Click on the image to watch the video:

Sigur Ros

What do you see when you watch this?  What emotions are stirred in you?  What does it say about the Church?  About God?  About how lives are transformed on-the-way?  Read the previous post on this blog: This is Us! How is that story and this video related?

For those of us city dwellers we know what it is like to travel with others on public transportation. It can be stressful especially if the group reaches more than a few. In an effort to keep the group together a natural leader arises, and out of a deep concern to keep the group together and safe, you’ll hear “This is us!” A proclamation that lets all in the common group know that this subway car is ours for the taking, and will eventually lead us to our common destination. Interestingly enough this phrase came up again and again on a recent trip to New York City.  Since we were living in Brooklyn we commuted to Manhattan daily by subway.  I found this phrase useful again and again, “This is us!” You’d hear when our train came, after we’ve been waiting possibly seeing 2-3 trains pass us before ours arrived.

One morning that week a friend of mine named Matan from Israel was rushing me to prepare myself for the day. As I brushed my teeth and my friend Dan fixed his hair, we heard Matan yell from the room, “This is us!”. Dan and I look at each other and turn our heads. Again we hear Matan proclaiming, “This is us!” I almost didn’t have the heart to ask Matan, “Matan, what did you say?” Matan got a sheepish look on his face. He explained, “Everytime our group is ready to move, to get on a subway, someone proclaims, ‘This is us!’ Does it not mean, ‘Let’s go’? Since his English far exceeded my Russian, or Hebrew I gave him as much grace as I could find. But after thinking about it, it must of made great sense to him to think that. Matan wanted to move us to mission together together. He was done with our passive hygienic care. So for that we made in grammatically correct the rest of the week to proclaim, “This is us!” When others in the group needed to be told, “Let us Go!”

Thanks for writing Sean.

As I (Mark) reflect on Sean’s story – and I remember times when I too have blurted out “This is us!” on the train approaching our stop, it strikes me what an interesting “reveal” that statement is for us as missional followers of Jesus.

Think about what that statement is doing.  When someone on a crowded train approaching a stop leans toward his pack of friends and says, “This is us,” he is telling them that we are about to embark on a journey together.  This journey is part of what defines “us” from “them” (the rest in the train car).  It prepares and rallies the group to go. It says ‘This is who we are, we are go-ers.’

Our identity as missional followers of Jesus is discovered “on the way” – we learn who we are by who we are traveling with, that our identity is wrapped up in our mission – and our community is those with whom we exit the train and begin our walk.  Sociologists call this communitas – and it will completely change any insular, stagnant back-biting community into a vibrant, creative, and dynamic family on the move.  When Jesus said, “(As you are going) into all the world, make disciples…” – he was saying in essence…

…”This is us!”

But it has me thinking some about where my dollars go.  In a booming economy, it seemed no one minded giving their hard-earned dollars to big companies that moved all the money to one side of the boat – tipping us toward a capsize.  Well, I don’t want to go into the water.

Instead, a few years ago we as a society remembered what it was like to buy things from each other.  Rather than a computerized woman checking out our oatmeal creme pies and CoCo Puffs, now we’re buying locally – handing cash (or in some cases, local currency!) across a fold-up card table in exchange for a heirloom tomato picked this morning in a farm just outside of town.

You know that feeling you get after a cross-country flight?  That’s how your tomato feels too.  …Buying local is great for taste, and your pocket book.

But there’s something I’m adding to the long litany in your purchasing portfolio:

BUY SOCIAL!

I’m finding my friends and family are taking advantage of our current economy along with the rise of Facebook and other sites like it to step into a new venture.  My sister-in-law sells wickless candles, my friend sells gourmet meals, two of my cousins just released their first album (rock and folk), and my mom sells health products.  I’m certain that I can get into the paper goods business, selling all my friends and family toilet paper and such.

Just think – the more connected we all become, the more we become self-marketers, (every status update is a promotion of you.)  If you wanted to make money what better place to advertise than to your friends and family on a place where they spend an average of 45mins a day waiting for you to say something?

Now, no one wants a nag – and we’ll all have to learn to continue to treat our friends and family as real, honest people – something corporations with million-dollar commercials forgot a long time ago.  Maybe with a real, honest social connection, we’ll know how to best keep our “warm market” from becoming “warmed over.”  I love my family and friends more than I want their business.  Much much more!

And it works.  I’m finding that my family and friends involved in this new economy: 1) deeply respect the boundaries of marketing to me and 2) we are engaging each other in new ways as we talk about the products and services they truly believe in!

I love handing money to a local farmer – but I really love handing money to a friend or family member for goods and services.  It is as if I am once again looking at changing my buying habits – why buy from Sam Walton’s family when I can buy from my own?