Socialised sacrifice, privatised privilege…

I think most people are familiar with the idea that our economic recession is due, at least in part, to the legitimised “privatisation of gains and socialisation of losses”.

I think it’s very similar with Christianity; we have privatised comfort and socialised sacrifice.

Recently, through a quote, I realised anew that God’s plan is not a saved individual changing the world, even though it includes individuals saved and being used of God. Rather, God transforms people, into “a people”, for the testimony of a new type of society under God, living differently and together in the same world.

In the sermon on the mount, Jesus speaks to his disciples in plurality, which includes individuality.
The apostles wrote to churches, to the Ecclesia, to communities on the Christian journey together.
All of God’s love-attributes are revealed in one-anotherness and mutuality. Mercy, faithfulness, kindness, gratitude and service are all displayed in community. It’s impossible to live humbly without another person, or show gratitude without anyone else present.

George Bernard Shaw said independence is middle-class blasphemy. He was right. Go for a stroll through the average Christian book store and witness the sacrilege of suburban isolation.
Wine is found in the cluster, which means, many individual grapes, together. (Isa 65v8)

The gospel makes sense in community, of community, through community.
Discipling becomes painful and unartistic if it’s more programmed than communal.
Grant Askham often reminds me that we prepare kids for life in homes, we teach them to swim by getting with them into a swimming pool, not with a manual and whiteboard.

Very simply, I think I’ve been far too individualistic in my gospel, my discipling, my understanding of sermons and my reading of the bible.

That’s all I wanted to say.