[This reflection was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, 30/May/2021]
The past year has certainly been like no other, both here and around the world. Living through a pandemic is something that most of us never considered would be our experience, and our hearts, thoughts and prayers continue to go out to those who have suffered with serious illness and lost dear loved ones. Finally, we are beginning to see the light at the end of a very long tunnel, with restrictions being lifted, and we’re even allowed to hug one another -yay!! I will never again take hugging for granted!
All of this hopefully means we can return to meeting in church soon too! It will be such a blessing to see and spend time with our church family again, to be community in every sense of the word. Community in a church setting is more than simply gathering together in the same building. It’s where we can bless each other, encourage and build up one another, grow our faith together, be Christ to our friends, show love and kindness, shine a light that says “welcome and come in”, where we can be candles that light up someone else, who lights up the next person, and the next person, and so on. A good friend shared the following piece written by Henri Nouwen, where he shares his thoughts on community, what it is and how it looks. It says it much better than I could:
Community is Heart Calling to Heart …
Friendship, marriage, family, religious life, and every other form of community is solitude greeting solitude, spirit speaking to spirit, and heart calling to heart. It is the grateful recognition of God’s call to share life together and the joyful offering of a hospitable space where the re-creating power of God’s Spirit can become manifest. Thus all forms of life together can become ways to reveal to each other the real presence of God in our midst.
Community has little to do with mutual compatibility. Similarities in educational background, psychological makeup, or social status can bring us together, but they can never be the basis for community. Community is grounded in God, who calls us together, and not in the attractiveness of people to each other. … The mystery of community is precisely that it embraces all people, whatever their individual differences may be, and allows them to live together as brothers and sisters of Christ and sons and daughters of his heavenly Father. (Henri J. M. Nouwen)
When we live in community in this way, we can’t help but be a light in our local community -we are blessed inside to become a blessing outside! We take that sense of community “out of the building” and bless our neighbours, friends, family, colleagues, and as we do so, we share Jesus with people and begin to build them up too.
“As you come to him, the living Stone – rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him – you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” [1 Peter 2:4-5]
“As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.” [Proverbs 27:17]
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Contributed by Lesley Edwards; © the Author
