Dear Beloved Friends,
We’ve included a calendar in our newsletter and webpage on our new ways of gathering together as more people are vaccinated and the concern about contracting COVID is diminishing. As we provide experimental ways of meeting this summer, both online and in-person, we invite you to be gracious toward yourself and one another.
It is going to take some time to reacquaint and also to make new acquaintances with people we’ve only met on zoom.
As we gather together more frequently, I offer to you the good, vital word of Ephesians 6:23-24
23 Peace be to the whole community, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 24 Grace be with all who have an undying love for our Lord Jesus Christ.
Peace. Not just internal peace. Not just peace of mind. Not just peace amongst a few. Peace be to the whole community! As we begin to emerge from our closed doors, greeting one another with an awareness that we are a bit out of practice in our in-person exchanges, may we step forward in faith that Christ who came to piece back together the fragments of our lives so that we can be peacemakers for the whole community is with us.
Peace be to the whole community!
What is each of our part in this? Perhaps a big part is trusting what the Spirit has been doing and revealing to you this past year. What is it that you uniquely and beautifully bring to the whole community that enables peace to grow?
Jesus who came to “proclaim peace to those who were far off and peace to those who were near” is the same Living Lord whose Spirit invites us to be people of peace both internally and externally.
And, Jesus promised that the Spirit would be with us to bring a new peace – not as the world gives:
25 “I have said these things to you while I am still with you.26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. 27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.
As we begin to gather more frequently together and provide experimental ways to be in community together, may we love with faith – faith in what Jesus Christ is doing in our midst through the Spirit dwelling in and with us; faith that the Spirit has been active in our physical time a part and is actively NOW doing a new thing in our midst; faith that we can gather together the lessons, heartaches, pain, and discoveries of this past year to grow together more fully into being Christ’s One Body.
Our world desperately needs to see a community that holds onto an undying love for our Lord Jesus Christ that flows forth to bring healing and hope.
The words of Henri Nouwen affirm this need for a community that sees peacemaking as wholemaking:
So, brothers and sisters, peacemaking starts every time we move out of the house of fear toward the house of love. You and I will always be scared, somehow, somewhere. But if we keep our eyes fixed on the One who says ‘Do not be afraid, it is I,’ we might slowly be able to let go of that fear and become free enough to live in a world without borders, to see the suffering of others, and to bring good news and receive good news.
We are so excited to continue to grow together, united by the Spirit. Let’s experiment together.
Peace be to the whole community, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be with all who have an undying love for our Lord Jesus Christ. (Ephesians 6:23-24)
God on High, Open our hearts to your power moving
around us and between us and within us,
until your glory is revealed in our love of both friend and enemy,
in communities transformed by justice and compassion,
and in the healing of all that is broken.
We thank you now for our living Word.
In Jesus’ name. Amen