Together

I love Together. I hate Together. I love the part where we all look out for one another, have campy sing alongs, and help each other bring in the fire wood. I hate Together when I'm cleaning out the refrigerator and other people are catching up on Netflix, Twitter, or Facebook. Truth be told, I pretty much hate everyone and everything then. Together is complicated.

I'm in no way shape or form ready to think big thoughts this morning. I'm a fractured and fragmented thing today. Pulled in a dozen directions and having difficulty finding my voice. And somehow, all of a sudden, that makes me feel more Christlike than expected. Everyone pushing and pulling at him to be who and what they needed, and him just moving along, hearing something else entirely. He was much better at standing his ground though. I'm a stick in a rushing river.

As a child, I was taught that Jesus was G-d Incarnate, born knowing his whole purpose. This isn't strictly scriptural, but it turns out to be the sort of thing one can make so if they pull the quotes. I don't know though. Every other Biblical  hero was called by called. Tapped. A regular, ordinary person stepping into being holding sacred space for the Living God. Hands and feet. It's out of character for Jesus to be the exception.

I wonder if the last boy Jesus story is him, forgotten in the Temple(Luke 2:41-52), spouting off quotes and chatting up the elders is because that's the last time the elders felt they knew where he was headed. He was Containable. Manageable. Together.

And then nothing for a long time. As an adult, I've read a lot more speculation on exactly where and what Jesus was doing during this time. And I still don't know. Wherever and whatever it was, I know he fell down a rabbit hole too. Because it seems like one minute, he was holding up a few thousand years of tradition, giving the adults warm fuzzies, and the next he was being run out of his home town (Luke4:29). Despite the miracles and good works, they decided he was just a little too out there. He wasn't Together their way. Evidently, together their way wasn't enough for a full life though.

I like to think Jesus took all those traditions and meditations, all the thoughts of G-d, kept aside for him by Holy men and women, ordinary saints, and nurtured by that same G-d, and it took him to a vision he couldn't shake. Together.

A living banquet then and now.
Community. And to do that, we've got to be both Insignificant and Expansive. We've got to move over and make room. Pull chairs to the table for unexpected and uninvited guests. We've got to see the burdens that our brothers and sisters are carrying and grab an end.  If we're buckling under the weight, we've got to be able to say enough and know someone else steps up. That wherever we are and whatever we've got, its enough. Together.

Together runs counter to American push of isolation and competition. Competition, isolation, and structure didn't save Ancient Israel, and it won't save us. Together. Because life is too hard for anything else.