It’s a very natural thing to have a love-hate relationship with technology. There was a very funny cartoon that was making the rounds some years ago that showed a frustrated man at his computer glancing over to a glass box with a sledgehammer sealed inside. The front of the box read, “In case of emergency break glass.” We all know the feeling. And yet we can’t deny that technology has made some things… well, just better. One click purchases that land on your doorstep the same day are pretty amazing. The ability to live-stream church services so that the sick, the homebound, and neighbors across the world can worship with us is pretty darn cool. Grocery shopping with an app on your phone and picking them up curbside is pretty spectacular. Having radio shows once confined to professional studios and a number on a dial between 87.9 and 107.9 be now limitless is pretty mind blowing. Though they’re now called “podcasts”, the idea is the same as radio, except they’re all in one place and you can listen to them at any time! Technology can sometimes be truly wonderful.

Podcasts on religion, psychology, leadership, and social issues tend to fill my queue. Somewhere in all of that Simon Sinek popped out. He’s a business consultant who speaks to corporations about leadership, employee satisfaction, productivity and wellness. And though it’s not clear whether he is personally religious he does have interesting things to share about people, relationships, and so on. Perhaps the most famous “Ted Talk” ever given is the one he gave about “starting with why.” (Check it out, it’s very good.) In his most recent podcast appearance he spoke about the importance and the meaning of friendships, and what he calls “the infinite game.” After thinking long and hard about a durable definition of “friendship” and “community” he concluded that they can both be defined in essentially the same way. When it comes down to it, he says, friendship is simply two people who decide to grow together. And a community is a group of people who decide to grow together. The beauty found in the simplify of it was so striking.

As a church community we each come with a whole host of different gifts and challenges, attitudes and proclivities, political orientations and spiritual postures. But what makes us one is not necessarily that we agree on every concern or point of doctrine. What makes us one is our willingness to come together and grow together in Christ. Across time. Though various ups and downs. In times of faith and in times of doubt. This can be buttressed and supported by technology but never replaced by it. It will always involve real people in the real world lifting each other up with real and tangible things, like a hug or a casserole. Or a prayer from the heart, a gesture of help in a moment of need, an open door, an open shoulder, or a wise and kind word.

As All Saints Sunday approaches the question of what a “saint” is or isn’t comes back around. So many of us think of “saints” as people who were particularly holy in their lifetime and are no longer living. Figures from history we can look up to. While this is true, it misses something much more beautiful and basic. A saint is simply someone who keeps the faith. Keeps showing up. Keeps sharing their life with others, letting Christ’s light shine through their cracks and imperfections. In this sense every one of us is a saint. And every one of us is essential in the building up of the community, the Body of Christ.

As we come together this All Saints and Ingathering Sunday on November 2, may you know the gift that you are to this community and how much you are needed.

Yours in Christ,

Drew+