Do people ever frustrate you? Have you ever thought life would be easier if you could just get away and have some alone time? Time alone is fine until that’s all you have and your access to community is gone. I’ve seen movies about castaways who accidentally find themselves alone and hermits or mountain men who voluntarily trek off to get away from people and live in isolation. Rarely do those experiences remain as idyllic and fulfilling as some might think. Being isolated for long stretches of time is hard.
Can you make your own clothes? Spin your own wool? Raise your own sheep? Can you grow, harvest, and preserve your own food? Can you treat yourself when you get sick or bind up your own wounds when normal accidents happen? Can you build your own shelter, start your own fires, protect yourself from predators…. Do you get the point?
We all rely on the benefits of community for basic necessities. We have similar needs when it comes to knowing God and living the kind of kingdom life Scripture describes.
Almost everything I know about God has come from the teaching and example of other men and women of faith. None of us know it all, but we come much closer to the deeper things of God when we seek his kingdom together. It’s when we become isolated in our thinking and tone-deaf to the voices and perspectives of others that we become arrogant and, with a very narrow field of vision, run the great risk of missing truths God wants us to learn. I’ll have more on this in today’s sermon.
— Patrick Barber