Community and the Good Life

1 Corinthians 12:12-26

12 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.

14 Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many. 15 If the foot would say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 16 And if the ear would say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? 18 But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. 19 If all were a single member, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many members yet one body. 21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” 22 On the contrary, the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and those members of the body that we think less honorable we clothe with greater honor, and our less respectable members are treated with greater respect, 24 whereas our more respectable members do not need this. But God has so arranged the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior member, 25 that there may be no dissension within the body, but the members may have the same care for one another. 26 If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it.

I’ve always found this passage from Paul to be quite genius in explaining community and diversity.  As an introvert who tends to run on the assumption that things are just better when I can be alone, this passage always helped me understand the necessity of community. 

It would make me picture myself as a hand or an eyeball or a brain or some particular part of my body and how I would be stranded and fairly useless without an arm, a head, a torso, and feet and all the other parts dependent on one another that help me function.  I am very glad to have all of the parts of my body, and that is usually as far as this metaphor would go for me in previous readings of this passage: my whole body is a good thing and so is having a community to be surrounded by.

But this time reading it I was struck more by the necessity of a diverse community than just a community itself.  Maybe it’s the season of life I am in where I work from home and an no longer surrounded by the hustle and bustle of people constantly that my introverted self can finally run on a mostly full battery and actually seek out and enjoy the company of others because I can show up with a full tank rather than run on fumes like what I worked a desk job.

And in this season, when I find I am up for community unlike I have ever been before, I am not struck with the idea that it is good to be with others, I’m already feeling that on my own!  I am more struck with reflecting on the members that make up the community I surround myself with.  

When I think about it honestly, I tend to seek out those more like me.  A hand wanting to hold other hands rather than hang around the recovering stubbed toe.

Paul’s words this time have reminded me that my life is not truly good, the way God says it can be good, outside of community, but even more so it is not truly good outside of a diverse community.

Now I don’t think this means I need to kick all my friends and like-minded or like-gifted people to the curb and find different ones, but it does remind me, especially in an election year like this one, that life is not really good when I think about certain things as “us vs. them”.  Life is not really good when I think of it as “me vs. the world”.  Life is not really good when I’m always in my comfort zone (note…I think it’s ok to be comfortable, but when our decisions are all made based on how comfortable something will make me, I think that’s the problem)

It may be frustrating or even scary sometimes to butt heads with others in community, and some personalities and viewpoints can chafe sometimes.   It usually feels safer to be with like-minded or like-tempered people.  It makes life smoother.

It reminds me of the saying, “great minds think alike,” and often use it to celebrate being in agreement about things. But did you know  that’s not the whole saying?  We’ve lost the last little bit, probably out of convenience: “Great minds think alike, though fools seldom differ.” 

When we surround ourselves with like-minded people all the time we get stuck in an echo chamber.  We can also get just plain old stuck.  Without diversity of perspectives and giftings we tend to just keep doing the same old thing, which may be fine…but what about when the same old thing just isn’t working any more?  What about when habits have gotten you in a rut?  What about when the path you’re on is bypassing or possibly even intentionally avoiding certain areas of life that need to be addressed?

Community and diverse community (and this is not just culturally diverse…we’re talking age, socioeconomic status, married/single, religious affiliation, family background, and so much more) helps us see what we can’t see on our own.  Grow to places we couldn’t get to on our own.  Understand things we were ignorant of.  Challenge us in ways where we have to really think about what we believe and how we want to live.

True, healthy community pushes us, it can be hard, it can be uncomfortable, but it is very good.