Tag: #community

What Is Church? A Country Club? A Social Organization?

Published by mhelbert on March 7, 2024

Some medical providers say that it’s not healthy to stuff emotions. Holding feelings deep within us causes all sorts of issues, both mental and physical. So, I’m gonna blame my venting in recent posts on maintaining my own mental health. There.
Now that that’s done, I can move on to a similar topic from a different angle. I have spent a lot of time writing and talking about the shortcomings of the Church. It’s really easy to point out the negatives. And, the Church has quite a list of outstanding needs. I mentioned only a few in these posts. Today, however, I’d like to take a few minutes to talk about what I think the Church can look like. In the mind of Mike, what would the ideal Church be? So, let’s have a look, shall we?
First and foremost, the Church must be wholly devoted to God. Without that devotion, frankly, there is no such thing AS Church. Without it the Church is nothing more than a social justice organization. Or, worse, a clique of angry people who have no clue what it is that they are doing.
Messiah Jesus made it possible for the world to experience the fruit of the defeat of sin and death. He, alone, has made the Way for the world to know God. Jesus did provide an example of how humans can, (should?), live together, that was not His primary goal. His primary goal was to reveal to us the Reign of God in the world. In Biblical terms that’s called the Kingdom of God, or the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus ushered in a new age where humanity may be restored to the true Image Bearers of God in the world. To be stewards of the world. To work in partnership with God to be a blessing to what God said in the beginning, was the Tov Me’od creation. That is, the Very Good creation. What that may look like deserves a series of blog posts of its own. Let’s just say, God thinks the world is very good. The Church has an obligation to care for it.
Second, the Church is a community like no other. The Apostle Paul used the image of a human body to describe it. We are all different, re. Diverse, yet members of One body. He wrote that a toe can’t say that it’s not part of the body. I think we’ve all experienced that. Stub a toe and the whole body is acutely aware of it. The Church as body is one organism that is made of many parts that are completely dependent on one another. Only Messiah Jesus is the head. I am certainly not. What would this look like in real life? Well, competition among various members would need to go away. Trying to cut off or remove another member would result, at best, despoil Messiah’s Body. At worst? Well, just take a look around at all of the divisions and fighting that goes on among those who consider themselves “Us” as they flip the bird at “Them.” This can only change if we are all devoted to God alone.
Third, the Church is by definition a Welcoming Community. Now, I don’t mean that we’re nice to people. Nor, when someone new steps into our church we nod our heads and smile at them. It’s not even going up to them and shaking their hand. It is those things, to be sure. But, it is far more than that. Being a Welcoming Community means that we are proactive and take our Welcome to where it is most needed. The Bible gives us a very basic outline of who that is. They are the widows, the orphans, and the foreigner who dwells among us. The outcast; the leper; the Other…whoever is NOT welcomed by those outside of the Welcoming Community. In the early centuries of the Church when plague ravaged the countryside, it was the Church who entered into harms way to offer comfort and care to those who were sick and dying. St. Francis is known for his entering into the leper colonies to cleanse the sores and to comfort those who were the most forgotten. Jesus went to those who were considered less than human by the powers that be in order to heal and to share the Good News that God loved them and cared for them and WELCOMED them. That’s what Welcoming Community looks like.
I could go on and on about how the Church is a sacrificing body. That it is the Temple where the Holy Spirit lives. How it has an obligation to speak prophetically to the world by speaking truth to power. These are only a few of the attributes that I think would go a long way toward defining the Church.
What are some of your thoughts?
Can you add to this list?
Are you a part of this?

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What Makes a Good Leader? Maybe Not What You Think.

Published by mhelbert on November 16, 2022

This weekend is a pretty special one for the Episcopal Diocese of Ohio. We will join together for our annual Diocesan Convention.
Yeah, sounds exciting, right? Kinda like watching paint dry.
But, it is important. We will set the agenda for the coming year as well as elect officers for various committees and such. It is truly like a big corporate meeting of stockholders.

