Church of the Ascension Church of the Ascension

Peter’s love for Cornelius can only be mimicked by us when we love the other—one who is different from us in race, socio-economic condition, position, influence, whatever the criteria might be.  When we can see the other, not through our differences but in how we are the same, we can discover how to love them. 

To bear fruit is to act in love, which is always a communal act and to live as a branch is to live in a community shaped by love. In order for us to take our place in this
relationship we must find our own seedpods and withering flowers that must be removed so that our energy might flow into those efforts and more importantly
into the people that we are being called to serve and that we are being called to love. Let us find comfort in this season of pruning and deadheading as a time when beauty and love are revealed in the channeling of our energy toward one another.

When we stop objectifying God and focus on God as the subject of our lives, we discover that our relationship
with God and one another deepens—not just with family and friends, but with stranger, with those who are the other, who understand the world in vastly different ways than we do.  We stop seeing God as a good shepherd and start experiencing life in the flock in which our shepherd is willing to lay down his life for us. 

We can take comfort in knowing that Jesus is with us and that when two or three are gathered in His name, He
will be in the midst of them. We help each other to seek and to see Jesus by helping each other to be Jesus in the world. Fear never has the last word because fear is born out of isolation and when we invite our Lord into the middle of our messy lives, we are simply acknowledging what has always been and what we should always know and that is that God is always with us.

"Life is short and we do not have much time to gladden the hearts of the faithful, so be swift to love and make haste to be kind and go in peace to love and serve the lord."

How will your write your story?