Are You in a Funk? Maybe It's Cultural . . . and Curable

Deuteronomy 6:1-8; Mark 12:28-34

Message: Uncommon Community

I was reading about a study done at Northwestern University that provides some fascinating findings about individualism, community and mood - especially depression. You can find the actual study HERE but, trust me, it can be depressing just to sort through the pyscho-lingo in these things. (I think that one day they'll do another study revealing that those who do these studies are more likely to be depressed). This wasn't a People magazine pop-poll sort of thing; it was a real, scientific, brain-mapping, chemical, genetic, confusing study.

They looked at genetic markers for depression. It turns out that some people have a specific "short allele - a depression gene," that predisposes them to depression. So one part of the study looked for any sort of correlation between cultures/races that have a bunch of these pesky short alleles. Here's what they found:

• Some cultures have a significantly greater genetic predisposition to depression (the short allele)
• Some cultures have much higher rates of depression

The study also looked at where cultures are on the spectrum of individualism vs collectivism. In other words, are collective cultures (those that are structured more towards the community than the individual) or individualistic cultures more prone to depression?

Then they smashed all the data into a fat computer and hit the "go" button. Here are the surprising results:

• The culture with the genetic marker for depression has significantly lower rates of depression.

• The culture that, genetically, should suffer lower rates of depression - is the the one full of depressed people.

Huh? What's going on? It turns out that the cultures with lower rates of depression are the ones that live in greater community. People's lives are tied together more; they inherently value collective harmony, expression and support each other much more. Perhaps community is an adaptive way of dealing with a genetic predisposition towards depression. In fact, something about these cultures - maybe the community they enjoy - heals or prevents depression to some extent. Amazingly, 80% of people from these collective-valuing cultures have the short allele that makes them more likely to suffer depression. Eighty percent!! But they aren't as depressed as the long-allele-ers.

The part you've probably guessed by now is that we in the western cultures - especially the United States - are the ones who suffer the greatest rates of depression, despite the fact that we don't have the big genetic predisposition to depression. Amazing. On the other hand, Asian cultures (and probably other collective cultures) have a high genetic predisposition towards depression, but suffer it far less than we do in the west.

The study raises many questions about cause and effect and what (countless) other factors might be involved. But one clear possibility is that we would all do well to live in greater community.

Hey, wait a minute - doesn't the bible say something like that too? What do you know.

- Curtis

Life Together

It is the fellowship of the Cross to experience the burden of the other. If one does not experience it, the fellowship he belongs to is not Christian. If any member refuses to bear that burden, he denies the law of Christ. - said by the guy to the left, in his book, Life Together.

Back when I laid the initial pipes for this message I picked up a copy of Dietrich Bonhoefferr's book, Life Together. It seemed to me that Romans 12 is about how Christians are to live this new life in Christ, with each other. Paul's words aren't full of a lot of mystery, just clear instruction about how to treat each other now that our lives are "living sacrifices." The foundation of life together is put simply by Paul, "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind" - vs 2. The rest of the chapter suggests what this transformed life looks like - together.
So I've been reading Life Together for the first time since seminary days. It's like reading something from another planet. What Bonhoeffer talks about is so unfamiliar to me and American Christianity (for the most part) that I don't even know how to go about doing what he says. He says that a believer's focus should be so fully on Christ alone that nothing else really can move us or shake us up at all. He writes that most of our desires regarding what Church should be like are poisonous "wish-dreams" that destroy fellowship and the Church. He talks about reading the Bible together as a family every morning before the day gets moving. Lots of the Bible - chapters of it together. Then, sing a few hymns with your kids around the corn flakes. On pg 60 he rips into bad singing in church. I liked that part, though I'm not a good singer. He advocates lots of alone time for prayer, meditation, and being with God. And finally he talks about ministry, not in terms of "success" and "goals" being accomplished, but in terms of meekness, humility, "holding one's tongue" and being simply "helpful" to others.
What century did this guy live in?! Oh, wait, that's right - he lived during the first half of the last century; formed an underground seminary community where people actually lived out all of these Biblical ideals; was executed at 39 yrs of age because he had the courage to stand for his convictions.
So the sermon has, as usual, been difficult because the way I actually live, and the way I suspect most of us live, is so disparate from the way the bible intends us to live. I think the reason that Romans 12 doesn't shock me as much as Life Together is simply because I get used to reading what the bible has to say and I become numb to its teaching. The Spirit tries to blast through my spiritual deafness, but it doesn't always happen too well.
So in the message this week I'm going to invite people to think of Paul's words from a bit of a different angle - a cafe' parable, in a sense. But if you don't mind slightly slow reading, check out Bonhoeffer's stuff. We would do well to make our church, and The Church, a lot more like his Life Together. - Curtis