Living in Harmony 2
Today we have gathered to share and celebrate an event in the life of our community. It is an event that is a remembrance of something that happened in the world more than 2,000 years ago but its remembrance and celebration continues to influence our present time.This event is a sign for us of a shared faith, a shared hope and a shared love which at its heart reveals an active decision to respect and have genuine affection for one another.
Now we know that the goal of Christian community is to follow the example of our Lord Jesus Christ and to seek to live in harmony with one another but the reality is that we all come to this community through different paths. For some of us the very idea of a caring God can be beyond our imagining. We may be here because we are hoping to find God. Others may be here because they are hoping to hear God. But all of us are here because we are seeking to discover and/ or strengthen our faith and hope in God and discover how we can begin and/or develop our relationship with God.
Perhaps though we have let our relationship with God lay dormant. You know what happens when we fail to be attentive to those in our lives whom we see on a daily or weekly basis. Our lack of attention and care to those relationships can cause friction and disputes and even cause them to fall apart. Of course there are no guarantees when it comes to relationships but when we stop respecting and listening to the people with whom we share community in our homes, our places of work, and here in this place, we canfind ourselves embroiled in disputes and controversies that have the potential to tear us apart physically, mentally and most certainly spiritually.
Someone once asked me how my wife and I could spend a year apart and when we were reunited it was as if no time had passed. Over the years we have maintained a fairly open communication with one another. We have had our disagreements and we have not always liked the way things got resolved but we understood that both of us could not always have things go our way nor could we expect to always be the one giving in. Over the years the challenges of changing locations for work, raising a family and even changing careers could have caused some serious conflicts but we were determined to keep it together. And so when things started to get tense, we would sit down with each other and renegotiate the contract. It could mean a realignment in household responsibilities or adjustments to work or social schedules in order that both of us felt we could pursue professional or social goals without leaving the other feeling less than valued or respected.
And while we each need to review our spiritual commitment with God in prayer and study of God’s Word, as communities of faith we need to ever review our contract and commitment with one another. To help us there are two keys that will help us to find the balance to maintain harmony in this our faith community and the other communities in our lives: 1) we need to be able to express our opinions without judgment; and 2) we need to respectfully listen to one another. Following these keys will hopefully help us to make decisions that we can come together around as a community. We have worked hard at building consensus and our continued efforts will enable us to move forward positively as we continue to grow our community’s relationship with God and one another.
My prayer is that we ever continue to be an open and welcoming community of faith where all are free to take an active role through worship, study and service;where the talents and contributions of all are welcomed and celebrated;where weaknesses in one are overcome by the strengths of another not in a condescending way but in a gentle way that allows the other to grow stronger. So often we see weakness as failure but weakness is just a sign that we need to grow be it in body, mind or spirit. As a community of believers may we ever strive to be considerate of those around us and behave in a manner that reflects the mind and heart of God as revealed to us through Jesus.
We hold a common faith in God, a common hope in God and a common love of God and for God. We can also say that we hold common hope and love with God.
As we approach the table of our Lord on this thanksgiving Sunday, let us remember the words of that old hymn: Bind us together, Lord; bind us together with cords that cannot be broken.
Let us ever remember that we are bound to each other in love by the words of the Father above through the blood of the Son we are merged into one. We are bound to each other in love.
Amen