In my faith community, we are reading Diana Butler Bass’ Christianity After Religion for discussion during Lent. Tonight, my small group started discussing “belief in community” as one of the important characteristics of our religious expression. In other words, belief isn’t just a personal phenomenon, but also a community held experience within which we have the individual freedom to wax and wane and question and ponder and discuss…because we hold each other in community. This made me think about the power of community, and how deeply grateful I am for the communal relationships that form my faith and support my growth. Tonight’s blessing is for my community:

Faith in Community: A Blessing

It takes courage to walk to the edge of the water,
To stick out a solitary foot and touch toe to surface,
Testing the waters for their chill or their burn,
Wondering about the depth should one decide to plunge.

Faith is the depth and surface and motion of those waters.
The visitor touching the surface isn’t an intrusion.
Instead, the waters move in response,
Rippling the unspoken question felt in the seeker’s touch.

Blessed are those who question,
And those who ponder.
Blessed are those who feel at peace,
Buoyant enough to move with the waves of doubt.

It is the flowing and fluid motion of community which allows
New questions to surface and old wounds to heal.
Faith is not only in the immersion,
Faith is in the collective response.