Community

by Rev. Eric Folkerth

I’m struck by a line in this week’s Gospel lesson. Just after Jesus’ crucifixion, and before the Disciples have seen his resurrected form, the writer of John tells us they were all “gathered together…"

They appear to be deeply afraid of what will happen next. But! They didn’t scatter to their independent places. Instead, they came back together as community.

This makes me think of Diana Butler Bass’ theory that the “table” was supposed to be the point, not the “cross.” Jesus WANTED to create true human community.
Community that tore down walls and built up people.
Community that severed the belief in an “Other,” and brought people together around shared meals and spiritual values.
Community around shared tables and experiences.

So that’s got me thinking about community, the pandemic, and our society. I’ve just finished a deeply moving book called “The Least of Us,” by journalist Sam Quinones. Ostensibly, it’s a book about the horrors of powerful drugs: Fentanyl and Meth. But, in truth, it’s also a narrative of how America has systemically destroyed our sense of “community.”

Here’s a quote from a recent interview he did on this topic:

“We have destroyed the very bulwark of defense that has allowed human beings to survive for eons now. What allowed us to survive was not that we viewed community as a nice thing to have around, but as something that was absolutely essential. Our brains evolved to require it. We die when we’re isolated far more quickly than when we’re with other people. Multiply that by an entire society and you get to a place where we are once again dying because we are isolated. In this case it’s drugs. As a society, we have stripped away all that stuff that brought us together.”

“Our brains evolved to require” community.

Yes.

But, instead of community, we appear to be seeking an ever-expanding list of substances that “ping” our brains the way human community used to:  Drugs, alcohol, fast food, TV binging, social media binging, porn…and more.

All these, brain science shows us, ping our brains with both fear and pleasure. And keep our *attention*…focuses on them and not on other humans.

Jesus comes back to that room where the Disciples are gathered. He breathes on them and they become authorized to move out and form..community.

They, like we, are not meant to stay huddled up in a room, in fear.

Restitching community will take time and effort in our world. North Oak Cliff is uniquely suited to do it, in that we have pre-existing *local* institutions —schools, churches, restaurants and other businesses— that help *create* community.

Let us trust that Jesus will breathe God’s Spirit on us too, as we seek to be community-builders in our neighborhood.

Hope to see you Sunday,

Eric