Hymns and Methodist Chicken

Facebook has really filled the news this past week as founder and CEO Mark Zukerberg testified before Congress regarding the use and sale of consumer’s personal data. I utilize Facebook- I know many of you do. Millions of people in this country, and billions around the world access Facebook every day. Only a few years ago at an Annual Conference I purchased a book on the Bishop’s recommended reading list, “Facebook Church.”

The book claimed that for many users Facebook was rapidly replacing the church or other face-to-face communities as the place people shared thoughts, ideas, spiritual questions, and even friendship and community.

In his appearance before Congress, Mark Zuckerberg even declared this was one of the most fundamental goals and vision of the Facebook company- to build community, to connect people with friends and people they love. To do good.

I believe these were the initial ideals of Facebook. How and if these goals have been reached, and /or what when wrong is a bigger issues than we can consider here; but we can look at a related question: can social media, can cyberspace- can virtual, digital community replace actual physical human community?

Acts 4: 32-35 clearly outlines the importance of people joining resources together in a very real and practical way to care for one another.

There are at least three aspects of this community that cannot be digitally duplicated. After I share them with you we are going to share these gifts of community by singing a few favorite hymns. I invite you to take a moment and think of a favorite song- you can find it listed by title or first line in both the back of the Hymnal, and The Faith We Sing.
 
These are three essential elements of a faith community like St. Nicholas impossible to reproduce in social media network “communities”:

• Touch In this community we are able to reach out and touch one another. Some hug as a greeting, or shake hands, or even beg for a doggie treat! We form a closing circle every week before departing from worship. We talk face-to-face over coffee and cookies. We smile and/or hug when we leave.
• Transparency In an embodied community like St. Nicholas, each time we gather we become more transparent to one another and with one another. Through the depth of relationship that comes with worship, prayer, small groups and shared service, we learn about one another and grow to shared, our times of need are known and uplifted by the community.
• Trust Being a genuine community requires trust, and trust takes time and personal shared experience to build. Every time we plan and complete a project together, each experience of mutual support offered in times of need; every promise fulfilled builds the kind of human trust that is essential to human well-being in life.
• Song I add this as an especially Methodist element of community life you could never duplicate on any social media. Whenever and wherever Methodists gather two things generally occur- singing and a potluck. I am living proof of this. Before I became a Methodist I had never opened a hymnal, nor had I ever heard of Methodist Chicken. I now know the hymnal nearly front to back, and I can smell Methodist Chicken a mile away! I am grateful for both.

So, let’s celebrate the gift of this community this morning by sharing some of our favorite hymns…