TRANSCRIPT
Nigel. On the question of individualism, is it possible for a person to be a Christian without going to church and without belonging to a community?
Rowan. It’s a complicated question. Really, isn’t it? If we just say, “Oh, well, you can be as good a Christian if you don’t go to church as if you do.”, then people will say, “What exactly then is the point of all this palava (hassle) that goes on on Sunday mornings?” If you say, “Oh, well, nobody can be a Christian without going to church”, people will immediately say, “Well, I know so-and-so who’s a wonderful person who seems to be attuned to God in various ways. You’re not telling me they’re not a Christian, are you?” So I don’t particularly want to get into a dogfight over that.
What I’d want to say is: What’s given to us as Christians is the possibility of living in a healing community, a community of trust, a community of hope. And that trust and hope are refreshed, not only every week, but every day, when we together come into the presence of God. And without that, the springs are just going to run dry sooner or later.
Of course, there are times in some people’s lives when they feel they can’t cope with church for all kinds of reasons. They may have had abusive, difficult experiences of church. They may have found it just doesn’t connect with them, and yet they’re still trying to keep themselves open. I’m not going to excommunicate them. But I think that, for most of us, we really do need that regular exposure to listening, to the Bible being read, praying together, being quiet together, just letting God be, and doing that together, doing that in the company of others who trust God.
REFLECT
Scientist-author Barbara Kingsolver noted that a theme of her novels is the interplay of two tendencies in us humans. We tend to want to be our own selves and we also tend to want to belong to a family or a community. So it isn’t just churches that see that individualism and community are both important to the proper maturation of an individual. And this may be so because our God is a community of Persons, a Trinity, and that this multiperson God made us in this image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:26) and, in God’s wisdom, God has given us the wherewithal to discover this through our speaking, listening and interaction with each other. If we just look at the tendencies that are a part of our human (God-created) nature and our God-given potential, we may get some clues about our abilities and our potentials. (To me, “made in the image and likeness of God” sounds almost limitless!)
I do agree with the Archbishop saying that “what’s given to us as Christians is the possibility of living in a healing community, a community of trust, a community of hope” and that the trust and hope are refreshed “when we together come into the presence of God”, but is that enough? Although, perhaps what he means is truly “living” – with joy, gratitude and exuberance – and not just the barely alive existence I though he meant.
This came to my attention when I recently heard a Major League pitcher telling a reporter that the team pitchers’ exceptional improvement was the result of two changes initiatied by their pitching coach: first, try new things and, second, share what you are learning with each other. Smart coach – using the learning and training mechanisms that our creator placed within us. Do you think God placed them there so people could excel in baseball? Or is it for us to excel in discovering really important things about ourselves, God and life?
Isn’t it wonderful that God gave us minds and hearts, eyes and ears to discover not only what gives us pleasure and happiness in the here and now, but which we can use to make ourselves, our world and each other better than we are now?
What am I doing with the gifts that God has given me? What more can we do if, besides the very important coming “together into the presence of God”, we share what we know and what we are learning about the things that God wants us to be experiencing and learning?
What can I do and what can we do together to make this happen more often?
Sister Loretta