Community and our need for it is a bigger than we think.
The idea of community so permeates the Scriptures that Jesus even sent two disciples to go fetch a donkey. Really?
Luke 19.29-30 – When he drew near to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount that is called Olivet, he sent two of the disciples, saying, “Go into the village in front of you, where on entering you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever yet sat. Untie it and bring it here.
Was this simply because they could not do so alone? Hardly. These men were fishermen, surely they could get a donkey alone. No, the simple truth taught here is that Jesus knows we are in need of community, even in the mundane of life. Maybe I am looking at this and overthinking it, or maybe I am not. I think there is something there, something simple yet profound.
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on Amazon, which comes out September 30th.
. It made me think through my meal habits with my family. The book has been a great read and is really making me think through a lot of stuff.
, Robert Putman reveals that there’s been a 33 percent decrease in families eating together over the last decades. And more than half of those families are watching television as they eat together. Over the same period there’s been a 45 percent decline in entertaining friends. Growing up I would ask each Sunday, “Who’s coming for dinner today?” Not whether but who, because I knew my parents always would have invited someone. “In the typical American household, the average number of dinners eaten together is three per week, with and average length of dinner being 20 minutes.” Many homes no longer even have a dining room. We protect ourselves from outsiders, but our security systems and garden gates are our prisons, cutting us off from community. Instead we get our community vicariously through soap operas. Friends is a television program or a Facebook number, not people with whom we eat and laugh and cry.” (pg. 46)