This year, however, we will also be electing a new Bishop. Our current Bishop, The Right Reverend Mark Hollingsworth, Jr., is retiring in 2023. We will be choosing the person who will lead our diocese into the next chapter of our life together. And, in a way, we will also be actually choosing the direction of that next chapter. The person chosen will imprint her own life and character on who we are and where we go as a diocesan community.

Oh, did I mention that there are three candidates? And, they’re all women?

Not that it should matter, but in a highly patriarchal culture, electing women to the highest authority is both noteworthy and long overdue.

But, that’s not what I wanted to write about today. There are lots of others who are carrying that load.

This morning in prayer, I reflected on the choice we will make this Saturday. We’re fortunate in that all of the candidates are eminently qualified. So, in a way, we cannot lose. Whomever is elected will do an outstanding job as we move forward together.
We’re also fortunate that we have clear choices. We will not be simply choosing who our favorite is out of 3 clones. They each have different character, temperament, strengths, and opinions.

So, who to choose? If all three are great choices, does it really matter who gets the nod?

Yeah, I kinda think it does.
Let me explain…

Throughout my life following Jesus, I have been lead by men, (it’s always men, amirite?), who were alpha males and authoritarian control-freaks. They ran our church(es) with iron hands and would not entertain any questions to their decisions. After all, wasn’t Jesus the Lord over His disciples? Didn’t Paul and Peter and James hold the early church to strict adherence to their rule? These men made sure that their idea of what being a christian was enforced as the ‘Only Way to be a True Christian.’ Any deviation was met with swift rebuke.

However, for the last few years I’ve experienced a different sort of leadership. I’ve been blessed to work with a person who seems to trust God with much of what we do. He has been a pastor and shepherd, to be sure. But, he hasn’t told us how we sheep should chew our grass. For the first time in my life in Jesus, I think that I’m experiencing what some call Servant Leadership. While he knows clearly and accepts his position and responsibility, he also seems to understand, when the people are doing well and are happy, so is the church. And, so is his job, I’m sure.

The reason I mention this at all is because that is the choice we have this weekend. While all three candidates are good ones, only one has revealed a Servant’s heart. The other two will certainly be good. Much will get done in the diocese. Many very good things.
But, only one, I think, will bring life to the position. Life that she will share with all of us who live and work in our churches.

I, for one, know where my choice lies.

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Should the Church Worry that People Don’t Study the Scriptures?

Published by mhelbert on September 5, 2022

The simple answer is, “Duh, yeah!” After all, isn’t the Church pretty much founded on what is read in the Scriptures?

However, in my experience nothing is ever simple. Especially when it comes to what people hold on to as “deep and personal belief.”

Back when I was a part of the Evangelical community, we considered things like Bible study, prayer, and worship the most sacred and necessary things that anyone could do. Actually, it wasn’t a matter of what ‘could’ be done. These things MUST be practiced daily. There is a little ditty that we used to sing about
“Read your Bible, pray everyday and you’ll grow, grow, grow.
Neglect your Bible, forget to pray and you’ll shrink, shrink, shrink.”

Catchy, right?

We got together at least once a week, (sometimes we had one night per week Off!), to study the “Word” and pray. On Sunday morning there would be adult Sunday school. Nearly every member attended these.
Beside these pretty much mandatory meetings we were expected to spend substantial time in private study and prayer during the week.
We were told that if we weren’t spending at least a half-hour in prayer and that much in Bible reading or devotions we were failing in our commitment to God.
For many, (most?), this resulted in shame and guilt that could become emotionally overwhelming.
And, I think that the leaders knew this and encouraged it. Shame and guilt are incredibly strong motivators. They rank right up there with fear.
We all know that the Church has historically operated with a large dose of fear to keep the masses in line.

I say all this because since I ran from the Evangelical fold a decade ago I think that I’ve learned a couple things that those folks could never understand.

