Pause for Thought: Alliance of the spirit
Community requires alliance of the spirit. It cannot exist apart from the sense of ultimate commitment to a common future. And how beautiful it is when this discovery takes place! Words become unnecessary! Even silence communicates. Because in our silence our eyes and hearts are set on a common horizon. Love which takes place only in the immediacy of the present is a lie; it cannot endure. This is one of the great falsities of the traditional idea of Christian love. And this is the drama of the pastor who desperately struggles to keep his congregation together. He discovers that the price of this nice fellowship is avoidance of the critical issues that actually and unavoidably separate people from each other. People remain together to the extent that they hide from each other the real values to which they are committed. The price of fellowship which does not grow out of a true alliance of the heart is hypocrisy.
From Tomorrow’s Child by Rubem A. Alves
Community requires alliance of the spirit. It cannot exist apart from the sense of ultimate commitment to a common future. And how beautiful it is when this discovery takes place! Words become unnecessary! Even silence communicates. Because in our silence our eyes and hearts are set on a common horizon. Love which takes place only in the immediacy of the present is a lie; it cannot endure. This is one of the great falsities of the traditional idea of Christian love. And this is the drama of the pastor who desperately struggles to keep his congregation together. He discovers that the price of this nice fellowship is avoidance of the critical issues that actually and unavoidably separate people from each other. People remain together to the extent that they hide from each other the real values to which they are committed. The price of fellowship which does not grow out of a true alliance of the heart is hypocrisy.From Tomorrow’s Child by Rubem A. Alves
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