There's a part of me that's always kind of wanted to live in some kind of commune type thing. Probably I would hate it, I mean...I didn't even really like having roommates.

I think it's mostly coming from a desire to have more physically present community. Or maybe it's from wanting to have more family. I don't know.

The part of me that wants to live in a commune is right next to the part of me that wants to run off and live in a tiny little cabin in the wilderness, so I don't know if that really makes much sense.

Anyway, when I'm really frustrated with my life I sometimes poke around the internet and dream about what my commune could look like.

The way you frame the question is helpful. Rather than setting up some preconceived ideal picture, you're asking how to move towards that from where we already are. I like that approach both with the pacifism/non-violence stuff and with the community stuff. If we ask not how can we step from here to total non-violence in a week, that's depressing. If you ask, how can we be less violent than we are right now, that's a bit more hopeful (and a bit more painful, I think, because it's a call to action we can actually take). Same with community. I hope God blesses us all to figure how to make such steps.

David

Do you follow a curriculum Gordon? Or do you pick the text you preach on purley on your own?

That is difficult, to teach things and know that people are never going to do it. Do I even do it? And yet there seems to be many other less weighty and important things that we put great emphasis upon.

Weird, huh? Is that just human nature? Or are the important things just really hard to do?

I'm enjoying these "chats." Please keep them coming, especially in light or your recently changed situation.

Gordon,

For what its worth these are helping me a great deal. I understand your frustration of preaching texts that you think will never happen.

Thank you

Blessing,

Bill
bill.finley@gmail.com

Thanks for the encouragement everyone. It's the first time I've allowed myself to do this kind of thing at RLP. Overt Bible study kind of stuff.

Jesus taught all sorts of things that he certainly knew would not be obeyed. But he did it anyway. So, hey! You're in good company. Go for it.

This is great stuff once again. I was eager to come over today to hear what you'd have for us, and was glad to hear that you'd be doing this again next week. Sweet.

Oh, nice Diet Coke endorsement.

Thanks for being so open and honest. It seems like when people need each other the most they draw away. But if we can help just one person we are doing good. You reach a lot of people and really give food for thought, things we do not think about as days go by. Thanks and I will look forward to the next video. Mary

my daughter's urban planning thesis opened my eyes to co-housing, a sharing way of living, mostly seen in california and northeast communities. it can be just 2 families or several who share in the food preparation, house cleaning, and child care. very practical for working folks who can help each other out. historically, americans were very proud of going to the one family home, with all our land surrounding us. but maybe co-housing will catch on more, who knows. i'd be the one feeling resentment all day because someone ate my almonds.

Damnit, Gordon! Why do we have to live so f-ing far away?! I SO long for that in-between thing you're talking about.

I wonder if you've ever read anything by Wendell Berry? His essays and his fiction both tend to emphasize the interdependent, tight-knit community he grew up in, and how that sort of community is being destroyed - he would say by the industrial economy or some such monster. I seem to recall a discussion about the change that came over small farmers in this country when gasoline-powered tractors came on the market. In buying a tractor, you are less dependent on your neighbor's help, but more dependent on the tractor company. There's a shift somewhere - get rich, become independent, become isolated, buy everything you need (or want) from someone else.

Anyway, you should read Wendell Berry.

G, thanks for the candor. helped me think about the text. I, too, was going where you were going in an uncomfortable sort of way. Can we embody a little bit of this, please, church? I pastor a small congregation where long-time members wre asking me the name's of fellow members after my first few months as pastor. Like I should know everybody, but they didn't see a need to be that close. You know, close enough to know the name of the family who share your pew and that loaf of bread every week? It struck me how detached and unneighborly we are as Americans. How can we even be church and not care to know each other a little? Even the gospel text for Sunday has a "we're all sort of in this scary mess together" feel. Even so, Thomas was not with them---a detached twin. Weird story about being disconnected from and reconnected to the body of christ. I guess for me, both of those texts are about connection and community. And for me the locus of such a connection is communion. (I'm a Lutheran Christian.) peace be with you. matt

