Dead for a Year and no one noticed.

Dead for a year and no one noticed and I am not talking about a church.

Continued from last week's "The Epidemic of Loneliness"

Alone in life with only the most vague and general connections to others we become like Yvette Vickers. Yvette was an actress with such great films as “Attack of the 50-Foot Woman” and “Attack of the Giant Leeches” to her credit.  She was well known in the narrow genre of 50’s sci-fi, space monster films, and had many fans.  But she was utterly disconnected in any personal way.  When she died her body lay in her home for almost a full year before a neighbor noticed there was mail piling up and decided to check in on her.  To live in such a way that one can die alone is a tragedy that can never happen to a person in an authentic community of faith.   A community of faith coming to her home, loving her, talking to her, and offering to serve her could have blessed Yvette’s life!

We need each other more than we can know or imagine.  Many people are too proud, or too cautious, or too timid to ask for a visit from a friend. 

Human Community is a non-negotiable for human growth.  Adam was surrounded by paradise and still God said it was not good for man to be alone.  There was no material lack in Adam’s life and world.  He enjoyed perfect health, perfect fellowship with God, perfect diet, perfect calling and work.  So what was it about paradise that was a problem? He was not in human community.

Belong to Posterity

Especially after the fall God calls us to community, to belonging to each other, because godliness is formed in community.  If you trace the history of God’s dealing with people He is always working toward or in the context of community.  Abram was to become Abraham, the father of many.

The Covenant of the Law

When God called a nation to be His people they are not a group of individuals, but a community.  Understanding our identity is not possible in individuality.  Even before the giving of the law the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were to be a people.  Ex 19:5-6a,  “Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”

The Exile

Throughout the books from Genesis to Malachi we see that God dealt with a community called Israel.  They were in it together in thick and thin, good and bad.  When the majority of the chosen people pursued idols and God sentenced them to captivity, Daniel, though innocent, was not exempt.  Righteous as he was, he suffered perhaps more than most in the community of Israel.  The sorrow and brokenness of Jeremiah didn’t grant him exemption from the devastation of the siege of Jerusalem.  We never get the idea that any of the prophets of old said, “You people are awful! I am quitting my Jewishness.”  They were a community. 

Jesus

The incarnation is about belonging to the community.  The Hero of the story enters history into a community of Mary, Joseph, and an oppressed people.  He lived in a community, made a habit of going to synagogue service, and was part of the construction industry.  Why not have God in flesh descend from the heavens on a cloud with glory?  Because we could never accept such a one into our community to be one of us.  For the Savior to save us, He had to be one of us and He could only do that by experiencing our reality of community.   Jesus was never alone.  Even when He was “alone” He was in the community of the Father.  He died in the community of the guilty, the hurting, the helpless, the humanity He came to save. 

To be continued...