Keep Community

The physical presence of other Christians is a source of incomparable joy and strength to the believer. — Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together

When life is difficult, it’s hard to keep community. You want to curl into yourself, pretend everything is all right. Wear the mask, you tell yourself. The smile frozen in place; everything is fine, just fine. An escape out the door before the face crinkles into tears.

The point of community, however, is to have a place where the masks can come off. It’s safe, secure, a place where you can be vulnerable. You confess sins, mistakes, fears. You share joys, victories, plans. All of life, the dark and the light, is embraced within community.

It can be hard to find such refuges. They don’t have exit signs directing you toward them. You have to hunt for them. Once found, they have to be protected. They are home to some of the deepest and often most sacred of friendships.

They also are home to some of the fiercest battles. Here, you learn what it means to forgive and to stand with a brother or sister who has offended you. You discover what it is to bear another’s burden, be that some moral failing or another rejection letter about a novel. You and the rest of the community join arms with the sibling, raise the shields. You won’t let this beloved friend go down without a fight.

You do that because Another did the same for you. He thought you were so precious that He took on human form, bore your sins to the brink of death and beyond. He rose again so that He could have a right relationship with you and, in turn, a right relationship with others.

To be in community, then, is to be in constant remembrance of Him. It is to give thanks, every day, for this day and for Him and the people who inhabit and speak truth into it. It is to become life-giving bread and water, as Henri Nouwen says, for one another.

Image: bekassine (Creative Commons)