I just saw your blog video.
Real.
Real.
Keep it goin'.
Jennifer introduced us to you tonight.
we will keep in touch.
Peace brother.
Rob

Dropped by to see if, by chance, you had posted anything on how it went today at church. Friends of ours (see comment from Rob above) watched your video with us last night. We are members of the same little country church here in northwest Iowa, about a mile from my home. We were "doing community" last night, and the topic you raised in your video is something we talk about a lot. Anyhow, after dinner, we attended the "online church" of the Real Live Preacher at about 9 p.m. You bless!

(And not the only two)

(1) Time - it takes a real investment of time to make community work. And it requires an investment of REAL time, face-to-face, where somebody's face can be seen and read. Not time on facebook, or e-mailing, or IM, or maybe not even on the telephone. But these days, bewteen work, school, kids activities, and needing time for the family, it makes time for the community even harder.

(2) Distance - you said it yourself. The families at Covenant live far away from each other, putting more stress on the "time" part of things.

The church I went to in Tuscaloosa during grad school had small "share groups" with our college department, and it worked out well (but again, what real time constraints outside of school typical college students have).

My wife and I were part of a tight knit 4-some of couples at our church in Waco, but parenthood was not part of the equation for any of us while we were there.

I do not envy your position in trying to get a community feel. Let us know how the sermon went.

Hi Gordon,

Thanks for your thoughts on the Acts 4 passage. I am struggling with the whole of Acts 4, trying to make heads or tails of it as I work on a project for church. Some parishoners asked me about looking to Acts for advice/words of wisdom/God's intentions for today's church. I like that idea. If we are struggling to figure out how to become the church, then naturally, it makes sense to look to the work of the apostles who were struggling to become the church two millenia ago.

But after finding messages in the first three chapters, I'm having trouble with Acts 4, as it seems to be calling for some pretty radical stuff that the church as presently created is just not institutionally capable of doing. So I looked to the non-lectionary parts of the chapter to see if I could get something there, but all I get is the religious leaders being astounded that Peter and John are uneducated, and the subsequent prayer for boldness. I've tried working with the boldness prayer and Barth's quote about praying for more faith being the only prayer that gets answered in the affirmative every time it is prayed, but the problem with working with that quote is that Barth said it.

At any rate, I share your dispair at the fact that we can preach Acts 4 until we are blue in the face, but little will result.

Although, now that I think about it, I wonder if the message here is that it is possible, this radical love of God. Maybe not necessarily the physical sharing of all possessions (though, why not? That too!). In the face of a cynical world, when we naively pray for boldness, anything can happen, even that which we know is simply impossible.

So, that's it, I guess. Just a quick thanks for wrestling with this passage with me. Tag-teaming always makes a wrestling match easier.

Gordon -

Do you want to borrow my 6.5HP machine? It's yours for the asking.

I have a PS3 up for loan too.

If those fail to interest then how about a 3 week old newborn?

Hi Gordon -

I had intended to go to a theater production tonight.

That was before I stumbled upon your video series on how to read the Bible.

Wow. Despite the irony, I scratched community theater for tonight (I'll go tomorrow) so I could finish watching your series.

It's really a great service you've performed. And I wonder - really - how your congregation can remain unmoved because your messages - at least to me - are so compelling.

I feel especially touched by this latest video about creating a caring and involved community. And I feel a little sad because there's no way for anyone to give you back the same feeling of connection that you are putting out through your videos.

Because of your manner and your candor, it did feel (almost) as though we were having a conversation in this last video. (I was just being a good listener.)

Yet, you were not getting any feedback, as you normally would in a two-way conversation, nor could you know exactly how those who would watch the video would feel.

What I'm trying to say here is that you are giving a lot of comfort and connection in these great videos of yours, and raising important issues, yet you are not receiving the same quality of feedback or interaction in return, and that may be a little rough. It may feel a little empty.

