Dear Circle of Hope,

On Saturday night I attended a concert here in the Byron Shire of an international music group who are currently touring. During the event the duo created a magical atmosphere filled with layered sound and song, as the audience moved and danced and sang along to the songs that were familiar. At one stage in between songs, the lead singer in an inspirational way encouraged the crowd to love the people of this world. The entire gathered crowd responded with an exuberant and positive affirmation of this idea. This was a tangible communal response to the plight of this world and a recognition that love is the answer.

In one of his most powerful teachings, Jesus spoke these words: “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another." I truly believe that loving one another is our great calling as a community and it is also our greatest challenge. But what does it mean to love like Jesus loved?

To love like Jesus, we love with a love that is wide and long and high and deep. We love with a love that is gracious, generous and extravagant. We love with a love that is compassionate, humble and sacrificial. To love like Jesus loves is to live a life shaped by a love that knows no limits - a love which lays down its very life. This is clearly not an easy type of love to express.

People in our world continue to tell us that we are to sort people into categories of belonging and that we are only to love people who look, speak, talk, think and act like we do. But this type of love invites us into a different way. It says that all people belong in community and all are worthy of love.

As I witnessed at the concert last weekend, our wider community is becoming more aware of the need to reimagine love as a way to bring healing, peace and belonging. Where can we grow in our love? Well, we can begin this in our own community, by loving one another with authenticity, depth and with a love like the one that Jesus demonstrates. Let us love one another and may we be known as a community who loves!

Thank you for being part of our Circle of Hope.

Grace and peace, 

Phil