The One and the Many

Good morning, church. Well, Acklen, how are we doing?  This is our 13th Sunday in a row to meet virtually. We hope to have some socially distanced in-person gatherings soon, likely outside. We anticipate waiting until Nashville enters phase 3. As we announced, we’ve been relying on our Acklen Health Team for guidance. We anticipate a hybrid arrangement of some in person and many virtual gatherings for quite some time.

Here’s how I’m measuring the timeframe on all of this. I could be wrong, but I anticipate it will be at least next spring until a vaccine returns us to complete normalcy. Obviously, I could be wrong about that. It’s just how I’m thinking it through. If that’s the case, we’re a quarter way through this pandemic experience.  I’m hopeful the worst has already occurred. I’ve been inspired by the world’s overarching response to this. We’re adjusting and working together in powerful ways. God has not abandoned us.  Still, when it comes to fighting COVID-19, we likely have many months to go. So this morning, I want to do a check in and provide some framing for assessing how you are doing.

I have three questions for you:  How are you? How is your relationship with God? How are your relationships with people?  You obviously don’t have to share the answer with anyone, but if you scored yourself, what would you give yourself? If 10 is complete health and 1 is falling apart, how would you answer these questions?

How are you? I pray for your physical, emotional, social, and spiritual health. How are you feeling? How is work? How are finances? How are your stress and anxiety levels?  How are you?

How is your relationship with God? For many of us, even if we don’t think about it, worship gatherings serve as our main spiritual practice. Without those face to face gatherings, we’ve had to turn to other things. If our church attendance doesn’t define us, what does?  Are you praying? Are you reading your Bible? Are you filtering news and the world through a kingdom lens? During the safer at home, have you found creative ways to find God in nature and through service to others? How is your relationship with God?

How are your relationships with people?  If you live with others, you’ve been cooped up together for a while now. You hanging in there? If you live alone, you’ve had more quiet moments than usual. You hanging in there? I’ll honestly tell you all my idiosyncrasies have gotten weirder in these times.  Relationships have required extra patience these last few months, and there’s a cumulative effect of that. How are your relationships with people?  

Last fall and over the winter, I read some excellent books on relational and emotional health. I’ve longed planned to share some of the stuff I’ve learned, based in Scripture, once we got past Pentecost. Recent events have only made this more important.  

For Christians, it’s importan to look at health through a theological lens.  As we’ve said in recent weeks, Christians first seek to understand God. Then, because we have been made in God’s image, we seek to understand ourselves. Self-knowledge is connected to and flows out of God-knowledge.  One of the most basic Christians understandings of God is this. God is one. In the midst of a polytheistic culture, God speaks to Abraham as one God.  In the Jewish lineage, Christians are monotheists. But, one of the great mysteries of the faith is that God is three. We believe in the Father, Son, and Spirit. We see this clearly at Jesus’ baptism, the Great Commission, and in several of Paul’s letters like Ephesians. God is one and many.

Follow this line of thought with me if you will. Because God expresses identity as one and many, humans will have identity as one and many.  You are one individual created in the image of God. You were made to be a unique person. Also, you are part of a community. You were made to connect with others. God is one and many. You are one and many. A helpful way to assess how you’re doing is this? Am I doing better at being one or at being many?  We understand ourselves through understanding God. This important reflection leads to important action.  Jesus explains it like this.

Mark 12:28-34 28 One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” 29 “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” 32 “Well said, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. 33 To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.” 34 When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And from then on no one dared ask him any more questions.

Notice how the two greatest commands are based on the one and many. Because God is one, we should love God first and foremost. Flowing out of this though, we love others because we have known the God who is many. In this way, our behavior flows out of our understanding of God.  We spend alone time with God to communicate with God and receive God’s love. Then, we express that love to others. When we spend time with others, we experience the image of God in them which then reminds us of our relationship with God. This is the rhythm.

Jesus shows us this rhythm. In Luke 5;15-16, we read this. 15 Yet the news about him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses. 16 But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.  Jesus cultivated a lifestyle of the one and the many. He spent alone time with God. Then, he expressed his love for God by serving others. Jesus did both well. We’re not on Jesus’ level. I’ve found that most of us are better at one of these than the other. Most of us are better at the one or the many. 

Which one is more of a struggle for you? Being one or being many?  Perhaps, this will help you process this. I’ll offer a quote from Dietrich Bonhoeffer. In the 1930s, the German Bonhoeffer joined the Confessing Church, a resistance movement to his native Germany. He led a secret school to train ministers. As a group, they lived a common life together studying the Scriptures and practicing the faith as they prepared to resist Nazism. During this time, Bonhoeffer meditated a lot on what it means to be a Christian living in community. He says this in his book entitled “Life Together.” “Let him who cannot be alone beware of community... Let him who is not in community beware of being alone... Each by itself has profound perils and pitfalls. One who wants fellowship without solitude plunges into the void of words and feelings, and the one who seeks solitude without fellowship perishes in the abyss of vanity, self-infatuation and despair.”