So I find myself wishing that I - and perhaps everyone who leaves a comment - had a little flip camera or a webcam so that we could attempt to "give back" a more rewarding response instead of just posting dry words in a little box.

Regarding the issue of creating community, this is such an important subject. Poll results indicate that Americans have fewer friends and feel more lonely than ever.

It seems obvious - even as I made the choice to pass up live theater to watch your videos - that our interaction with technology and virtual community is replacing the live, energetic contact we so desperately need.

Certainly many people watch television in order to fulfill their needs for families and friends.

I was shocked to read that the brain recognizes celebrities and television stars "as family." This explains why we feel we have "relationships" with celebrities despite the fact that this type of "connection" ultimately proves so unsatisfying.

So how do we withdraw a bit from technology (which is so neurologically addictive) and the false connections of the celebrity culture so that we can "expand our family?"

Obviously I have no answer since I just chose interacting with technology over being out in public.

Still, awareness of what we're doing has to be the first step.

I'm convinced that most of us don't even realize we're lonely or lack connection because we have so many distractions.

With so many things pulling at us for our attention (and demanding a response) people fear giving of their time, their energy, their emotions, and not having enough left.

It seems we've forgotten how rewarding it is to be ourselves fully and give of ourselves from a deeper place.

There isn't a big screen TV available that comes close to delivering the kind of fulfillment we get through face-to-face sharing, or through giving to another human being in need.

"It is more blessed to give than to receive" turns out to be the gospel truth.

But I'm rambling and, as you so aptly pointed out, without a time (or space) limit on rambling, it's too easy to go on forever.

Thanks again!
Clyo

Gordon,
This was a great little talk about the text. I preach from the lectionary (to the horror of some in my congregation) and I purposely did NOT preach from this text for a variety of reasons. I like your idea of something halfway between a family and the full-on commune.

My wife and I lived in a martial arts commune for about 6.5 years. The first 2 years were really great, but then the red flags started showing up. All the money pouring into classes, living expenses and upkeep. The manipulation of the leader who kept hitting on my wife and trying to manage our relationship. 6 hour processing sessions to "get underneath" the conflict issues that would arise. Sounds a little cultish when I put it that way.

My sense is that communal living works best - and is often short-lived because of what I will say - when it is like a cell group, formed organically with no leader except Jesus Christ (which will appeal to your free-church sensibilities). The best Mennonite communes exist that way. The Shakers pulled it off until they died out (the whole celibacy thing didn't engender the continuation of the idea). And I have the sense that while they are pretty authoritarian in their theological structure, the Amish do this very well. As one commenter said, it probably requires stepping away from technology for a while and just being with one another. What all these groups have in common, though, is a sense that they are listening to something higher than themselves rather than a human leader with some great ideas. It levels the playing field.

I have a fantasy that one day when my daughter is grown up and I have some distance from the horrible experience of my commune experience that we will move into a commune with a better focus. But I wonder too, as you suggested, that our whole society in America is structured completely against this way of being and living.

Mostly, though, I have a lot of baggage around the communal issue which is why I didn't preach it. I loved your questions though and it opened up new avenues for me to think about all this. I want it to be a command in the Christian faith to live like Acts 2 or Acts 4, but I know it is not. Besides, living together voluntarily in one house or small enclave is much more enjoyable than to be commanded to do so whether by humans or by God.

Peace to you!
Seth

Preacher,

Very nice video. It was neat to get to hear you talk out loud as the sermon seemed to be forming itself in your mind.

As I write this, it's Sunday, and you may be wrapping things up at church. I'm dying for a follow up! How did the sermon go? What did you end up saying?

Thanks as always,
David

I really enjoy these sermon videos. Thank you for sharing them with your readers.

- MJ

if 2 people get divorced but still love each other, but have not remarried is it ok to still have sexual intercourse.