The Religious US

The lesson was from Acts and it told the story of the Early church and how they lived together. They studied together and informed themselves on the words of Jesus and the stories from the Apostles. They had fellowship. They worshipped together. They had communion together daily and they shared everything they had with each other. It is pretty explicit that the money that one had was put in a big pot and you took out what you needed. I would have liked to be a part of a church that made that a standing part of the call to worship. Put in what you can; take out what you need. They talked about a community, a one body, one faith, one baptism, one fellowship.

One of the constant themes in my Old Testament studies was the "corporate identity" of the people of Israel. They were one. If anyone sinned, the whole group got punished. All for one and one for all. It was a reality in the minds of the Jewish people. They were to care for the stranger in their midst. They were to leave food in the fields for the poor. They were to care for the whole.

So it certainly feels like we have come a far way from the religious roots as we have moved more and more into a religious attitude that is personal salvation, private religion, and the resentment of any one telling us what to do. We seem to be emphasizing the individual personality and resenting any kind of community limitations or restrictions.

Jesus does not speak to me in a garden alone. That was my grandfather's favorite hymn, so it saddens me to find it so anti-faithful. Jesus speaks to me through the records of the Scripture as they are taught and shared with me by the community of believers called the church, as together we sit under the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus speaks to me in conversation with that tradition of Christian faith that is more than two thousand years old, and in conversation with the reality that we are living on a small planet with billions of other people. It is not all about me and mine. I suspect that lots of time God and the community is not really troubled because I don't feel good or like what has happened. The Corporate community of the People of God is bigger than me, and probably is bigger than just those who are known as Christians. In fact, when you listen to so much of the stuff coming out of places called churches and their individual salvation and their prosperity promises, one wonders whether they want to be part of the Whole body of faith.