We
hear much about community today. Most people say that they desire to be in
community. Many people talk about the value of developing community. Yet most
people never really find genuine community. Instead, they settle for something
less. They settle for a superficial, pseudo-community instead of investing the
hard work in creating the real thing.
As
the body of Christ, we have been called to live in community with one another.
Yet, our attempts often fall short. We create surface community that lacks any
real depth. When the pressures of life come crashing in, our community
crumbles. What does it mean for us to have real community with one another? To
begin to answer that, I want to tell you a story.
When
I was getting ready to go to college, I signed up to participate in a
three-week wilderness experience offered to in-coming freshmen. It was intended
to prepare us for the challenges of living in a college community.
I
arrived at Honey Rock Camp in Wisconsin both apprehensive and scared. Before we
reached the camp proper, the bus stopped and we were all told to leave our
things on the bus and get off. As we assembled, the bus pulled away, leaving us
out in the woods. A man with a clip-board stepped forward and started calling
out names. I was assigned to a group of ten other freshman, with two upper
class leaders. At that very moment our adventure began.
For
the next three weeks we canoed and backpacked through upper Wisconsin all the
way to the UP of Michigan. During that time we were totally dependent upon one
another. We carried everything we needed on our backs. We were given a
topographical map and a compass and instructed to find our way daily from point
A to Point B, without using any roads and without encountering other people. We
had to work together to make sure that we all arrived safely.
About
half way through our experience one of our members pinched a nerve in his
shoulder. He lost the use of his left arm. He was allowed to continue on the
trip only under the condition that we carried his stuff for him. We all rallied
around to make sure that he could finish with the rest of us.
That
trip is an example of what it really means to live in community. We needed to
care for one another, encourage one another when things got tough, and work
together to reach our goal.
Jesus
demonstrated for us what it means to live in community with Him. As we watch
Jesus interacting with His disciples, we can see what He expects of us today. Jesus
refused to settle for a superficial facsimile of community. Instead, He raised
the bar high. He said that genuine community involves genuinely caring for one
another. "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you,
so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my
disciples, if you love one another." (John 13:34-35) Jesus
illustrated what this looks like in the parable of the Good Samaritan. (Luke
10:25-37) Living in community involves taking the initiative to reach out to
those in need.
Jesus
also demonstrated that genuine community breaks down barriers that divide us.
It is so easy for us to retreat into our safe, homogeneous groups and “protect
ourselves” from “those out there.” Jesus took the exact opposite approach. He
intentionally shattered the barriers that divide us. He was often accused of
associating with “the wrong people.” A case in point is the story of Jesus’
encounter with Zacchaeus in Luke 19:1-10. Zacchaeus was a tax collector, a hated
man in his community, yet Jesus intentionally reached out to him with love and
compassion. The outcome was a transformed life.
Jesus
created community by investing in others. When He called his first disciples,
He did it with an invitation to enter His life. “Come follow me.” Jesus
intensely invested in the Twelve, sharing His passion, His purpose, and His
pain with them. When Jesus was gone, these man turned their world up-side down.
Let
me draw a few practical implications from Jesus’ example about genuine
community.
- Genuine community begins with an honest desire to share
life with others.
- Genuine community is willing to include those who are
often left out.
- Genuine community is more about sharing the mundane than
experiencing the exciting.
- Genuine community is risking sharing our dreams, hopes,
and desires with one another.
- Genuine community is being open and honest about our
faults and failures.
When
we think about Jesus and community, many people want a sanitized Jesus. They
want a Jesus of love without confrontation. They want an idealized Jesus, who
conforms to their agenda, and who never offends or criticizes. But that is not
the Jesus of the Bible. Jesus was at times raw and always real. He loved people
passionately. Invested in people deeply. Challenged people boldly. He never
settled for a watered down, lowest common denominator community. Instead, He
constantly raised the bar and called people to live up to a higher standard. Then
Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny
himself and take up his cross and follow me. (Matthew 16:24) If we want
to experience genuine community, then we need to take our lead from Jesus.
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