On this last Sunday of Melissa’s pastoral ministry with us at RMC, she spoke from this scripture passage that Jesus shares with his disciples toward the end of his ministry.
Unlike clubs and societies, the foundation of our friendship as the church isn’t a shared interest, but a shared good. Friends pursue the good together. And with Christ at our center, the church creates space for those who are vastly different to find out what the good is, and to go after it.
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry said it this way: “Love doesn’t consist in gazing at each other,
but in looking outward in the same direction.” In the friendship of the church we don’t look at each other, but we… stand side by side, so that we’re all looking where we’re going next. Church is the kind of friendship that says, “I actually think we all need to look at this thing happening here, in this direction and figure out where the path is to get there.”
We can discern together when God is calling us towards needs that have been overlooked. When there is something that we need to work out in order to find out where we’re going together. We learn to pay attention to people who have been ignored or overlooked.
We gather on streets to protest wars and to speak against genocide, to raise our voices for our church members, because our first loyalty is to Jesus, in whom there is no violence and no vengeance, and no hatred. We care for one another because when we do we see the face of God.
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