Your Church Can Grow

You never know what kind of weather you will get on an October day. Whether in the New York area or in southwestern France, autumn can be warm, cold or somewhere in between. On this Tuesday, the temperatures dropped. Big cumulus clouds floated into the sky. The sun peaked through the clouds and then hid behind them. Leaves rustled with an ever increasing breeze. Their multi-colors dotted the countryside of rolling hills and farms.

Yet the cold autumn temperatures could not chill the warmth emmanating from the Taizé community. Through worship, fellowship, bible study, conversations, I experienced the warmth of love. I wrote in my journal that day, “Taizé is first of all about love.” Love as devotion to God. Love as hospitality. Love as a choice to make for one’s life.

What is Taizé a sign of? The Kingdom of God to be sure. Might it also be a sign of the Remnant of Christianity striving to make real this 2,000 year old religion? Might it also serve as seed for Christianity’s rebirth?

Berndt, the Lutheran Pastor and a veteran of several pilgrimages to Taizé, rented an apartment in the village and invited our small group to meet there on Tuesday afternoon. We reflected on two questions: 1. What does it mean to win? 2. What was Jesus’ currency?

Our multi-national, multi-cultural group talked of winning in terms of ‘fullness of life.’ When one can be open and free to encounter others and God, including being vulnerable to being hurt, then one is on a winning track. We said that the currency of Jesus is love. Jesus loved people he encountered and was fully present to them. He did not see others as instruments for his own agenda. However, when he asks, as he did to Peter, “Do you love me?” He wants to know our commitment to him and his Way.

My Tuesday take away is that Jesus’ currency and the currency of Taizé is love. Can I embrace the simplicity of this affirmation?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 27th, 2009 at 8:48 am and is filed under Taize Pilgrimage. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.