Quotes about Community

Part of my ongoing priesthood is to find the bridges between my faith and the faiths of other people, so that those of us who draw water from wells on different sides of the river can still get together from time to time, making the whole area safer for our children.

Our lives are inextricably bound up with the lives of other people. So much depends on things we can never control.

Sabbath was not a burden for him, any more than it was a private day off that he could take or leave. Sabbath was who he was . It was his stake in the ongoing life of his community, the one set day each week when he entered into communion with God and his neighbor.

Most of us do not live especially holy lives, after all. We spend most of our time sitting in traffic, paying bills, and being irritated with one another. Yet every week we are invited to stop all of that for one hour at least. We are invited to participate in a great drama that has been going on without us for thousands of years, and one that will go on as long as there is a single player left standing.

If Jesus meant for his followers to rule the world, then why did he teach them to wash feet?

Somewhere along the line we bought—or were sold—the idea that God is chiefly interested in religion. We believed that God's home was

Because they were not old enough to serve on committees or wrangle over the order of worship, the children often had a better grasp of what church was all about than the rest of us did.

I know that nothing strengthens community like a common enemy. I know that when religious people are feeling overwhelmed by a world with little use for their ancient truths, they can find new meaning by identifying a great evil to oppose.

As enjoyable as it could be to spend a couple of hours on Sunday morning with people who were at their best, it was also possible to see the strain in some of the smiles, the effort it took to present the most positive, most faithful version of the self.

All these years later, the way many of us are doing church is broken and we know it, even if we do not know what to do about it.

Reverence for creation comes easily to most people. Reverence for other people presents more of a challenge, especially if those people's lives happen to impinge upon your own.

The problem is that people we cannot stand are loved just as much as we are, by a God with an upsetting sense of community.