When Jesus said "Receive the Holy Spirit" (John 20:22), he said it to the assembled community. When St. Luke described the descent of the Holy Spirit it was upon the community, one hundred twenty (at least) praying and waiting followers of Jesus "together in one place" (Acts 2:1).
We are a community. We are not ourselves by ourselves. We are born into communities, we live in communities, we die in communities. Human beings are not solitary, self-sufficient creatures. As we realize both the necessity and the nature of our lives in community, we also become aware of the difficulty, the complexity, and, as Christians who are following Jesus, the seductions all around us to find an easier way, a modified community, a reduced community customized to my preferences, a "gated community."
Eugene Peterson, Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places
No comments:
Post a Comment