Which is your struggle, the one or the many?  Do you struggle to be one? For those of us who have a hard time being one, it may play out like this. Looking in the mirror is hard. We have a hard time accepting ourselves. Being alone with our thoughts can be overwhelming. We have a hard time facing and processing deep realizations. Therefore, we go to others. We find affirmation in others. They helps us accept ourselves. We find conversation in others. This helps us process what we’ve been thinking. We join clubs. We follow teams. We gravitate to group identities.  We crave the many. Being one is hard.

For us, the pandemic has been really hard. It’s disrupted much of the way we connect with others. Zoom is not the same, but we struggle through it to get any connection. For some of us, Zoom reminds us of what we don’t have, so we can’t even do it at all. We understand masks, but we feel robbed of the smiles that we desperately crave. It’s really hard. Yet, it’s pushed us. We’ve had to look in the mirror. We’ve had to process our thoughts. We’ve had more time than we wanted to be one, and in some ways, it’s been good for us.

For those of us who struggle with being one, remember these words of the fourth century African Bishop Augustine, “Our hearts are restless until they rest in thee.”  Only God can fulfill and complete us. We must be careful about looking to others for what only God can truly give. We want community so bad, but to experience the many in a healthy way, we need to be one. We need to be one with God. How is that going for you?

Let’s flip it now.  Do you struggle to be many? For those of us who have a hard time being many, it normally plays out like this.  We’re comfortable with ourselves. It’s others that make us uncomfortable. We’re good with our thoughts. It’s the verbal barrage of others that stresses us out. Alone with God, everything is great. Other people mess that up. They’re complicated and unpredictable.  Connecting with others involves risk. Too many times, that risk has not been worth it. Group identities feel stifling. They threaten us. We get that we’re part of a common humanity. We love the church. We don’t deny all of that. It’s just easier to be one than many.  

For us, the pandemic has been really hard. We connect with others because other people initiate and push for it. The normal rhythm of life compels us to connect. We don’t seek out the many on our own. Without these different rhythms, few things compel us to connect. We’ve had somedays when we’ve said, “I’m so sorry for the suffering involved in this pandemic. Don’t take me the wrong way but this rhythm of life is awesome. We should do it more often, just without the virus.”  But then, this happens. We feel a social void. We’ve spent three months with our thoughts and now crave others. Yet, those social initiation muscles may not be our strongest, and this season demands creativity to connect. We’re in a tough spot.

For those of us who struggle to be many, remember the words of the 16th century Anglican priest and poet, John Donne. 

No man is an island entire of itself; every man 

is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; 

if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe 

is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as 

well as any manner of thy friends or of thine 

own were; any man's death diminishes me, 

because I am involved in mankind. 

And therefore never send to know for whom 

the bell tolls; it tolls for thee. 

We value being one so much and being many is hard. Yet, we’re created to be many. The God designed flow is this-be a healthy one and then live healthy for the many. The goal of being healthy is not your happiness. The goal of being healthy is blessing others.

Let me return to our big three questions. How are you doing? How is your relationship with God? How are your relationships with people? How would you score yourself as we complete the first quarter in a likely year long experience of oddity?  

Think of it this way. The answer to the first question, how are you, depends on how you answer the second and third questions. As Jesus teaches, we come alive as humans when we love God and others. The two greatest commandments are not a legalistic obligation but a pathway to flourishing.  They show us how to be healthy.

We see this framework when we take communion. As we eat the body and drink the blood of Jesus, we remind ourselves that we are one in Christ. As we look around the room at the body of Christ today, we remind ourselves that we are a unified many in Christ. As we participate in communion, we declare that we are one and many, in relationship with God and humanity. This is the foundation of what health looks like.

In the coming weeks, spend some time thinking about which is easier and which is harder for you, the one or the many. We’ll talk about some ways to embrace your strength and work on your weakness. Together, we’ll get healthy.

I’ll end with this reminder. We’re checking in on each other, but we have may missed someone. We’re asking blunt questions, but we’re counting on you to answer bluntly. If you need money, we have some to share. If you need food, we have some to share. If you need counseling, remember our partnership with Agape for $5 counseling, in person or tele counseling. If you want to visit in the backyard or driveway, let us know. We are one. We are many. We will get through this, because God is loving and good. When we get through this, God will get all the glory.