...created for together

O that with yonder sacred throng we at His feet may fall!

We’ll join the everlasting song, and crown Him Lord of all.

--Edward Perronet, 1779

I drove in that sort of half-mindless reverie that long sunsets and lonesome backroads inspire, far enough from the few small towns I passed through that I met few headlights or taillights. My NPR station crackled with enough static that the quirky voices of the show hosts teased me with nearly-full statements of great import. Then, all of a sudden and also at long last, I found myself on a long stretch of road, aimed at the dying-sun sky, with the held-breath world embracing me from either side of the road. And there, and then, I sat up. I took notice. I slowed my breath. I turned grateful eyes, heart toward the Creator of this exquisite moment.

Perhaps you have experienced those instants of solitary adoration also. They echo in the soul (and if I’m lucky, and prepared, my camera roll) far after the moment passes. And they are important. But they are not the only holy moments.

The moments when the pieces fit, and we match our voices to the lasting song, and to our beloved family—across the aisle, around the world—hold their own glory, and offer us a chance to join in a sort of worship we will never experience on our own.

Not because we are not good enough, alone. But because we are created for together.

...you had one job

We all are one in mission, we all are one in call,

our varied gifts united by Christ, the Lord of all.

A single great commission compels us from above

to plan and work together that all may know Christ’s love.

---Rusty Edwards, 1985

You had one job. If you take out your preferred google device and type these words into the search bar, you will be treated to a veritable feast of flops, a buffet of buffoonery, a truckload of troubles. Go ahead...I'll wait. ‘You had one job’ is social media shorthand for ‘Wow, could you have done worse at the thing you were supposed to be in charge of?’

There are school crossings with ‘school’ misspelled. Toilet seats installed upside down. Roadkill painted under the yellow stripe in the middle of the highway. A Back to School sale sign highlighting a wine display. Steps to nowhere. Left Turn Only centered perfectly…under a right turn arrow. Someone gets distracted, and a perfectly good start turns off all wrong. Not because anyone meant it to, but because some other shiny object charmed instead.

You know, the church (the big one, the church universal), the Body of Christ, does lots of things, in lots of places, in lots of ways, for lots of reasons. And lots of those things make the world better, make the church better, make our hearts better, even. But sisters and brothers. We have one job. Jesus told and showed us what it was, over and over, and folks thought it was important enough to remember, to write down later. Love each other. Love your enemies. Love your neighbors. Love by doing. Love straight through your fear. Love sacrificially. Love unendingly. Love. Love. Love.

Do not be deterred. We have one job.

...the harmony of rising

Lift every voice and sing, till earth and heaven ring, ring with the harmonies of liberty;

let our rejoicing rise, high as the listening skies, let it resound loud as the rolling sea.

Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us,

sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us;

facing the rising sun of our new day begun, let us march on till victory is won.

---James Weldon Johnson, 1900

This hymn, penned by the incredible American poet James Weldon Johnson at the turning of the 20^th century, gives me the chills, partly for the inspiration of the text, and partly for the personal history it holds for me. As a very young teacher in downtown Atlanta, I was introduced to this song, as my students often sang it alongside the national anthem as part of their morning inspiration. These children, not just in the singing of this anthem, were often my teachers in those tender years; and these words of hope were often a lifeline for me.

Today when I sat with this text, what came rushing to mind were words from another song. In ‘I Have Made Mistakes’, the Oh Hellos sing:

We have lived in fear, we have lived in fear, and our fear has betrayed us

            And we will overcome, we will overcome the apathy that has made us

Cause we are not alone, we are not alone in the dark with our demons

We have made mistakes, we have made mistakes, but we’ve learned from them.

I see so many beautiful parallels between these two songs. The first truth, one that my own life bears out again and again, is that the past, even the dark, can be a teacher. The voice of hope, the overcoming, is strongly threaded throughout. But what stood out to me the most tonight (is it because we are working on harmony singing in Older Children’s Choir each Sunday night lately?) is the emphasis on ‘not-aloneness’. This world becomes so much less overwhelming when you are holding hands with a brother or sister. And, although you can sing a beautiful melody by yourself, you will never sing beautiful harmony until you sing it with others.

This hopeful, tough, overcoming, rising, life of ours? It is made for life together. And we belong to each other.

...different, together.

God is here! As we Your people meet to offer praise and prayer,

May we find in fuller measure what it is in Christ we share.

Here, as in the world around us, all our varied skills and arts

Wait the coming of the Spirit into open minds and hearts.

---Fred Pratt Green, 1978

Here we are, God. We come to this place with an incredible array of talents, needs, resources, hurts, dreams, and personalities. It is quite amazing that we all keep coming here to make a church, isn’t it? What is it that keeps us coming back, that entices us to search for the things that bind us?

In the midst of our differences --- of need and resource, of faith and fear, of black and white and shades of gray --- we seek the coming of the Spirit of Christ. We await the Spirit, anticipate the Spirit --- to enliven us, to inform us, to enlarge us, to add meaning to our lives.

We pray, we praise, we seek, we anticipate…together

...who we are together

Every valley will be lifted up,
every mountain and hill eased low;
And the crooked path will lie straight,
and the rough patches smooth as glass:
And everywhere around will be evidence of 
the Lord,
And all of us will see it, the human family,
all of us together:
The Lord has always intended it be so.
---Isaiah 40:4-5 (para. laca)

Together. What a powerful word. Christianity is bound up, much of it, in individualism; making a personal profession of faith, choosing a private walk with Christ, developing an intimate relationship with God independent of any hierarchical relationship.

But there is a lot of together in faith. In this prophetic, forward-looking passage from Isaiah, the poet/seer yearns for the day when every geography is, well, flat. And if you are like me, and you are a mountain person, you are thinking, "Boooorrrrrrinnnnng. Who wants a world where everything is flat?" Which may be true. For the able -bodied. For the unencumbered. For the light traveler, not toting burdens, or children, or elderly parents. For the rested, not bent with sorrow or weariness.

But, for us all to gather around and witness the evidence that the Lord, Love, is here among us, we all have to be able to gather. The ground must be level and smooth, and the path must be straight, for us all to approach the glory of God. For us all to be witnesses, we first have to be here. Together. 

In this life, in God's household, if we don't approach together, we don't approach at all.

And all flesh shall see it together. (King James Version)

#ubuntu. I am who I am because of who we are together.