Allelon - Part 1

Have you ever felt alone? Have you ever felt all alone?

Sometimes we feel alone, even when surrounded by people. We may pass by people and get a smile or a wave. Maybe even a “How are you?” But there is no connection. There is just more isolation. And perhaps just when you make the attempt to reach out, it doesn’t go very well and so you retreat back into the loneliness. Depression is one of the biggest problems in our nation. I think it is because people feel cut off and disconnected from the rest of the world. Though we are surrounded by people, we are not surrounded by genuine, authentic relationships. We feel all alone.

But that is not the way God created us to be. God did not create us to merely survive on our own. God created us to thrive with one another. One of my favorite TV shows, “Lost” portrays this quite clearly. Complete strangers have been thrown together when their plane crashes on a deserted island and they are left to survive. In the episode “White Rabbit” from Season 1 Episode 5, the whole thing falls apart. There is infighting, squabbling over resources, and a complete breakdown in the order of things. At the end, Jack comes and saves the day. He ends with his famous quote: “If we can't live together--We're gonna die alone.”

I can think of little worse than dying alone. No one there to hold your hand. No one there to comfort you. All alone. No, we take great pains to keep this from happening. The fact is, we need each other. Even the most self-sufficient person in the room at some time needs something from someone. We think that following Christ is a thing we do on our own. We talk about a personal relationship with Christ. We talk about our personal faith. We’ve so individualized our Christianity we’ve missed out on the fact that being a Christian means being in a relationship not just with God but with one another.

And so we come to the title of the post. It is one word – “allelon.” One word, but it is packed full of meaning. It is a Greek word that literally means “one another.” But inherent in this word is the idea of mutuality. The idea of reciprocating. This is the opposite of a parasite. A parasite just leeches off the host, never giving anything back. But in a mutualistic relationship the organisms give and take as each seeks to make the other better. Think of the Bee and the Flower. The flower needs pollination and the bee needs food for honey. Both provide a resource and a service to help the other.

That is the picture of what the church should be – allelon – giving and sharing, but also receiving as we have the need. This word is used 100 times in the New Testament, most often as part of an instruction about how this thing we call the church should work. Things like loving and serving one another seem obvious. But how about being devoted to one another and accepting one another and teaching one another. These are the sorts of things that are imperative if we want to live together. If we want to flourish. If we want to be the kind of people God created us to be. If we want this to be the kind of church that grows.

But being these kind of people and this kind of church is much easier said than done. We have what Paul calls “the selfish nature.” It is that thing inside of us that thinks of ourselves first and then maybe looks out for others. We are self-absorbed, inwardly focused people. Don’t believe me? Next time you have a chance make a conscious effort not to talk about yourself. How long can you go without saying “I” or “me”? How long can you go with out complaining about something? How long can you go without talking down about someone else? If we didn’t have ourselves to talk about and we didn’t have whining and we didn’t have others’ messes to gossip about, what would fill our conversations? Maybe the sorts of things that could truly help each other to grow.