[Image: roofs, 2007, JAVanDevender], Seoul, SK - View from roof top garden.
8 To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, 9 and to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ;..... Ephesians 3:8–9 (NKJV)
Each man's death diminishes me, For I am involved in mankind.
Therefore, send not to know For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee. [John Donne]
Like an interlocking puzzle the houses join together, separated by narrow streets and alleys wide enough for small people and small cars, but not Texas size by any stretch of the imagination. Ground space is precious in a small country with an inordinately large proportion of mountains/sheer cliffs, etc. What ever is suitable for building is also, usually, suitable for growing vegetables and other food stuff, so it is not unusual to see high-rise apartments shooting up in the midst of cultivated fields. There is no question of spacious privacy... one must recognize the close quarters, adapt to it and give allowance for whatever sense of pressure that evokes in our spirit.
My mom used to say about city houses, which in Mississippi were not packed nearly as close as these homes, that she just "wouldn't live in one!" When pressed for a reason she would say "There's not enough room to skin a cat without getting fur on the neighbor's window." I have never seen my mom skin a cat but you get the idea.
Looking at those rooftops does remind me that such is life on this planet. We Americans prize our individuality and sense of separation. To be a "face in the crowd" is a bit repugnant to us. This is somewhat genetic. When our country was young and was filled with lonely wildernesses and spacious, virtually uninhabited plains, its very character did not appeal to the social minded but to the loners. It was those Emersonian types who delighted in solitude who found their home on the pine ridges of Tennessee or the stark plateaus of the high-plains. "Give me room, lots of room... don't fence me in" sang the mythical singing cowboy and it reflects much of what was once a uniquely American sensibility.
However much I am myself inclined to that very way of thinking, I have to admit that John Donne represents a more Biblical picture of humanity than this proud American individualism. Population growth on this planet is forcing a lot of re-evaluation across the board on many things. Americans are being confronted to the "nearness" of others, both through the internet and through physical proximity. Perhaps this is one way God is forcing His Church to re-evaluate not only her mission but her theology.
All too easily we American Christians read the Scriptures through American "individualistic" lenses. We take passages such as John 3:16 and we interpret them in terms of God's love for His world as God's love for individuals, as individuals, in His world. We rejoice in His direct salvation for us, as an individual, and we envision our lives as "walking with Jesus" in the "garden, alone... while the dew is still on the roses." We do not recognize how often, not always, but often, this can lead to idolatry. We do not see the peril of thinking about God as being there to save "me", that I am the focus of His affections, that all of God's world revolves around His love for ME! This individualistic trap can be deadly because it places a huge barrier to our understanding of the Kingdom of God, His purposes in creation and the sheer, wonder of God's saving work in Jesus Christ.
The emphasis in Scripture is of God's people, in social community (fellowship), existing and understanding themselves in organic relation to each other with Christ as their head (Eph. 2:19-22). Furthermore, to know Christ in His fullness, or better, to grow in our knowledge of Christ in His fulness, is a corporate activity. We simply cut ourselves off at the knees when we seek, like flagellating monks in some darkened monastery cell, to grow in Christ in "splendid isolation." It can't be done. That knowledge of Christ that we gain in such a fashion is a monstrous caricature of Him because we are not receiving the ministry of grace through fellowship. We are not functioning as an arm or a toe or even a fingernail in the larger body and hence we are not receiving the nourishment, the life, the pulsing vitality that is present in the "body". To know Christ is to know Him in and through His Kingdom (which is His visible Church) as that Kingdom, growing on the foundation of the prophets and the apostles (Scripture) is providentially ordered and ruled and guided by His Spirit.
"Fellowship" is not identical with coffee and donuts and trivial conversation. "Fellowship" is the intense reality of family, of mutual submission, of loving forebearance, of integrated reality. It is a blessing and a duty. It is a work and a fruit. It is a calling and a resting place. It is Christ, present on earth, manifesting His reality and signifying that there is a God in this world and that He is calling men everywhere to repent and "kiss the son" lest He be angry.
Fellowship is a miracle. It is the miracle of realizing that, as God's children, we are all in this together, and we had better, as with the Koreans, adapt our lives to that reality so as to discover, with amazement, how sweet it truly is.
Comments