by the Rev. Craig Lemming, Associate Rector
Am I choosing to bind my life to people, places, and practices in which the fruits of the Holy Spirit are growing? Does this person, place, or practice create love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control? If not, no thanks. Lives are at stake. There is no time for anything that isn’t spiritually fruitful.
The chaos spewing out of elected and non-elected powers and principalities is designed to produce confusion, guilt, and shadow projections. Well-intentioned, virtuous, yet thoughtless frenzies of sloppy hyper-reactivity to this chaos leads to isolation, resentments, burnout, and even more harm done to ourselves and to those who desperately need to be strategically well-resourced.
What do we, as Christians, do?
We do what Jesus did. We withdraw from violent, imperial, racist, colonial chaos, and we pray. Then we do the slow, careful, thoughtful, spirit-led work of responding strategically to God’s commandment to love our neighbors as ourselves through trusted, grass-roots networks of care. We need love and care that is consistent, reliable, and sustainable. That’s the quality of love and care our disenfranchised neighbors deserve. Prayer steeped in caregiving invites the Holy Spirit to open our hearts, minds, and relationships to folks who have been doing the work of caregiving in the face of demonic evil for generations. Mutuality, reciprocity, belonging, togetherness, unity in diversity, diversity in unity are expressions of our creedal belief in the communion of saints.
What is the communion of saints?
The Episcopal Church’s Catechism states, “The communion of saints is the whole family of God, the living and the dead, those whom we love and those whom we hurt, bound together in Christ by sacrament, prayer, and praise.” The majority of churches today don’t look like the “whole family of God.” As Episcopalians, how can we become more like the communion of saints we say we believe in? How do we become bound together in Christ with people of all races, all abilities, all ages, all educational backgrounds, all social classes, all sexual orientations, all gender identities, and all ethnicities? The answer, according to our catechism, is, “by sacrament, prayer, and praise.” This is the practical theology undergirding our fourth Sunday celebrations of the sacrament of Christ’s body and blood, prayers for an end to the sin of racist coloniality, and praise of saints to emulate who worked for racial kinship, reconciliation, and healing.
“But what do I do?”
Do you need spirit-led, relational, reliable resources to do the work God is calling you to do? You are invited to celebrations of local and national saints in The Episcopal Church whose lives bear witness to Christ’s reconciling love across racial lines of difference. Turn up, in the flesh, and be with our African American neighbors at Holy Trinity Episcopal Church to celebrate Absalom Jones on Saturday, February 15 at 2pm. Then register, turn up, in the flesh, and be with our neighbors at ECMN’s Racial Justice & Healing Retreat on Saturday, March 22 from 8:30am-5:30pm.
The fruits of the Holy Spirit manifest in us when we choose to be the real presence of Christ’s Body bound together across our many lines of difference as God’s beloved family in sacrament, prayer, and praise.
Join me in praying this Collect from Daily Evening Prayer:
O God, you manifest in your servants the signs of your presence: Send forth upon us the spirit of love, that in companionship with one another your abounding grace may increase among us; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Now that we’ve prayed, let’s think critically, compassionately, and carefully about how to be in spirit-led, relational communion with people, places, and practices of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. It’s not a sprint. It’s a marathon.
