The deepest root of the contemporary malaise of Western culture is an individualism which denies the fundamental reality of our human nature as given by God--namely that we grow into true humanity only in relationships of faithfulness and responsibly toward one another. The local congregation is called to be, and by the grace of God often is, such a community of mutual responsibility.
Lesslie Newbigin, The Gospel in a Pluralist Society
It is easy to produce examples of the many ways in which Americans attempt to minimize, circumvent, or deny the interdependence upon which all human societies are based. We seek a private house, a private means of transportation, a private garden, a private laundry, self-service stores, and do-it-yourself skills of every kind. An enormous technology seems to have set itself the task of making it unnecessary for one human being ever to ask anything of another in the course of going about his daily business. We seek more and more privacy, and feel more and more alienated and lonely when we get it, our encounters with others tend increasingly to be competitive as a result of the search for privacy. We less and less often meet our fellow man to share and exchange, and more and more often encounter him as an impediment or a nuisance: making a highway crowded when we are rushing somewhere, cluttering and littering the beach or park or wood, pushing in front of us at the supermarket, taking the last parking place, polluting our air and water, building a highway through our house, blocking our view, and so on. Because we have cut off so much communication with each other we keep bumping into each other, and thus a higher and higher percentage of our interpersonal contacts are abrasive.
Memory, community, and hospitality. Christian sojourners are people of the Book who love one another and entertain angels. Without biblical memory, generous community, and sacrificial hospitality, no authentic Christian community can exist.
Order of Worship, November 7 2010
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