Scripture knows nothing of the...
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Scripture knows nothing of the solitary Christian. People of faith are members of a community with a long line of voices. Adam needed Eve in order for humanity to be whole. Jesus called a group of disciples and the church began in community. Christians celebrate community every week in the gathered act of worship. There are those folks in our community who fall short and are sinful like us. The community of Christ is where we learn to live with one another; even those with whom we disagree. The Lord God has anointed his community with the "oil of gladness" (v. 9). Eugene Peterson writes this about oil: "Oil, throughout Scripture, is a sign of God's presence, a symbol of the Spirit of God. The oil glistens, picks up the warmth of sunlight, softens the skin, perfumes the person. (Gerard Manley Hopkins, extolling God's grandeur in creation, uses a similar image in his line, 'It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil crushed.') There is a quality of warmth and ease in God's community which contrasts with the icy coldness and hard surfaces of people who jostle each other in mobs and crowds" (A Long Obedience in the Same Direction, p. 174). -- Bolton
