Socialized Gospel

We live in an age of isolation.
The most prominent feature on a new home is often the garage, built to obscure the front door.  People have privacy fences around their back yards with enclosed porches on the back of their homes.  Very few new homes have a FRONT porch on which to greet neighbors or passers by.  It is possible to see a neighbor only when he/she drives into their garage, and only hear their mower or chatter as they grill behind "the wall".  Each person's castle is designed to maximize privacy and let the world "come to me" through TV, radio, home theater systems, the internet and other distant means.
Each person has their own car.  Even in large cities like Atlanta, relatively few funds are designated to promote and improve mass transit, while the highways are parking lots twice a day because of the countless vehicles, most of which contain one person.  Many of those vehicles are still huge SUV's that use huge amounts of fuel all for one person to get from A to B.  Certainly, the lack of mass transit is tied to the lack of concern for those, mostly poor and brown or black, who cannot afford to own a car, but much of it is tied to our desire to "have our own" and not to have to rub shoulders with other people, especially "those people".
Even churches often allow relative anonymity within a huge gathering in an auditorium, where as long as you show up and give your offering, you have done your part.  You need not connect with anyone beyond the turning to someone periodically to announce what the preacher has just told you to announce to them.  In a sea of unfamiliar faces, one can come for the experience and leave with no connection, no work in community, no work as community and no change as a body.
It would seem that we like it like that, or at least that many prefer the isolated, insulated life.
We live in fear of others.  The more we separate from others, the more it allows us to live within the perception that they should be feared.  Our perceptions are fed by negative news coverage that we see in isolation, television shows and movies that we watch in isolation, and unchallenged and unchecked inner conversations that we hold in isolation.  Yes, the more encounters we have with others may mean more "negative" situations, but the fewer encounters we have with others definitely means that we have fewer powerful and wonderful outcomes.  We are teaching our children to be afraid of others, to isolate from neighbors and se themselves as being separate from (perhaps above) others.

In the face of this, we have a very socialized Good News of Jesus.  Yes, I said it.  Jesus' life, ministry and the writings about Him pre-date "socialism" by 1900 or so years, but it was social good news... it was offered to and in community... it was about relationships with each other and not just with God.  It was teaching about neighbors, enemies and strangers and how to treat each other.  Before "socialism" became a socio-economic system, it meant "pertaining to community".  It was about love, not a feeling that one has within and in isolation, but AGAPE love that is committed action in relationship - unconditional and self-giving.  It was Good News for the poor, the oppressed, the sinner, the outcast and downtrodden, AND it was Good News for the Wealthy and Powerful who would recognize the Kingdom values of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  These are NOT things one can live while cloistered in isolation from neighbor, stranger or enemy... NOT things that can be discarded as central tenets of the Christian faith.

Please, feel free to be socialized... it is Jesus' way.
Pastor Jamie