We Are A Church Who Loves

The word Church is derived from the Greek word ekklesia (Latin ecclesia), meaning an assembly or convocation of
those whom God’s word gathers together to form the People of God.  The Church is Christ’s living presence in the world, sustained by the Spirit. Those who are nourished with the Body of Christ, become the Body of Christ.

When used in the Septuagint (Greek) translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, ekklesia meant God’s people called together by God.  In the New Testament, ekklesia has been used to denote the whole universal community of believers
(I Cor. 15:9, Gal. 1:13, Phil. 3:6); a particular local community of believers (I Cor. 1:2, 16:1) Gal. 1:2); and the actual assembly of believers who meet to worship in any one place (I Cor. 11:18, 14:19, 28, 34, 35).  In the earliest times, the community of Christian believers met in “house-churches.” (Rom 16:5, I Cor. 16:19, Col. 4:15, Phil. 2).  Every home is called by this image to be church. 

As Spirited Lay Action Movement Inc., we proclaim and commit to form loving, welcoming, inclusive, nurturing, empowering, supportive, sustainable, and life-giving faith communities, respectful of all persons, guided by the Holy Spirit, where our individual and collective voices are encouraged and heard.

The essence of any community is love.  For “God is love” (1 Jn 4:8, 16).  God is the source, the way, and the fullness of
all love.  We were created because God loves each and every one of us.  As believers, we are invited into the intimacy of the Trinitarian love and friendship expressed among the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. (Jn 15-17).

Jesus teaches us that the two greatest commandments are to love the Lord our God with all of our hearts, with all of our souls, with all of our minds, and with all of our strength and to love our neighbors as Jesus loves us.  (Matthew , John).  ““As I have loved you, so you are to love one another.” (John 13:34)  We are called to love one another as God loves us (See 1 John 4:11)

The essence of all of God’s being and saving presence, as well as the rule for human behavior, are described in the
song of love:

“Love is patient, love is kind.  It is not jealous, [love] is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its
own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices in
the truth.  It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.  Love never fails….So faith, hope,
love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” (1 Corinthians 13:1-8; 13).

“We love because God first loved us.  If someone says, I love God but hates his brother, “that person is a liar. (1 John 4:20a).  If he does not love the brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? (1 John 4:20b).  “When we love God and obey his commands, we love his children too (1 John 5:2).

Let each of us be of the same mind as Jesus, and having the same love.  “Let us do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than ourselves.  Let each of us look not to our own interests, but to the interest of others.  Let the same mind be in us that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness.  And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death even death on a cross.  Therefore, God also highly exalted him and gave him the name, so that at the name of Jesus every
knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the father.” (Philippines 2:1-11).

And like St. Paul, let us be “convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor present things, nor future things, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom 8:39)