A reflection on Love, Kindness, and shaping our communities
Together Liverpool Executive Director Rev'd James Green was recently invited to shared a reflection about Love and Kindness, during a service at St Peter’s Church Woolton.
The congregation heard how the Network of Kindness is bringing together groups of churches to think about what kind of communities they want to live in, and what they can do to help create those places.
They were invited to create an artwork of colourful messages about what we would like to see in our communities. We invite you to read and reflect on James' words, taking inspiration from the Bible:
My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command.
I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.
You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. This is my command: Love each other. - John ,15
Reflection on Love and Kindness:
Love: How do you know that someone loves you? We know that people love us because they show us. They do something. It’s reflected in the way they treat us.
Love doesn’t sit still. It doesn’t sit quietly in church and listen along, nodding its head. But it fidgets, and it fizzes, and it creates. And it can’t help but change the world around it.
When I was 18 years old I was told for the first time that God was a father, who wasn’t distant and angry but loved me and welcomed me into His family. And that He calls us to welcome people into ours. And so that’s one of the reasons why I wanted to become a foster carer, and why 13 years later my wife and I welcomed two girls to come and live with us for a couple of years until just before Easter.
That’s the journey of discipleship. We discover that we’re loved, and the expression of that love changes our whole lives.
You’ve been loved. Now let it change the way you live: Jesus says the same thing three times in this passage. You’ve been loved. Now let it change the way you live.
And so Jesus says, my command is this: Love each other, just like I've loved you. In other words, let the love that Jesus has shown you change you, so that you live differently. You are my friends if you do what I command. And in verse 14 He uses a very particular word: Phileo. Which means those who are loved. Those who are loved: Those who are phileo’d, do what I call them to do.
You can read that in a harsh way. Followers of Jesus do what their told. They sit quietly and follow the rules. But Jesus rarely did that. He made a lot of noise. He broke the rules.
But instead, think of it like an instinct or a reflex, when you’ve been loved by Jesus. Following Him and living like you’ve been called to is the instinctive reaction, the reflex, the only way that makes sense.
Love creates: And then Jesus says the same thing again, slightly differently, and He builds on it: You didn’t chose me. This wasn’t your idea. You didn’t take the first step, but He chose you, loved you first. He took the first step towards you. He picked up the hem of his robe and ran…
And then He appointed you. He gave you a role to play. A position, not as a servant, but a friend. To do what? To go and bear fruit. Fruit that will last.
Fruit is a church word for the impact of your life and the way you live. And Jesus tells you to bear good fruit, to let the impact of your life, the way that you live, to be love.
I like that Jesus chose fruit as his image, because fruit are made, created by the tree. The call to love is a call to be endlessly and infinitely creative.
Love creates. It builds. It moulds. Shapes…It brings definition and purpose.
To re-imagine, re-create, re-build our communities, our churches, our families, our schools, our streets…
But we don’t just want to rebuild things back like they were, but a bit better. But rebuild them in a whole new way on the values that we see in the Kingdom of God, that Jesus lives by.
At Together Liverpool we’re bringing together groups of churches to think about what kind of communities they want to live in, and what they can do to help create those places.
I’ve heard people say that they want to live in a place where:
- Everyone has access to healthy food
- No-one’s got problem debts
- Their mental health is cared for
- No-one grieves alone.
- Every child has a safe place to live
The congregation were invited to create an artwork sharing colourful messages about what they want to see in their community, to share what they want for their community. Asking ourselves: What will do you want to create? What will the fruit of your life in your community be? What kind of world will you choose?
Jesus has loved you. That love changes you and he appoints you, sends you, to bear fruit. To change the way the world works. You have everything you need. We have everything we need.
Go, love each other. Amen.