Nearly everyone knows the story of Batman. Once you’ve heard it, you can never forget it. As a young boy Bruce Wayne excitedly emerges from a theater in Gotham City along with his wealthy socialite parents, Thomas and Martha. But as the trio makes their way through a dimly lit alley, a mugger steps out of the shadows, waving a gun and demanding money. Before the couple can comply, the thief pulls the trigger. Bruce watches in horror.
Days later, kneeling by his bedside, Bruce solemnly vows to avenge his parents’ death by waging war on criminals. Relying on his billion-dollar inheritance, Bruce travels abroad, studying under the greatest criminologists, detectives and martial artists in the world. When he finally returns home to Gotham City, he adopts a persona that strikes fear into the hearts of criminals—the Batman!
But what started off as one man’s war on crime quickly turns into a family affair. While attending the circus, Bruce witnesses the murder of a husband and wife trapeze team. Their son and fellow acrobat, Dick Grayson, watched in frozen fear as they fell to their deaths from the top of the tent. Bruce adopts the orphaned boy and trains him to become Batman’s sidekick—Robin.
In time, Dick Grayson grew up, started calling himself Nightwing, and a new Robin filled his tights. Several Robins have come and gone over the years, and many other heroes have joined Batman’s cadre of crime fighters—including Huntress, Oracle, Azrael, more than one Batgirl, Batwoman, Catwoman, Alfred, and even Ace the Bat-Hound! Ironically, the world’s bravest loner has comics’ largest extended family.
This is what makes Batman such a fun character to cosplay for my family. Rather than mixing and matching a collection of random heroes, I’m always searching for a team or family of superheroes to accommodate our family of five.
After taking my first foray into costuming as Superman, I knew Batman would be my next project. I sharpened my sewing skills and worked out the kinks in creating Superman costumes, so when Halloween of 2009 rolled around I worked hard to outfit everyone in our family with a Batman-themed costume.
I created a classic blue and grey Batman for myself, a Batgirl costume for my wife, and a Robin for my son. By the time those three were finished Halloween was fast approaching, so I cheated and bought off-the-shelf costumes for my two girls, who were still in diapers. We débuted these costumes at a Trunk-or-Treat event for our small-town church. Members parked their cars and decorated their trunks as kids from all over the neighborhood clamored to see Batman and his supporting cast handing out candy in front of our church-building. We drew quite a crowd and gave away tons of candy along with dozens of gospel tracts and invitations to church!
Since then we’ve done multiple other versions of these and other bat-related characters. Batman, Robin and the rest of the gang are consistently among the most popular superheroes to portray.
So, what spiritual truth does the Caped Crusader illustrate?
Batman’s persistent pursuit of partners is a vivid reminder that you and I were formed for God’s family. The loss of his paternal family drove Bruce to build the largest crime-fighting family in comic-books—a family that he relies upon for support, strength and stability in his war on crime. That’s what the church provides for you and me.
All of us need a place to belong. All of us need to be part of something bigger than ourselves. All of us need to experience family and fellowship. Going to church is not primarily about worship. You can worship God at home from the comfort of your recliner, or behind the wheel of your car, or while kneeling at your bedside. Church is primarily about family! The Bible uses a lot of metaphors to describe the church, but the most persistent is family. In the New Testament, believers call each other brothers and sisters. The church is called the household of God. The Bible say, “Now you…are not foreigners or strangers any longer, but are citizens together with God’s holy people. You belong to God’s family” (Ephesians 2:19 NCV).
Maybe there’s a pew in your home church worn in the shape of your bottom. Maybe you’re as comfortable in your church family as you are in your favorite pajamas. On the other hand, maybe it’s been a while since you darkened a church doorstep. Maybe you’ve never felt the blessing of belonging to something as big as the family of God! Either way, I’d like to share with you something that Solomon once wrote about the benefits of family and fellowship:
Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up. Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone? Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken. (Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 NIV)
In his legendary wisdom, King Solomon says, “Two people are better than one…” He then describes three benefits of belonging to a church family.
STRENGTH
First, belonging to a church family provides strength. Notice these verses again from another translation: “Two people are better than one, because they get more done by working together…a rope that is woven of three strings is hard to break” (Ecclesiastes 4:9, 12 NCV). Solomon discovered a principle that holds true for every epoch of time—there’s strength in numbers! None of us can do alone what all of us can do together.
Batman embraced this principle by training young protégées like Robin and Batgirl. But he really elevates his war on crime in a comic series titled Batman Incorporated, by essentially “franchising” his name. Bruce scours the planet for the best of the best—drafting, training and commanding a global team of heroes who will answer to Batman himself. A world-wide team of caped crusaders fights crime in major cities all over the world because Batman recognized the power of teamwork.
In an old Peanuts comic-strip, Lucy strolls into the room and demands that her brother Linus change TV channels. “What makes you think you can just walk right in here and take over?” asked Linus. “These five fingers,” said Lucy. “Individually they are nothing, but when I curl them together like this into a single unit, they become a force to be reckoned with.” Linus sighed, “What channel do you want?” Then turning away, he looked at his own fingers and asked, “Why can’t you guys get organized like that?”
That’s the power of teamwork.
