Diocesan Council is fun.
Well, the business of the church and the resolutions which through parlimentarian pocesses try to define "the mind of the church" isn't all that great. But what is great is the time spent with others who are fellow travelers on the way.
As I look around what I see is people who long for God. What I see is people who are earnestly on a journey to seek Jesus and make Him known in the people they live life with and in the environments they have their being. What I see is is people who are just as precious to God as my own children are to me.
What I do not see is agendas, political enemies, or competing ideas. What I do not see are enemies of the Gospel What I do not see are people who want to hurt me or "my" church. What I do not see are people I don't want to see again.
Now, this does not mean I do not disagree with them. I do have my opinions - no surprise there. But, it does mean that I will not let our disagreement on ideas or procedures or whatever to get in the way of the larger work of the Body of Christ. Nor does it mean I will not speak what I understand to be truth in love so as to fulfill the calling I have in Christ Jesus.
To be in fellowship with one another means that we "live into each other" as Jesus lived into His Father and his disciples. To be in fellowship with each other means that we have to put up with the spiritual equivalent of clothes on the floor, dishes in the sink, and the toilet seat being left up.
We are family. We are family in Christ and that means everything. It means we did not choose one another. It means we did not choose Christ. We were chosen. We were chosen by Christ to be his people. We were chosen by Christ to be in this mission together for the sake of Christ, for the sake of the world.
"Abide in me,' said Jesus.
I think that is good invitation.
It is an invitation that leads to a life of deeper meaning and deeper purpose. An invitation that brings us together for the sake of making the whole creation new.
