“How are we a courageous community living into God’s love and justice?”

This was the question Western’s leaders were asking ourselves last January, before we realized the two pandemics, Covid-19 and racism, would define our year. Before social distance would challenge our life together as a community of faith, yet precisely when we need God’s love and justice!

For Jesus, God’s love and justice weren’t abstract concepts, but embodied realities. The way to embody love and justice is as part of a community who are working on it together, committed to sharing each other’s journeys.

What’s saving your life these days, other than a mask? This week, I’m counting morning walks, afternoon coffee breaks, training for the Calvary Women’s 5K (who’s with me?), turning off the presidential debate, and holy communion. (No, I haven’t been celebrating communion by myself, although it may feel like that this Sunday.)

In case you’ve never connected communion with saving your life, don’t worry. God saves our lives regardless of whether we share the sacrament. But this week, as we prepare for World Communion Sunday, I invite you to consider how the Lord’s Supper reminds us that we as a world are held together by a God larger than any crisis. As we eat and drink in remembrance of Christ, celebrate that even if you are alone in your space, you are connected with all who share the meal. And because this meal is shared by Christians everywhere, that means 2.4 billion people, give or take a few million.