We were reflecting on belonging to a larger community than just being an individual swimming in this individualistic culture. The father observed about his son and family in Calgary. “They belong to nothing.” There was a pause. “They have membership in a sports club, but they pay a subscription for that membership.” He concluded, “They belong to nothing.”
The heat wave of the past six weeks has raised some very alarming questions. During the height of the heat wave the province of British Columbia reported a sudden spike in the daily death count. The sudden surge in daily deaths was due to many elderly persons, with no air conditioning, dying alone of heat exhaustion. I want to ask, “But where are their families? Where are the people who would check up on them when it is so hot?” Is this where life is going to lead us? Dying alone with no one interested enough to check up on us during a heat wave?
We have moved in the past five generations into a strongly individualistic society. Each one is on their own. I can pay my own way. I can look after myself and I feel no need to contribute to the larger society around me. Less and less we choose to live in inter-dependence.
As a society this rugged individualism leads us to a cliff where we will fall off in loneliness.
The majority of younger Canadians have opted not to belong to church or to anything else. Not only are our churches becoming smaller but all the service organizations have disappeared. Why do I want to become involved in a service organization when we have everything we need for a good life provided for?
We are living through a period when people will honestly say, “Why would I want to belong to a church when I don’t belong to anything else?” These people are looking after themselves quite well. They are contributing to their pension plans so that there will be resources for them when they can no longer work to support themselves. If they do not belong they do not contribute to anything in the community. This is a receipe for social disaster.
If we have any doubts about our need to live as inter-dependent persons we have only to consider the two ends of life. The child needs about eighteen years of nurturing and support. The elderly grandmother may need almost as many years of support at the other end of life.
Our churches must live in this very individualistic world. This is a very lonely society. You could end up an eighty year old who dies alone in a heat wave because there is no one who would even be concerned enough to check up on you.
This is where we must work hard in our churches to actually become a community of faith. A community that is clearly focused on the project of Jesus and a community that grows and cares for one another. We must have a personal stake in our personal survival and the survival of others within the faith community. We need a conversion towards community, towards belonging and willing to work towards the well-being of each other.
Dig back into our roots. The first Christians were an illegal religion. They needed each other just to survive that that hostile society. It was also one of the most creative times of our Church’s life.
The challenge is right before us.
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