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Friday, November 12, 2010

Messy Community

The plethora of concerns that confront a person in the process of imagining and sharing a vision of community need to be addressed if that ideal is intended to extend beyond the classroom.  In the messy community my paper describes, both problems and solutions of varying types arise.  As far as the mere possibility and existence of the community goes, the very foundation of my argument assures that it has been attained.  The area that begets the most difficulties is precisely the problem of how to convey the knowledge of this community to the world in a realistic and honest way.

Messy community is built on the truth that Christ is the only body that joins anything together and creates community.  Honest life together is messy because Christ is the bonding force, and not similarities in personality, style or interests.  There is conflict and annoyance and incongruity because there are people who do not have their acts together but are still bound to one another.  If "community" is based on superficial things, it is superficial.  That is why real togetherness is not something only to be dreamed of as ideal or impossible.  It is real and it is now.  The question is whether or not you are in it.

So there remains the question of how to build a tribe around this life.  How is messy community appealing?  The answer is it is unconditional.  No special breeding or education is required to get into this community, and there is nothing one can be expelled for doing.  It all lies on whether or not the individual desires God, Christ, and consequently life in this community.  It all lies on whether or not at the heart level there is complete surrender and trust--abandonment of self-protecting attitudes and efforts--in the Lord.

To effectively change the way people see themselves and their community will require intense commitment.  It will obviously take the Holy Spirit, but he does not turn his people into robots.  With his power, participators in the divine reality of life together must live in the world.  In the cities and in the country, in rich neighborhoods and slums, all across the globe, we must disperse.  Then, living with people who do not know what is so great about the gospel, we must illustrate it.  A lot of confusion has been created about who a Christian is, and who a Christian serves, but this doesn't need to be.  A Christian is a disciple of Christ who has a religion pure and faultless, who cares for the orphans and widows in their distress and keeps themselves unspotted by the world.  The life Christ offers has a tribe, and it gets bigger when others outside the tribe are faced with unconditional love from a stranger, or when an acquaintance continues to encourage no matter the circumstances, or as a friend refuses to condemn upon learning of sin.  By living to and telling of the glory of God, I will spread this community to the world.

The greatest difficulty, then, is not how I am to convince other people of the validity of this community, but rather how I am to crucify myself and allow my life to be changed that others might see and glorify God.  What my effectiveness at spreading the knowledge of this community depends on, ultimately, is whether or not I am in it.

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