I lead a Bible study at my church. I joined the good folks at St. Barnabas Episcopal Church about four years ago and I’ve been the Bible guy for a bit over three of those years. During this time the church has grown a lot. We have more than tripled in size. The outreach of the church has grown equally. It’s a lot of fun watching so many people joining in the work of running a church.

Great!

Awesome!

Huzzah!

With all of these cool things happening you’d think that folks would be flocking to learn about what’s in the Bible. They would be knocking down the doors of their prayer closets to meet God in prayer and meditation.

Right?

Well, not so much, really.

Let’s say, out of a hundred and twenty or so people less than 10 attend Bible study.
I’d guestimate that maybe another dozen or so consistently follow any kind of Spiritual formation practices.
So, for the sake of discussion, about 80% of the church are involved in things that are considered shame-worthy in most Evangelical communities.

Ok. So what?

I mentioned above that I have learned a few things since my escape from Evangelicalism. One of those things is that people are gonna ‘people.’

And that’s OK.

I see the zeal and joy of those people as they serve one another and the church and it makes my heart glad.
I listen to the stories that they have to tell about their kids and grandkids and I have to smile.
These are people who love.
They love their families.
They love their friends.
They love their church family.
And, they love God!

We are not all made the same. We all have different personalities, talents, and gifts that we bring to the table. Not all are going to be so-called “Spiritual Giants” or biblical scholars.
It’s enough that we all agree that love is the greatest common practice that we all share.
I am more than content with the way things are at St. B’s.
We are a family that is growing in faith and love.
When we love, we grow, grow, grow……

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1 Corinthians_Unity pt. 2

Published by mhelbert on June 23, 2020

The last time I shared I wrote that the answer to my reader’s question about whether we should strive for unity with people whose faith is in opposition to ours. How can we achieve unity with people who are simply so far afield from us?

That leads us to what the real question is:
Are those others even Real True Christians?

If we answer in the negative, we are essentially off the hook. “They aren’t part of the Church, so I don’t need to strive for unity with them. Hell, I don’t even need to talk to them!”

When we try to do this we commit the logical fallacy known as the “No True Scotsman” fallacy.
This tack seems to let us proclaim that our brand of (fill in the blank) is what a true (same fill in the blank) looks like. Therefore, any deviation from what we think is (blank again) cannot be a True (fill in the blank).

This reader could then say, “Christians love others. That person doesn’t love everyone. Therefore, that person is not a Real True Christian.”

The argument is a fallacy because one changes the subject without any logical reason to do so. There is no, as some say, a falsifiable fact involved. It’s simply a subjective statement to try and create a false dichotomy.

The fact is, Falwell Jr., Franklin Graham, Bob Jeffress, et al are IN FACT CHRISTIANS!!
We don’t get to make judgments about their faith any more than they get to do that about us.
In fact, these people would come out and say that All Progressive Christians are NOT Real True Christians.

So, what do we do about the seeming disparity in what we believe about God and Jesus?
It appears that the chasm is great and there is no way to bridge it.

Taking Jesus as our Exemplar once again, perhaps we can begin to see a way forward.

Those of us who have read the stories about Jesus, the Gospels, understand that Jesus was not a simple, monochrome person. He was solid as a rock about some things. A little more colorful or even ambivalent about others.
One of the things that he was solid about was that many people who claimed to be leaders of Israel were behaving in ways that God simply was opposed to.
Many of these people tried to confront Jesus and trip him up.
One time when Jesus was eating with so-called “tax collectors and sinners,” those people questioned his judgment about the company he kept.
Jesus said, “It’s the sick who need a physician.”
In the 23rd chapter of the Gospel according to Matthew, Jesus pronounce ‘8 Woes’ upon those same people. He called out their hypocrisy, hate, and bigotry. His language was hard as he pointed out how they erred from the Way of God.
Jesus used Judgment language to denounce cities where the people did not accept the miracles he performed as proof of God’s Presence among them.
These were powerful and hard words.

