Mtr Taylor Devine

Dear Friend,

I was looking through photos on google photos, searching for one in particular from December - I never did find it - and got to reflecting on some of the beautiful moments in community that we have shared over the past year. I know it is important to stay in the present, especially in a crisis moment, and not to look back to the good old days at the expense of imagining and working for a future into which we are being called. But for the moment I let myself reflect, give thanks, and miss what felt normal. There are photos in the Murphey Gallery of various presentations and programs, of Advent Wreath making, In-School Mentoring projects, Sunday worship, and lots of photos of my dog mixed in. One photo in particular caught my eye, I will delete it because it is just a photo of a powerpoint slide in the Murphey Gallery from a Mosaic Dinner-not a photo of people or beauty, but it held on it a hope:

“Life in community is no less than a necessity for us - it is an inescapable ‘must’ that determines everything we do and think. Yet it is not our good intentions or efforts that have been decisive in our choosing this way of life. Rather, we have been overwhelmed by a certainty - a certainty that has its origin and power in the Source of everything that exists.”
-Eberhard Arnold, Why We Live in Community (quote found in Called to Community: The Life Jesus Wants for His People)

The kinds of commitments we make to communal life vary even within our community - from roommates to intentional Christian community, from families to individuals, from weekly meetings and long-term small groups to daily contact, Christian community is diverse. But this quote invites a kind of reflection worth spending time with - the drive to be in community comes from beyond ourselves. The strength to be community comes from beyond ourselves, and builds up beyond ourselves. This persists even with the current isolation that we are experiencing.  

In our Office Gospel today we see the Disciples eager to be close to Jesus, to remain in communion with him as they feel his closeness slipping away from them. ‘Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.’ Not only does Jesus let them know that that is neither the right question nor one he can answer at that time, they also frustrate the other Disciples, "When the ten heard this, they began to be angry with James and John. So Jesus called them and said to them, ‘You know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. But it is not so among you; but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.’"

We serve a servant God, who offered Godself for the world's salvation. That reality beckons us to be servants too. Over the coming week's Holy Week offerings I wonder if you will hear afresh the way God intercedes for us, the way Jesus came to show us the way of love, and how that generous gift invites our following into generosity of spirit and hope with one another-strangers, neighbors, or friends-in all of the ways we are called into communion together.

In Christ, 
Mtr Taylor