21st. April 2020.Daily Devotion.

I read an interesting article about disabled persons whose lives have been transformed during this Covid 19 lockdown. So much more of life has become available online, from virtual museums, through Skype doctor’s appointments to online church services. Some people who were locked in isolation because of disability are now better able to communicate with the wider community. “Being able to listen to my pastor preach, hear stories about…the wider community and have some leadership has made the difference. Of course, you can pray and have faith at home, but a big part of Christianity is community and it is difficult to feel cut off from that,” wrote Karin Turner, 42 who has a brain injury and is now able to go to church with her pastor in her living room.

Romans 12: 4-5

4 For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5 so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote:

Whoever cannot be alone should beware of community. Such people will only do harm to themselves and to the community. Alone you stood before God when God called you. Alone you had to obey God’s voice. Alone you had to take up your cross, struggle, and pray and alone you will die and give an account to God. You cannot avoid yourself, for it is precisely God who has singled you out. If you do not want to be alone, you are rejecting Christ’s call to you, and you can have no part in the community of those who are called…

But the reverse is also true. Whoever cannot stand being in community should beware of being alone. You are called into the community of faith; the call was not meant for you alone. You carry your cross, you struggle, and you pray in the community of faith, the community of those who are called. You are not alone even when you die, and on the day of judgment you will be only one member of the great community of faith of Jesus Christ…

Whoever cannot be alone should beware of community. Whoever cannot stand being in community should beware of being alone.

• Some folk thrive in community and find aloneness hard; others find aloneness easy and are less comfortable in community. The kingdom of heaven is both community and solitude and each of us may need to find the balance.

• Why do so many people in our society seem to fear being alone?

• Why do so many churches seem to be mere aggregates of individuals rather than true communities of faith?

• In what ways can a disciple establish a healthy balance between aloneness and community?

• Think times when you have intentionally been alone. How did it make you feel? What did you do? Did your aloneness have any impact on how you felt when you were with others again?

• Think about your experience in community. Do you feel an integral part of your community? Do you feel like you have a good balance between time in community and time alone?

Psalm 111:1-2

Praise the Lord!
I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart,
in the company of the upright, in the congregation.
Great are the works of the Lord, studied by all who delight in them.

If you know anyone who seems lonely, pray that they might discover true community. If you know anyone who seems afraid to be alone with themselves, pray that they might discover the joy of solitude, of being alone with God.

Remember especially those who long for community but have no choice today. Reach out and contact someone in our fellowship today.

Prayers

O Lord, when I am too much alone, help me seek community. When I am too dependent on the community, help me to set aside time to be alone.
Almighty God, whose Son had nowhere to lay his head: Grant that those who live alone may not be lonely in their solitude, but that, following in his steps, they may find fulfilment in loving you and their neighbours; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.