Much has been written about our torn social fabric. So many in our society wake up feeling cut off from any sense of family, community or neighborhood. Belonging is on the wane. Isolation is on the rise. In such a fragmented culture as ours, it is no wonder that there are nearly 50,000 suicides every year in America and over 70,000 deaths to drug addiction, almost double the number of casualties during the whole of the Vietnam War.
Recently I read a powerfully truthful and hopeful piece by columnist David Brooks who reported on attending a conference called “Weave: The Social Fabric Project.” Its first core idea is “that social isolation is the problem underlying a lot of our other problems. The second core idea is that this problem is being solved by people around the country at the local level who are building community and weaving the social fabric.”
The Church has benefited society because Jesus calls each of us to a holy weaving. Every time we see a person as a bearer of God’s image, we weave. Every time we pigeonhole someone into the isolating labels of gender, ethnicity, nationality, race, sexual orientation, or even political party, we are rippers. To seek to fulfill our Baptismal Vow to “uphold the dignity of every human being” is to weave.
This weaving is done in so many of our churches. When we welcome the homeless into our spaces through Family Promise, volunteer to be mentors or tutors at local public schools or for at-risk children, when we simply have lunch at the local soup kitchen, or visit those in prison or in hospice or the homebound, we are weavers. We weave when we faithfully keep vigil with one who struggles to recover from addiction. We weave when we participate in book groups or discussions across differences of opinion. We weave when we pick up the trash by the side of the road or from our river banks and are cautious about our carbon footprint.
When I say this is holy work, I speak from the depths of our Christian tradition. The theological word that describes the love and adoration that moves among the Three Persons of the Holy Trinity is perichoresis, meaning, an interweaving, a dancing flow, among three distinct identities. More simply, God is a weaver. God’s love is known not in isolation, but in community. As he washes his disciples’ feet, Jesus says, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:35) Being created in God’s image means sharing in this eternal identity and mission wherever and among whomever we find ourselves.
The torn body of Jesus is mended by God in the Resurrection. May it be so with us in the Risen Body of Christ this Easter!
Bishop Rob
The Rt. Rev. Robert Hirschfeld