community.

my friend, joseph mathews, asked me to write a reflection on community to be used in the united methodist church's program B1 (which works through, i do believe, another program called the advance). this is what i wrote.

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Community. Whether a person finds it in their household, their campus, their family, or in the breaking of bread with perfect strangers, there seems to be an innate desire for it. The soul and body together seem to yearn for other souls, and other bodies, and experience relational disconnect when it can't be found.

Throughout my spiritual journey, I have encountered a variety of different Christian communities, or simply social and non-religious communities, that have shaped my perception of people and my understanding of love. A recurring issue that I found to be a setback in Christian communities was the immediate reaction of leaving something if it didn't appeal to the person in its entirety. Don't agree with what someone said to you one Sunday? Leave the church. Think the organization should do a different sort of fundraiser than the one they're doing? Leave the organization. Wish you friend would agree with you on that one issue you disagree on? Leave the friendship. In the name of preserving a righteous community, leave the community. This is the attitude I've found commonly, and embraced at times myself, that I feel rips communities apart.

In non-religious communities that I took part in, things were vastly different. It seemed as if everyone knew that they would come together, have different opinions on things, fight them out at times, but then still meet together again in a few days to do the same thing. Sure, there were relational issues that came about, sometimes friends would part, but it was different. It was more merciful, and dare I say it, often more seasoned with grace. People didn't get together with a group in the hope that, when all was said and done, they would all believe the exact same thing and approach the world as if they were all of the same perspective.

In community, a single heartbeat ripples through a beautiful collection of diversity. The Body of Christ should function with this attitude. When one eye in the body of Christ is hurt, or one foot in the body of Christ cannot function, in some way, shape, or form, the entire Body of Christ may lose its vision, or sit when it should stand. It is because of this relational connection that the community of the Body of Christ has that should call each and every member to hold dear to the First and Second Commandments. We must love God, we must love our neighbors as ourselves. When we do, that love heals the eyes and heals the feet and results in a divine vision and a community that stands.