On reclaiming the word "community"

This reflection was first given on Sunday, April 28, 2013, at the ordination service for Reverend Jessica Tidwell at Smoke Rise Baptist Church in Stone Mountain, GA. It was commissioned by Rev. Tidwell to represent her own call to participate in and walk in solidarity with intentional Christian communities of equality and grace.

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“Ubuntu is very difficult to render into a western language. It speaks of the very essence of being human. When we want to give high praise to someone we say, ‘Yu, u nobuntu’; ‘Hey so-and-so has ubuntu.’ then you are generous, you are hospitable, you are friendly and caring and compassionate. You share what you have. It is to say, ‘my humanity is caught up, is inextricably bound up, in yours.’ we belong in a bundle of life. We say, “A person is a person through other persons.’”

The word “community” has become the ultimate church buzzword for my generation. Where once the “Sunday school” answer was Jesus or God, community has emerged as the answer to every question. I remember a time not too long ago when I was sitting among some friends for an Easter service on a beach in South Carolina. We were discussing, as part of our worship, what we were thankful for on that morning. Several of those gathered there proffered the same answer: community. One word. No explanation; no further discourse. Just one word. That interaction has left me wondering for a while if we have watered down this concept.

But then I come back to this quote from Desmond Tutu that, to me, fully and completely explains what community is, and should be. “My humanity is caught up, is inextricably bound up, in yours.” This is the essence of why many people seek ordination. It is less about “leading” people or being above lay members of the church. It is about walking in solidarity with one another, about burden sharing. It’s also about being the first to celebrate a victory and the last to leave a mourning household. After all, we belong to a bundle of life.

But the call into ordained ministry isn’t a singular process but a communal one. This is why I believe it is time for us to reclaim the word “community” from the annals of overused church vocabulary. We need to dust it off and shine it up and give it new life. Because to me, community means more than a gathering of people. It means that everyone is welcome to the table, even if some of them need high chairs. It means that the open doors of our churches should be met with the open arms and open hearts of our congregations.

I have the great opportunity to work with and walk along side of the youth at my church in Birmingham. These students give me hope, and they are why I am so greatly committed to intelligent, intentional youth ministry. These students see the pain and devastation in our world with much clearer vision than I ever did at their age. They see the violence in Syria. They hear the stories of rape in India. They know of the AIDS pandemic in Africa. They walk in solidarity with the oppressed on our own streets, recognizing the flaws in our systems that hurt and destroy in our own country. They get it. They understand what reclaiming community looks like. What living through one another should be.

Tonight we have in our company such a perfect sample of the Kingdom of God, of the greater community of the Christian church. We are ecumenical. Men, women. Ordained and lay. Young and old. Gay and straight. Tired and rejuvenated. Struggling and confident. Celebrating and mourning. Stranger and friend. This is what community looks like. Where all are welcomed and affirmed, no matter what journey led them here. Just as we are called to love each other, we are called into accountability with each other. Because community is not a one-time event. It is not a fun party and then a diaspora to our own corners of life. It is a constant building and learning. It is the continual process of helping one another inhabit the fullness of our creation.

It is to say, ‘my humanity is caught up, is inextricably bound up, in yours.’ we belong in a bundle of life. We say, “A person is a person through other persons.’” It is Ubuntu. It is community. May it be so. Amen.