I spent the morning with Rev. Joan Gray, Moderator of the Presbyterian Church (USA) at a discussion hosted by the Presbytery of Long Island at the beautiful Sweet Hollow Presbyterian Church in Melville, LI.
A response to a question about the considerable conflict in the Presbyterian Church (USA) struck me as especially poignant and useful for all of us in times of conflict and discord.
"God is trying to lay ahold of us and make us into real Christians, teaching us to love each other as Christ loved us; teaching us to be willing to be with each other in all our sinfulness."
She then went on to talk about how Jesus came down to us despite who we were and loved us despite our sinfulness and gave himself for us - not when we changed but because we couldn't
change.
"We must take the time to know each other," she said, "to know each other's hearts and then give ourselves to each other" out of servant love - not because we share an agenda, not because we like each other, not because giving ourselves to another person gains us anything - but because that is the model that Christ showed us; that is what it is to be Christian.
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