Community is the place where we ideally learn to be ourselves without fear or constraint. Community life deepens through mutual trust among all its members. The more authentic and creative a community is in its search for the essential, the more its members are called beyond their own concerns and tend to unite. A community becomes truly and radiantly one when all its members have a sense of urgency. It is when the members of a community realize that they are not there simply for themselves or their own sanctification, but to welcome the gift of God, to hasten God’s Kingdom, and to quench the thirst of others, that they truly live as community. The process of becoming a community happens when the majority of its members make the transition from ‘the community for myself’ to ‘myself for the community.’ Loving means to want others to fulfill themselves according to God’s plan. It means wanting them to be faithful to their own calling. -Jean Vanier (founder of L’Arche)
Beloved Friends,
Our journey through the season of Lent has now begun. We took our first steps together a week ago on Ash Wednesday when we came together and had our foreheads marked with the sign of the cross. Then this past Sunday we began exploring the invitation of moving into a metaphorical wilderness through a sermon series using Brene Brown’s book: Braving the Wilderness: The Quest for True Belonging and the Courage to Stand Alone. We also began a season of a new Sunday morning schedule with a time to eat and gather at 9:00, worship at 10:00 and conversation at 11:15. And while at first glance those three things may not seem related, I dare say I think they are intrinsically interwoven when put in the context of Jean Vanier’s beautiful quote on community above. From my perspective, these things: a season of introspection, a sermon series with extended conversation and a new way of being together on Sundays are all a part of trying to discern how God is calling us to be and become a beloved community.
Change is often something we resist when we fear something we value will be taken away. Change is also something we crave when we yearn for something our values want to see expressed. Both are true and valid. It is my deepest prayer that was we live and grow into community together we will indeed build up “mutual trust among all our members.”
Come home this Sunday; bring whatever is hurting or whatever you have to share and together we will continue our Lenten journey, searching for what is essential, releasing what holds us down, and rejoicing in our affection for each other and for the God who loved us first.
May you never forget you are loved.
Lisa