common good - it is a thing

Fellowship is a kind of belonging that isn’t based on status, achievement, or gender, but instead is based on a deep belief that everyone matters, everyone is welcome, and everyone is loved, no conditions, no exceptions. It’s not the kind of belonging you find at the top of the ladder among those who think they are the best, but at the bottom among all the rest, with all the other failures and losers who have either climbed the ladder and fallen, or never gotten up enough gumption to climb in the first place.

          Brian McLaren (We Make the Road by Walking)

________________________

 

I might be wrong

but I don’t think so

 

Jesus came to draw us together

not to divide us

not to create a hierarchy of power

not to bless and curse

include or exclude

 

but simply to draw us together

to level us out

to bless and include

period

 

let’s face it

we are experts at division

at creating spiritual, economic, and intellectual “pecking orders”

 

and where has that gotten us?

what has that gotten us?

 

look around

at a dying planet

at rising authoritarianism

at toxic individualism

and toxic masculinity

 

look around

at those who seek to bully

intimidate

control

coerce

 

look around as minorities are hated and oppressed

as justice is destroyed for political expediency

as people are willing to sacrifice their neighbor for personal freedom

 

but the Jesus movement

the uprising of Love

that Jesus started

 

came to counter all of that

he came to draw us together

open us up

put the fire of love in our hearts

 

he came to create a world where people

love God

love themselves

and love those around them

all of those around them

 

where people work together

for the common good

 

where people stumble down the road of life

helping each other

sharing

caring

 

so that everyone gets home

together

 

that is why Jesus came

and we had better figure it out!

 

quick