Yet, at no time did Jesus say that they were not Real True Israelites.

In fact, I think that he was able to use that kind of language with them precisely because they were family.

Jesus example provides us with a way to engage others with whom we disagree. It’s not to point fingers at them and pronounce them “Unclean!”
But, we may engage them and try to show them that there is another way to walk in Faith.
We don’t need to be exclusive and build walls to keep out the “Other.”
In fact, it’s closer to our job description to be demolition experts who tear down walls!

What if those others refuse to listen and rebuff us?
Can we wipe the dust off of our sandals and walk away?

I really wish that I could say, “Yes!!! Just walk away!!!”

I’m not sure that I can say that, though.

Because, I think that there may be a “still more excellent way.”

But, that will need to wait til next time.

For now, perhaps we can reflect on what it means to be members of a dysfunctional family. We have no control over who our siblings are or what they will do.
But, in the end, we ARE still Sisters and Brothers.

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On A Positive Note…

Published by mhelbert on April 16, 2020

I have spent a lot of time over the years trying to expose the negative side of the Church.
The abuses of authority; the harmful theology; the elevation of ME above all else.
These criticisms are well deserved. People have been harmed by the Church. And, it really doesn’t matter what flavor Church. Protestant, Roman Catholic, and Orthodox are all culpable in the abuses.
The public results of these abuses, besides lives ruined, includes the loss of any claim to the so-called Moral High Ground.
In other words, the Church has destroyed her ability to be a Blessing to the Cosmos.

So, what should things look like?
Honestly, no one can say for certain what God has planned for it.
But, we can sketch a few things.
Things that, rather than tearing down, may reveal a way forward in Love and Faithfulness.

So, let’s start.
In the beginning….

The writers of Holy Scripture were people just like us. They lived in a particular time, place, and culture that colored the words that they wrote. So, for them such things as a cosmos that was created Ex Nihilo was just the way things were.
These writers presented their readers with a problem. The problem was, God created the Heavens and the Earth. In God’s abundant Love humans were made for the expressed purpose of caring for the Earth as God’s Special Envoys. The intent was for humanity to embody God’s glory as Eikons of God. They would rule jointly with God over the creation.
But, there was a problem. Humanity could not live up to God’s calling. They were, after all, made of the same stuff that the cosmos was…dust.
Soon the problem came to a head when humanity took it upon themselves to listen to and embrace other creatures. Idolatry and the corruption that comes with that began to mar the Very Good Cosmos that God had made.
But, God was still convinced that humanity MUST be a part of God’s plan for guiding and caring for the World.
So, God ‘elected’ a family.
For those who know a little about the story of Israel, you will have heard of a guy named Abraham. God chose Abraham and his descendants to become the agents of God’s blessing for the Cosmos. The story continues through Abraham’s grandson, Jacob, to the selection of a community, Israel.
Israel’s history was checkered at best.
But, God had made a covenant with Abraham that, because of Abraham’s faithfulness to God’s promises, stated that the entire Cosmos would be blessed.
God took that Covenant seriously and was faithful to it in spite of Israel’s inability to live up to its calling.
In time, God, who had chosen Israel as the people through whom the blessing would come, raised up One Person from Israel.
This One Person became God’s own Image-bearer. An image-bearer who would do what the original humans, nor Israel, could.
Through the death of Jesus the problem of humanity’s inability to live up to God’s Glorious Calling at the beginning was solved. The resurrection of Jesus from the grave proved God’s faithfulness to set things right.

Ok, nice story.
But, so what?

God had done something that no one expected.
Because of the faithfulness of Jesus, all of humanity had the opportunity to share in Jesus’ faithfulness. We, in fact, have been joined together into the family of God’s Promise to Abraham. We are benefactors of God’s Covenant with Abraham.
God, in God’s own love and Being, put us into a Community.
A living Community where God’s own Spirit lives and brings life.
We are not a bunch of individuals going about our own personal business. Living in our own personal salvation.
No.
We are, as Peter wrote, ‘A royal priesthood and a Holy Nation.’

