Two Together = Faith Squared
This is a piece I wrote some time ago that I've already shared with some of you. For those of you to whom it's redundant, you can skip over it. But part of my purpose in putting it out there is to see whether I can integrate a Word document into a post. I'm learning on the fly, as it were. If it works, I might have a couple of others later on. Besides, the theme of the thing is integral to what I'm trying to do here.Cheers!
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TWO TOGETHER = FAITH SQUARED
By Jeff Eldridge
It's obvious to most of us that having and maintaining a personal relationship with Jesus is central to the Christian life. Too many of us don't fully realize, however, that that's not the whole of the formula. Jesus makes plain that we're to live our relationship with him as part of a body of believers -- the "body of Christ" on Earth. He makes plain that we're not freelancers, that the proper exercise of our faith isn't a solo act. Surely there's a reason he tells us: "Where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them." (Matthew 18:20)
Years ago, when I was a college student (and a not-nearly formed Christian), I had a conversation with a non-believing friend. The subject of this passage came up and he had a real problem with it: "Yeah," he protested, "well what about where one or more is gathered? Where's God then?" His question made sense. I had no answer for him.
But here's what I know now: Of course the Lord is with us when we're alone. I'm sure many of us have had some of our most profound spiritual moments when we were alone. There are times when God sets us apart from others so that he can bring us to a place where he has our undivided attention. But we're also called to fellowship with the maxim that tells us "iron sharpens iron," (Proverbs 27:17) and most of the time that sharpening isn't made sufficient at one pass. It's through repeated scraping that the desired blade edge is achieved; through patient polishing that it's brought to its desired finish. In other words, when two or more of us are gathered in his name, we're able to support and encourage one another in the faith. When we gather repeatedly, habitually and prayerfully, we're able to promote in one another the Christian way of life. It's essential we realize that our mission isn't just to make ourselves better Christians, but to also make each other better Christians.
It seems to me that this notion lies beneath the surface of the Gospel story in which Jesus sends out the seventy-two as related in Luke:
"After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. He told them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. Do not take a purse or bag or sandals; and do not greet anyone on the road.
"When you enter a house, first say, 'Peace to this house.' If a man of peace is there, your peace will rest on him; if not, it will return to you. Stay in that house, eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages. Do not move around from house to house." (Luke 10:1-7)
What catches my attention here is that Jesus sent them out in pairs. Why in pairs? After all, he could've covered twice as much ground if he had sent them out one by one. It seems to me that Jesus valued quality over quantity. Perhaps he determined that his disciples could be more effective if each had another with him. It seems logical enough if you consider the difficulty of the mission. Our Lord told them to expect rejection -- even persecution. We know that the authorities of the time were not terribly pleased with Jesus and the offbeat sect he'd been gathering around himself. They reviled Jesus because he openly challenged their authority. In fact, he did more than just challenge it -- he laid claim to it. This kind of behavior had created a lot of enemies. "I am sending you out like lambs among wolves."
He also tells them, "Do not take a purse or bag or sandals . . ." He's essentially telling them to travel empty-handed with no material possessions -- literally -- except the clothes on their backs. All he's giving them for their journey is their faith -- and each other. I don't think we can overestimate the value of a friend and fellow believer in a situation like that.
Think about the awesome privilege -- and the awesome responsibility -- it must have been to be one of the first people to carry the truth of the fulfillment of the Word of God to the human race. I sometimes think about what the scriptures don't tell us. I imagine two men -- perhaps perfectly ordinary men but for the company they've been keeping -- men with no special talents and no special courage. I imagine them walking together at the end of a difficult day. It may have been one of their less successful days and, not having a place to stay, they settle down to sleep on as hospitable a piece of ground as they can find. They're sweaty, dusty and grimy. They may or may not have eaten that day. Night has fallen and they lay on their backs staring up into the sky. In the face of their exhaustion -- and perhaps even fear and uncertainty -- they gaze at the stars before them. They illuminate the night without number, yet these men have walked with, talked with and broken bread with the one who put them there.
Imagine what they must have talked to each other about! I'd bet that such conversations helped them deepen one another's faith. I'd also bet there were times when they had to lean on one another when the going got tough. The "two together" that Jesus sent out were -- by design -- not left alone to face their challenges. Those challenges must've been daunting, to say the least. One wonders at how critical it must have been that they had each other for mutual encouragement, support and accountability. The Lord had entrusted to these men a key task in his ministry. He evidently felt that none of them could accomplish it on his own.
"Do not move around from house to house." Why not? Why not visit as many houses as possible in order to reach more people? Jesus, I think, wanted his disciples to build relationships. To spend enough time with people -- with families and groups of friends -- so that foundations could be established based upon trust and understanding. This is how the Gospel is most effectively shared. To put it another way, the seed of the Word has a better chance of taking root if it's planted rather than simply broadcast indiscriminately. Furthermore, it looks for good soil and in most cases, the good soil it looks for is cultivated rather than found.
