TogetherSample

2020 was a weird year to meet people. It was already strange enough that every interaction with a person was at a distance of 5 feet. But what made it even weirder was that every time you met a person, you only learned what one-third of their face looked like. A person’s nose and mouth significantly contribute to what that person looks like! The question that it left all of us asking was, of course, what’s under the mask?

Though most of us left the mask behind in 2020, we all find ourselves still wearing masks every once in a while. Not literal masks, but relational masks. Social masks. Masks that hide from people who we really are. Masks that only allow one-third of our lives to be known to our friends. Masks that cover up the parts of us we’re ashamed of and only highlight the few parts we’re proud of. But is that really what God wants for us?

Our current series has been focused on Acts 2:42-47, a snapshot from the book of Acts of what the early church community looked like. Last time, we saw that biblical community is meant to love God together, or be “upward focused,” and today we’re focusing on how biblical community is meant to love one another or be “inward focused.” As you read through the passage you can’t miss how this community was a community that shared with one another in all spheres - physically, spiritually, and emotionally. They met together daily in their homes and shared food. They attended church together and shared in worship. They sold their possessions and shared materially with anyone in need! But it’s also clear they shared spiritually and emotionally - They shared the joy of leading new friends to Christ and the sorrow of watching others fall to persecution. They shared the pleasure of worship and communion, and the difficulty of sin confession, and repentance. They were a community of sharing, a community who knew all of one another. In other words, they were an unmasked community.

Could you describe your community as a sharing community? Do you have 2 or 3 friends that know all of you? Or have you found yourself masked up again, only letting people see what you want them to see? The invitation from God, here, is to take off the mask. Remember how refreshing that was in 2020? This mask is even more refreshing to remove. When you remove it and let people see all of you, including your life story, your sins, or the quirky part of your humor, then you open yourself up to the sort of community that God wants for you - a community of depth and realness and growth and deep joy. Often all it takes for that sort of community to take form is someone to initiate, to be the first person to take off their mask. What if you were that person?

ASK YOURSELF: Do I have 2 or 3 people who really know me, who I’m comfortable sharing the joys of life with and confessing my sin to (even the darkest stuff)? If so, how can I be an even better friend to them, this week? If not, where could I find those people, this week?