The lie of 'I'

On Sunday hubby and I visited a church that we had never been to before. We aren't going to a church at the moment and both of us have been feeling that it is time that we found a place to worship and call 'home'. This church was amazing; we both felt loved and accepted as soon as we came in the doors (plus they give free proper coffee! I was sold).

Going to a church got me thinking about community. As we sang songs that sometimes were based on how 'I' worship God for what he has done for 'me' I started to get to ruminating.

What if I said there is no such thing as I?

I'm not crazy, bear with me and I will explain.

Though I am a person and I am an individual, I didn't get this way by myself.

I was born into a family. As a child I was completely dependent on my mother and father to survive. As I grew it was my family and friends that shaped my personality. Without them I wouldn't know if I was funny, annoying, loud, quiet etc. We only find out those things by being in contact with others.

As teenagers we like to think that the world revolves around us and that we can do whatever we like because it is MY life. However, very few teenagers I know like to be alone with no one to bounce off and tell them that they are ok and acceptable. They need their peer group to define them just as much as they protest they don't.

As adults we don't live as hermits (well, most of us don't). We find meaning in our relationships with others, our work, our hobbies. We need others to love us, to support us and to be with us when crap hits the fan.

We are defined by our relationships. We wouldn't know how to speak, what to think, how to act or anything without the people around us showing us, telling us and helping us.

We are made to be in community.

Which makes sense when you think that we have been made in the image of a God that is communal. The Trinity may be complex and impossible to explain but what I can say is that God hangs out (albeit with himself) and loves being with others.

So none of this is mind blowing stuff, lots of us have heard it before or know it implicitly.

But what if we apply this logic to church songs?

When I sing a song that says "I" am worshiping God, nothing is further from the truth. Someone else wrote the song, another person is playing it for me, others in my near vicinity are singing the same song and the words on the screen, that someone wrote up there for me, are telling me what to sing.

I am being told what to sing, how to sing, and the context in which I should sing.

This is the greatest act of community that happens in the church! Not even listening to sermons comes close.

So does it not make sense that we sing songs that recognise this amazing act of communal worship and that we celebrate what God is doing even in this simple act?

It is not about what God has done/is doing for me. It is not about what I am doing for God.

It is about the miraculous and beautiful event that occurs when people of all different walks and with different roles come together to piece together a song to worship the Creator of community.

And that is certainly something worth singing about.