Virtually Paul

True Christian Community: A Real Life Example

October 30, 2006 on 1:29 pm | In Church, Community, Preaching, Theology |

The “Bachelor Pad” that I live in, has taught me some valuable lessons about the personal cost of community.  We live in what you could call a dishes community.  As my housemate Warren once rightly observed:  Dishes are a fact of life.  Dishes, for the purposes of this illustration are the things in life that we collect as we go along- our hopes, our fears, our needs, our opinions, our hurts.  They’re all dishes.  Everyone has dishes.  Every church family is full of people, with dishes.

The first way we tried to deal with our dishes in the bachelor pad, was with a fool-proof system, designed to take care of our every dishwashing need.  We agreed to stack the dishes on the sink as they were used.  Then, every second day, on a rostered basis, we would take turns to deal with the dishes for the entire bachelor pad community.  It worked for about a week and a half.  Eventually it degenerated into petty arguments.

Whose turn was it to do the dishes?
Who made more dishes than someone else?
Who didn’t do a good enough job last time?
Who did their dishes too late?

We each ended up pointing the finger at the others, feeling completely justified that we had contributed and frustrated at the obvious faults of the other two.  We blamed the others in our community for our dishes.  We insisted that before we contributed any further, that the other party live up to our expectations.

When I’m not feeling great about something at church.  I’m not proud to admit that I often have the same response.  I point the finger towards the community and say “It’s the church’s fault.  The church has so much wrong with it!”

Do you ever feel like that?
Have you been unhappy with a decision made by the church?
Are you still feeling a sense of loss or hurt?
Are you disappointed about something?
Do you have any regrets from the past?

The solution came in the form of a new dishes system.  A system that is yet to cause a single argument. We now have 3 separate spots for dishes in the kitchen.  And an amazing thing started to happen.  Once we were able to see which dishes belonged to us personally, we dealt with them ourselves.  We didn’t insist upon our rights or the responsibilities of others to conform to our definition of fair.  In fact, one day I was delighted to come home to find that my other housemate, Nathan, had dealt with his own dishes and then taken care of mine as well.  Community works when we give the best of ourselves to others.  I believe that this is what it means to bear one another’s burdens.  “…and in this way…”, says Galatians 6:2, “…you will fulfil the law of Christ.”

In the same way, Jesus gave up the fair and just result for himself.  Motivated by love for others, he gave his life on the cross.  His blood being shed to cover the price of our rebellion from God.  And allowing us to come back into relationship with our Creator.  Without a Christ-inspired approach to our community, we hurt ourselves and we hurt those around us.  With the love of God the Father as the source of our relationships, as the Holy Spirit unites us in love for one another, together we enter into our promised inheritance, joined as one body with our Jesus Christ our Saviour.

Philippians 2:1-11
If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others.
Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,
who, though he was in the form of God,
   did not regard equality with God
   as something to be exploited,
but emptied himself,
   taking the form of a slave,
   being born in human likeness.
And being found in human form,
   he humbled himself
   and became obedient to the point of death—
   even death on a cross.
Therefore God also highly exalted him
   and gave him the name
   that is above every name,
so that at the name of Jesus
   every knee should bend,
   in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue should confess
   that Jesus Christ is Lord,
   to the glory of God the Father.