It is too easy to isolate in our culture...
to make our primary mode of communication with our thumbs and not our faces, arms and voices...
to sit alone within our little, private bubbles in a river of little bubbles, going to the same places as
everyone to our right and left, in front and behind, but separate...
to drive into our garages at the end of the week, to only re-emerge for work at the beginning of the
week, within our castles... satellite TV, internet, social media... enclosed decks... hiding behind
our privacy fences, heard but not seen - self contained...
to go to an auditorium and watch the band and choir, listen to the monologue, sit in a sea of
thousands, eyes forward, with little if any conversation with others, giving our tithes and calling
that the family of God being gathered in community...
to drive across town to a restaurant, theater, nightclub, megastore and pass dozens of places close to
our homes in order to do it, with the result that we see no one we know when we are out...
People are now considering those whom they have never seen (except through a photo), but whom they have "read", as the primary support persons and friends in their lives... maybe never even to hear their voices...
People are now not really WITH the people in front of them when they are face to face, because we are texting or talking on the phone with others at the same time... never really where we are at fully... reporting the experience, rather than experiencing it fully...
We are privatizing at an alarming rate, isolating at an alarming rate and getting self-absorbed in EVERY little thing about OUR existence without taking interest in the lives of others around us at an alarming rate... partly, because our worlds are shrinking to only include our own, little castle, experiences (cooking dinner as a picture-worthy, narrative worthy event) in our daily life, and excluding the richness of other people, even strangers and neighbors and what they bring to our lives - to life together as COMMUNITY.
We ask a great deal as PEOPLE OF THE WAY OF JESUS...
We ask people to actually leave their castles and come to our home or someone else's, in an intimate setting, and share it with other human beings... we ask people to engage in conversation around Faith and Life... we ask people to share in a meal together... to share in discussion, debate, laughter, tears and comfort... we ask people to pray for and with each other... we ask people to sing a little in a small, intimate setting (and be unafraid in doing it)... we ask that folks gather AS community, IN community... to rub shoulders with each other, turn off the phones, break the isolation and gather - to be connected - physically, emotionally, spiritually, socially present and engaged... for about two whole hours, once a week...
I know, I know, right? It's A LOT to ask of anyone... especially when it is SO COMFORTABLE to stay in our castles and connect only through the airwaves... be gathered in anonymity with a crowd... or just sit in the easy chair and passively let what comes into our living rooms pour over us, whether news, sports, entertainment or infomercials... as we tune it all out, day after day, weekend after weekend... disengaged... but convinced that we are connected to the rest of humanity somehow, magically, through our thumbs...
Jesus and His disciples... Paul and the Apostles... met in peoples' homes... touched others physically... talked face to face and sang, prayed, ate, drank, discussed, debated, laughed, cried and engaged one another face to face... and it changed the world... THAT'S WHY we do it this way... to follow Jesus means to FOLLOW HIM - His teachings and examples and His Way of engaging with each other in Agape Love...
PEOPLE OF THE WAY OF JESUS IS ON FACEBOOK... it gives information regarding the GATHERINGS as an encouragement to join us in one of them...
Do something different - ENGAGE WITH OTHERS PERSONALLY... their life will be better for it, and incidentally, yours will be also...
Pastor Jamie
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