Recently I discovered, or remembered, I attend a church that has "community" as it's middle name, New Hope Community Church. Most people drop the community part and just call it New Hope. That struck me in a new and profound way. Why do we do this? Are we just too lazy to say it? Probably. Do most just think the "community" part isn't as important as the "New Hope" part? I hope not. Does it just sound cooler or trendier to say, "New Hope", as opposed to saying "New Hope Community Church"? Possibly. Regardless it sent my mind reeling down many different pathways. I know this might become lengthy but hey...I haven't had much to say lately.
God calls us to community. We know that from the Bible. We know it from Christian tradition. I also believe we know it from the yearnings of our own hearts.
But what, exactly, does community mean to us? What is it we are called to or looking for in the church, in our family, or in friendship? The first time I asked myself these questions I had a difficult time putting my answers into words. I then discovered this was cause for concern. Without an accurate viewpoint of what life lived out together actually is, we may settle for something that falls short of what community truly is. Or on the flip side we may not recognize community when we are living in the midst of it.
As I searched for answers in my brain I continued to come up empty. Yeah, ha ha, no big surprise huh!? It is the yearnings God places in our hearts that is key, not the thoughts or ideas we create. So I begin to search His Word for the answer. Always a good place to look for answers.
The first image of community is found in Genesis. Here community is portrayed as oneness in my thought or harmonious as I read. What struck me most powerfully was in Genesis 2:28 it reads "The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame." That resonates deep in my soul. That is a dream of what pure, perfect community would mean to me. (No, I don't mean without clothes!) As we come into community we hope to find a harmony that is not available in the larger world. We hope we can at least be naked --open & vulnerable to all the pains and failings of our lives--without ever having to feel shame about who and how we are. I believe this image from Genesis has a powerful influence to our expectations and to the yearnings that God has placed in our hearts for what community is and could be. At least that is what seems true in my experience.
The last image of community is found in Revelation 21:3-4, "Now the dwelling of God is with men and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order has passed away." This too resonates deep in my soul and draws me to a place of community where there is comfort, and where there is purity, as described in the New Jerusalem. This speaks of how we come into community hoping to find a safer & more sacred "city" than the cities we have known. We come into community hoping our struggles will be lifted and that the kingdom of God might arrive. This "New Jerusalem", like the garden in Genesis, has a profound impact on our image of what community should be.
BUT the experience of community is nothing like the garden or the New Jerusalem. Not, at least, after a short period of time. Many times we experience that initial rush or euphoria with the new marriage, or the new friendship, or the new church. But soon the honeymoon is over and that euphoria fades and dies. We begin to realize that it isn't all harmonious here, that it is not entirely safe to be naked with each other, that this earth is not yet heavenly, that even if our old tears are wiped away, new ones will come. As the euphoria dies and our images of community crumble we react in many different ways. Well, I have reacted in many different ways I should say.
First off, I have chosen to stay in community--sort of--but withdrawn my hopes and enthusiasm and energies. Basically pretending like it is real community but knowing that it really wasn't. The Bible refers to this as lukewarm. I think this is the condition of many of our churches. People have dealt with their disappointment by "sort of" staying in community with each other, but not at any depth or with much vulnerability or transparency. I have also simply abandon my hopes for community and sought isolation and individualism. This creates even further problems such as becoming critical, cynical and no longer believing that true community can or does even exist. However, there is a healthier, more difficult, third option. To just keep on keeping on. To press deeper into the experience of your disappointment to see what it has to teach us. To abandon the romantic images of what we think community is and then look for new images that have the power to explain what is really happening & then find new creative, healthy ways to deal with it. As I try to live this out I realize we live in between the garden & the New Jerusalem. The garden was before the fall of man and the New Jerusalem is not until Christ's return. This does not mean they are irrelevant but it does mean we need to find an image of community that comes from the history of the reality in which we live.
Once again, the Bible provides the image. I can think of no greater record of Christ gathering people into community than the Last Supper. What does this story reveal to us about community? What does it teach us about how to keep keeping on? Well, here is Jesus who has been pouring out his life for the people sitting around the table. Now he has brought them together as friends/ family, showing hospitality and breaking bread together and passing the cup. And what do these people do? They deny the word's of Jesus proclaiming not one of them would betray him, and they squabble and fight for position in determining which of them is the greatest. These guys act out two of the greatest issues that make community difficult...pride and arrogance. What does Jesus do in the midst of all this? Being fully human, he must have been tempted to get up & leave just as we are when our romantic images of community fail. But Jesus does not leave. Instead he keeps breaking the bread & passing the cup. Both here and the rest of the story he shows his commitment to staying at the table.
If we are to follow Jesus Christ we need to make every attempt to stay at the table with our own families, communities, and churches. It certainly doesn't mean that there are not times relationships must be judged as failures and we must make the decision to separate and move on. But, too many of us make that decision too quickly and easily with very little thought or reason. We need to learn that betrayal & conflict and all the other demons that pop up when true community happens are not necessarily then end of true community. God does mighty works in the midst of our brokenness. And nowhere else is that brokenness more evident than in our fragile and failed attempts to create community. Jesus proved it for us at that table.
So let's live in community with the memory of the garden and the New Jerusalem, but also with the knowledge that we are joining Jesus at the Last Supper, in the challenge of staying at the table.
And no longer will I be calling our church New Hope. It's now New Hope Community for me... because it not only taught me about the New Hope I needed and now have, but it has taught me what community is and what it means and costs to be a part of a real one. God is so good.
1 comment:
Great thoughts.
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