Community – survival tool

 Hebrews 10:31 says “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” (King James Version).

Other translations describe the experience as “dreadful,” “terrifying”, “awful.”

The author is speaking of the judgment that awaits those who “decide to go on sinning after we have learned the truth,” (New Century Version) but the message is clear – God is a powerful force to contend with.

This morning I met with P to talk about the next segment of A Testament of Devotion. In this week’s reading Thomas Kelly nearly copies from Hebrews:

“It is an overwhelming experience to fall into the hands of the living God.”

“Overwhelming experience” is much easier to contemplate than “terrible” or “awful thing”, but still, dealing with such a force on a daily basis, as Quakers do when they worship earnestly, can put us on a spiritual roller coaster. Kelly describes the overwhelming experience:

“to be invaded to the depths of one’s being by His presence, to be, without warning, wholly uprooted from all earth-born securities and assurances, to be blown by a tempest of unbelievable power which leaves one’s old proud self utterly, utterly defenseless… Then is the soul swept into a Loving Center of ineffable sweetness, where calm and unspeakable peace and ravishing joy steal over one.”

If this is how intense true worship can be, how do we prepare ourselves for it? The answer comes earlier in the same chapter of Hebrews:

“And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” (10:24-25 English Standard Version)

Let’s get together, yeah, yeah, yeah!

To do what? To talk about spiritual life. If we believe that God is living with us and through us, that we experience Him on a daily basis, then we are constantly dealing with being “wholly uprooted,” being stripped of our “earth-born securities”, feeling our souls swept up in “ineffable sweetness” and feeling “ravishing joy”. In the interest of lessening the risk of whiplash, let’s share our journeys with one another by ...getting together. Here are a few of the possibilities for how to experience community:

-worship silently together

-have a regular coffee date where you talk about things that happened this week

-take a walk in a state park with someone

-talk about a book in a book group

-study the Bible with a small group

Kelly says that the "rightful role" of a faith community is to be "a fellowship of creative, heaven-led souls." 

How do you join in fellowship with your fellow creatives?