The Isolation Story: Us Away From Them

The Isolation Story: Us Away From Them

January 26, 2025
Proverbs 18:1-2 (NRSV), Matthew 5:13-16

Series based on The Seventh Story, by Brian McLaren & Gareth Higgins

Then the Lord God said, “It’s not good that the human is alone. I will make him a helper that is perfect for him.” 

Genesis 2:18

You are the light of the world. A city on top of a hill can’t be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a basket. Instead, they put it on top of a lampstand, and it shines on all who are in the house.  In the same way, let your light shine before people, so they can see the good things you do and praise your Father who is in heaven.

Matthew 5:14-16

_______________

The Isolation Story is one of separation, often driven by the belief that the world is too corrupt to engage with.  It is a form of escapism, where we simply want to disconnect from the evils of the world and isolate ourselves in a perfect little “Christian” community.

The Essenes were a Jewish sect in the first century who embodied this story, retreating from society to form isolated communities in the wilderness.  John the Baptizer is among the most well known of this group.  They believed that the world had become so impure that the only way to maintain faithfulness was through complete withdrawal.

Jesus, however, rejected this path of isolation. He declared, "You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden... let your light shine before others”. Rather than retreating from the world, Jesus calls His followers to transform it through their presence. He modeled a life of engagement, healing, and teaching, calling His disciples to be agents of change in the world, not isolated from it.

Our times are filled with escapist theology that treats the earth as dispensable because we are just biding our time until we get to some other worldly heaven. While we await this final destination somewhere else, many seek to live out the Isolation Story by creating “Christian” subcultures that choose separation from the world in the name of purity or faithfulness.  We want our own music, our own movies, our own coffee shops, our own schools, our own neighborhoods, and on and on it goes.  It’s ironic that we seem to want all the things the world offers, but just in a uniquely “Christian” version so we can pretend we are separate from it all. 

We are to be in the world, not of it.  Too often, however, we live as people of the world, but not in it.  Studies show that the everyday lives of self-proclaimed Christians don’t look that much different than any other group, but our determination to separate ourselves allows us to turn a blind eye to the needs around us.  Jesus' call challenges us to step into the world, bringing His light into even the darkest corners.  Our light does no good in a well lit isolated room.  If we are to be agents of transformation, bringing God’s kingdom to earth, we must be fully engaged in this broken world God so dearly loves.

•  Are there areas of your life where you withdraw from the world to maintain purity?

• How can you engage more fully with your community, bringing God’s light into dark places?

Not Alone

Not Alone

September 29, 2024
John 13:34-35, 1 John 4:7-17

“I give you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, so you also must love each other.  This is how everyone will know that you are my disciples, when you love each other.”

 John 13:34-35

_______________

A story is told of a pastor who trudged through the snow to a rustic log cabin where a parishioner lived.  It had been several months since this hermit of a man had stepped foot in the church, though church members often saw him around town.  The man welcomed the pastor in, offered him a hot cup of coffee and they sat down together in the warm glow of a crackling fire. 

Following their brief but cordial greeting, silence settled over the space.  Not an awkward silence, mind you, rather a holy silence, filled with the whispers of the Holy Spirit to both pastor and parishioner alike.  After a while the pastor reached out and, with a set of wrought iron tongs, he pulled a burning ember out of the fire and placed it carefully on the stone hearth.  The light from the tiny wood chip faded and smoke began to rise.  In no time, this little isolated fire had gone out.

The pastor then carefully placed the smoldering ember back into the fire and in an instant, it glowed brighter than before. 

As he stood up to leave, the parishioner finally broke the silence.  “Thanks for the sermon, preacher.  I’ll see you on Sunday.”

Just like the man hidden away in the warmth of his secluded cabin, there comes a point when our isolated embers will burn out.  We are indeed the church scattered as we live out our faith in our everyday, individual lives, and we must be the church gathered, remaining in the Holy Fire of God’s love  expressed through the love of one another in community. 

If God is love, then relationships are the necessary channel through which that love is expressed and known. As those who seek to follow Christ’s example, we cannot pick and choose who we will love based on preference, affection, similar interests, or agreement of opinions.  We must love as Christ loved us.  We must be vulnerable, serve one another, and open our hearts to the stranger. 

John O’Donohue invites us to bless the space that exists between us so that the walls of division may have no place to stand, and that love will bind all of creation together in the heart of God. 

As a popular benediction from the United Methodist Hymnal declares,

Go now in peace to serve God and your neighbor in all that you do. Bear witness to the love of God in this world, so that those to whom love is a stranger will find in you generous friends.

__________

Consider a time when you felt the most lonely or isolated, when you felt like a stranger.  How did you experience God in that season of your life?

What does “community” mean to you?  Where do you most experience authentic community in your life?  Where do you truly belong?