Nomadland and Koinonia
Last night Beverley and I watched Nomadland, a film released on Hulu several months ago. Nomadland tells the story of Fern, played by Frances McDormand, who lost everything in the great recession. Her husband dies and the industry in hometown closes down. She is in her 60’s and wants to work, but during that tough financial time is unable to find a job. She makes a decision to join a community of nomads, van-dwellers, who live out of their vans and consider themselves “houseless.”
It is a unique community. There is a Vietnam Veteran who has PTSD and finds the quiet and solitude soothing. Charlene is an Indiana University and Ball State graduate who is a real-life van dwelling nomad who plays herself in the film. And then there’s Bob Mills, the “patriarch” of the modern nomadic van dwelling community, who also plays himself in the movie. He tells the story of a friend who worked his entire life in the corporate world, and a few days after his retirement lost his life to cancer. “His boat was left sitting in his driveway” Bob says, “he never used it.” Bob invites people to not be like a workhorse, who work every day of their lives and then simply be put out to pasture when our culture decides their usefulness is past.
There is one scene in which Fern is talking to Bob, she shares her grief, loneliness, and pain. He acknowledges the seriousness of her situation, but then he tells her, “I think for you connecting to nature and true community will make all the difference for you.” That statement lodged itself in my mind, especially the phrase “true community.”
There is a Sunday School class at May Memorial call the Koinonia class. They meet each Sunday morning (in our building) at 9:45. It is a great class with an important name. Koinonia is a word that appears in the New Testament, first appearing in Acts 2, that means fellowship, participation, sharing, or contribution. It involves the idea of a community that is committed to sharing a life together. Who build one another up. Weep with one another. Support one another. Hold each other accountable. And in Bob Mills words, koinonia is true community, that makes a difference.
This is May Memorial Church. A community of people who have given their lives to God and seek to serve Him together. We all come with different paths, but here we find true community. The invitation is for us to all offer ourselves to God and each other so that our community may truly be koinonia, that our community be true, and that it continues to make a difference.