It seems that most Christians think that the Christian faith is something that a person does alone, like monks in a cave. They believe that the backbone of the faith is time alone with God, reading and praying or meditating on some special text. Or simply being good when others are not, or at least they are not as bad as some. If you go into the faith section of any bookstore it certainly appears that faith is something that you do alone. It appears to be a private, personal journey of self-improvement and behavioral modification. This mindset is a symptom of our societies love affair with individualism and compartmentalization of our lives.
A few days ago I was cruising through the social clubs of the digital/technological society in which we live (facebook, twitter, emails, texting, etc.) when I stumbled across this conversation-taking place in the corner of the smoke filled club of this digital world. It began with a one liner (just another pick-up artist).
“My faith is private, (he starts slowly) I don’t need other people’s help to realize my faith.”
In no short order “like this” filled the room (hear the applause?) It wasn’t long before he had gathered an entire entourage of eager listeners. “That’s right, who needs Christians?” “I don’t like organizational religion.” “They are all hypocrites, (now who’s judging?).” Oh, by now I’m leaning into this conversation with open ears, I knew what was coming, keep listening……
“Yeah, going to church doesn’t make you a Christian, you don’t really need any of that, in fact, this is more real than that.”
I leaned back into my chair and wondered how the “Christ” who came from heaven to earth to be with us would respond to this conversation. “Immanuel” – “God with us,” (no me, alone, but “us”).
Christianity or shall we say, “those who follow Christ,” are people who have been adopted into the very family of “Abba Father.” His family is called “church.” Contrary to the popular conversations in the digital clubs of our time, “The Faith,” the Christian faith is a very public, very communal reality, which is realized not as an individual who is left alone, but who is gathered into this family to be nurtured and matured in this new family.
As I write this I’m looking at a picture of my new Granddaughter, and I am flooded with the urge to drive three hours just to hold her. You see, her parents did not bring her into this world and then set her out on her own and hope that she could discover how to live on her own.
I am so grateful that when I was spiritually born they did not set me out on my own, but rather brought me “home.” His House, His Family, “the church” is the very community that has loved, and nurtured “the faith, the very life,” that Christ came to give me.
And now, now that perhaps I don’t need as much as I did as a child (although I think we are always children) I realize that I am called to nurture others. Grandpa may not be needed every day, but he is needed. So I remain in the family, not necessarily because of my need, but because of the needs of others. We are supposed to have realized that “it’s not all about me,” that we are here for others.
Maybe you don’t need church, family or community, maybe you think that your faith is “private,” but that is the paradox of Christianity, it is personal but it is never just yours. You see if you have received “the faith” it requires, no, it pushes you to share that “love,” that “faith” with others. Just maybe someone needs you, (or least what you have) and perhaps that is the real value of your existence.
Christmas – is the celebration of how God gave His Son to us! Maybe we ought to consider giving ourselves?
So I leaned away… away from the conversation of the social clubs of our day!
