Community
James Cathcart
May 29, 2017
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Acts 1:6-14
6 Then they gathered round him and asked him, ‘Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?’
7 He said to them: ‘It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.’
9 After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.
10 They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. 11 ‘Men of Galilee,’ they said, ‘why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.’
Matthias chosen to replace Judas
12 Then the apostles returned to Jerusalem from the hill called the Mount of Olives, a Sabbath day’s walk[a] from the city. 13 When they arrived, they went upstairs to the room where they were staying. Those present were Peter, John, James and Andrew; Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew; James son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James. 14 They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.
After Jesus had gone up to heaven, his disciples gathered together in an upper room. Verse 14 describes the scene:
“All these were constantly devoting themselves to prayer, together with certain women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, as well as his brothers.”
So upstairs, in what is perhaps a more private family space, you have got people of both genders, and a range of ages with a mix of familial and other ties, worshipping together with a common purpose. We see a blended family in a quirky domestic environment where the members are bonded not through simply genetics or marriage but a shared life, where men and women, young and old, share together.
I lived on the Scargill Movement in rural North Yorkshire for just under a year. As a member of the Christian community I lived, worked, worshiped and socialised, with the same core group the whole time. Sometimes we would say goodbye to members of the community who were moving on and at other times we would welcome new members, but for the most part the group stayed roughly the same.A rotation of guests made for new interactions and conversation but the community were bound tightly together, working closely side by side through the seasons.
As you can imagine this was awesome and annoying, wonderful and difficult, lovely and frustrating. Living in such close proximity meant tensions and conflicts arose like they would in any extended family, but it was also an enriching, stimulating and rewarding time. The experience made me more accountable and consistent as a person. I couldn’t shift personas between work, home, church and my social life because they all were wrapped up in one another. Best of all I met the woman who would become my wife!
Living ‘on community’ made me more generous than I felt like being, more considerate than it would have occurred to me to be, and a better listener than I thought I could be. A residential Christian community, like Scargill (or Iona or Northumbria) is a concentrated microcosm of life with the highs and lows intensified. At its best life on community gave me wonderful glimpses of what it means to work together side by side to help ‘build the kingdom.’ The proximity meant it was easier to spot the connections between us - how we were working together to achieve the same goals. The phrase we used was ‘intentional community’ making the decision to work together to realise shared dreams. Life on community isn’t for everyone, but I would urge you to think closely about the communities you are a part of and how you can be more ‘intentional’ about them, making the decision to contribute and share meaningfully with others.
Dear God,
May the Word of Life,
shape my conversations with family
and friends
and help me to
blur the difference
between the two.
Help me to cherish,
thank,
and bear with the family
I am born into,
join,
and create.
Amen.
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