Luke-Acts: Community of Place

We have spent the last several months talking about Luke and the significance of the table in Luke. We talked a lot about this "table" being a metaphor for God's intention, which is that people would be brought into fellowship with Him. As we venture into ACTS, Luke's second book, we see God’s Church emerge as the ultimate representation of that fellowship.

But the Church is about more than fellowship. Country-clubs, alumni groups and other social organizations provide great food and fellowship for people each week as well. CS Lewis reminds us that the church differs from these other organizations in that they all provide a "unity of likings". In other words, people with common interests and tastes and probably similar backgrounds and political opinions, tend to gather in social groups around the world. They "like" the same stuff and they join organizations (like golf clubs) that offer them the opportunity to hang out with people of similar likings. But more than a community of likings, the church is a community of place. People come together simply because it is THE place God calls them to be, not because they all like the same stuff or have similar backgrounds, but because it is God's institution to change them and the world around them.

Obviously there are potentially big problems for churches who deal improperly with the tendency of people to gravitate towards "likings". We see some churches that are really nothing more than a gathering of likings; everyone looks sort of the same, drives similar cars, even dress sort of alike each Sunday. Many people spend their lives church shopping, hunting for that place where they "like" everyone and everyone there likes the same sort of stuff they do. Such an environment and such an attitude produce churches that are an inch deep and a mile wide. My experience is that they are often big and slick, have great coffee bars and nifty websites. Many of their "likings" are best seen in their corporate worship expressions which are measured by a slicker-the-better mentality and judged by how entertaining they are for the masses.

I don't think railing against the "community of likings" mentality is the most useful thing I could say to our congregation at Springfield. One look around and it's pretty easy to see that we are not geared to keep that crowd. We are not all alike, not from the same social clubs or political parties or economic backgrounds. We don't put a lot of effort into making our services slick or entertaining. However, if we don't watch it we may be guilty of falling down the other side of that slippery slope. The other side is perhaps not as shallow, but if left unchecked, can be as arrogant as the other side is shallow. It's a side which I might call the "if-you-don't-like-it-lump-it" side. This side correctly says, "We are not here to entertain you!" Then, rather than admit there might be room for diversity in what people like and don't like...we draw up a list as long as your arm of Biblical reasons to justify our dislike for the community of likings crowd. This side of the coin refuses to admit that actually liking something (say a worship service or a Bible study group) is possible.

This week we will talk about how we make those decisions by looking at how the early church used to make those decisions.

Mark