustrating and depressing. For we were created to be in community. As God remarks in the story of the Garden of Eden. "It is not good for one to be alone." We find our full personhood, we reach our potential, only when we are nurtured in a community marked by faith, hope and love.
When we are self-encapsulated. When our focus is too narrow, we destroy community. We don't think of our neighbor, let alone the poor and vulnerable we seek to keep out of view. Instead we make decisions, and we act and yes, vote, based upon self interest (I don't want to give up anything that is mine) and entitlement. The other day a commentator on FOX waxed eloquently about calls for America to moderate its consumption of resources. She was incensed and indignantly proclaimed that "they want us to lower our lifestyle, they want to take away our lifestyle so they can have a better life." That is exactly where we end up. In that place where only we count. Why would we not want that person without health care to have care? Or that person without enough to eat, to have food? Or that homeless person to have a place to stay? Because we do not see them as part of our community.
When we surrender to God. When we give our selves to someone beyond ourselves and allow that One to fill our lives with meaning, we begin to ask critical questions. Questions so similar to those Jesus asked his disciples. Who is my neighbor? Who are my people?
As Keen notes, the more we expand our community, the more we are called to move into compassion. If we identify only with ourselves, we do not have to consider anyone else as we make our decisions. If we identify only with our family and friends, then we only have to love those who love us. If we expand our boundaries to include our neighbors, then we must show compassion to some way may not even like. If we include our country, our world, then suddenly find ourselves with at least some degree of responsibility to people who look differently, speak differently, perhaps even believe differently than us. To these people we must offer compassion, food, clothing, and more.
Keen suggests that one way to live community out in everyday life is "to make an effort to respond to people and situations you meet in the course of the day as if they were issuing a personal appeal to you for help OR offering you a gift. Listen with an open mind and heart. Look with a care-ful eye. What is being (silently) asked of you . . . "
And what is being offered, when people treat us this way in return?
"We Expect a theophany of which we know nothing but the place, and the place is called community" Martin Buber in Between Man and Man
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