Community

In his book entitled, Can You Drink the Cup? Henry Nouwen writes about the importance of community:

Nothing is sweet or easy about community.  Community is a fellowship of people who do not hide their joys and sorrows but make them visible to each other in a gesture of hope.  In community we say: ‘Life is full of gains and losses, joys and sorrows, ups and downs – but we do not have to live it alone.  We want to drink our cup together and thus celebrate the truth that the wounds of our individual lives, which seem intolerable when lived alone, become sources of healing when we live them as part of a fellowship of mutual care.’

Community is like a large mosaic.  Each little piece seems so insignificant.  One piece is bright red, another cold blue or dull green, another warm purple, another sharp yellow, another shining gold.  Some look precious, others ordinary.  Some look valuable, others worthless.  Some look gaudy, others delicate.  As individual stones, we can do little with them except compare them and judge their beauty and value.  When, however, all these little stones are brought together in one big mosaic portraying the face of Christ, who would ever question the importance of any one of them?  If one of them, even the least spectacular one, is missing, the face is incomplete.  Together in the one mosaic, each little stone is indispensable and makes a unique contribution to the glory of God.  That’s community, a fellowship of little people who together make God visible in the world. 

That’s a great image of the church: a community of people who are different in color and
size and shape and economic status and personality and giftedness.  And yet it’s the composite picture of all the differences that make up the “people who together make God visible in the world.” 

It’s an image that fits the church universal; that is, the body of Christ throughout the world.  It’s also an image that fits an individual local church like First United Methodist Church, Winter Park.  

This church is not complete without each of its members.  It’s not complete without what each one brings, what each one shares, what each one feels, what each one experiences, what each one celebrates, without the ways in which each one struggles, without what each one gives.  The cup of Christ is a cup that we drink together, a cup that we share together, a cup that we live together.

Christianity is not a solitary faith.  Oh, to be sure it has solitary dimensions, but at its core it is a communal faith, a faith that pulls people together in the midst of all of life’s experiences to be there for support, for mutual caring, for learning, for sharing, for challenging one another, for living together as the body of Christ to “make God visible in the world.”

See you in church!

Grace and Peace,