United: Pathways to a more connected life

Whom do you connect?

We are continuing this week in our scriptures to read about the many times Paul was accused of crimes without legitimate cause.

The Holy Spirit, as the Advocate Jesus said He would send for us, guides our words and actions to be expressed in love toward our neighbor.

Paul, as a Jewish, Roman citizen from Tarsus, charged by Jesus Christ Himself with ministering to the Gentiles, connected crowds of people who otherwise might have seen each other as enemies.

Paul must have learned to do this by studying Jesus’ ministry: Jesus taught Jewish people to love Samaritans, taught the Pharisees to treat the prostitutes with respect, taught the orthodox to embrace the outcast. Who else could have been sent to do Paul’s work but Paul? He was a Pharisee charged with ministering to the Gentile. He was a Roman who believed in the same Law and God as the Jews. He taught many people who were pitted against each other by society to love each other. Does that sound familiar at all to you?

I try to relate this to my life, as I encourage you to do. Who else has their hand in my church, my gym, my social circle, my music scene, and my family? No one! I know each of you can say the same thing. You might be the only person in the world with the connections between, and love for, the various communities that you touch. God has made you that way for a reason! Why not bring connection and love between the orthodox and the outcast? The family man and the club kid? The candy man and the dentist? Whatever. You might be the only person who knows how to love both, and you may be the only person who knows what they have in common.

The Holy Spirit guides your words and actions in love.

When Spirit is your Advocate, the divisions the world imposes upon us don’t matter. Make the legislator love the prisoner.

Make the extremist love the free spirit. Make the willfully-ignorant love the educator. If you love them both, you might be the only person through whom God can work to put love like this into the world. I believe in you, and the Holy Spirit will guide you.

Sunday, May 17 is our next Partnership Class. If you are interested in becoming an official partner of Circle Community Church, I would love to teach you about the formation of our community, our wider United Church of Christ, and hear about your input on what you need from a community of faith. (We call each other partners instead of members because we are not “members” of an exclusive country club—we are Partners; connected through a shared mission and community.)

Leave a comment to start a discussion: What communities do you think you're uniquely placed in to help foster connection?