We want to build a community where doubt can be safely expressed, where love is the dominant ethic, and where people feel supported in times of great challenge. There is a need for such spaces in our world today, and especially in our churches.
Caring for the vulnerable, caring for our neighbors, caring for the care-givers, and ensuring access to vital resources for the needy are powerful demonstrations of love. And because our worship, our fellowship, however attenuated and technologically connected, is defined by this ethic of love, Christ is here among us.
A church connecting in Christ stands in solidarity with all because it recognizes that those who suffer are not them—they are us. Indeed, the church that connects in Christ understands, as Jesus did, that there is no us and them—there is only us. Our social witness is not informed by a sense that we, removed from suffering, nevertheless deign to offer our time and attention to the suffering of others, but is informed by the recognition that the suffering of others is our suffering. And when we are able to work toward justice and inclusion then the joy of others will be our joy, too.
If we would be the people of God, if we would be the Body of Christ, if we would follow in the witness of the ancient Church, if we would follow in the footsteps of the sower, then we cannot do other than build a community that is not just diverse, but inclusive. A community where people of all races, nationalities, ethnicities, abilities, ages, sexes, gender identities, orientations, and languages are not just welcomed, but included. That is our mission.
For if we, through the Trinity, understand the experiences of Jesus as at the heart of the experiences of God, then we cannot do otherwise. In our community of faith, we take into ourselves the suffering, the pain, the loss, in order to transform it with the love, hope, and grace of the Gospel.
These communitarian values help us to make the decisions necessary to prevent the spread of the pandemic. They help us to recognize when to subvert our individual desire to do whatever we want into efforts to preserve the common good—a good, it turns out, that we participate in. They help us to orient ourselves to positions of self-sacrificial love that may bring painful consequences on ourselves in order to protect and preserve the lives of others. These are the very values that inform decisions that the state must now compel so many of us to do.