Fellowship of Love

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"In Christ there is no east or west, in him no south or north; But one great fellowship of love, throughout the whole wide earth." So goes the hymn I've been singing my whole life in the Episcopal Church. It has taught me that to be a Christian is to be part of a human family regardless of any of those artificial categories we invent to divide ourselves. Categories like we are from, what our skin color may be, what political party we most closely identify with, what ethnic community we were brought up in. All of those things are temporal and cannot compare to the great love of God; a love that gave it's own life for the sake of the world in Jesus. Those differences spice up the rich variety of our human existence. 

It is an embarrassment that in the year 2020 it would suddenly seem so important to have make the explicit statement that the ideology of white supremacist groups, or any superior-minded ideology seeking to place more value on one group of people than another is anti-Christian.  It seems to be important now, though. I suppose someone who is not Christian could be aligned with white supremacist ideology, but the two do not go together. If someone has so perverted the teachings of Jesus as to suggest otherwise, remember that Jesus makes it quite clear in his teachings and in the way he lived and died that the love of God is for every person. When there is an imbalance, the Gospel tends to side with those who find themselves in the oppressed situations we humans create. 


There are certainly many ways to view the world, and people may choose any way. The way of Jesus, though, is a way of love. Not romantic love, though that is a wonderful love. Not even a sentimental love. The love of Jesus, the love that gave it's life for the sake of the whole world was an empowering, world-changing love. In Greek is is called agape. It is a love that teaches us to see the good creation as God's own and that we have been given stewardship of it; we have been entrusted to one another for our very short time here on earth. Agape love teaches us this life is a gift, and that death is not the end, so we should not fear death. It recognizes that we are in God's care and no external threat can separate us from the love of God. 

Months ago, I wrote about wanting to be part of the Reconciliation Party. If I didn't realize it at the time, I realize now that I already am. It's called Church. Our mission is to bring people into healing relationship with God and one another; we are to be a godly force of reconciliation. Where there are forces that would seek to divide, demean, and degrade, I have made a vow in my baptism to renounce those as the evil efforts of the Devil. I love and pray for the people who have been caught up in this current chaos, and I pray for those wounded souls who say horrifying things with so many people listening. I can only assume they must not know the love of God. Jesus must weep to hear of the white supremacist rhetoric still alive today and at the way we tear each other down. He must weep at the way we stand by silently, as I have surely done. I pray today, more than ever, the words from our Morning Prayer service: Lord Jesus, Christ, you stretched out your arms of love on the hard wood of the cross that everyone might come within your saving embrace: So clothe us in your Spirit that we, reaching forth our hands in love, may bring those who do not know you to the knowledge and love of you; for the honor of your Name. Amen.

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