We need one another for our faith to grow
By The Reverend Christopher A. Rankine, Hillhouse Parish Church
One of the biggest myths of today’s world is that we can all stand on our own. There is an old saying –‘no man is an island’. But today technology is making us more isolated.
Sure, through computers and phones, we can keep in contact with people all over the world – but I am not convinced technology is bringing us any closer together.
Technology makes the world feel smaller – we can, for example, video chat with people in Australia – but it seems to be making the space between us bigger.
People sit in silence on buses and trains ignoring the human being sitting beside them.
Humans were created to be in community, in fellowship with one another. Part of what it is to be human is to share our hopes, dreams and aspirations with the people we know and love. For thousands of years, these hopes, dreams and aspirations included our beliefs about God and the redemption of the world.
But now religion is seen as something‘private’– something we keep to ourselves. We like to think we have our own special relationship with God – and I am sure we do. But up until the 20th century religion was something which was lived out by communities, not just individuals.
If we want our faith to grow and be nurtured, for it to be challenged and inspired, we need one another. God knew this and so Jesus set up a Church, for us to live and grow together.
If we give up on one another, content to live our faith out by ourselves, we will end up like the folk sitting on buses in silence. We will lose the chance to meet God in the person beside us.