We. Belong. Together.

Together we are to be a blessing to the whole Cosmos.
Together we reflect the Glory of God to each other, to God, and to the World.
Together!
Together!

That is our hope and our calling.
And, that’s a good thing.

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The Rugged Individual

Published by mhelbert on April 15, 2020

One of the hallmarks of life in the U.S. is the ideal of the “Rugged Individual.” While it seems that this image had been brewing ever since the birth of the nation, it really didn’t take off and become a mark of American exceptionalism until after the Second World War.
We have become a nation where everyone considers their right to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness is a personal guarantee that no one, especially not the government, can tell me what I can do, when and where I can do it, or ask me why I’m doing it. After all, the Constitution says so.
Of course, when the Constitution says that I can do something that you want to do and there’s a conflict, my rights always supersede yours. And, if you don’t like it, we’ll see you in court. Because, you know, my rights are given to me by no lesser authority than God!

What escapes most people’s attention is that those so-called ‘God given rights’ are not in the Constitution.
They appear in the Declaration of Independence. And, as I have said in many other places, Context is everything.
The Declaration, besides being a rallying point for the nascent United States, was first a notice to King George III that the American Colonies would no longer put up with British rule. The inalienable rights part, especially the God given wording, let George know in no uncertain terms that God was the only source for these rights. The crown was not.

So, there was a war and a new nation was born that began a long experiment in democratic government that is still under way today.

Soon, individuals began trekking into the wilderness of this land. They fought and worked and died in order to provide for themselves and their families.
It didn’t matter what obstacles lay in their path toward this inevitable destiny. They had a God given right to this land and its bounty. So, facts like the land was already populated by Indigenous people were tossed aside.
“God gave this land to us. Not to you.” (But, that ‘s another post.)

As I began to deconstruct the Ziggurat that was my protestant, evangelical life, I started to wonder about this.
To explain a bit…
In Protestantism individual faith is paramount. After all, Jesus died for me. Yeah, he may have died for you, too. But, that’s between you and God and doesn’t effect me at all.
It’s all about Me and Jesus! Hallelujah!
In the church that I was a part of at that time this was absolutely the underlying ethic to their theology. It was no more apparent than when, once a month, we had Communion. We asked that the head of each family, or family unit, would come and take the bread and cup back to their individual clan. There the elements would be taken. I questioned the leaders about this. Because, to me anyway, it seemed that the celebration of Communion should be a community celebration. Not an individual family thing. This seemed more like a fracturing of the Body of Christ than a joining together in communal Thanksgiving.
Silly me for thinking such things!

Eventually, I did leave that church. There are many, many reasons why. But, that idea of fracturing the Body of Christ is near the top.

Here, in an admittedly compressed version, is what I have learned, and am convinced of, since my departure.
The church I left, and all of those churches that think that same way, follow a modern version of Reformation theology. Every individual is a sinner in need of grace. Ok, so far so good. This thinking also leads to the idea that every individual is responsible for how they live that faith. That pretty much means that I can do what ever I believe God wants me to do.
Of course, there are the big ‘Sins’ that must be avoided. But, if it’s not listed as sin, then I’m good to go.

That idea has driven much of our Western culture as it formed over the ensuing 500 years. It led, inevitably, to our old friend the Marlboro Man. It is readily displayed in the people who yell about their own rights. Just look at the churches that are openly defying stay at home orders during the current Covid-19 crisis. Their rallying cry?
“No government can tell me what to do! My God is bigger than you. And, My God has given me the inalienable right to gather. So what if the virus is spread among the congregation and then back to their homes and friends and family.”

And yet, the very Bible that these people tell us that they believe in and follow is clear.
“Consider others above yourself.”
“Anyone who tries to save their own life will lose it.”
All of the letters written by the Apostle Paul are attempts to build communities who live their lives sacrificially in order to display God’s mercy to the world.
The idea that we are all just individuals who should live our lives in isolation from one another would be totally foreign to the people who actually wrote the Book.

