Strangers becoming community

I left for Scotland and Europe over two weeks ago to attend a theological summer school. The school was held at the Scottish Churches House, an ecumenical community in Dunblane, Scotland. The theme of the summer school was “Visions for the Future”. Much of what I feel I learned was another lesson about community.

The group I lived and worked and studied with for two weeks was from fourteen different countries, as many varied denominations, and an age span from 19 to 69 (+?). There were 25 of us altogether with others joining in from time to time––strangers living in community.

I arrived late. My flight from Little Rock was delayed, which meant that I missed my connection in Memphis. When I did arrive in Scotland my suitcase didn’t. But I was greeted with concern, compassion, and warm hospitality. People began to take notice of me. They were expecting me. They asked if they could loan me clothes, toiletries, anything that I might need, to make me comfortable until my own things arrived. Each person was treated with the same care and the same concern.

I know that my own community of faith is asked might say that my favorite passage of scripture is Jesus’ command to his disciples to love one another. It is one of my favorites. Jesus declares that this is how the world will know who Jesus is if his disciples love one another.

So, as I approached this “strange” international community, preparing to talk about “visions for the future” I was challenged and at a disadvantaged. I was late (something I hate to be though I know that I am all too often) and I was stripped bare because I didn’t have any of my “things”

It was an interesting position to be in and one that helped me look at things differently, to begin to turn things around. That’s what Jesus told those who asked him about forgiveness. Jesus challenges us to give more than expected and do things differently than we want to do them. Turn things around. That’s not human nature. But it is God’s nature. God is always challenging us to look at things differently, to view things from a different angle, to get a different vision of God’s future.

And it is in community…