Weekly Greeting - September 4, 2026

Sunday night was the inaugural meeting of The Bridge and we had a wonderful time! 

We began with an intergenerational meal and then the youth and children left the “rest of us.” We had great conversation about communities that had been important in our lives and what made those communities more than just a gathering of people. Terry and I loved eavesdropping on the conversations around the tables. They were a reminder of just how important community is in our life of discipleship. 

I mentioned a few weeks ago that discipleship is a group project. Yes, there is a place and time for us to spend quiet moments letting God speak to us and shape us. But we can’t become the people that God has created us to be without community — specifically for us, Christian community. 

John Wesley famously said that “the gospel of Christ knows of no religion, but social; no holiness, but social holiness.” We often assume that by “social holiness” Wesley means social justice. While Wesley was certainly on the side of social justice, in this case what he means is that our holiness is lived out in our Christian community.  We practice loving well, disagreeing well, and caring well inside our Christian community, and that practice prepares us to love well, disagree well, and care well outside of our Christian community. 

This week’s text in Matthew 18:15-20.  In it, Jesus lays out specifics for proceeding when one Christian harms another. Remember that there was no such thing as the church when Jesus was traveling with the disciples, so it’s safe to assume that as Matthew was writing his gospel he reported Jesus’s words and then applied them to the church in his own day. 

It’s almost reassuring that the church was an imperfect institution so early in its life. 

We learn reconciliation because we practice it among ourselves. We learn to forgive by forgiving each other. We become the model of a cross-shaped life for those who haven’t yet met Jesus. In doing so, we introduce the world to a different way of life. 

Grateful to share this life with you,

Mary Beth