If one word sums up the meaning of Christianity, that word is love. In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus said, “Hear, O, Israel. The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”
If one life sums up the meaning of Christianity, it is the life of Jesus. Jesus lived the commandments he said were the greatest. In his teaching and in how he lived his life, Jesus showed that living lives of love involves suffering, death, and resurrection. He showed us what it means to put God at the center of our lives and not status, power, and self-promotion.
That is the grand story of Christianity and the foundation of Christian community. Love, suffering, death, and resurrection are themes that are woven into every life. Dig just a little into ourselves, and we see that these themes are foundational. Our awareness and acceptance of them give our lives meaning and direction.
Christian community is a gift we celebrate. In Christian communities we share the joys and sorrows of our lives. With God’s help, we live our baptismal covenant of seeing Christ in all persons and of living the greatest commandments. We welcome all without distinction. Our worship services celebrate and renew our desire and commitment to love God and ourselves, to care for each other, and to ensure the healthy nurturing of children and youth.
Our experiences in Christian communities move us to reach out beyond the walls of our churches to seek Christ in all persons. In our everyday lives, we perform acts of generosity for their own sakes and without expectations that others are now obligated to reciprocate. Christian communities are places where we experience God’s love and are reminded that we are made in the image and likeness of God. God saw that we are good. Not perfect, but good. Christian communities offer acceptance of our whole selves including our imperfections.
Christian communities extend forgiveness, restoration, inclusion, and belonging. Christian communities are havens of love and possibilities.
Small acts create Christian communities. A simple greeting when newcomers arrive on Sunday mornings. Looking into the faces of other persons and experiencing that indescribable sense of connection and knowing. Complexity theory states that the tiniest of actions can set off a chain of events whose consequences are unknown to the originators. A butterfly flutters its wings in South America and the sun shines in Excelsior. This “butterfly effect” shows how small acts have exponential repercussions.
Christian community is possible amid the suffering and anger of the larger world. As Richard Rohr said in a September 2014 meditation,
“love is the ontological “Ground of Being” itself (Paul Tillich). It is the air that you breathe, as any true mystic discovers, consciously or unconsciously. You do not have to be able to describe this in words to experience it. In fact, you can’t. You can only live it. We live lives of love through our actions and through being a loving and accepting presence.”
Sometimes we don’t have to do anything in particular except to know God loves us. We are the beloved. We convey this by simply being ourselves. We learn this through Christian community.
Note: This is an excerpt from an article I wrote this for the October 2014 newsletter of an Episcopal Church in Minnesota, USA.
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