Community is not something that happens by a week on Tuesday. It is something which is forged in the fire, hammered into shape, and made strong! In other words, it is intentional; it takes time; and often involves a bit of stress and pressure!
Why? It’s hard to step out of the rampant individualism of our 21st century and live for others. In a quick-fix culture – even on Arran where deliveries from Amazon can take a day extra – we fall into the trap of thinking that if it’s not immediately available and gratifying, then it’s not worth working for or waiting for. And in the world of over-full schedules where the pursuit of our own personal goals and happiness is ‘god’, you’re not going to jeopardise that for others, and the time it gets to know people isn’t something you’re going to freely give…unless you’re convinced that the building of community is at the heart of God!
The Christian faith is made for community – we are an ‘us’ – and God wants for Himself a people! If a Christian is a solo individual in any community, it’s only until such time as a community forms. Christians gather, and they do so face-to-face. Show me an isolated Christian, and I’ll show you a Christian robbed of the fullness of the body of Christ. And it is this radical, counter-cultural community which should be established as a City on a Hill shining its light in the context of the myriad of modern dark shadows.
The Christian community is always going to have its challenges this side of the second coming of Christ, but it is God’s design to display his manifold wisdom to the world! I mean, I’d have chosen a different method, perhaps….have you seen the church?! But God has set the world a parable, and it is the unlikely richness of fellowship of the church. In the space of a couple of decades, the early church had ‘turned the world upside down’. This is who we are.
It is, of course, Christ who builds his church. He is our head, our leader, our firm ground, cornerstone, and the object of our living, and we are a temple being built by him as living stones. It is the Spirit who dwells within our collective lives that makes us the temple of the living God – God’s spiritual house. This is not to say, however, that the church has nothing to do. No – we pray, we learn, we love, we witness, we eat, we serve, we worship, we preach and proclaim, we disciple, we care for the poor, we raise families, we run our businesses and do our jobs, we transform society by our actions, we pastor, we speak out, we [add your own]…
But we do it together. If we are going to be a City on a Hill, we need to find ways to connect our households and our lives, along with transforming our households and our lives.
We need new habits of community – not habits as in dry, empty ritual, but habits as in regular healthy practices which lead to life and vitality. It is these individual and communal habits that God breathes his freedom through like he did with the valley of dry bones when the bones, muscles and sinews came together. It didn’t live until the breath came, but the skeleton had to be formed in order for Ezekiel to prophesy life and for God to give breath.
Each Christian community will need to find its own shared rhythms of life according to the context we find ourselves in. What we do here on the island will look different than the mainland villages, towns and cities, whether north, south, east or west. The most important thing is to begin building on the solid foundation of Jesus.
Andrew S M Clark 