One of my campus ministry colleagues has said of the current generation of college students, "they are in desperate need of community, but have no idea how to locate it." By that, he meant to take seriously all the ways in which your parents' decisions have made it difficult for you to experience community. They may have moved the family a couple of times. They may be so busy with work that they omit participation in a civic club or organization. It is also possible that you have changed congregations - maybe associated with a move, but possibly due to dissatisfaction with the prior church.
Community is not to be confused with a voluntary association. Clubs are voluntary organizations. We join clubs in order to be with folks who have a shared common interest.
Community is the collection of folks who find themselves together, and now have to find a way to work in partnership with one another. Community is a group who are bound to each other; even when they might prefer to be able to go their own way.
We get a glimpse of community, in LCM. We are a voluntary association, in some ways. But what brings us into this club isn't a shared hobby or interest. We came here because Jesus invited us. And, unlike a club, the other members don't get to decide whether we will belong. We do belong - because Jesus says we belong.
Learning to get along and to cooperate and to understand that each or our futures is affected by the actions of each of us individually is what will make us do more than glimpse community. When we do these things, we are experiencing or living into community.
Community is a desirable thing. Community allows us to weather storms and face challenges. Community is the preferred state for God's chosen ones. Let us give thanks for the ways in which we glimpse it, and work to experience it more fully.
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