…he asked him, “Which commandment is the first of all?” Jesus answered, “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12: 28b-31)
What is God calling us to as the church? We gather in faith communities to be formed in the Way of Jesus and to “practice” and embed new ways of being with one another; loving, forgiving, and affirming each other as we experience the transformative unconditional love of God. That Way takes on a life and is embodied in the real world that we inhabit: our neighbourhood. We are also called to love our neighbours, to be an embodied witness of the good news of Jesus Christ in the neighbourhoods in which we are planted.