Dear St. Lukers,
This week, Pastor Jayde and I had a chance to visit our Circles program as the new cohort, Leaders and Allies, were matched after completing their training. (If you don’t know much about Circles, you can learn more about it and our partner nonprofit, Poverty Solutions Group, here.) We heard from both Leaders and Allies from the current cohort about how they formed their relationships with one another as they began the program. One thing I heard that stood out was the word “trust.” Leaders said that the most significant barrier their pairs had to overcome was choosing to trust one another. Once they did that, the relationships formed in powerful and transformational ways that have allowed them to move toward and accomplish their goals, with their Allies supporting them all along.
Often, we encounter narratives that are designed to foster distrust, especially between those we consider to be most like us, and those who are different. These narratives tell us that difference is dangerous, that we should protect ourselves by keeping distance, by staying in our own circles (ironically), by drawing boundaries, and by deciding who is worthy and who is not.
And yet, Jesus shows us with his ministry and, as we will see on Sunday, with his parables, that it’s not our job to decide who’s in and who’s out. We are not called to live lives of fear and separation, but rather to recognize that there is no one with whom we are not interconnected. This is what our Circles Leaders and Allies got to experience, up close and personal: relationships with people they would never have encountered in any other context and might even have been given narratives of fear and distrust about one another.
Join us in worship on Sunday as we continue to explore our sacred interdependence with one another, not in fear of one another, but having the courage to seek connection. We’ll think about what it looks like to move toward one another rather than away, to see difference not as a threat to be managed but as an invitation to something deeper. See you Sunday.
Blessings,
Pastor Melissa
