Note: You can watch this teaching on CrossWalk’s YouTube channel.

What have been among your favorite TV shows over the years?

MASH was a favorite from my childhood, even if I didn’t fully understand all that was going on.  In the 1980’s, there was Cheers.  In the 90’s, Seinfeld and Friends were high on our list.  Most recently, Superstore and Brooklyn 99 have made us giggle, and Anne with an E choked us up.  Just this past week we finished watching the last of Schitt’s Creek, which is not only really fun for a pastor to say but was an incredibly well-written show.

Why do we get drawn to some shows?  Why do they stick? What is it about them that resonates with us?

One of the things that makes stuff stick with me is the characters and relationship between them.   Plot lines matter, of course, but in the end,  they are not primary.  Gilligan’s Island had ridiculous plot lines, yet it still got huge viewership.  Seinfeld is a show about nothing.  Schitt’s Creek’s stories were not really what we cared about – it was the interplay of characters that we loved.  The shows represent life, even if caricaturized. The cast becomes part of us somehow, a sense of community develops, so much so that when the show is over, we feel loss.

We do not thrive alone.  We might survive, but that is hardly the same thing.  Human interaction, relationship, community – these are necessary building blocks of being a healthy human being.  We sometimes know the power of supportive relationships when we are in them, and we are certainly aware of our lack when we don’t.

Jesus – the guy we look to as our model for what a shalom life is supposed to look like – never espoused isolation as a way of life.  Yes, he was remembered for taking time for solitude, but that was because the rest of the time he surrounded himself with his disciples, his extended followers, and the people her served. Recall that Jesus’ primary goal in his life and ministry was to increase the Kingdom of God on earth, which is experienced as shalom as a means and end.  Shalom was Jesus’ primary ethos when it came to community as well.

Loving your neighbor as yourself was second only to loving God (and intricately related to each other).  What does that look like?

First, we need to appreciate the make-up of the disciples. While they were all Jews, they were not all the same:

During that time, Jesus went out to the mountain to pray, and he prayed to God all night long. At daybreak, he called together his disciples. He chose twelve of them whom he called apostles: Simon, whom he named Peter; his brother Andrew; James; John; Philip; Bartholomew; Matthew; Thomas; James the son of Alphaeus; Simon, who was called a zealot; Judas the son of James; and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor. (Luke 6:12-16 NRSV)

            We know from other stories that this group of men were fisherman and day-laborers like Jesus, that at times there were ego wars and power plays.  We also know that Simon was called a Zealot, which was a significant segment of Jews that wanted to aggressively overthrow the Roman occupation.  And then, of course, there is Judas, a name that has never made any baby top 100 lists since Jesus’ time.  This is noteworthy because Jesus chose to hang out with these guys – they were his people.  Rough around the edges.  Not particularly scholarly.  Probably salty at times.  They likely drank cheap beer on a regular basis. These were real, everyday people that Jesus chose to partner with to change the world.  It was messy and awkward and beautiful.  In the book of Acts, the pool of leadership broadened even more.

            When Jesus instructed his followers to love their neighbor, I’d like to point out two things.  First, there was no asterisk at the end of the “law”.  It wasn’t, love your neighbor unless they make you mad, or disappoint, or offend, or vote for Trump, or vote for Biden, or hurt your feelings, or say it wrong, or root for the Dodgers.  There weren’t any qualifiers on the command, and Jesus live it out.  He stuck with the disciples through thick and thin, including Judas, right up until he left to sell Jesus out.

            The second thing I want to note is that the “love” referenced isn’t Hallmark Channel love.  It is much more than that.  Deep love’s goal is shalom.  Deep love’s methodology is also shalom.  Sometimes love requires holding people to account.  Sometimes deep love comes across as necessary tough love on the recipient.  Sometimes deep love means swallowing pride, issuing forgiveness and grace that is unmerited (which is actually grace’s definition).  Pretty much everything we read in 1 Corinthians 13 is a picture of deep love.  Deep love is not about the recipient, it is about the one offering the love.  We love because we have been loved.  We love others like we have been loved by God.

            Community provides support for the vicissitudes of life. Community makes joys more joyful and suffering more bearable.  We really need each other.  COVID-19 has made that much more difficult than before.  Some have given up on it until limitations are lifted.  Please don’t do that.  You need relational support.  You need to give relational support. Something is better than nothing.  Nothing provides nothing.  Make the call.  Join the Zoom.  Do whatever it takes, just don’t try to go through life alone.

Questions to ponder...

1.     When have you experienced true, deeply loving community?  What was the context?  What made it so special?

2.     When have you experienced a breakdown of community? What happened?  Was there anything that could have happened to keep the breakdown from happening?

3.     When have you been a part of redeeming community – when something ugly was faced and the community prevailed?

4.     How do you define the difference between deep love – the way of shalom and the Kingdom of God – and a lesser form of love?