Scripture continuously reminds us that God is love and that our call as disciples is to share that love with the world. This year’s theme, Beloved Community, is a daily reminder of what it means to build a community that is deeply rooted in the love that God has for us. Love that brings freedom and wholeness. Love that builds up and draws in. Love that affirms and uplifts.
Perhaps it is best described in this definition borrowed from the Episcopal Church: The vision of Beloved Community rises from the Bible’s most important commandments: to love God and love our neighbors, in whom we see the face of God. We understand Beloved Community to be the community that loves as God intends: where we speak truth and dismantle hierarchies of human value, where we seek right relationship with one another and creation, where each person and culture honors and protects others as equally beloved parts of the human family of God, and where we counter human selfishness … with the selfless love of Jesus.
May we continue to build this community – the coming of the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven. May we show the love that has been first shown to us through Christ. May we be the Beloved Community here at Reformation for the good of the world and for the sake of the gospel.