Love One Another

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"BTW, where did you get that shirt?", read the comment on a recent Facebook livestream video I did. I took some delight in explaining it was from my concert tour, which was a long time dream of mine. I went on to explain that after six shows the tour ended because, well, you know, it was March of 2020. That was over a year ago now and while I am not organizing a concert tour again, I am, God willing, trying again for my sabbatical. 

Little reminders like that question about my t-shirt, throw me back to a different reality than the one we now know. My t-shirt depicts a guitar and banjo with the concert title, "Love One Another" in lenten-purple letters. I wrote about twenty songs about the Incarnation, Teachings, Passion, and Resurrection of Jesus. I recorded it (the album is also titled Love One Another) and then took the show on the road with a good friend. I do hope to get back to playing concerts, but not on this sabbatical. This time around my sabbatical will be spent writing, recording, and spending time with family. 

I have thought a lot about Jesus' commandment to "love one another" over the past year. We have learned a lot of new ways to do that. We have often failed to do that. I have failed to do that. I'm in a long line of Christian hypocrites who aspire to follow the teachings of Christ, and inevitably fall short. I press on, as Christians through the ages have in all sorts of plagues, wars, political unrest, and in every corner of the world. If anything, the struggle of the past year has strengthened my resolve to press on in my ministry, in spite of my shortcomings. I am grateful to have been called to sacred order of priests, and so I'm going away for a few months to be renewed, and come back a healthier version of myself. 

It's amazing that Jesus' life and teachings continue to transform people, and open our eyes to God's reality in our midst. Whether reclining at a table in the first century, or communicated by a t-shirt over social media in the 21st century, the commandment to love one another is both simple and profound enough that it captures us, challenges us, inspires us, and gives us direction. It is how we show our devotion to Christ who taught us to love by first loving us. Through the ages, we strive to obey a way of being in relationship that is somehow eternally new, and still eternally transforming the world. 

Originally published in the South Jetty Newspaper


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