Tuesday, July 27, 2010

To Know, and To Be Known

Is Christianity more like golf, where you've got one guy trying to get the ball in the hole? Or is it something like basketball, where you've got a group trying to achieve something? Is Christianity really a team sport?

I've heard it said that many Protestants often represent the "individualism" aspect of Christianity. In other words, decades of evangelical churches have perhaps pushed a "me-and-God" mindset where it's all about your straight-line, vertical relationship to the Lord. This is often best illustrated by the communion time, where hundreds of church-goers will each bow their individual heads, each will go into "the zone" and each will think about his or her relationship to God. The only "communion" is between you and God.

Our lives have evolved this direction. We drive ourselves (who really carpools anymore?) to our jobs in our individual cubicles, so we can move our families to the suburbs, where we can have our own space. Space for our families, space for our stuff, space so we don't feel like we are living in a hut with five other families.

The global population has expanded tremendously in the past century, yet middle class America wants more and more space of their own. The average home size has more than DOUBLED since the 1950s. It was 2,330 square feet in 2004, yet even just thirty years ago it was 1,400 square feet. A few decades back, it was normal for a family to just have one bathroom, and for multiple children to share bedrooms. Now? I just finally moved into a home where my 8-year old and my 7-year old no longer have to share a bedroom, and it felt like a sigh of relief -- finally, breathing room!

Of course, back in Jesus' day, very few had that kind of privacy. Most homes and huts were tiny. Whole families shared a room. Domiciles were stacked against each other. Walls were shared. I read once that after a wedding ceremony, what we'd call the "best man" would wait just outside the "bedroom," waiting for the bride and groom to consummate the marriage, so he could announce it to the rest of the party and they could celebrate. Wouldn't THAT make you nervous?! Talk about performance anxiety.

When Jesus broke the bread and poured the wine around the table with his disciples, it was a group activity. They were sharing a meal. They were sharing their lives together. They knew each other intimately, because they lived more intimate lives. They shared both a campfire, and a love for the Lord.

Today, I have trouble even finding a reason to go talk to my neighbors. I don't need a cup of sugar or a saucepan from them. They sure don't need anything from me. A polite waive while we're mowing the grass is pretty much the extent of our "relationship."

A lot has changed in the last 2000 years. But that doesn't mean we aren't still "built for intimate relationships." Try to go a bit old-school in your friendships. Get nosy with some of your friends and acquaintances. Find out about their lives, and ask some probing and loving questions. See how you can help. Get cramped and intimate with some of your friends and family.

Loving each other means building each other up when the time is right, and holding each other accountable for our actions when it's needed. But you've got to make the effort and spend that time around the campfire, around that table in the upper room, if you are going to "have all things in common." Our living spaces may have changed, but what God wants from us as followers of Jesus has not.

7 comments:

Craig said...

Good points here, Scott. I don't know if individualism is a 'protestant' thing or not, but it sure is an 'American' one. And it's awfully hard to swim against that cultural current. . .

My wife and I made a conscious decision, years ago, to live in an urban neighborhood, rather than the 'burbs. It's just a bit more of an 'organic' way of life. And I have spent some lonely days in the suburbs. . .

The intimacy you speak of isn't easy to come by. It takes a pretty healthy dose of mutually stepping out of comfort zones, and letting each other in where you're not used to having each other. It was probably no accident that the 'intentional Christian community' we belong to started, way back when, with folks who were in, or just out of college, and whose 'comfort zones' weren't quite fully developed yet. . .

You also remind me of a minor sensation I caused, a few years back, when I shared about how the women in our community used to nurse each others' babies, as the need arose. . . Intimacy and trust at a pretty earthy level, there. . . ;)

Garry said...

Scott,
I'll jump in here, it seems to me that there are two dynamics here.
First, the individual relationship with God.
Second, the way that affects how we conduct our individual lives.
My thoughts are, Christianity(Christ following) is most definitly should be a team sport, "A chord of three strands is hard to break." "Do not forsake the assembling together as is the habit of some."
Salvation is the individual thing. How that affects the way you conduct your life, that is Christianity.

Craig said...

Garry, I know what you're saying here (at least, I'm pretty sure I do), and I'm sure there's a good deal of Truth to it. . .

But I wonder if even salvation itself doesn't also have its 'corporate' dimension. Passages like Matt 25:31-46 seem to make a pretty strong linkage between our eternal destiny and our treatment of other people. . . Or Philippians 2:12, which indicates that our salvation is something that gets 'worked out' (with fear and trembling, no less. . .)

Garry said...

Craig,
I agree about our actions and interactions being important. How we live because of what we believe demonstrates what we believe and the affect the belief has on the way we live.
Since the cross, salvation comes to those (the individual) who believe and accept the Truth.
I accept the Grace extended from God through his Son and am saved. "For by grace ... not of works lest any man boast." That is salvation, I am not saved because my parents were or because my wife is or any other person's actions it is because of my faith that I believe and am saved. It is a personal relationship and acceptance of Christ.
To be a Christian is how I live, following Christ's example. "Faith without works ... Show me your faith without works, I'll show my faith by my works."
It is a vain faith that has no fruit, teaching and bringing other to the cross. It is vain works that are done without Jesus as our example or if they are done for reconition or reward.
The corporate aspect is to live like Christ and draw others to Him by our lifestyle.
I'm pretty sure that a case could be made that they are so intertwined as to be inseparable in the end. It is very hard to tell which is the drive wheel.

Craig said...

I understand what you're saying, Garry. Of course, no-one is saved just because their parents were. And no-one is saved by their good works. Absolutely.

This sentence of yours - "I'm pretty sure that a case could be made that [faith and works] are so intertwined as to be inseparable in the end" - points in the direction of what I was meaning to say.

Matt. 7:21 - "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father. . ." Which gives me food for a lot of thought. . .

And then I think of things like Gal. 6:2 - "Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ" - that tell me that my eternal destiny is somehow inextricably bound up with my brethren. . .

Joe B said...

Anyone ever read The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis?

Faaaaaaascinating

Craig said...

The Great Divorce is one of my favorite books. . .