The United States is predominantly identified as an individualistic culture, in contrast to the collectivist cultures seen in many other parts of the world. Elements of individualism have been a part of American society since its early colonial days. But as apprentices of Jesus, we should prioritize togetherness– for ultimately, the people of God are family.

There is no such thing as a perfect church or ideal community because there is no such thing as a perfect people. And yet Christ still invites us to participate in it. The good news is that on the other side of this idealistic or dream community is true unity around the person of Jesus and radical servanthood.

Despite its failures, the Church is still Jesus’s chosen plan for healing the world. The Church is called to serve as the best example of what God can do with the human community, specifically through unity and presence.

The idea that you can be a Christian without following Jesus is a Western idea incompatible with the New Testament. The invitation of Jesus is to be a disciple and to make disciples. Jesus calls for a grassroots movement to transform the world from the bottom up.

The Christian hope is that our future resurrection will not just change our outward appearance; it will change the world around us and the inner reality of who we are and what we are. The ordering of our disordered desires. And that change is beginning even now. 

 The Christian faith is often reduced to “I will go to heaven when I die.” But this summary is more gnostic than Christian. It assumes that the material world must be escaped. The Christian hope, as Paul tells it, is embodied. Somehow our God will empty cemeteries and give us new bodies. 

In so many ways, followers of Jesus can be made to feel like our faith is unreasonable, clinging to faith in an event despite the obvious, clear, and overwhelming evidence against the Resurrection. But our faith isn’t unreasonable. It isn’t a blind leap into nonsensical belief. Trust in the bodily resurrection of Jesus is reasonable. Jesus appeared to many: disciples, family, skeptics, and outspoken opponents. These witnesses were so convinced by their encounter with the risen Jesus that many were unwilling to recant that belief even as they were executed for it.

Too often we settle for badly summarized Gospels; formulas that are less than compelling. Paul articulates the Gospel as the climax of the long story of Israel, the beautiful and compelling story of God’s activity to save the world.

For many the divinity of Jesus is easy to grasp, but Christian orthodoxy declares that Jesus is also human; and the humanity of Jesus is most on display the night he would be betrayed. In a Garden called Gethsamene, Jesus weeps, pleads, and experiences the whole range of human anxiety. It is in this short story that we begin to see the depths of God’s love for us that he would join us in our suffering.

For every generation, for every time, there are “what is this world coming to moments.” Since 2000, in just 24 short years, we have seen– 9/11, the housing crash of 2008, the war in Afghanistan, the Syrian crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the Ukraine-Russia conflict. in the crushing wave of the 24-hour news cycle, we are constantly aware of all the tragedy, all the violence, all the death; it feels like the end of the world all the time. But these moments are not new. Every generation has lived through these moments. As we look to the life of Jesus we find a startling practice that can help us navigate these “end of the world” moments– Lament.