Sermon Title: Community: a gift or a pain?
Scripture: Mark 10:23-31
What can we learn from Rat Park (Dr. Bruce Alexander)
The gift of community in the local church is the 2-fold answer to the human condition.
We need other people
We need Jesus.
And we can only learn to follow him WITH other people.
“Spiritual formation primarily occurs in the context of community. We become like Jesus for the most part in relationships. People who remain connected with their brothers and sisters in the local church almost invariably grow in self-understanding and they mature in their ability to relate in healthy ways to God and to their fellow human beings. This is especially the case for those courageous christians who stick it out through the often messy process of interpersonal discord and conflict resolution. Long-term interpersonal relationships are the crucible of genuine progress in the Christian life. People who stay grow. People who leave do not. It is a simple profound biblical reality that we both grow and thrive together or we do not grow much at all.” “When the Church was a family” - Dr. Joseph Hellerman
Either Jesus was wrong and community wasn’t so great after all. Or the inherent brokenness and pain of community doesn’t make it any less a gift from God.
The gift is that you are broken just like everyone else, and God’s grace can make enough room in this community to carry both your brokenness and your healing.
Addtional Notes:
Mark 10:23-31
And Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” And the disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” And they were exceedingly astonished, and said to him, “Then who can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.” Peter began to say to him, “See, we have left everything and followed you.” Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first.