community

From the very beginning the Christian life has been lived in community. These days that is much harder in a culture that prides itself on “rugged individualism”. A pastor friend ends every sermon with “we’re gonna need each other this week”.

These current times make community even more difficult. We are at a place where we can no longer disagree and still speak to each other. Our society now acts like if we disagree you are the enemy. How can we live together this way?

In my own denomination we can no longer seem to allow others to have their own beliefs. Now, if you don’t believe as I do then you are wrong and not godly. I am struggling to find the living Christ in any of this. I have church members who believe the Bible to be literally true and do not tolerate disagreement.

The love and life of Christ is no longer the standard. Instead it is the book. Once that happens, then the issue is control and power. Whose Bible and which translation? I have not been at this stage of the Christian life in many years. The kind of thinking that says inerrancy is the rule is the same thinking that used scripture to justify slavery, to justify women not preaching, and to keep our LBGTQ brothers and sisters out of the church. This latter group are dying by their own hands because they feel totally alone.

I don’t recall Jesus telling the woman “taken in adultery” that just as soon as she got herself straightened up she could come back and be loved and forgiven. I believe that what Jesus did in the middle of that crowd of men was he wrote with his finger in the dirt “I love you ” to that woman over and over again. That put an end to the discussion.

I pray that we can stop fighting and blaming and hating and simply write “I love you” to each other… over and over again.

TMM