Community: An Observation and a Question

First, community is inconvenient. Or maybe it would be more precise to say that truly loving others is inconvenient. We start out seeking to encourage Darren—checking in once in a while to see how he’s doing raising his young son all by himself. It’s initially on our own terms, and we feel good when he expresses gratitude for our concern. But there comes that point when he gives a call at 9:30pm, and we want to watch the Red Sox game instead. Helping him when it fit in our calendar was one thing; this is another. Thankfully God exposes the selfishness inherent even in our very acts of service, by allowing love to inconvenience us. Because when it’s inconvenient, there is potential for the growth of truly disinterested love. Of course, that doesn’t mean that we won’t establish healthy boundaries (lest we enable instead of truly helping others), but love is willing to experience discomfort for another’s good. As long as our acts of service are purely convenient, there seems to be limited potential for growth in love.

And a question: Do we love Jesus because He gives us community, or do we love community because we love Jesus? This question is related to the question of whether we actually love the actual community Christ has given us, or whether we love our ideal of “community”—and serve God inasmuch as His Church fits into our ideal. Real community is messy: Christians are not perfect people; we are first called to be repentant people. Yes, we are given the Holy Spirit, but sanctification is a bumpy road with lots of twists and turns. So our love for the community of the Church must be derivative of our confidence in Jesus’ love, and our love for Him. As Bonheoffer warns in Life Together, our ideals of community—if they aren’t soon shattered by the reality—can destroy the actual community around us.