Weekly Devotional | March 25

One of our characteristics as The Neighborhood Church is that we seldom have uniform opinion on matters of real significance.  Uniformity of belief and behavior are not highly valued in a church such as ours which celebrates a rich variety of backgrounds, traditions and understandings.  A trait which is important is that we do work together out of a mutual concern.  That’s exactly why we can still be the church while we are apart.  The Apostle Paul encourages us in our concern through:
 
                                the body of Christ.”
                     up of
 “…the building
 
With all our differences, our oneness in Christ can make a difference if we are willing to let our mutual concerns pull us together rather than letting the ideologies of the culture around us push us apart.  Day by day, we are seeing the world get smaller and smaller and how the web of life connects us all as God’s children.  Now is a time to come together even though we are apart.

“We can believe that God is present and still be either six feet  away or in the safety of our homes on Sunday morning.  The church will always be the church no matter how physically  close its members are. God isn’t just found in the confines of  a physical church building — God meets us where we are.” 
                                                                             - Miguel Petrosky

As we continue to be church, let me suggest three things we can be doing daily to express our mutual concern.  First, let’s pray for each other.  Second, let that prayer extend to the wider community and world around us as we pray for the harmony and healing so desperately needed for everyone.  And third, reach out and do one thing for others.  It can be a phone call or email to someone feeling especially isolated, helping a neighbor with some physical task, giving blood, making a donation to a worthy organization.
 
Such efforts will not heal the world, but we will be putting our prayers in practice and taking one step closer to a world in which God’s reconciling and healing purposes are at work.  As Abraham Heschel said after marching in one of the civil rights marches with Martin Luther King, Jr.,

“I felt as though my legs were praying.”

May God’s spirit of love and healing continue to work through our hands and hearts, our legs and lives – as we seek to build up the body of Christ and the entire world that God created-- even as we are apart.

Shalom,

Rev. Dr. David D. Young
Senior Minister