As a ‘good Anglican’ I try to follow Common Worship Daily Prayer in the morning. I say ‘try’ not out of weakness but out of a desire not to be tied to unnecessary guilt trips which Jesus actually freed us from.

I struggle with a particular prayer called ‘the collect’ which is a special prayer for the day. I guess I don’t fully understand the point but today’s hit me in a clearer way than normal:

Lord, you have taught us
that all our doings without love are nothing worth:
send your Holy Spirit
and pour into our hearts that most excellent gift of love,
the true bond of peace and of all virtues,
without which whoever lives is counted dead before you.
Grant this for your only Son Jesus Christ’s sake,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Love over arches all we do as Christians. There seems to be a lot around ‘church’ at the moment of ‘love’ being sidelined and ‘possessing truth’ being the over arching attribute. I do not mean only the Anglican Communion here with the current sexuality discussion, but also the Roman Catholic church of which some priests will tell me that the catholic way is the only way, some free church who call the Roman Catholics a sect (which as the majority Christian denomination is difficult to see!).

Everyone wants to be right. More than that – actually it seems that some do not only wish to be right, but want to take delight in attempting to prove that others are wrong. Of course, while these discussions continue, those that need to be introduced to the loving, missional, trinitarian God miss out on the opportunity to do so, or steer clear because they see that those who already have a relationship with Christ can’t get on.

One of the reasons the church grew rapidly in Acts is that people liked what they saw and so the number grew daily. What they saw was radical acts of love and community. Even before that if we look at the disciples we see their people who would have initially hated each other able to exist in community (tax collector and zealot)

Lets stop trying to prove ourselves right, others wrong and get back to following Jesus …. let’s get back to love!