A Fourth Church Sermon by John W. Vest

July 6, 2008 | 6:30 p.m. Vespers

There Is No "I" in Community

John W. Vest
Associate Pastor, Fourth Presbyterian Church

Psalm 145:1–13a
Romans 7:14–25

I have always loved this passage from Paul’s letter to the Romans. I find it to be such a true and accurate description of what it’s like to live life as a follower of God in the way of Christ. We’ve all been there. We’ve all experienced this kind of inner turmoil Paul describes: Knowing what is right but doing the exact opposite. Knowing in your heart and mind what God wants you to do but being swayed by your own desires to do what you want to do.

This inner dilemma has been enshrined in our popular culture through a visual device used in countless animated cartoons and other media: an angel sits on one shoulder and reminds you of the right thing to do while a devil sits on the other shoulder and urges you to give in to your desires. The angel represents your conscience; the devil represents temptation.

Yet as much as I like this passage and appreciate the reality it describes, there is a danger here, a danger that is present in other parts of the New Testament, as well. If there is one consistent and pervasive mistake that the church has made in its 2,000-year history, it is that it has elevated the individual over and above the community.

It is easy to read this passage and think that sin is only about us as individuals, that sin is a personal struggle between good and evil. It is easy to read this passage and think that salvation is a personal thing, that salvation is only about me and my relationship to God. But this is not true. Sin and salvation, indeed our entire spiritual and religious lives, are deeply rooted in community.

In ancient Israel, in the centuries before Jesus was born, it was the community—not the individual—that was the center of religious and social life. I don’t necessarily want to suggest that people were not allowed individuality or personal distinction, but being a part of the community was much more important than being an autonomous individual. The laws of Israel and the cultural norms that stood behind them supported family and community, protecting individuals against isolation or abandonment.

In this environment, the fate of each Israelite was tied up with the fate of the entire nation. Salvation was not about what happens to individuals after they die. Salvation was about saving the community from the brink of destruction. It was an act of grace and mercy from God, bestowed upon Israel as a whole. To be sure, there was a sense of individual relationship to the God of Israel, but this was never given priority over the concerns of the community.

At some point, most likely during the Babylonian exile, the Jewish people began to think about things in a different way. It was no longer universally held that collective blessing and punishment was the way of God. Prophets began to consider that perhaps individuals are held accountable for their own actions. This thinking developed in the years between the exile and the time of Jesus. Jesus, I believe, maintained a primarily communal perspective. But in his followers, the individualistic impulse took its course. One might argue that seventeen centuries later, this emphasis on the individual reached its zenith in the founding principles of the United States of America.

For this reason, for what President Herbert Hoover and others have called the “rugged individualism” of the American people, it is appropriate on this Independence Day weekend to reflect on this tension between the community and the individual. I believe that we are a nation of individuals standing at a crossroads: will we continue to function as a collection of individuals primarily concerned with our own individual welfare, or will we rediscover what it means to truly be a community?

I’m sure you’ve heard the cliché phrase “There’s no ‘I’ in team.” Coaches use it all the time in sports to emphasize the team over the individual. Ball hogs and showboats don’t win games; a group of athletes functioning as a team wins games.

From the way I’m built, you won’t be surprised to learn that I was a football player in my youth. I began playing in third grade and kept on going until an injury forced me to quit at the beginning of my eleventh-grade year. In middle school and again in high school, I had a coach that I both admired and was somewhat suspicious of. He played football in college and still liked to work out, so he was huge and strong. I remember him working out on the bench press with more than I could lift even once. He knew football and was a good coach. He was funny and sarcastic. But he was also a little arrogant and hotheaded.

I’ll never forget that he would often wear a T-shirt that said “Team Me,” turning that old aphorism about the priority of team right on its head. Ironically, I think he even wore it for our eighth-grade team picture. I don’t remember exactly how I responded to this T-shirt when I was a teenager, but in the years since, I’ve often thought about how irresponsible it was for a coach to promote such a philosophy. What would it look like if our team actually adopted that kind of thinking? I suppose it would look like the middle-school version of any number of NFL or NBA teams today: a bunch of individuals trying to win the game all by themselves.

Last night my wife and I went to see the new movie Hancock with a group of friends. It’s about a superhero, played quite well by Will Smith, who is so wrapped up in himself and his own problems that he doesn’t really care about the community he serves. He saves people out of some sense of obligation, but he does so with no regard for the collateral damage he causes. People hate him, and he doesn’t even seem to care. Mired in alcohol abuse and depression, he turns out to be the one in need of salvation. By the end of the movie, his eyes are opened to the needs of the wider community and his call to serve them.

Service and community. These have emerged as central themes in our current presidential campaign. A story on NPR this week pointed out that while Barack Obama and John McCain may have different views on the role of government in our society, they both strongly emphasize the importance of service. According to Obama, “Loving your country shouldn’t just mean watching fireworks on the Fourth of July. Loving your country must mean accepting your responsibility to do your part to change it.” Likewise, McCain has said this on the campaign trail: “I think after 9/11 we made a mistake. I think after 9/11, instead of telling Americans to take a trip or go shopping, I think we had an opportunity to call Americans to serve.” For Obama as a community organizer and McCain as a soldier in Vietnam, service to others became a defining element of who they are and who they feel called to be (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92151798&sc=emaf ).

Friends, whether you are a Democrat or a Republican, that’ll preach. That has good news written all over it.

I’ll admit that I have a hard time preaching around the Fourth of July. I’m not the kind of preacher to deliver a rousing patriotic sermon. And we all know that preachers in our city have gotten themselves in a lot of trouble this year when it comes to speaking prophetically about our political system.

But on this Independence Day weekend, I submit to you that we would do well as a nation to put aside our idolatrous focus on the individual and return to a biblical notion of community.

Jesus didn’t write a self-help book or give us seven easy steps to becoming a better you. Jesus created a community. He showed that community what it means to love each other as much as they loved themselves. He showed that community what it means be a servant to others. He showed that community that the salvation of all depends on the welfare of the least among them. He showed that community the power of selflessness and sacrifice.

Before he was killed, Jesus gathered that community around a table and shared a meal with them. He showed them through the table and the bread and the cup that they were bound together through a special bond forged in love and service.

Friends, we are heirs of that community, and we are called to that same table. Soon we will gather together and proclaim through breaking the bread and sharing the cup that we too are one, that we too are bound together through love and service.

Think back to Paul’s description of our inner conflict between good and evil, our inner conflict between the law of God and our own desires. Or think about that angel and that demon, sitting on your shoulders and whispering in your ears.

In one ear you hear this: “Hey, you’ve got to look out for number one. You really ought to do what feels good. Your personal comfort and happiness are the most important things. You deserve it.”

In the other ear you hear this: “If you want to save your life, you must lose it. The last will be first and the first will be last. Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all. Love your neighbor as yourself.”

Amen.