The original faith question as experienced by the Judeo-Christian tradition was not "What is the individual supposed to do with his or her aloneness?" but "What to do with God's concern for all humanity?" The Jews consistently avoided that question and the Lord's answer, and, sure enough, they were a prophecy for what Christians would also do. We have not been journeymen like Jesus in pursuit of wisdom and communion. Instead we have been landed gentry, clutching and protecting our small certitudes.
At this point, probably at every point, only the poor in spirit can rightly hear the gospel. The rest of us are not free just to walk, to walk alone, to walk with God, to walk with others, and to walk into new and uncharted places.
This pattern has been most apparent in what we have allowed to happen to Christian family and Christian marriage. These are gifts which find nurture and protection only under the cope of community and a larger church which also sees itself as family or community.
For example, many well-married people in our community needed to be encouraged to form friendships with other brothers and sisters. As their self-knowledge increased and their level of communication deepened in the Lord's safe environment, it became possible to know and even to deeply love others of the opposite sex with the full expectation that it would only deepen their marital love and their family commitments.
Such love is next to impossible in the world, where one walks unprotected spiritually and psychologically and relationally. But when sharing of honest feelings and love of the truth pervade the atmosphere, a whole new freedom is offered us.
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