by Rev Douglas Brauner

Community is not an option.

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking on this SoundCloud link.

“We must also consider how to encourage each other to show love and to do good things. We should not stop gathering together with other believers, as some of you are doing. Instead, we must continue to encourage each other even more as we see the day of the Lord coming.” 
Hebrews 10:24-25 God’s Word to the Nations

Rugged individualism is a term used for many of us who live in the west, especially if we grew up here. We don’t need other people. All we need is the wide, open, spaces of the prairie (as pictured with this lone bush, on top of a small hill, at the Paint Mines in Calhan, Colorado).

Paint Mines, Calhan, Colorado

My gut tells me that this bush is older than its size. Many of the bushes that surround this plant are in more protected areas. The wind cannot assail them, nor the rain beat sideways against them. They grow taller as they grow together, giving shelter to each other.

This guy is going it alone.

I often hear Christians say, “It’s just between me and God. I don’t need to worship with others.  I don’t need a community filled with hypocrites.” I’m not judging a person’s faith. That is between that person and God. However, we need each other. I need you and you need me. Yes, you need a broken, sinful, creature like me to encourage you. I need broken, sinful, people like you to encourage me.

We were not made to go at it alone.

There are times that we don’t get it right in the church. We hurt each other. We say dumb things to each other. We neglect each other. This doesn’t change the reality that we need each other. We are called to be Christ to one another.

It takes work to be a community, but thank God that he has given us his Spirit who calls us into community, and works through that community for his good. We are truly a band of sisters and brothers.

Copyright Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado