On Belonging To Each Other--July 19, 2022

On Belonging To Each Other--July 19, 2022

"For though absent in body, I am present in spirit; and as if present I have already pronounced judgment in the name of the Lord Jesus on the man who has done such a thing." [1 Corinthians 5:3-4a]

Here's another dangerous step into the minefield: none of us [he braces for an explosion] is the sole authority of our own lives.  [He looks around to see the fallout and waits for the dust to settle.]

In the Christian community in particular, I am not the lone stakeholder in my own life, and my decisions are never just mine to make.  To be honest, this is a pretty important notion within both the Christian and Jewish faiths [not to mention most other faith traditions], and it directly collides with the hyper-individualistic "Nobody-can-tell-me-what-to-do" mindset of contemporary American civil religion. As strange as it can sound to American ears that are used to everything being about "my and my personal rights," the Christian faith has a lot more in common with the idea popularized in the Zulu and Xhosa traditions of South Africa known as "ubuntu," which says that my humanity is bound up in the humanity of everybody else.  It's often summarized by the shorthand expression, "I am because we are," and it doesn't start with me as the lone individual but with our life together as community. For American churchgoers who are used to having faith reduced to a set of correct personal beliefs to get yourself into the right afterlife location, it will always sound a little strange to discover that the New Testament itself is a lot more interested in our life together as community than it is with my individual rights.

But only with that much clear will Paul's claims here make any sense.  He is writing to the congregation at Corinth from hundreds of miles away, and yet he claims that he can speak with authority to the situation going on there, and that the whole community has a stake in the messy love triangle between a man, his father, and his father's wife.  To a culture that treats, "I can do whatever I want and nobody can stop me" like a national creed, it is startling to hear Paul insist he has both the authority and obligation to step in and address the situation.  But he does, and he lays the groundwork--following Jesus' blueprints--for the Christian community to be the kind of place where we do take responsibility for one another's well-being and hold one another accountable.  And even though it can be uncomfortable to deal with, it really is good news that we can be that kind of community for one another.

When a congregation or larger group has to deal with allegations of abuse or misconduct, for example, it is often painful and difficult for the whole community to have to tell uncomfortable truths, or remove people from situations where others could be harmed.  But it is absolutely essential for a community that cares about the well-being of the most vulnerable to be able to step in and stop behavior that risks harming others.  Similarly, if a member of the Christian community is steeped in racism and promotes that kind of hatred toward other people, the whole community has to be able to speak up and call out what is anti-Christ about that kind of conduct--regardless of whether someone insists "I have the right to think whatever I want."  The church's job isn't to prosecute people for crimes, but it is our role as a community to make it clear what is, and is not, in line with the way of Jesus. And in the same way, when someone is fighting a losing battle with addiction, sometimes the rest of the community has the obligation to step up and compel the person to deal with it in an intervention--to get the person to see that their current choices are affecting others, even if they cannot see that, and even if they insist, "It's my life and I can do what I want."  Because that's the thing--none of us really has "just my life."  Each of our lives connect with everybody else's, and my choices leave marks on yours as well.  

I can't ignore that I bear responsibility for how my life sends ripples into the lives of others, and just saying, "It's my right to do what I want" doesn't give a hall pass to go trampling through the lives of others. If we have built our systems and structures only in terms of "me and my rights" we will not have the tools to be able to say, "Well, but what about our responsibilities to one another?"  But if we are willing to see, as Paul would have us do, that we all have a stake in each other's lives, then it will mean sometimes we have to speak up and say, "This kind of conduct is harmful to all of us, and it cannot continue."  It is that sort of truth-telling that makes it possible to offer help to those who are either already hurt by someone else's destructive choices, or to those who need to change their actions and to be able to be restored to community.  None of it is easy.  None of it is fun.  And it cannot be about anybody's need just to control others.  But it is necessary for us as a community of people whose lives are messy--and whose lives depend on one another's--to be able to intervene when someone's actions and choices endanger our collective well-being.

Today, our challenge is not to make ourselves into nosy meddlers or busybodies.  But it is our calling to be ready to speak up when someone's actions are causing harm to others, and to address those situations, regardless of how uncomfortable it can be, or how much it runs counter to our American obsessions with "me and my rights."  Sometimes love calls us to set aside worry about "my rights" so that I can more fully be present for the needs of my neighbor, and sometimes love will call them to do the same for me. That's how we navigate this life together--we have each other.

Lord God, give us the courage to speak up for the well-being of our whole community, even when it means telling difficult truths together.