Trusting Our Community

Jesus’ instructions to his disciples in today’s gospel strikes right at my anxiety. He tells them to go forth, “carry no money bag, no sack, no sandals,” and to “eat and drink what is offered to you.” They are sent out without what I would consider even the essentials. They are to trust in God—and, quite notably, in others—for their needs to be met. 

I am a planner. I like to make plans. I like to know plans. I don’t particularly thrive on uncertainty! So, the thought of trusting that I will get my needs met without knowing how or where? Yikes. 

I can feel how my embodied response has been shaped by individualism. Though I deeply value community and collective care, I also feel I have to rely on myself. This is not so much out of distrust, but more so because I don’t want to feel like a burden. When Jesus tells the disciples to enter people’s homes and eat what is given to them, I can’t help but imagine how I would feel: awkward and uncomfortable. I’d want to do something in return to repay the kindness. 

However, my double standard here is strong. If someone else came to my door, I would hope to show them hospitability and welcoming.  It would not be a burden or problem to be managed. Here lies a learning: I am comfortable having other people’s back, but struggle to have trust in letting others have mine. 

We live in a time when people’s access to healthcare is being stripped away, food assistance is under threat, people’s identities are being attacked, and community members are being abducted off the streets. In his work on mutual aid, Dean Spade says, “We’re all we got. We’re all we need.”  I see people embracing this truth as they block ICE and law enforcement from detaining, incarcerating, and deporting their immigrant neighbors. In so many ways, folks are showing that we have each other’s backs in a time when trusting each other has taken on a new importance.  

That trust goes both ways. We must also be like the disciples, trusting that others will provide for us. What does it feel like to state what we need? To let people see our vulnerabilities, so we can be wrapped in community care? What is it like to believe we can get our needs met not because of some nebulous faith that everything will work out, but a concrete and grounded faith and trust in the people around us?   

Over the coming weeks, months, and years, we will certainly have the chance to be the community members who welcomed the disciples in their homes.  We’re going to need to keep showing up. We need to protect and provide for our neighbors. But in this time of uncertainty, it is likely we’ll also have opportunities to be the disciples, trusting our community will provide for us, too. “We’re all we got. We’re all we need.”