Community (and Coronavirus)

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​With coronavirus came a disruption in the normal flow of community.  Neighborhoods, churches, schools, entertainment centers and mission fields are all learning new rhythms and asking, how does what we call “community” look now?  Some enjoy the new rhythms, some are resistant to a new dance. I welcome the opportunity to examine the dance, specifically as part of the body of Christ. If the purpose of relationships is to draw us closer to God (which seems reasonable since we were created by and for Him),  it is worth examining whether our relationships are fulfilling their purposes. We are human, therefore limited in our ability to see how God can use the intricacies of secondary relationships (our relationships with each other) to draw us closer in our primary relationship, which is our relationship with God Himself.  Still, we are called to magnify Him and to edify one another to the best of our ability. We are each one called to an individual relationship with God our Creator, yet we lay our individualism itself down when we agree to take up our cross and follow Him. Christ is the Head and we are the body, our completeness flows from Him, and it is He Whom we serve.  This means trusting Him (rather than ourselves) for provision. It means that when part of the body is hurt, sick, scared, lonely, tired, anxious, lacking...we kneel in prayer with the one in need before the throne of God who has promised to supply every need. It means He will call us to minister to each other and to a hurting world, to heal with our hands and calm with our words.  It means He may ask us to share our resources, be it feeding hungry mouths with bread or feeding hungry souls with truth. We, whether we are the ones in need of provision or whether we are the ones through whom He provides, give Him glory as He moves. And though we know He has promised to provide, there may be times our resources run thin, when we do not have bread for the hungry or fitting words for the destitute.  Then what? Will we abandon the hurting or continue steadfast in prayer? Will we, as Abraham who against all hope believed in hope, walk with the hopeless to the places we cannot meet them but God can? (Romans 4:18) Will we realize when we reach the end of our resources, that it is less about what we can do for each other and more about what God can do for all of us.  God can use the strong to remind the weak and the weak to remind the strong that

 

  “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” 

II Corinthians 12:9   

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We will not all view this pandemic through the same lense or serve during this pandemic in the same way, even if we are part of the same community.  For those in Christ, communion has more to do with our union (in Christ) than it does commonalities. Our fellowship is more than a unified way of expressing worship, a common meeting place, tangible giving and receiving.  It is what we find as we individually and corporately answer the call to pick up our cross daily and follow Christ. It is entering into the joy and the sorrow, and the sacrifice and the hope, such a calling brings. In His compassion we weep, in His victory we rejoice.  And this we do whether we sit together in fellowship, or whether in a physical sense (though certainly not a spiritual sense) we worship alone.    

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“”There is one body and one Spirit- just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your  call- one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.  But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift.” Ephesians 3:4,5   

Lord, help us as a whole, to individually grab hold of that grace, because only by grace will people like us (with such different ideas about life and community) be able to rise above the currents that pull us apart.  Yet with grace, the flow of the current can perhaps draw us closer to You and closer to each other, than we ever thought possible. Teach us to each one follow Your lead, and to wait rather than anticipate when the way is unclear.  Teach us to live this moment, rather than the ones behind or before us. Help us walk in flow with Your perfect ways, which never change, no matter what else may. You can use every disruption, and even every mundane day, to bring us one step closer to You.  With grace may we allow You to do so. 

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