Whether you are interested in serving your community by providing meals for the needy, or sharing God’s love by giving away free fuel at your local gas-station, or sharing the message of Christ by handing out copies of the gospel at comic-cons, you’ll always make a bigger impact if you work as a team. None of us can do everything, but all of us can do something. And none of us can do alone, what all of us can do together! That’s the first reason God gave us the church. But there’s another reason.
SUPPORT
Belonging to a church family provides support. Again, King Solomon put it this way: “Two are better off than one, because…If one of them falls down, the other can help him up. But if someone is alone and falls, it’s just too bad, because there is no one to help him” (Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 GWT).
In one of my favorite Batman stories, a graphic novel titled Hush by Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee, the story opens with Batman chasing down the feline thief, Catwoman! With acrobatic agility, Batman swings from rooftop to rooftop until his grappling hook suddenly snaps. As the concrete below rushes ever closer, Batman lurches toward a stone gargoyle in hopes of breaking his fall. Instead, the abrupt strain breaks both his shoulder and the statue, sending Batman crashing into a darkened alley—Crime Alley. Crippled and unconscious in the most dangerous neighborhood in Gotham, Bruce is slowly surrounded by a cowardly and superstitious lot. Thankfully, Oracle was monitoring Batman from the safety of her computer console and quickly calls for help. Answering the call, the Huntress leaps to Batman’s rescue, helps him to his feet and returns him to the Bat-mobile. The scene closes with a shadowy figure overlooking the alley, whispering the words of Aristotle: “Without friends no one would choose to live, though he had all other goods.”
Of course, your grappling hook doesn’t have to snap while swinging above the city for you to experience a fall. We all stumble from time to time. Maybe you’ve just been through a bad breakup, maybe you’ve lost your job, maybe you’ve fallen prey to an addiction you thought you had beat. Your troubles may be different from mine, but we all have them. An Army Chaplain had a sign on his door that said, “If you have troubles, come in and tell me all about them. If you don’t have troubles, come in and tell me how you do it.”
In a Calvin in Hobbs comic-strip, Calvin crawls out of bed, dresses in his special clothes for school and heads out the door. Throughout the day, he sits on some bubble gum, gets beat up by a bully, fails a test and gets rained on. At bedtime he says, “You know, Hobbes, some days even my lucky rocket-ship underpants don’t help.”
We all have days like that. Jesus warned that we would. “In this world you will have trouble,” He said (John 16:33 NIV). Because we all stumble and fall, we need someone to help us up. That’s what Christians ought to do for one another.
The Bible says, “Help carry each other’s burdens. In this way you will follow Christ’s teachings” (Galatians 6:2 GWT). We all have burdens to bear and bad days to endure, and some days even wearing your lucky underpants won’t help. But belonging to a church family that cares about you and lifts you up whenever you fall—that does help. Belonging to God’s family provides us with the strength to get more done and the support we need to get through troubled times. It also warms our spirits.
SPIRITUAL WARMTH
Finally, belonging to a church family provides spiritual warmth. As Solomon said, “Two people are better off than one, for… two people lying close together can keep each other warm. But how can one be warm alone?” (Ecclesiastes 4:9-11 NLT). While this is practical advice for a nomadic people living in the desert, it also serves as a spiritual metaphor. You don’t have to live in a tent in the tundra to feel cold and alone.
The cartoon series Batman Beyond revisits a much older Bruce Wayne. After his many years of service, Batman turns his back on the city he swore to protect and shrouds himself from society in the dark shadows of his hollow mansion. Alfred is gone and all Bruce’s other partners in crime-fighting went their separate ways. Aging and alone, Bruce gave up on his mission and abandoned the vow he made at his bedside all those years ago. That is, until Terry McGuiness accidentally uncovers Bruce’s secret entrance to the Bat-cave. Terry’s persistence and mere presence stir the coals in Bruce’s heart, prompting him to come out of retirement and train Terry to take on the mantle of the bat.
Similarly, any time one of God’s children gets separated from the family, our fire fades. Our spirits grow cold. The Bible says, “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another” (Hebrew 10:24-25 ESV). One of the most important reasons the church meets together every Sunday is to stir each other up and encourage each other.
A pastor once visited a man who had been absent from church for some time. When the pastor arrived at the house of his wayward parishioner he found him sitting by a fire of glowing coals. The man fully expected his pastor to rebuke him for his lack of attendance. Instead, the pastor drew up a chair beside the fireplace. The pastor reached into the fire with metal tongs, removed one of the red glowing coals and placed it by itself on the hearth. In no time at all the coal lost its glow and moments later it was cold and grey. The man looked up into the face of his pastor who hadn’t spoken a word and he said “I’ll be there next Sunday.”
That parishioner understood what Solomon asserted.
The warmth you feel in your heart as you worship alongside fellow believers is your coals being stirred. It’s your passion for Jesus, your love for God and for people being rekindled. When you first gave your heart to Jesus, he lit a fire in your soul. Belonging to a church family fans the flames and keeps you spiritually warm.
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Batman may be the world’s greatest detective and one of DC Comics’ most iconic heroes, but even he doesn’t do it alone. Likewise, God doesn’t just call us to believe; he calls us to belong. The entire Bible is the story of God building a family that will support, strengthen, and stir one another up to love and good works for all eternity. He created you to be a part of it.