A Community Rooted in Love
“It takes a community to raise a child” is a well-known African proverb. In the wake of endless school shootings that are hardly mentioned anymore, and with a national governing body that seems unwilling to develop and pass comprehensive gun reform or ensure that our country has robust mental health care programs for kids, youth, and young adults, we need to be all the more diligent in being a community rooted in love—not just any community, but one that honors diversity, strives to include all, and ensures that the rules that are established apply to everyone.
Jesus says, “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another” (John 13:34). This is the basic rule for a healthy and loving community. To be embraced, cared for, and treated with kindness, patience, and peace are great gifts—the gifts that a loving community offers. However, not all communities, families, and people are rooted in these gifts of kindness for all. The values we hold and the beliefs we teach our children and one another have deep ramifications for how we act in the world.
The apostle Paul gives us a list of qualities—fruits of the Spirit—that are necessary for a loving community, and he encourages the whole people of God to strive for them. The fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. What joy there would be in the world if we could truly live with these gifts! When these gifts are alive and well in us, our families, and our communities, we will not tolerate talk or actions that dehumanize others, whoever they may be. Instead, we will bear one another’s burdens and build up one another in the name of Christ.
We have been taught through Christ’s own act of dying on the cross for the sake of the world what it is to bear one another’s burdens. May we continue to uphold one another in prayer and lovingkindness, living out the gifts of the Spirit and proclaiming God’s love to all people through our words and actions.
—Harald Bringsjord, Senior Pastor at Good Shepherd
PRAYER: Gracious God, As the seasons change, bless our church family with love, kindness, and joy. Help us to walk in Your ways, and care for one another with kindness. Amen