Obstacles to Community

Peter Fitch, St. Croix VineyardSunday, October 19, 2014

Importance of Community

• Norman Lea’s ideas• Fort Mac problems• The need for a heart beat, a common heart

that reaches outside of itself• A group of friends is not necessarily a

community

Neither is a Task Force

The difference between a community and a group that is only issue-oriented, is that the latter see the enemy outside the group. The struggle is an external one; and there will be a winner and a loser. The group knows it is right and has the truth, and wants to impose it.

The real problem . . .

The members of a community know that the struggle is inside of each person and inside the community; it is against all the powers of pride, elitism, hate and depression that are there and which hurt and crush others, and which cause division and war of all sorts. The enemy is inside, not outside.

Jean Vanier, Community and Growth

Normal

US Navy Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry sent this message to General William Henry Harrison after his victory in the battle of Lake Erie, 1813: “We have met the enemy, and they are ours.”

Extraordinary

The danger . . .

In community, people let down barriers; appearances and masks disappear. But this is not easy. Many people have built up their personalities precisely by hiding their wounded hearts behind the barriers of independence and of the attitude, “I know, you don’t.” They are highly active and their activity is based on a need to assert, to

Ways of hiding

succeed, to control, to do projects and to be recognized. Others have constructed around their hearts a mask of depression, or of timidity or submission to others; they do dare allow their true person to rise up inside them.

Jean Vanier, Community and Growth

Acts 2: 41-4741 So then, those who had received his word were baptized; and that day there were added about three thousand souls. 42 They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe; and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles. 44 And all those who had believed were together and had all things in

Acts 2: 41-47

common, 45 and they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need. 46 Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.

Obstacles

• Wish Dream (Bonhoeffer)• Psychic rather than spiritual reality

(Bonhoeffer)• Wrong idea of what it is—cookie cutter

(Vanier)• Stagnant pool caused by elitism (Vanier)

More Obstacles

• Fear• Shame• Projection of evil upon others• Refusal to be vulnerable• Refusal to believe that we are worth very

much• Insisting that others care for us instead of

reaching out

Still more . . .

• Foisting “truth” upon others instead of building a garden in which God can work

• Not becoming better than we are• Not bringing our best self to the table• Not taking our part, finding a way to build

A way forward . . .

• “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:26)

• Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him” (John 14:23)

• So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith (Gal. 6:10)

A brilliant life . . .

• Northumbria: Availability and Vulnerability (both to God and to people)

• Community as container for active Presence of God (SCV)

• We join together to become more than we are and to make a place of welcome for all in need