Each week as we look at the means of Grace I want to begin with my short summary: the Means of Grace are those "routes" by which we encounter the grace of God and by which the grace of God encounters us. Grace is not a commodity that can be packaged and dispensed by human beings. Grace is the mysterious and wondrous love of God which is made real in our lives, forgiving and freeing us to become the persons God has designed us to be. One of God's gifts is that we have been given opportunities to participate in activities which position us to experience and be enriched by that grace. One of the most unexpected yet essential Means of Grace is fellowship.
Over the years I have noticed that Americans have a split cultural personality. On the one hand we are rugged individualists. We speak of having pulled ourselves up by our own bootstraps, being self-made people, and fending for ourselves along with lots of other metaphors. We admire the person who has persevered against great odds to make something of themselves. Individuals like Daniel Boone and the Lone Ranger are the heroes we like to lift up as being prototypically American. This gives credence to the notion of individual responsibility as being the cornerstone of our society.
On the other hand however is the belief that community counts. Consider that Americans have always relied on each other for protection (banding together to win our freedom), for help in times of need (the idea of farmers coming together to raise a barn or help out when another farmer has been injured), or for supporting education (one room school houses). While cooperation was voluntary it was seen as a hallmark of America's self-understanding (E pluribus unum – out of many, one).
It should not come as a surprise then that this split cultural personality can also be seen within the religious landscape of our nation. In the United States one of the most prevalent concepts of religion (and especially Christianity) is that it is private and personal. Years ago this was described by the author Robert Bella as Sheilaism. Sheilaism is his term for the religion of a young woman named Sheila who simply listened to her inner voice and knew what was right and wrong. She took pieces of individual religions and created her own. Even within Christianity faith and salvation have become very much about me and Jesus. Whether one is conservative or liberal there is a strain of individualism which allows people to see their relationship with God as something that has no need of others.
What is missing from this rugged religious individualism is the Biblical reminder that human beings were created to be in community. We were created to be in relationship because no human being is complete in and of himself or herself (Adam was incomplete without Eve; Abram was to be the father of a large family, etc.). We are complete only as a collective. Paul reminds his readers that if the church is to be the living body of Christ then it must contain persons with a variety of gifts. In addition he makes it clear that no one person has all the gifts necessary to fully live out the Christ-like life. Fellowship then is to be a way of life for those who are serious about being Jesus' followers.
This idea leads us to understanding Fellowship as a Means of Grace. When we come together as a community we encounter the God given gifts of others as God's gifts to us. We become more complete as human beings when we share what God has given to each of us. We become more loving when we are loved in fellowship. We become more caring when we are cared about in fellowship. We become wiser when wisdom is shared with us in fellowship. In this way the fullness of God's grace becomes realized when we are in fellowship one with another. God's grace becomes real for us in the love, acceptance, forgiveness, instruction and discipline we share with each other. When we exclude ourselves from fellowship then we only experience a portion of the grace we can receive. So the challenge for each of us then is to discover how our gifts can be God's grace to others in fellowship.
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