Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. | John 20:30–31
As we opened up our series on the gospel of John this week, we looked at how this book is organized to get us to John’s stated purpose: so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. One of the things that I said was that John’s writing is more humanizing than the other gospels; John’s treatment of the stories he includes are fuller, with more dialogue, and are written in a way that invites us into the story. It honors that we are limited as to how much information (and how many stories) we can process.
As I was preparing the sermon, I was thinking about how little our world honors these limitations. God created us to be limited by space, meaning we can ever only be present in one place at a time. God created us to be limited by time, meaning we can only spend time with so many people and get so much done. God created us to be limited in wisdom, meaning that we can only know so much of another persons story and the depth of controversial issues. What technology has done is expanded these limits. Now, you can know what is going on over the world at all times. You can have thousands of friends that you are connected to and know something about (though it is only the parts they choose to let you know). We have all sorts of biased stories, all claiming to know more than the rest, making us feel like we have a better grasp on controversial issues than we actually do.
We can’t put the genie back in the bottle; the internet and social media are not going anywhere anytime soon. People commuting 1-2 hours to work, expanding their community to a size where they have no place, is not going to stop. People expecting you to have an opinion on 50 different topics that you have no ability to adequately research will continue to be the norm. There is something that you CAN do: call it what it is. This is a false and inhuman expectation. The idea that anyone can actually know all there is to know, be empathetic in all situations, and be pushing back against any and all injustice is a lie. No one can live outside their limitation, no matter how many apps they make use of. The idea that people can, and that you should be able to, is actually de-humanizing, because it doesn’t respect the human limitations that God designed into us. As we see in our current climate, expanding all of these spheres has not solved the problem of tribalism, and has made us more lonely and confused in the process.
Full disclosure, I am a localist. I live the majority of my life in a 2 mile radius and follow a routine that allows me to develop relationships with the people and problems that exist in my neighborhood. While I know it is not possible for everyone to live like this, and at times I question whether it is worth it, I also believe that it is much closer to the kind of community that the Bible talks about: where your concern for people is not based on ideals, but on relationship. Where you appreciate the work of other people because you labor side by side with them, not because you read about it online. Where your concerns are for actual people suffering, not just movements. The reason why this is important is because we don’t have to set aside our limitations (or pretend they don’t exist) to be a good neighbor. We may not have the ability to make sweeping changes to broken systems (which makes us feel trapped), but we can always serve the person next door. We can’t solve the problems of the world, but we can love one another.
The danger here is what is called Tribalism, which pits all of these smaller communities against one another. Where we allow our local concerns to be bigger than the concerns of all of the other groups. This can be a real problem. Throughout history, tribal wars and US vs. THEM mentality has been a driving force behind a great deal of abuse. This abuse is born out of not being able to see your ‘opponents’ as human beings, deserving the same love and respect as you and your neighbors. The problem is not that we don’t have enough information or don’t understand enough people, but that we have forgotten what it means to be human (because the relationship between us and others was one of the relationships marred by sin at the Fall).
What we need is to allow God to teach us through the means that He has created, which includes limitation. We were created to be known and to be known. While we are assured that we can have this relationship with Jesus, we are also supposed to seek out this kind of relationship with others. Our experience of this world is not meant to be a supply-and-demand, consumerist understanding of community; this world is meant to have names and faces.
I encourage you to narrow your focus on the people that God has placed in your life and to invest in a very specific group of people to love and be loved by. Limiting yourself is the only way to actually experience humanity, both your own and others.