Community is essential...

Beloved of God,

I’m spending a good bit of time in Exodus this week since that’s what I’m preaching from on Sunday. I’m always intrigued by the way that early on in the story Moses relies so heavily on Aaron. You’ll notice that through so much of the first several chapters, it is Aaron who does the talking, who even will perform the signs God gave to Moses. None of this seems to be because Aaron had great ambition, but simply because he was being faithful to God and to Moses. 
The whole Exodus story carries the assumption of a deep interdependence marked by caring for each other, forgiving each other, and holding each other to account. It’s not hard to imagine that there may have been some lone Israelite who got sick of doing circles in the desert for 40 years and wandered off on their own, but you and I have never heard of them. They didn’t have any effect on their community, or for that matter the story of God’s work in the world. It would seem that God’s interest was in shaping that community no matter what.
I’m thinking about some of this because I want us to remember that Christianity is not an independent experience. The movement of Christian hermits who wandered out into the desert in the 5th century to grow in prayer and holiness died out because there was something essential missing. Jesus didn’t leave behind a book, or simply pick one guy to carry on the Christian movement when he had died, risen, and ascended. Instead he chose 12 people. Jesus left behind a community. Community is native and essential to everything we are seeking to do as a church. 
It will be important for us to bear this in mind over the next several months as we continue to negotiate (hopefully) the reopening of many of our regular ministries, the conduct of our congregational business, and whatever unexpected challenges await us beyond these things. I think it would be a wonderful thing if we all commit to doing these things graciously and wisely, and I expect that we will. 

Please join me this week in praying for:

• An end to this pandemic.
  
• Doctors, nurses, PA’s and paramedics as they work to keep us all well.
• Those in positions of public trust at the federal, state, and local level.
• Those who are seeking medical treatment, and for those who are looking after them.
• Those for whom 28 days wasn’t enough time to make the money needed to pay the bills.
• Students, teachers, administrators and others who are trying to pursue the worthy work of education in these strange days.
  
• Folks who are lonely, or frustrated, or worried about the future.
  
• Wisdom, as we seek to meet the challenges this moment presents to this congregation.
  
• Each other (please email [email protected] if you’d like to be added to our prayer list).

You are the salt of the earth; you are the light of the world,

Marshall

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