What does it mean to be a Christian and how do we encourage it? Important questions. The post Saintly Community appeared first on The Hugh Hewitt Show.
What does it mean to be a Christian and how do we encourage it? Important questions.
A British MP was recently denied the Eucharist at mass for his stance on a specific issue. One commentary on it produced this fascinating paragraph:
I’m sure that Chris Coghlan is a nice man, but that’s irrelevant, a distraction at best. We are not called to be nice, but to be saints, and not many of the saints were particularly nice. You get to be a saint through the constant spiritual transformation, necessary to perfect a friendship with Christ, a process not easily accommodated by the dominant and unchallenging contemporary lanyard culture, and one likely to be very irritating to the merely ‘nice’. If done properly.
“Lanyard culture” is apparently a Brit term referring to placing your corporate culture (the source of your lanyard) above other considerations. I think it is fair to say that developing as a Christian does create other priorities than allegiance to your lanyard identity.
The there is this interesting article on city planning that discusses how good cities operate on a sense of community, even when the city is way to large to actually be a community. What it makes clear is that people are shaped by other people. Thus the writer of Hebrews could say:
Let’s hold firmly to the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; and let’s consider how to encourage one another in love and good deeds, not abandoning our own meeting together, as is the habit of some people, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.
The city planning article discusses how the neighborhood model of cities that functions very well in Asia would not work in the US because of our far more individualistic nature and an inherent distrust of the other.
Americans are quite individualistic, and traditionally, historically, church has been the place of gathering and of community building. Where I live – out in the country of east Knox County Tennessee – the area I reside in is identified by the Baptist church that lies at its geographic center. This was very rural and entirely farming territory. Farming, particularly small operations like those in these hills, is a highly individualistic way to make a living. But every week those farmer came together in church and a community was formed. Nowadays not all of us in the area are farmers, but some farms remain. Not all of us go to that church, but that church remains the heart of the community In America, traditionally, church has built the community that is built by neighborhood architecture in east Asia.
Now, let’s think about this in term of becoming a saint. We see that community creates civility, which is part of saintliness, and we see that church builds community. I think we can therefore assume that church is necessary to becoming a saint.
I am going to church this morning. No virtual service, no digital church. This is a big part of the reason. Let’s go to church today. Let’s learn to be more saintly.
The post Saintly Community appeared first on The Hugh Hewitt Show.
