Living in Community

Apparently it's been a while since I've posted anything. Life has been mostly un-blog-worthy. I'm happily back in Flagstaff, three-ish weeks into an already crazy semester, juggling classes, work, rehearsals, club involvement, church, and a bit of a social life too! I have a semester full of theatre classes that I am mostly enjoying or at the very least surviving.
Other than this brief update on my life's happenings, I really wanted to share some thoughts that I had in the wee hours of this morning when I was doing a Bible study and journaling time rather than sleeping. My on-campus church (Vintage Christian Fellowship) recently started a series about Life Lessons. It is a curriculum that involves a great deal of involvement from all of us, and this month our focus is the life lesson of community. I went through the first few journaling questions and Bible readings last night and was struck by some really interesting thoughts, so I thought I'd share them with you. I will probably post more of my journal entries here later, just because I think this is a really interesting and thought provoking topic that I would enjoy discussing with anybody who ends up reading this.

How would you define community?
People doing life together. Whether it is two people or two thousand, community is about sharing a common goal and working together toward its achievement. People live in community as lovers, friends, family, neighbors, coworkers, and members of the body of Christ. Each of us is a part of many communities - at home, work, school, church, and anywhere else we find ourselves amongst other people. Wherever two or more are gathered, there is potential to build community.

John 1:1-3 (NLT) "In the beginning the Word already existed. He was with God, and he was God. He was in the beginning with God. He created everything there is. Nothing exists that he didn't make."
Community originated before the dawn of time. In the beginning, God and Jesus (the Word) were living and working in community. They were one, united, living and being together, and out of that unity all of creation was born.
Genesis 1:27 (NLT) "So God created people in his own image; God patterned them after himself."
God, who was living in community with Jesus, created us in his image. We were created for the purpose of having community with our Creator. We aren't here by mistake, and it is no small wonder that we have lost so much of our sense of community in the modern world. Apart from community with God, something will always be missing in our lives. We were created with a void inside of us that only He can fill when we experience relationship with Him.
Genesis 2:18 (NLT) "And the Lord God said, 'It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a companion who will help him.'"
This is the first time it is recorded in the creation story that God says something is not good. Long before the fall, when the earth was free from the taint of sin, humans longed for community with other humans. God set Adam to the task of naming all the animals, and even with every pet he could ever want there in the garden with him, even when he was walking with God himself, there was still something missing. God knew this, so created a helpmate who was like Adam, another person, a woman who would make their community complete. We still need that community with other people today. The internet, iPods, cellphones, television - all of these things give us a false sense of community; they are poor substitutes, when what we really long for is the touch of another living, breathing person in our lives.
John 17:20-26 (NLT) "I am praying not only for these disciples but also for all who will ever believe in me because of their testimony. My prayer for all of them is that they will be one, just as yu and I are one, Father - that just as you are in me and I am in you, so they will be in us and the world will believe you sent me. I have given them the glory you gave me, so that they may be one, as we are - win them and you in me, all being perfected into one. Then the world will know that you went me and will understand that you love them as much as you love me. Father, I want these whom you've given me to be with me, so they can see my glory. You gave me the glory because you loved me even before the world began! Oh righteous Father, the world doesn't know you, but I do; and these disciples know you sent me. and I have revealed you to them and I will keep on revealing you. I will do this so that your love for me may be in them and I in them."
Before Jesus' arrest and crucifixion, he was praying for the Church to live in community with one another and with God. Our purpose in life is tied up in a communal relationship with God, the body of believers, and the unbelieving world. The community of faith, when built on the foundation of unity in Christ, is a testimony to a world of people searching for a place where they can belong.
The division of the Church is ugly. It hurts God's heart to see us tearing each other down, rather than building one another up in love and mutual edification. Those outside the Church see the ugliness of our division rather than the beauty of our unity. Our testimony is all too often overshadowed by a reputation of hypocrisy, judgment, political propaganda, and false agendas. Jesus, the way, the truth, the life, and the light, should be attractive to a world of people living lost in the darkness, death, and lies. However, the Church, the body of Christ, has failed to represent those qualities and offer the community that people are longing for. I long for that community with God and with those around me, regardless of their background, race, gender, political or religious affiliation, sexual orientation, or any other label that the world may place on them. People are people, and all people long for community. I want to live in a united, genuine, authentic, living, breathing, thriving community.