In response to the Nelson family tragedy, and how to address the social needs of the day and point to a more comprehensive response than simply a common purse, or religious words, to solve the world’s emptiness and despair.
This is a terrible tragedy. But I do not see it being avoided by a more intense mission effort. My thoughts go to what we could have done if we were living next door to this family. While a completely different lifestyle where people pool their incomes and help each other does, on the surface, seem to answer this particular need, I do not believe that this and every similar situation that is going on right now in this country can be avoided simply by offering a new economic system.
In the question of how to reach more people in this predicament, and in considering how the idea of communal sharing presented in Acts 2 and 4 offers a different way free of economic worries and Mammon, I see two important considerations.
What is the deepest need of this family (and the millions in similar despair)? Money? Friendship? Medical intervention? Family Counseling? or something of a different dimension?
What do I see as the reason for us to live such a lifestyle that looks so economically different? That is, why do we live this specific economic recipe?
A long time ago, I used to think that communal pooling of our assets and lifestyle was the answer to mostly all of humanity’s ills. That if people only would give up their private bank accounts and all could share equally in a common purse, that every need would evaporate since, I thought, that every need was somehow connected to money. I saw the actions of the apostles in Acts 2 as the proof of that theory. Now I see my insight was wrong and very shallow. I had funneled the Gospel of Good News through a small tube, ignorantly misinterpreting humanity’s deepest need and Jesus’ greatest offer. I boiled down the “world system” into economic terms and worse, boiled down Jesus message into mostly economic effectiveness. Consequently, I saw the need of humanity in ignorantly simple terms and their hope as lying in the mere adoption of Jesus’ “economic community of faith”. So the fact that masses of people did not recognize this “reasonable and obvious” opportunity to turn their life around, as if it were some magic elixir that they refuse to drink, caused me to slowly begin to recognize that I was terribly missing the true need of people and terribly missing the true message of Jesus.
I do not see the obvious “economic worries and Mammon” as the real cause of the Nelson’s tragedy any more than the bullets that caused their death. Our country, and perhaps we can include western civilization, is suffering from a long-term disease of separation – separation from each other, separation from God, separation from reality, from reason, from faith… and perhaps most of all, separation from who we are. The inner crisis that Victor Frankl so importantly chronicles in his book, Man's Search for Meaning, has become a pandemic as people question their place in this world, their meaning, and their purpose. They search for answers in education, power, mammonism, status, and especially, in religion, which all fail to give them the answers they seek. The Christian church in particular has failed in this country to believe and be what it says it believes, and stand for what it claims to represent. Blame, shame, guilt, judgement, impurity, injustice, and ignorance has gutted Christianity’s message and witness. There are individual exceptions to this assessment for sure, but from a big picture perspective, there is little practical cultural impact from today’s Christianity. The witness and impact of the few thousand members of the Early Church that shook the Roman Empire and the world, has faded into memory, useful only in creating statues and appointing saints.
This is not to suggest that the responsibility of the Nelson’s tragedy lies solely in the failure of the Church. Where was the government and educational institutions who loaded on such a crushing debt – a debt that would finance more elaborate and ostentatious college buildings and fill government coffers? Where were the medical institutions who failed to offer solutions to Brian’s debilitating headaches and Brittney’s gallstones and seizures –would they have been differently treated had their social status been higher? When will this culture of separation and hate take responsibility for the political rhetoric and anger that is tearing our country apart, which Brian seems to have imbibed like an alcoholic? And finally, where was Love? Love from the neighbors who excused themselves and “respected their privacy”? Where was the Love from local schools who excused themselves and “respected their choice to homeschool”? Where was the Love from the social agencies who excused themselves and were so “underfunded and overworked” to offer any meaningful help ?
The question of Christianity’s failure to help the Nelson family is not because of a lack of intention and interest (though it seems there may indeed be lack in this case). I am concerned, if we, as followers of Jesus, actually have the tools to help families like the Nelsons. Would money to pay off their debt have answered their need? Perhaps for a short time, but not long-term. Would simply living nearby “solid” family neighbors who tried to connect with them, have solved their problems? Would getting Brian and Brittney medical help have solved things? All these things are facets of the Love that they needed, but I don’t believe they would have addressed their deepest needs. For their tortured souls that felt separated, lonely, meaningless, and empty desperately needed deep spiritual healing. Becoming aware of our lack of tools to heal the hell people find themselves in is a crucial recognition to this dilemma. For it begins with an ability to see and understand what they were suffering from; and without rushing in to “fix” everything, calls for us to develop relationships of trust and of truth. Then comes the patience to wait for the moment when people in crisis are ready to hear and awaken to Jesus’ offer of New Life. Following that awakening is a long walk, side by side with them, through valleys and hilltops, until a new pattern is born in their mind and soul. I am not at all an expert in accomplishing this, but I believe a people equipped with these tools are crucial to lead people out of their hell- no magical scripture verses, no quick fixes, no simple monetary intervention or social program.
So community of goods, as wonderful as it is, does not, in my opinion, have the capacity to answer the deepest need of many in this culture of separation and hate. However, a community of people with these tools of understanding and healing is a big part of the GOOD NEWS that will shake this world. A community of people gives a space for the miracle of new life to happen, one broken life, one broken family, at a time. I could be wrong, but this is what I am longing to be given on this earth again.
