If
I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a
resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If
I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and
if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If
I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have
not love, I gain nothing. (I Corinthians 13:1-4)
"Oh God, do I have to go
there?" It would seem that's where
I'm going, and I don't know how long I'll be there, but I'm inviting you to go
with me. The subject of community building isn't one with which I can claim any
real knowledge. I'm deliberately and purposely ignorant. If it has to do with
people, well, I have a list of people you can call. They like people. They know
what to do with "strays." Give them thirty minutes and they can have
a party or a meeting put together. At least, that's the way it seems. Not me.
I've been taught the lesson too many times that when I get involved with
people, I hurt them and get hurt by them. I've been invited out of too many organizations
and friendships to pretend that I am any good at the love side of today's
passage or even that I want to be.
And yet, over the years as I have
debated and discussed a variety of social issues with people, I keep coming
back to the same problems. When we rely on a system, like the federal
government, to solve our social woes, it fails. It's not that the people in the
system hate the people they're supposed to help. It's because the system is
flawed and at least one of the flaws is intrinsic to the system. It is too far away. It has no choice but to
be impersonal and unresponsive. It must follow programs that may not meet the
needs of the people it is trying to help. The system loves the system. It
cannot love the people.
When I have tried to discuss the idea
of community building, and of the community coming together to solve some of
these social woes, I'm generally told that only the federal government has the
power and resources to accomplish these things. The only answers I am given are
political. I look at society and see
desperate needs. The answers are not political. They are personal. We must not
build systems. We must build communities. That brings me back to the dilemma: how? We
need to figure this out now and at least part of it involves our learning not
to be clanging cymbals, not to be nothing and not to be satisfied with gaining
nothing. In other words, part of the answer is that we need to learn to love
better.
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