“Look at how good and pleasing it is when families live together as one!”

When I read and meditate on that sentence, I am filled with images of families coming together to enjoy a meal together, or play board games, or watch a movie or sporting event and share a big bowl of popcorn. Everyone is happy. Everyone is enjoying being in the company of the others. There is no tension. Just joy and a contentment.

“Look at how good and pleasing it is when families live together as one!”

Or I think of those times when the church has come together around a shared goal or project. Everyone focused on the same thing. Everyone working together to get it done. No competition or jostling for power or position. Kids working side by side with adults. Youth willingly pitching in. People who may not be able to physically join in the work are still included, maybe preparing food for a time of fellowship following a day of work, or sitting with children too young or too tired to help. There is room for everyone and everyone has a place. The sense of unity on those days is palpable. 

“Look at how good and pleasing it is when families live together as one!”

I call those golden moments, because they tend to be too rare and way too fleeting. Living in peace and harmony with one another seems to be a skill that we have to work at with intentionality and persistence. It takes all of us to live together in peace, in harmony, and in unity. 

One of the real joys of friendship is the knowledge that you are part of a tribe. You have people who will always be there for you, will always have your back, will step in when you need to step away for a while. I am blessed to have many friends like that and I hope you do, too. Friends, true friends, are one of the greatest blessings life has to offer to us. For some, in those situations where family is more a place of conflict than comfort, where people have been cast out of their families because of who they are, who they love, or even for what they believe and the values they hold, friends, true friends, often become families of choice, where love and safety and a sense of true belonging and acceptance are deeply felt and shared. It is in these kin-ship circles that we often know the joy of living in unity with those we love.

Being in the presence of those we love and who love us unconditionally is one of the most sacred blessings we will ever know and the deepest and most profound joy we will ever experience. I hope and pray that each of you have at least one person in your life who can provide that kind of peace and joy for you.

We desperately need those places of refuge and sanctuary, because so much of our lives and way too much of the world around us is in stark contrast to that kind of unity, love, & acceptance that is God’s will for us all.

It has been a strange feeling to be writing this sermon with the unfolding news of the war between Israel and Palestine in the background. Sounds of rockets going off, the plaintive cries of parents searching desperately for their children, hoping for a bit of good news, something to give them hope. 

For decades these neighboring countries have lived with conflict and violence. Far from the unity and peace that God desires. We see the devastation of buildings demolished and we hear the desperation in the voices of those living in fear, terror really. This is not the way God wants us to live. So we pray for peace, a deep and abiding peace, that will allow people to dwell in safety and security in their homes and in their homeland.

On Wed morning a friend of mine texted this Bible verse to me from 

1 Peter: “Most of all, love each other as if your life depended on it.”

I texted back:  “Yes, because it does!”

Our lives depend on us learning to love each other and learning to live together as one. This is true for us individually. Our lives are so much richer and we are so much healthier in mind, body, and spirit, when we live in peace and harmony with those with whom we share our lives.

And it is true for us collectively. If we want to survive, learning to live in peace and in unity, learning to live as one, is simply not an option. We are being shown in so many ways what happens when we don’t. Our screens are filled on a daily basis with immigrants fleeing violence and poverty to find a place of refuge and safety. The war in Ukraine continues, lives and communities are still being destroyed. Those horrific scenes are now giving way to make space for equally if not even more horrific scenes from the Middle East, ironically this is happening in the place that we call the Holy Land, yet what is happening there is anything but holy.

One mother living in unimaginable fear for her 21 year old daughter who is among the missing said in an interview, “I am really embarrassed to be part of the human race right now if this is what humans can do to one another.” This is NOT what we should do to one another. We should NEVER accept this kind of violence and cruelty.

Friends, I do not have the answer for how we as the human race, the human family, can learn to live together as one. That is way above my pay grade. But on a smaller scale, I do believe that we can all learn to create circles of care and compassion where all are safe, all are affirmed, and all strive to live in ways that serve the common good and protect the dignity and honor of each and every person. 

We can learn to be kind. We can learn to be gentle. 

We can learn to be accepting. 

We can learn how to give and receive forgiveness. 

We can learn to build bridges and overcome chasms. 

We can learn to heal broken relationships and reach out to one another in 

mutual love, care, and respect. 

We can do this. We can create the peace we long for, if not in the world then at least in our friendship circles and in our families. We can show those around us that there is a better way to live together as one.

Friends, let us, as a family faith commit to learning to live life as one. Amen.