Devin Strong, Spirit of Peace Lutheran Church

An argument can be made that as modern people, we are more isolated than ever. We no longer have to shop at the mall because Amazon will deliver almost everything that we need to our doorsteps. We don’t have to go to the video store because Netflix has any movie you could want.

Spotify has done away with the need for record stores.

You can avoid the people at the grocery store with Kroger pick up, or better yet, home delivery. There are even apps out there that will curate your news and information for you so that you never see or hear an opinion different from your own. With very little effort, you and I can live our lives barely seeing another human being, much less groups of them. If we are not careful, our modern lives can become very solitary.

One thing that church is good at is bringing groups of people together. Don’t get me wrong – online church services have their place, but church is best together. We are far from perfect. 11 AM on Sunday morning is still the most segregated hour in America, as Dr. King warned us, but these days church is one of the few places where many Americans are likely to meet someone with a different lifestyle, financial means, or voting habit from their own. Church is a cross-section of America. It is the place where we meet people at every point in their faith journey. Our job is to be different from one another so that we can guide, mentor, and love on each other.

People with one set of gifts teach others with another set of gifts, and together, we become a more well-rounded people of God.

Sure, you can do faith on your own, and people do. You can read your Bible at home and pray all alone, and your faith is perfectly genuine; but who is going to challenge you and help you grow? Who is going to be the irritant that teaches you to forgive? Who are you going to serve? Who are you going to work beside? Who is going to give you that big hug that feels like Jesus when you desperately need it? You can be a Christian all on your own, but it’s a whole lot harder.

In the church we come together not just for regular Sunday worship services but also for special occasions and crucial rites of passage, like baptisms, weddings, and funerals. Recently, I had the pleasure of baptizing two beautiful, rambunctious small boys. Their moms recognized that it was time for these little guys to experience being claimed and named by the Lord of Love. Of course, God loved them just the same before Baptism and even without Baptism, but there is something about standing in the midst of a group of people and hearing it proclaimed for all to hear. So it is with weddings. You can certainly get hitched without the community. After all, marriage is just a contract giving each party certain legal rights; and for sure, you can die without anyone taking notice. But when the community comes together, promises are made, feelings are honored, and love is shared.

In our highly digitized and individualized world, let us give thanks for the communities that make us rich.