Community is messy business.
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| Picture of drawing of what community means, put together through the collective effort of Forerunners Adults & Children in Aug 2012 |
Forget the wonderful picture discipleship books paint about how wonderful and supportive community life will be IF everyone embraces the same principles, put their hands to the plough and regularly come with joy and gladness, ready to love everyone, or extend generous help when someone is in need.
Reality is not quite so rosy. Many of us come tired, our patience a little challenged, our spirits a little prickly and easily offended (though we may not admit it so readily).
On some days we come because....it's a commitment we made to our leaders - we need to come and support, boost the numbers, because, well...we are the regulars you know.
On other days, we secretly wish in our hearts the meeting will be cancelled so we can take a break, have a night to...well... just rest. There are days & seasons where the weight of life become too heavy for us and we no longer have capacity to engage with any more social interactions. I get it. Because I feel that too.
Community can be frustrating, because we are all very different individuals, and very human; and
Community is messy, because... life is messy.We, and others bring all our wonderful self, as well as our messes into our interactions. So it is hardly surprising that we frustrate each other (some more than others... 😆 - and myself included.)
Community is God's business
Then I read 1 Corinthians 3...
"Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly—mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere humans?..." (1 Cor 3:1-3)
How exasperated Paul might have felt. How frustrating that after the years of leading, teaching and encouraging, the Corinthians were still acting so... childish!
Still he reminds them (and us!) that "What’s important is that God makes the seed grow. The one who plants and the one who waters work together with the same purpose." (1 Cor 3:7-8) We labor & advocate for meeting in community, speaking into each other's lives, praying for & prodding one another for the same purpose - that the Lord will make seeds grow, and the people of God will build their lives upon the foundation of Christ Jesus (v11), and that God's temple - the church of Christ (v16) - will be Holy (v17) and their hearts will belong to Christ wholly (v23).
Paul reminds the Corinthians & us, that Community is God's business.
"Don’t you realize that all of you TOGETHER are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God lives among you" (v16).
And God is jealously guarding His Temple and ensuring it's completion in the Fullness of His time. Anything that comes against the growth, maturing and glory of His temple, he will destroy. His temple (the community of His people, His church) is precious to Him!
"God will destroy anyone who destroys this temple. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple." (v17)
We're not struggling to hope things will happen. We are praying & laboring to proclaim to those in our community, the Truth, that "It has happened! It is Finished! Christ is Risen! Arise! Shine! The light has come!"
So:
to the ones laboring: Labor in Christ and remember we are in this TOGETHER. You are not alone.
to us all who are TOGETHER, the temple of God, who have the Spirit of God dwelling among us: let us press on in our pursuit of holiness, and be hungry for more of His Glory in our lives and in our communities. And let's encourage each other to keep doing this TOGETHER.
Because Community is God's Business.
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