As I wrote before, the in the Body of Christ there is no room for me; my; mine. It is always “Us.”
We are a community.
We must live like it.

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Confirmed!

Published by mhelbert on November 25, 2019

Well, it’s official.
I am now a confirmed Episcopalian.

Yesterday I was one of 10 adults who stood in front of the Church where a bishop laid hands on us and welcomed us.

It was a bit weird.
Part of the Confirmation was that we state our intent to take Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.
Well, that’s something that I did nearly 50 years ago.
So, I guess this was more like a re-commitment to follow Jesus within the context of the Anglican Church.
Ok, I’m good with that.

What is significant for me, though, is that I am now accepted into a tradition that is ancient, yet modern.
It is larger than me, yet as small as my faith.

I have searched for nearly a decade for a Church community that I could embrace, and would embrace me.
A Church Home that is welcoming and inclusive.
A place where the Spirit of God lives and gives life.
Somewhere that diversity is sought and celebrated.

I have found that, and more, at St. Barnabas.

So, here I am, old and feeble, with yet another new beginning.

What will the future hold?

I haven’t a clue.

But, in this moment I am glad to be walking with these people, at this place, in this hour.

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Welcoming and Acceptance

Published by mhelbert on October 16, 2019

I’m going to take another day or two to reflect some more on the confirmation process that I’m currently taking part in at St. Barnabas.

There is a term that has been floating around for a few years now. That term is “Welcoming.”
Most of us use it to describe a person or place where anyone, regardless of who they are, what they think, what color their skin is or what gender they describe themselves as. It has become almost a password for progressives.
I can imagine someone walking up the the door in a 1920s speakeasy. The little port opens and a burly face with heavy eyebrows and a square chin looks out.
“Welcoming,” whispers the person on the outside.
The burly-guy then opens the door. The correct password was given.

And, for the most part, it’s really easy to say that we’re welcoming.

Especially, for churches.

I’ve been to churches where the priest or pastor stands in front, arms wide open and a big smile on their face as the proclaim, “Of course, we welcome LGBTQs here! I would love for them to come!”
Unspoken is, “So we can show them the love of Christ by pointing out what filthy, wretched sinners they are. Hallelujah!”

But, welcoming is not enough, I think.
Not nearly.

I think that something is bigger than that. And, far more difficult.
Something that comes closer to how Jesus, himself, treated people.

That is Acceptance.

Let me explain.
We can welcome a gay man into our group or fellowship. That’s really the easy part. Especially, if he doesn’t try to spread his gay cuties around.
But, can we accept that gay man, who is married, as our priest and pastor?
How about the divorced woman who was abused in her church? Can we accept her? Are we able to accept her pain as our own and allow ourselves to heal with her in our community? Can we accept her and the gifts that God has given her to be a fellow-worker in God’s garden with us?
What of the person who struggles with emotional or psychological stresses? We surely can welcome such a person so that he may find comfort and healing. Right?
But, can we accept such a one as a peer who is loved and gifted by the same Holy Spirit as we?

It’s easy to welcome and accept people who look, act, and think as we do.
“But, how does that make us any different than the pagan?”, Jesus asks.

I am glad that I am both welcomed and accepted at St. Barnabas.
I am ever so much more glad that St. Barnabas is becoming, not only welcoming, but accepting.

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Community…In Progress

Published by mhelbert on October 15, 2019

Last night was the first of six confirmation classes at St. Barnabas. Eleven of us showed up for Episcopalian lessons. I was excited to be getting on with this. As I’ve written before, St. Barnabas is becoming a community where the Love of God is beginning to blossom and bloom.