I also suspect that Jesus didn't just haphazardly pair these men off. The greatest talent of any leader is the ability to bring out the best in each individual in his charge and to help those individuals work well together. Who could possibly have done this better than our Lord, who knows everyone's heart? Surely he knew these men's strengths and weaknesses and worked with them. My speculation is that he carefully matched them according to his perfect sense of their individual capacities and compatibilities. Exactly how and why he did this is pure conjecture, of course. But I think we can comfortably assume that he sent his disciples out in pairs because he saw that there was value in doing so. It seems to me that he very consciously sent them out to talk, preach and teach as "two or more come together in my name." Two together, in this case, was much more than the sum of its parts.
We all know that in many instances, whether in marriage, business, a musical group -- what have you -- a partnership or team may accomplish far more than could its individual members separately. There's an essence to collaboration that's somehow beyond the scope of individual striving. Individual effort is vital in any endeavor and must not be underestimated in its importance, but two or more people striving toward a common goal has a transcendence all its own. For an example of the truth of this, look at any great athlete in any team sport who's never won a championship. If you're a sports fan, how many times have you heard a star player say he would gladly give up all his individual honors and accomplishments to have won a single championship? When retired athletes reminisce about their playing days, what do most of them say they miss the most? They always seem to say that it's their teammates, the camaraderie they had, their sense of shared purpose.
The great Christian thinker, John Donne, once said, "No man is an island." I think he had it right. God designed us to live and thrive in community with one another. This is true of culture in general and it's especially true of the church. The Bible describes us as members of a single body (See 1 Corinthians 12:12:31). A finger or a foot or an eye is not self-contained but rather, each is part of an integrated whole. In the same way, we, as individual Christians, have unique gifts, abilities, dispositions and tendencies that are incomplete in and of themselves, but which can find transcendence in concert with the gifts of others. Not only does spiritual collaboration allow us to maximize our gifts; in doing so it reminds us that those gifts were not given us solely for our self-aggrandizement. In fact, when we are properly in tune with God, we actually get more enjoyment and fulfillment from our gifts by sharing them than we do by trying to keep them (or worse, by trying to claim them) for ourselves.
The whole essence of the Christian walk is to take up one's cross, an act that's inherently self-giving. The idea, of course, is to imitate Christ, whose ultimate act of self-giving is the source of our salvation. It is also a very hard thing to do. It's hard to deny oneself. It's hard to sacrifice when it hurts. It's hard to love our neighbor at moments when he or she seems decidedly unlovable. Jesus knows this. It seems plain to me that because he knew this two thousand years ago, he set us up as a church rather than as a bunch of individuals on wholly independent pilgrimages to Heaven. Most of us simply aren't that good. We need to be encouraged, we need to be reminded, we need to be admonished and at times we need to be re-directed if we've wandered off the path. (And if this doesn't apply to you, it's all the more imperative that you be a part of the Christian community because the rest of us need your help!)
It seems to me that these are just a few examples of why Jesus, in his infinite wisdom, established his faithful as a church. It's by his design that we're to be, not free agents, but brothers and sisters in the Lord, yoking ourselves to one another, the better for Him to help us work out our salvation -- together.
We're living in a society that's becoming increasingly atomized. We Americans continue to live lives in which we've become more and more isolated from one another. It's a sad fact that the way of life for too many of us is to work all day, come home tired and stressed out, eat supper and vegetate in front of the TV until we fall asleep on the couch. Television and the internet are hailed as miracle technologies that bring us the world. This is true as far as it goes, but in bringing us the world they also tend to cut us off from each other. Time spent chatting online is time not spent chatting over our hedgerows. Too many of us hardly know our neighbors on anything beyond a "Hi, how ya doin'" basis, but we make darn sure we keep up with the characters on our favorite TV shows. The convenience of technology and home entertainment have served to eliminate any real need for us to engage -- much less to know and love -- our neighbors.
It was of great comfort that, in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Americans genuinely pulled together in a spirit of community. I think this shows that in spite of our growing personal isolation, we still carry a deep-seated need for such community -- a need that surfaces when it really counts. It's intrinsic to the human condition. Jesus knew this about us, and I hardly think this knowledge was inconsequential in his establishing us as a community of believers. Again, yes, we must have at the center of our faith a deeply personal relationship with Christ. But we must also recognize that that relationship radiates out to our fellow believers and from them to us. That fellowship is part of the lifeblood that keeps our personal relationship with Jesus healthy and vibrant.
The basic element of Christian fellowship is "two or three come together in my name, (and) I with them." It's more than just going to church, hearing a sermon, singing some songs and going back home. It's being with each other and sharing the common bond of him with us, helping each other to think and act as Christ would, to the best of our limited abilities.
In his life and ministry, our Lord showed us what Christian community is -- and that it's critical to our lives as his followers. And as if to underscore the point, I don't think it's by coincidence that as the last official act of his ministry, just before he was to be given up to his death, Jesus brought his closest friends together to share a meal.
posted by cjamster @ 4:36 PM
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