Soulfood

The Unique Challenges of Modern Community

Jonathan Holmes

There are many challenges – secularization, political polarization, etc

Collin Hansen/Sarah Zylstra – we perceive each other as enemies. Not even a shared threat such as COVID-19 can bring us together – it drives us farther apart.

Personal, physical, social, spiritual (nested circles). We have a personal problem with community – we don’t want to be responsible to or for each other. Gen 3 Adam and Eve separating from God, Gen 4 Cain and Abel – and all through Genesis, there is breakdown after breakdown in community on every level

Charles Taylor quote about decondensation. Luther quote about our propensity to seek ourselves first and turn inward

We have a physical problem – we are embodied persons. Modern society tells us lies about our physical being – 3 lies

Lie 1. We have total control over ourselves – we can shape it however you want

Camille Paglia quote – we have absolute claim to our bodies and we have complete control to do with it whatever we want

Lie 2. We have unlimited knowledge – you can be an expert in anything you want to be. Google creates a sense of omniscience

Lie 3. We have unlimited presence – we can be omnipresent through technology.

Jonathan Foer quote – We have taken technologies designed to substitute for presence and turned them into the preferred way to “interact”

Quote A wealth of information has created a poverty of presence

We have a social problem – culture shapes us in ways we don’t always notice

David Foster Wallace – the most obvious and important realities are often the hardest for us to perceive and talk about. Expressive Individualism – quote Trevin Wax

The centering of ourselves in the universe presents threats to community – 3 specific threats

1. A desire to be heard before we listen – be the loudest voice

2. A tendency to simplify the complex – hot takes and sound bites flatten out contoured issues

3. We tend to focus on positions and identities rather than the person

We end up trying to build community in our image – people who look like me and think like me

We have a spiritual problem – all of Ephesians is about our conflict with darkness (Powlison quote). There is a spiritual battle in the midst of our communal life. Satan seeks to destroy community because community demonstrates God’s glory

Satan wants to change what brings community together, replacing it with you. Instead of being for Christ, in Christ, through Christ – it becomes about self identities and shared interests

Satan wants to invert the goal of community and friendship so that it is about you – total and unbridled affirmation of me. Instead of community drawing us out of ourselves and centering us in the other, we see community as existing to feed our own desires and needs.

Personal opportunity – we recognize that change starts with us. If we want different communities we must be different. We need to repent of going our own ways, and turn from self-sufficiency into Christian community

We remind ourselves of our calling as saints – as we remind ourselves that we are one body in Christ in the midst of our differences

Physical opportunity – we can choose to live within our physical bounds. We are weak. We have limited presence (we can’t be everywhere). We have limited power (we can’t affect most world events). And we have limited knowledge (we are humble in our statements, assertions, etc)

Powlison quote about having the courage to be publicly weak. Weakness cultivates humility that should characterize the Christian

Social opportunity – lead the way in forming different communities. We will commit to moving towards people who are different

Sam Haist quote – we must learn to love our political enemies

A second social opportunity is that we listen before we speak. In this we become like our Father, who is always hearing His people who call out to Him. Richard Mouw – speaking with convicted civility. Empathy, teachability, and curiosity characterize convicted civility. We always can learn.

Madeline L’Engle quote – “a light that is so lovely“

Proverbs 16:21 sweetness of speech increases persuasiveness

George Yancey quote – build relationships with those we are attempting to persuade

Spiritual opportunities – we will make every effort to maintain our unity as the body of Christ (Eph 4:3, Rom 12:18)

If God desired unity with us enough to send Christ to die on the cross for it, we should value unity just as highly

We will commit ourselves to engaging in the ministry of prayer

Am I looking for reasons to divide? Do I look for points of agreement, or do I seek out differences and emphasize them? Do my words seek to divide or to build up the body? Is my goal in discussion to seek unity or to be right?

The gospel is timeless and timely. Hold fast to the gospel, live it steadfastly, and trust in its power to transform our communities!