As the class began we were all asked to share a bit about who we are and why we were at this particular church.
As we went around the room, each telling snippets of their personal journeys of faith, I was impressed with the diversity present.
There are women, men, young-ish, older, high church, low church, and everything in between.
Some were open and vocal. Others, reserved and quietly present.
Some of us came out of churches where toxic theology ate at our souls.
Others are simply seeking a place to call “home.”

One thing that we all seemed to share was a desire to be a part of a living, welcoming, diverse, and inclusive community where God’s love is openly shared with all.

Is that St. Barnabas?

Well…Maybe.

This church is currently still in transition.
She is searching for her identity in the larger Body of Christ.
After all, this church has fairly recently gone through a major upheaval brought on by previous leadership. Upheaval that was painful and steeped in theological error.
Many people suffered…A Lot…because of the actions of those who were entrusted with the care of these people.

Fortunately, the leaders of the diocese were wise enough to provide emergency medical care to this parish. Over a period of several years they supported those few who were left behind after that messy split. They appointed interim leadership who provided the necessary treatment to stabilize the church.
A bit over a year ago a new Priest was called to help the community, now stable, to work to become healthy.
That’s where we are now.
A diverse, some may say Rag Tag, group of people who desire to live with one another and serve one another and the larger community in which we live.
We are people with scars and hurts and histories that would make the best fantasy novel seem like Dr. Seuss.
We are learning.
And, if we eleven who are beginning the journey in Confirmation class are an indication of the direction in which God is leading, well, let’s just say that this journey will be good.

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The Flock

Published by mhelbert on May 20, 2019

How long has it been?
40 years? 45?
Such a long time to be alone.
Yet, not alone.
Or, was I simply lost in a crowd?
Maybe that’s closest to the truth.
Lost in a crowd of people who claimed to be family.
Yet, they weren’t quite.
Am I alone? Or, am I part of something larger?

In our Western, particularly U.S., culture an odd creature was birthed.
This creature had no apparent need for anyone else.
No nature; no nurture.
It just sort of “appeared” in our collective popular mythos.

Over time this creature became known as “The Rugged Individual.”

Those of us old enough to remember will recall this creature seated atop a strong horse with mountains in the background. He was smoking a Marlboro cigarette.

Perhaps this creature was born out of our nation’s desire to cut ties with ancestral homelands and make a go of it as a New Nation that needed no one else. No king or pope or other “authority” was going to tell us what to do. We are an Individual Nation.

Or, maybe the whole idea of the Rugged Individual has always been somewhere sleeping, latent within our individual psyches.

I really don’t know.

What I do know, now, is that while this creature surely exists, it is surely a lie.

It is a dangerous lie, to boot.

Now, I can take this idea in several directions.

I could make it a defense of Socialism. After all, isn’t Socialism ultimately a critique of individual accomplishment? Doesn’t it strike at the heart of MY will and well-being having preeminence over the will and well-being of the collective?

No, I’m not going there. Maybe some other time.

I could touch on Hillary Clinton’s 1996 book “It Takes a Village” to discuss how we must work together as a “village” to properly raise our children.

While that is an excellent topic for discussion, it’s not what I have in mind here.

No, I think that I want to touch on something a bit more personal. Something that has impacted me, my family, and my community at a visceral level. It has chipped away at my soul and my mind to create something that doesn’t quite resemble the Rugged Individual. Nor, does it quite fit as a piece of some ethereal ‘Whole.’

It actually quite resembles the confused person described at the beginning of this post.

For quite a long time I’ve tried to discover my place in life. You know, trying to answer those unanswerable questions like “Why am I here”? What’s the meaning of life? Why is there air? (Uh, no, that’s not one of them. The answer to that is obvious: to fill soccer balls.)

When I first came to faith in Christ as a 16 year old idealist, I was taught that God loved ME. In fact, God loved ME so much that if I had been the only human on earth, Jesus would still come to give His life so that I could live. I participated in a Billy Graham event where he preached a message that claimed that I could not be saved unless I made a confession of MY PERSONAL sin and received Jesus as MY PERSONAL savior. It was all about ME and MY and MINE. Graham wasn’t the first to explain faith in this way. The concept he preached has been around since at least the time of John Calvin. But, it found fertile soil in this nation of Rugged Individuals who saw God vindicating their Rugged Individualism. God didn’t save a collective. No! That was a communist plot! God saved ME!

