Starting points are important. In 1980 Rosie Ruiz had just won the Boston marathon and received the winner’s laurel. Unfortunately, it was later discovered that she had only run the last few miles of the race and was stripped of her crown. She had lost her integrity by missing the most important aspect of the race, the starting point.
Many times as God’s people we miss the starting point of community. It is easy to live in a community where everyone looks like us, speaks like us, thinks like us, and worships God like us. We are comfortable. But this is not Christ-likeness. No, Jesus hung out with the handicapped, the tax collectors, the poor, the lepers, the rich, the religious, the young, the old, and even people who betrayed his trust. Yes, Jesus knew where the community starting line was and he challenges us to see it in everyone we come in contact with if we are to become like him. Community starts with understanding that every person on this planet (whether we like it or not) was made in the image of God, and our responsibility is not only to love them as ourselves (Matt. 22: 37-40), but to love them as Jesus loves us (John 13: 34-35).
Thus love in the Christian community should, first of all, not be based on doctrine, principle, commonality, church ideology, but instead based on a love that knows that God loves all his people. If this is our starting point, then the person we enjoy the least (for whatever reason) is welcomed into our community.
This makes community a dirty, painful process. We are actually called to love, forgive, nurture and dwell among people who are sure to let us down. Therefore, let us go through our days of community knowing full well where our starting point is-loving one another as God loves us.
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