In an intriguing book written several years ago, A Fellowship of Differents, Scot McKnight writes, “The Christian life is not just about how I am doing as an individual, but especially about how we are doing as a church, and how and what I am doing in that mix of others called the church.”
What especially intrigues me about that statement is its clear emphasis on “we/us” as opposed to “I/me.” Our culture, both outside the church and, unfortunately, sometimes inside the church, has taught us that the real question actually is “how I am doing as an individual.” Perhaps we can get a bit comfortable with “I” being expanded to our own immediate family and close friends, but not beyond that. An immediate problem when “I” is more important than “we” is that church becomes about me and people just like me, and not what the New Testament seems to suggest the church is about.
It is hard to read the Jesus story in the gospels and not marvel at His vision for people of all kinds becoming a part of the church – built on the foundation of our confession that He is Lord. In a rather terse comment about the narrow door, Jesus will remind us, “And people will come from east and west, and from north and south, and recline at table in the kingdom of God.” (Luke 13:29, NRSV) If you think about the multicultural implications of people coming from what appears to be “every tribe and tongue” to recline at Jesus’ table, I can’t see how that could ever be viewed as being about “me” and not “us.”
As second challenge that arises when “I” replaces “we” and the church can no longer accept its calling from God is that, especially in “free” countries like ours, our politics become “I”-centered and almost never “we”-centered. From what I’ve read over the years, people from the richest to the poorest tend to vote based on the idea of “what is in this for me?” For example, spending tax dollars to invest in good schools in my neighborhood is great. Spending tax dollars to invest in good schools in inner-city neighborhoods is “not fair” because my tax money is being used to build those better schools elsewhere. To make it worse, we want to baptize those egocentric politics into the fellowship of the egocentric churches we have created.
I don’t think that McKnight is suggesting that my personal well-being isn’t important and can’t be impacted by the church. But it does reflect that our lives in the kingdom of God are different than they could ever have been without Jesus. As Jesus notes – in the same context as the quote above – “some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.” (Luke 13:30) In fact, the whole idea of being built up/edified, etc., in the New Testament seems to happen most clearly when I am building others up, not when I’m sitting around waiting to be built up!
I hope you will spend some time today – and in the coming days – thinking about “that mix of others called the church.” How can that “mix” impact my life and yours in ways that we are often prone to not allow to happen?
My best advice – to myself first – as we approach the 250th birthday of the United States is to search out “that mix others call the church” and find ways to be engaged with the lives of those McKnight would describe as “a fellowship of differents.” Who knows, it may lessen the tension of always making sure that “I” am the center of all that I care about.
Image by Christine Schmidt from Pixabay
Wye Huxford 