But, then I met a bunch of hippies who believed in God. I started to hang with them. We were part of a larger movement that became known as the Jesus Movement. (Profound. I wish that I could have helped them come up with a better handle. Anyway, I digress.) Together we began to play around with the concept of Community. We tried to model this new thing after what we understood about the early Church as described in the first few chapters of the Acts of the Apostles. These prototype Jesus People sold their belongings and put the proceeds in a community account that all could draw from as needed. COOL! They cared for one another as sisters and brothers in a large extended family. STILL COOL! They shared all things in common and lived together in peace and harmony. WAY COOL!

We found out that the Bible talked a lot about how we should live together in love. We were a Kingdom of Priests and a Holy Nation. This is the language of community and togetherness. And, this all came at a time in our nation’s trek through history when we desperately needed such a concept. We had become fragmented as a people. Race; War; Politics. It seemed that all of the powers of the Universe had conspired to break our world into little pieces. We needed to try and find some cohesiveness. There was something embedded deep in our human DNA that cried out for an end to the splintering of our world. So, these ideas from the Bible resonated with us.

But, we still held on tightly to our identities as Rugged Individuals. After all, that concept had been drilled into us for generations. It would not simply sit back and say, “Oh, right, community. That’s cool. I’ll just pack up and leave.”

No. We still, after all that we were learning about our interdependence, militantly held on to our independence. So, we changed the story a bit. We started to preach that God made us for one another. To live together in true Christian community. But, to join you needed to confess YOUR INDIVIDUAL sin and accept Jesus as YOUR INDIVIDUAL savior. Hmmm…not much of a difference there.

Eventually, we made some emendations. We elevated Family to the place of an actual individual. So, now our community could be called a Family of Families. Isn’t that sweet? This became a point of contention with me at a former church. The church leadership insisted that the Eucharist, the celebration of Communion, should be celebrated within the confines of the family unit. So, the head of each ‘household’ came up and received the bread and wine. They then took the elements back to their INDIVIDUAL families to share. For me, this practice was, and is, antithetical to the whole concept of the sacrament. But, that’s a subject for another post.

So, why have I spent this time and more than 1,000 words to say all of this?

A week ago the priest of the church I now attend talked about a parable that Jesus taught. It was about a certain shepherd who realized that one of his sheep was missing. Now, he still had 99 sheep that were safe and sound. But, being the dutiful shepherd, he left the 99 and sought out the missing sheep. This story has been used over the years to show how much Jesus cares about the INDIVIDUAL. He will abandon 99 and leave them to the elements and go off in order to seek and save the lost ONE. Wow! I’m really pretty important to Jesus!

And, that my friends, is the point that people using this text want to make. It appeals to our emotions in a deep way. It paints the portrait of No One Left Behind. It appeases our Rugged Individual.

Is that what God intended for the story?

Well, maybe. In part.

But, perhaps there is another take away from it. A way to understand it in the light of one of the overarching themes of the entire Bible.

Throughout the Scriptures there is the idea that God is forming a People. He is in the business of Nation building. Images of sheep, (plural), and goats and lambs and flocks abound in its pages.

What if the story of the lost sheep is more about the condition of the flock than the lost sheep?

What if it’s the flock,restored to wholeness, that is the point of the story?

I think it is.

I think that unless we can get beyond ourselves as individuals and drive a stake into the heart of the Rugged Individual we, as people, will suffer. Unless we can reach even beyond that and somehow see that we are not just a single species, but part of a greater community made up of all of the Cosmos, we will suffer.

God, in the beginning created Adam. He created THEM. And, then graciously placed THEM in a Garden full of their fellow creatures to live and thrive TOGETHER.

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