Theological Thoughts for Thursday

I'm on the fence about my grad school options. I'm working toward a certificate (and then a masters) in Community and Economic Development at Penn State (available while in Korea through on-line classes.) So far the material just hasn't grabbed me. I'm more than a little reticent about spending $20,000 and a few hundred hours of my life on something I'm not passionate about.

I'm taking a class this semester, and we'll see if I decide to keep going or to look for a different program.

We discuss the concepts of community often. Why community is important. What community looks like. As a Christian and a missionary this is an important topic for me.

"Community ... is something taken for granted, something self-evident in one's social behavior. Recognition of community can arouse feeling, but community itself simply refers to the fact that one naturally is connected to other people." - Wilkinson, pg 14.

In Sociology there is a different term for community we take for granted and community that we celebrate. When we move beyond recognizing that there are other people in our midst - when we embrace and celebrate our community it is called - communion.

Communion is a celebration of community.

In our churches we fail to celebrate community. We hold up an abstract, impossible ideal of community and chide ourselves when we fall short ... and we always fall short. We pretend that things were different in the past. That in the 50s no one fought at church. That Jesus' disciples never argued. But, deep down we know that's a lie from Satan. People in our churches fight sometimes. Sometimes people in the church can get downright nasty and we feel that all community is lost. But we fail to embrace the fact that fighting is part of community.

"Moreover, community entails squabbles and fights as well as cooperation and affectionate touches." - Wilkinson, pg. 15

We celebrate the ups and downs - we celebrate human interaction under the blessing of an all loving and all forgiving God.

We share in communion and we celebrate the community God has given us. Even when that community includes people we don't much like. Even when that community is unlovable.