From Evangelical Lutheran Worship for the 2nd Sunday of Easter:
Holy, life-giving God, breathe your Holy Spirit upon the people of your church. Lead us to proclaim the good news of Christ's resurrection, so that all may have life in his name. Hear us, O God.
Your mercy is great.
From First John:
we declare to you what we have seen and heard so that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. 4We are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.
Dear friends, we're still in the glow of Easter. We have so much to celebrate, especially the new life that radiates from that hole in the ground, the tomb where dead things are placed. Christ is risen. God is indeed great. The Holy Spirit enlivens each of us.
Seems to me the scriptures for this coming Sunday have something to do with including as many as possible. "We declare.. so that you may have fellowship with us." A community wants to keep including more people into the community. That is so refreshing in light of all the ways humans like to define themselves by what and whom they are not. How much better it is to define ourselves by what we are. We are resurrection people. There is no turning back.
Have you used the One More Chair principle? Have you been on a planning team, ministry or committee where the group intentionally adds one chair more than there are people. This is a reminder that there is room for another. There is room for (and openness to) the ideas, stories, perspectives that the newly welcomed will want to contribute. A community that does not fear the idea of welcoming another person is a community that is full of resurrection life.
Tell me a story about a time when the newly welcomed was just what the group needed. I would love to hear about it!
"Joy is a net of love that can catch souls" (Mother Teresa)
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