There is no "I" in Team

Sports cliches are a dime a dozen – there is almost an endless supply! Growing up, I remember one that my baseball coaches commonly used to communicate the need to work together, “There is no I in TEAM!” Of course, after the coach walked away, we were often left with the puzzling and pithy rebuttal, “But there is a ME!”

Besides being knucklehead kids, this response underlies a shared sentiment or philosophy of Western culture – individualism. Of course, not everyone ascribes the same value to individualism across cultural groups. For instance, in general, communities of color esteem collectivism at a far higher rate than white communities. But, by and large, American society has been shaped by individualism, which the American Psychological Association defined as “a social or cultural tradition, ideology, or personal outlook that emphasizes the individual and their rights, independence, and relationships with other individuals.”

This aligns with many of our culture’s common sayings such as…

• Be true to yourself. 
• Follow your heart. 
• You do you. 

I am sure I could go on, and you are probably thinking, "what does this have to do with the collect prayer this week?" Stick with me.

Here is the reality: we are all swimming in the cultural current of individualism. The problem is that the biblical authors within the library of scripture did not operate with this worldview. The Ancient Near East, the location and cultural context of nearly all the Bible, was a collectivistic culture. This means they valued the group over the individual.  

As a case study, let’s look at the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5. As a 21st-century White American male shaped by individualism, I read these passages and see love, patience, kindness, gentleness, etc., as individual attributes I try to attain.

Not a bad thing.

However, it forgets that originally, this letter was written to the church in Galatia, to a WE, not a ME. It likely would have been read aloud, in its entirety, and the people would have asked a much different question. They would have wondered how their community could display the fruit of the Spirit, not simply individuals.  

Therefore, when I read the collect, what stuck out to me was the collectivistic language of "we" and "our" within the prayer. Christianity, at its core, is a communal experience. Remember, Jesus called disciples plural, not a disciple singularly.

This seems salient and necessary when we face what the collect calls adversities or suffering. In our darkest hours, we need the nearness of the Spirit who intercedes for us and our God who stays close to those with broken hearts (ref. Romans 8:26-28, Psalm 34:18). But we also need the hope of others when our hope is waning.

I know in my own life that when Adrienne and I experienced tragedy with two miscarriages, it was the church community that gave us life when we had no life. Often, in that season, I did not want to pray to God or worship. What held us together was not our individual pursuit of the Lord, but the collective pursuit of the body of Christ. As Pastor Drew often says during the passing of the peace, the body reminded us of the peace of Christ when all we felt was turmoil and grief.

So, if you are facing adversity, I pray you know that you are not alone. I pray our community at Redeemer would be one where we are more about the we than the me. May the Lord give us all the desire to intercede through deed and truth to each other and may the body collectivity be comforted through one another by His mighty aid.