WEDNESDAY, May 18

Colossians 1:24—2:7. As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live your lives in him.

Receiving Christ can happen in a variety of ways. The evangelical tradition, perhaps the most powerful shaper of current American religious identity, imagines a moment of high personal drama, complete with a description of the date, place, and time when Jesus entered one’s life.

The challenge for so many American Christians, in a time when the fabric of civic life seems frayed beyond repair, is to translate this sense of individual commitment to Christ into a similar and (from Jesus’ viewpoint) equivalent commitment to the well-being of their neighbor and their neighbor’s neighbor—a sense that to live in Christ is to live in and for one another. Love your God with all your heart and soul, he said, but love your neighbor as yourself. However individual and distinctive one’s own experience of Christ might be, it is a deep biblical conviction that no Christian stands alone—and that to live in Christ is to live in community with others. Or as a wise priest once put it to me, there is no such thing as a solitary Christian.

PRAY for the Diocese of North Eastern Caribbean and Aruba (West Indies)

Ps 119:49-72 * 49, [53]; Wisdom 4:16—5:8; Luke 6:27-38

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Amen to that ...

May 18, 2011 at 7:44 am

Written by Sam,

... excellent and timely reflection. I may add only that we should establish no boundaries as to who our neighbor or neighbor's neighbor is: no limitations of beauty, race, gender, nationality, denomination or religion. Only when we open our hearts to love truly and fully without reservation or discrimination can we live into Christ's calling to love.

Episcoplain Laity

May 18, 2011 at 8:10 am

Written by Walt,

I echo what Sam has written, i.e., an excellent and timely reflection.

Do Not Forget The Nearby Neighbor

May 18, 2011 at 9:20 am

Written by Joe,

Thanks to Sam and Walt. For me today, I think I need to think of the neighbor I see and the people I come in contact daily. I have a tendancy to abstract. For today and perhaps longer, I need to focus on the neighbors I see and methodize Christ's love beyond. Pray for my success.

...

May 18, 2011 at 9:47 am

Written by Jennifer,

"No such thing as a solitary Christian" - too true! Even the anchorites and anchoresses bricked up in cells in cathedrals had people come by for advice and prayer, not to mention pit crews bringing them food and water. And the desert hermits...tended to wind up in the desert "alone" in groups.

Personal v Communal

May 18, 2011 at 10:08 am

Written by TJ,

Thank you for today's meditation. I was immediately reminded of a typical experience which is to be asked by an evangelical if I have a "personal" relationship with Jesus Christ, to which my answer is "no, I have a communal relationship with Him".

Priest, retired

May 18, 2011 at 11:59 am

Written by Timothy Makoto Nakayama,

' "Ladies and Gentlemen" and any others we might mention: Sisters and Brothers --- 'Amen!"

Priest, retired

May 18, 2011 at 12:04 pm

Written by Timothy Makoto Nakayama,

11:59 am EDT was 8:59 a.m. PDT !!

...

May 18, 2011 at 12:06 pm

Written by Timothy Makoto Nakayama,

The above notes came to you from Seattle, Washington!

...

May 18, 2011 at 12:14 pm

Written by melissa Wiesmann,

This is for Mel at St. Alban's. . . our Bishop, Stacy Sauls of the Diocese of Lexington introduced a wonderful new method of finding priests when we and several other small towns in KY were without. . . My husband was Sr. Bishop's Warden at the time--we recruited priests directly from seminary and this has worked out soooo well for us!! What state are you in?

But?

May 18, 2011 at 12:36 pm

Written by CBH,

Good reflection, however....But love your neighbor or And love your neighbor as yourself...I believe it's "and", small but :) important distinction...

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