"I give you a new commandment, that you love one another" (John 13:34). How often did Jesus make this the basic rule for community! Many times we fall short of this ideal in the church. In fact, sometimes when we sing "You will know we are Christians by our love," it feels downright embarrassing. But we know it is true: The energy for the community of mutual respect and unity to which we are summoned is fueled by love. Community is not the goal in and of itself. A community of love is. There are other kinds of communities, including those fueled by hate. Yesterday's killers must have been cultivated, schooled and morally devastated in communities of hate. Values matter. Let ours be unity and love.
"Bear one another's burdens" (Galatians 6:2). The community of faithful people that gathers around the common table to commune with Christ and each other shares the fruit of the spirit that Paul enumerates: "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control." Wow! If we live together with those virtues even for one hour, what joy! Paul directs those virtues to the end that we might bear one another's burdens. Yesterday in our service of memory and prayer, I felt how much we need each other in times of terror and tragedy, how instinctively we gather together to find comfort and reassurance and to bear one another's burdens.
W. Sibley Towner
Union Theological Seminary and Presbyterian School of Christian Education
3401 Brook Road
Richmond, VA 23227