We are part of one another and God is part of us and of our world. The Psalmist asks rhetorically, “Where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence?” (Ps 139:7). Jesus says God is involved in things like sparrows and rain (Matt 5:45, 10:29), and the Christ can be compared with a cloudless sunrise after rain ( 2 Sam 23:4). And of course we learned John Donne’s lines in high school: “No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main….” The life and the death of each of us affects the lives of all of us; and God is affected by our lives as surely as we are affected by God’s life.

Yet we spend so much energy trying to avoid each other, yes? Have you ever seen someone at the store or maybe even at church that you would rather avoid? Ever cross the street or avoid eye contact, to escape the need to speak or interact? Our judgements of each other isolate us, shut us off from each other, leave us confined to folks we find “acceptable.” And even in our homes and families we can lock ourselves into our own thoughts and feelings and even our faith. We can get to the point that we’d rather not bother to connect with one another, especially if those connections have a painful history. And so we become lonely, even in our families and workplaces and close associations.

Admittedly, some connections are not good for your health and well being. Alcoholics Anonymous encourages alcoholics in recovery to seek new playmates and playgrounds, to associate with people who nurture sobriety. The holiness code of the Bible asks us to protect ourselves from those who hate or would harm us (Lev 19:2, 2 Cor 6:17). Jesus directs the disciples’ efforts toward those who welcome the good news of God’s love. And there is a sense in which love for the world, or at least love for what the world values, can be spiritually deadly. And so there’s a place, indeed a responsibility, for detachment from relationships which are toxic to us.

But then the love of God enjoins us to embrace our connection with each other, with God, and with the world. And to do so in a life giving way. God calls us to join Her/His work of loving people into life, to engage in our connection with each other in ways that give and nurture and protect life. That is the meaning of love as defined by the person and work and risen presence of Jesus Christ, to share the abundant life He gives throughout our connections with each other.

Unfortunately the people of God have often resembled the thief who comes to steal and to kill and to destroy. And we can be sure that when the church perpetuates the tradition of stoning the prophets and crucifying those whom God ordains to bring the Gospel of peace we are not connected with others in the service of God but of evil. And that action of denying the ordination and love relationships of those whom God has anointed—fighting against God in that way is a blasphemous rejection of God Himself. And so when our connection with others is judgemental or accusing we can be sure we are servants of Satan, the “accuser of our family” (NTE), rather than serving God in the love of Christ.

But when the love of God prevails, when the church is willing to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune in the service and love for the marginalized, the poor, the indigenous, the outcast, the gay, the immigrant, the gender oppressed, the prisoner to addiction—when the church reaches out to connect in love with the most needy among us and within us we can then be sure that the glory of God is spreading abroad, that the bell tolls the angels’ glad cry of “Hosannah.”

For when love for all prevails in our connections then and there the realm of God’s heaven has come nigh. And our connections can be places of peace on earth.