working together

There is a very nice article by Jonathan Dodson over at the resurgence about how the communal aspect of work has been lost. It used to be that during the busiest time of the year, harvest season, people would come together to help each other harvest each other’s crops. Today instead of coming together in work, and fellowshiping afterwards, when isolate ourselves from the world to hunker down in our cubicle.

I was discussing this issue from a slightly different angle this past week. Just as our work as caused isolation, our spirituality has caused the same troubles. Instead of living out our faith in the network of a community, we isolate ourselves in what we think of as spiritual disciplines.

Before Gutenburg, a community was lucky if it had a Bible, but even then it was in a foreign tongue so you had to rely on the priest for your scripture. Today in America there is at least one Bible in every home, even those families who aren’t active participants still hold onto the relic. But instead of gathering together to read and hear the word of God spoken, we read quietly privately hidden behind closed doors. Instead of the accountability of a community, we can faulter in our faith without much notice of those around us.

Maybe as things around us get tougher, the communitiy can once again get tighter. Maybe once again we will have to depend upon the community, where at one time we thought we could go it alone, and be all the better because of it.