community is so Jesus

Community is so Jesus

          Sister Greta (via Mirabai Staff)

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Jesus’ birth was not odd.

It was in its own way remarkably normal

 

Sure, he and his mom did not get the guest room at the family’s home

but were relegated to the lower level of the house

down amidst the animals and the hay

 

But still Jesus came in the normal way

Slippery and wet, crying in protest at his entry into this mess.

(forget “Away in a Manger’)

 

And yet the birth was remarkable

Room had been made for this birth, where there was no room

The house was full, but they stuffed Mary and Joseph in anyway

 

And then, as he came mewling into the world

Something remarkable happened.

 

People gathered

We think (quite romantically) of those wonderful animals

They were there too!  Sentient beings who looked on (I least I like to think) in love

 

But there were people.

The family from upstairs

All those aunts and uncles and cousins

Shepherds, drawn in from the cold fields

A few random angels (or so we are told)

A few nosey neighbors (I suspect)

And eventually a few alien magician astronomers

 

And I would guess this impromptu community

did what they could to welcome this child

and help this couple

 

Later, when he grown

Jesus created a community

Men and women, rich and poor, Judean, Samaritan, Roman

 

Later, after Easter, and the Ascension, and then Pentecost

he created community

a group of people who gathered, who heard each other

(in their own languages)

who ate together

gave together

who met each other’s needs

 

Following Jesus is nothing

if it is not about community

not a fortified community

not a protective, guarded community

not a dominating community

not an exclusive community

 

but an open community

a welcoming community

a vulnerable community

a inclusive community

a servant community

 

a community of the able and disabled

a community of the rich (who become less rich) and the poor (who become less poor)

a community of those wise in the way of books

and those wise in the way of the world

 

a community of the stable and instable

the fit and the misfits

 

a community

gathered together around Love, in love

empowered by love

 

its messy this community

(as it was on Christmas night)

 

but it is where people come together to offer what they have

to one another

 

where people are affirmed

where people are praised

where people take their gifts,

their knowledge, their resources, their love

 

and feeling affirmed and safe

expend themselves for others

 

and where Jesus is present

in the midst