The Disciplined Life: Community
Note: The views expressed on this blog post (and others on the website) are the author's own.
During my time as a Christian, there have been what I like to call "pieces of God" that have shaped me into having a deeper love for him. Some of these pieces have been what's going on outside of me and some have been what's going on inside of me.
If I were to write a field manual of sorts on what it means to be a Christian, or if I were to write something along the lines of "if you're going to be a Christ-follower, you need these things," I must start with community.
I perceive community to have a sense of commonality and togetherness. There's this feeling of wanting to join and be part of something. For example, if you love baseball and want to play on a team, seeking out people who enjoy the game and play on the weekends would make sense. There's a commonality there.
On a broader and perhaps technical sense, we enter community when we move into a house or apartment building in a new city. We are citizens. There's a togetherness of our living, whether we choose to acknowledge it or not.
When we enter community, we are looking to join in goals trying to be established. A city's goal should be the overall welfare of its citizens with opportunity for residential expansion and economic growth. For recreational activities like baseball, the goal could be to enter into tournaments with the goal of winning first place. It could also be as simple as playing for the love of the game and enjoying camaraderie.
For followers of Jesus, community is almost no different. To explore this further, we need to ask why this was such a big deal to Jesus.
Toward the end of his earthly ministry, Jesus knew that the disciples loved him. They cared for him in such ways that they would be willing to go to their deaths with him. Peter emphatically states this level of loyalty in Mark 14:29.
But did they love each other the same way?
In John 13, Jesus pushes them to love one another after a very humbling act of service to them.
“14 Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. 15 I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. 16 Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. 17 Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.”
Later on, in John 15, Jesus says,
“9 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command.”
Entering community is the primary step of obeying the command of Jesus, but its fullest expression is found when we are willing to sacrifice our ego, confess vulnerability, and allow others into our personal world.
We obey a command, but we also realize that in this world, we need one another. We’re in a battle of sorts: going to our classes, dealing with the daily grind of life, facing pressures that could easily eviscerate us, coming up against financial uncertainty in a economy that is working to stand back up on its own two feet again.
Though it is wonderful and exciting to be part of, community doesn’t come without a price. There is a sacrifice to be made. You must be willing to ask yourself if you are comfortable with sacrificing some of your time and your finances: the two most important resources that we value.
Now you may be asking, “If we have to make sacrifices that are so costly, tell me again why we should enter into it?”
To answer that, I look to one of my favorite illustrations on community that has come from Richard Rohr’s book, The Divine Dance. The book starts with the truth that God Himself is community. Father, Son, Holy Spirit: better known as the Trinity. In fact, the cover of Rohr's book is of a painting of the Trinity by 15th-century artist Andre Rublev.
The painting is pretty magnificent in its own right, but the thing that has fascinated me the most is what may not be immediately noticeable.
Notice that the figure on the far right (the Holy Spirit) is pointing down toward something in the painting. Already, the Trinity is enjoying community: the three-in-oneness sitting at a common table together. But what’s on the front of the table?
There appears to be a rectangular hole on the front of the table. Why would that be there?
Here's where it gets interesting!
Some have believed that there was a residue on the original painting that resembled that of glue. An odd thing to put on such a magnificent icon…unless it was meant to hold something.
It is believed that a mirror was once held onto this painting!
When someone would walk up to admire this painting, this ultimate triumvirate of community, they would take in its majesty, but they would also notice that they are in the painting, too.
What God as community has formed in Himself, He extends to us. We are welcome to pull up a seat at His table and enjoy divine fellowship. Community is worth every sacrifice we can make because God not only models it, but He paves the way for us to engage with it.
We, too, can open up a space at our table and invite others in.
