Once upon a time in a city far, far away I was part of a missional community that decided that we wanted to bless our neighborhood; to do something for the common good of the ‘hood.
We knew of a seriously neglected community garden near us that needed some love, so brothers and sisters spent weeks organizing an “extreme makeover” of the space. The goal was to give back to the neighbors something that would be good for everyone and build a sense of community among the residents.
That would be awesome, right?
The chosen Saturday for the project finally arrived with mostly blue skies and a sprinkle or two of rain thrown in just to add a dash of “suffering”. Our day included pulling something like a million weeds, the removal of many truckloads of trash and moving in literally tons of soil and wood chips. Young and old–man, woman and child–we built new raised bedding boxes, sturdy fences and even a gazebo to go over the entrance.
Some of our folks set up a tent with food and drinks where everyone–including those in the neighborhood that only watched us work–were invited to sit, eat and enjoy. The transformation that took place in a little over 8 hours was remarkable. Even the local media came out to take pictures and shoot video for their websites.
This was one A+ garden for sure, a job well done; a fine picture of what it looks like to do something for the common good.
Or was it?
Was it good for the neighbors?
Was it good for our church community?
We’ll come back to the neighborhood garden in a bit. To answer those questions let’s first back up a little to take a look at what the common good, common grace and God’s blessings are really all about.
When, as Christians, we speak about the common good, what “good” are we referring to? Everyone in a city or culture does not have the exact same needs; are we talking about the common good financially, ethnically, physically or spiritually? Who gets to decide what’s good for another person or people, and what is God’s idea of a common good for all of humanity?
The Blessing of Common Grace
Throughout the Bible we are taught that God’s blessings fall on everyone. In Matthew 5:45 Jesus says, “He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” That’s common grace. This is not just Jesus’ way of telling us we should love our enemies; he is referring his listeners to a pattern of blessing we find from the beginning of God’s story to the very end. In Genesis we see God blessing his new creation and the first humans–his image bearers–and telling them to be fruitful and multiply, filling the earth with his many blessings. (Gen. 1:21,22, 28)
Notice that God is blessing all of his creation, not because they’ve done anything amazing to earn it, but because of who he is and how he interacts with his beloved. He shows unmerited favor–grace–right from the start. Jumping to the end of the story, we see Jesus blessing those who are entering with him into the eternal city. (Rev. 22:7, 14)
From beginning to end, God has consistently shown his desire to bless and show grace. This is really good news for us humans. Heck, just the fact that we wake up another day with our hearts still beating shows God’s common grace. If we believe the truth of the gospel, we know that each of us (and everyone ever) have all rebelled against God and his loving rule and reign, earning ourselves death. So every day alive is a huge picture of God’s grace.
When a murderer wakes up the next morning, that’s grace. When I treat my wife or friends selfishly and they still love me the next day, that’s grace. Children born outside of marriage are God’s image-bearers and still represent his grace and blessing. The sun shining, plants growing, beauty and creativity in the world are all a picture of God’s unending love and goodness. On and on it goes. God has blessed humanity in so many, ongoing ways that it seems hard to believe the world would not of one voice shout “Yes!” and choose his ways and accept the forgiveness that he offers through his son Jesus.
But we don’t. And yet, his patient, common grace continues.
Most in Common
The common good has been defined, as first envisaged by Aristotle, as, “the most good for all people.” For there to be a genuine common good it would be true that we must first recognize that we have something in common with those we seek to serve–or “do good” to. As Christians, this is a theological and a gospel issue. Are we called to serve those most like us? That would mean for much of the church we should be serving mostly middle-aged, middle class, anglo Christians living in the suburbs?
When I think of serving a people group in my city, I usually jump quickly to folks that are less financially or educationally fortunate than myself. But if I were to be entirely honest, the last people I would think of trying to serve the “common good” of would be people just like me. “I’m doing pretty well, aren’t I? So they must be too…” It is this type of thinking that leads to our serving often being perceived as a holier-than-thou, benevolent stooping toward the less fortunate in the world.
“Awww…look at those poor kids…” or “Look how much we’ve been given compared to them, we should help…”
But again, the Bible and all of history has shown us that one thing we have in common with every other human being is our sinful nature. Yet usually we let other’s sins define them and divide us, when in fact we are all sinners in need of a savior; dying, literally, and in need of rescue.
Next week we’ll continue on in this conversation and look at The Common Good or the Common Best?
How about you? What would you say are the best ways you have engaged in the common good in your neighborhood or city? What have you learned about yourself in the process?
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