Pastor's Corner: Love in community

Throughout this Easter season, in the middle of a global pandemic, we have been proclaiming that Jesus comes to earth and shows us all who God is, and then returns to Heaven and leaves us with the Holy Spirit. In a world that is “not yet” complete in its fullness, we still have to live in this hard and broken world. What does it mean to feel hope now? Our faith tells us that now, we look for witnesses. We are like little spiritual detectives that go around looking for signs of hope in the middle of the not yet. It is going to be hard for a while. In the midst of that, God promises that He will be there, and so we look to each other and we look to the world, and we look for the little glimmers that God is already here.

What are some little moments that you can grab on to of hope and joy that is serving you right now? What is one thing that you are experiencing and witnessing that gives you a little shred of connection?

We’ve already laid the groundwork for each other in community of what we do together — we lay our lives on the table for each other. And not just the pretty parts. When things get real, this is where you go so that we can be real with each other. We trust that love is the most powerful thing in the universe. We don’t need to be afraid of how scary and how messy it is because we are in it together and we can love each other through it.

We are staring at our suffering, asking ourselves: God, could you be enough and could we be enough to each other, even in the middle of this? And the answer is, we are nothing without each other. In our fragility right now, I hope we can begin to feel comfortable being as limited as we are, and we won’t feel like we have to pretend quite as much anymore. I hope in the future we get so much permission to look at someone else in need and break through to each other again. There is no hiding it now.

The call of the church is now and has always been to treat everyone as the beloved image of God — which they are. We are all in this together. What does it mean for us to come together in a fuller way? Jesus gave us the example by saying through his living — I am just going to love to the point of incredible vulnerability. The God who is love has lived a life that is somewhat close to yours and mine, so that we can say that there is something out there that gets what I am going through and that is encouraging me to lean into it and not be afraid of it.

As we walk through this, we are who we’ve always been — we love each other in community. We say no matter what, I am not leaving you, you are not going through this alone. The deepest faith is not that nothing bad will ever happen to us, but that some really bad stuff will happen, but it is nothing to fear because you will not be alone in it. That’s what we can promise each other — you will not be cut loose. If it happens to you, it is going to happen to me. We are going to share in this together. We have no idea how it is going to turn out. But we will not leave each other alone. That is the fullness of the Kingdom of God!

“I will not leave you orphaned.” Over and over, day after day, regardless of what is happening in our lives, that is Jesus’ promise. We have not been abandoned. So love with all you are and all you have. Thanks be to God!

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The Rev. Maggie Lewis

First Presbyterian Church, Havre

Chinook Presbyterian Church