Going Forth
For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters, only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become enslaved to one another. For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Galatians 5:13-14
Communities can take many different forms, but are usually formed around a common interest, activity or workplace. Some communities put up barriers to membership, remaining intentionally small and limited to an in-group that meets certain criteria. Others, like Edwards Church, seek to be welcoming to anyone who would like to join us. But sometimes it’s not enough to say and mean that “all are welcome,” or even to extend an invitation to others to join us. Sometimes we have to go to where the people we want to reach are, rather than hoping they will come to us.
For a number of years I was part of a group of musicians who wrote and sang songs with social justice themes. We met once a year for a summer weekend in lush green locations, usually near an idyllic swimming hole. We shared our songs and encouraged each other, made friends, and met as equals, whether one was an amateur or a well-seasoned professional. And we were almost exclusively white folk singers.
Being of the bent that we were, we of course wanted our gatherings to be more diverse racially, culturally and musically, and would put the word out year after year to encourage folks from different backgrounds to join us, to little effect. Finally, someone came to the realization that if we truly wanted to diversify our number, rather than expecting folks to come to us, we needed to go to them. That led to the initiation of winter gatherings in major cities, on a rotating basis. And in addition to gathering among ourselves, each of these winter gatherings began with a public concert at which local musicians from communities of color were invited to perform. Through this process, the People’s Music Network finally started to live up to its name, rather than continue as the de facto White People’s Music Network that it had previously been.
Edwards Church is a very different kind of community than the People’s Music Network. For starters, we meet quite a bit more often than twice a year, and we have a very permanent home. Rather than move our worship to different locations where folks of different backgrounds reside or gather, we ultimately are asking people to come to us, to our building on Edwards Street. But we can still go to others when we participate in activities in the wider community, and especially those which support the very communities we want to reach when they initiate these gatherings and ask for others to join them. Helping our neighbors is the starting point for building trust, which provides the potential for lasting relationships, which is what community is all about and may ultimately lead to a more diverse and rich community at Edwards. But if that is not the result of our efforts, we will still have accomplished something significant, our support of our neighbors, which is its own reward.
Bridge-building God, Help us go where we are needed, not to serve our own interests, but to serve yours and those of your people, wherever they may be. And may we all be lifted up through what we learn from each other. Amen
Willie Sordillo