itsawonderfilledlife

This week, at different times and in separate contexts, three words keep surfacing:

community

different people sharing life together

exclusivity

omitting or excluding 

evangelism

reaching out to others with the good news of Jesus

On first glance, they might not go together, but, after a conversation on this dark and monsoon-rainy night, I began to see a thread connecting them all.

We humans seek community with others. We are constantly seeking open gates into cozy and accepting spaces full of others. We need each other. We long, with everything in us, to know that we are not alone. 

But, fear enters the picture. We build walls around our communities. We lock the gates, and post a guard. Our desire to not be alone, can cause us to protect the community we have found or achieved, resulting in exclusivity.

Any community can easily become exclusive, and these exclusive communities can be found on our streets, in our schools, our workplaces and our churches. Turning our cherished communities into gangs or cliques.

Community is the desired, the goal.

Exclusivity is the result of fear.

But, there is a third word,

evangelism.

Evangelism is the reaching out to others with the good news of Jesus.

In a sense, it is the heart and foundation of community, being offered to us all. It is the anecdote for the fear that leads us to exclusivity, and exclusivity is the reason Christ came. He came not just for the Jew, but the Gentile as well … a new, inclusive community.

Evangelism is the reason for human community. We strive to share the good news of Jesus, because he is the one that can not only eliminate fear, but he fills the void with the communion (community) of saints.

Protect our community from exclusivity … share the good news.