the blessing of community

When we carry our small suffering in solidarity with the one universal longing of all humanity, it helps keep us from self-pity or self-preoccupation. We know that we are all in this together, and it is just as hard for everybody else.

Richard Rohr           

 

_____________________________

 

Individualism

 

It seems to be “a thing”

No one is going to tell ME what to do!

Masks? No!

Vaccines? No!

Common Good?  No!

 

“I am a self-made person”

“I pulled myself up from my bootstraps” (as if that makes any sense today)

 

Sorry!

 

Kate Bowler has it right when she writes:

I am self-made. Didn’t anyone tell you? I brought myself into the world when I decided to be born on a bright Monday morning. Then I figured out how cells replicate to grow my own arms and legs and head to a reasonable height and size. Then I filled my own mind from kindergarten to graduation with the information I gleaned from the great works of literature. . . .

 

I’m joking, but sometimes it feels like the pressure we are under. An entire self-help and wellness industry made sure that we got the memo: we are supposed to articulate our lives as a solitary story of realization and progress. Work. Learn. Fix. Change. Every exciting action sounds like it is designed for an individual who needs to learn how to conquer a world of their own making.

 

If the various authors of the Bible agree on anything they agree on this:  We need each other.

 

The concept of the Trinity suggests even God needs a group hug.

The idea that God calls a people not a person

The fact that Jesus called a group of disciples.

The image of the “body of Christ”.

 

The Great Commandments:

Love God,

Love and respect yourself,

BUT

also, love your neighbor

 

We are in this together!

On this planet called Earth

In this reality called life

 

We are in this together

And we are called to be in relationship, in community.

 

This is painful at times, especially for those of us who are introverts

Communities can be a hot mess.

We can be wounded by them.

Frustrated by them.

 

But communities work.

There is a reason addiction work is best done in a group.

That is how one recovers, in a community of fellow strugglers

 

There is a reason we gather together as a church.

Gather together as people with cancer

Gather together as people with a common pain

Or a common cause.

 

In a community, we pick up other people’s pain.

But they also pick up our pain.

 

In a community, we learn we do not have to do this thing called life

Alone

 

Yes, there are dangers.

Tribalism, for example

Cultism

 

But those toxic versions of community merely prove its power!

 

This week I have experienced community

I have met with a dear friend for coffee

I have visited people who are trapped by infirmity

I have shared my thoughts, and read the thoughts of others

I have worshipped in a little outpost of the Kingdom

 

I love my space!

But it is in community that I truly find out who I really am!

And remember

I am not in this alone