Every couple of months I meet with a group of friends online to talk about a book we have chosen to read and discuss together. Forget the book! It’s the meeting, the seeing of faces, the interactions of laughter and shared concerns, the small talk and the deep talk that matter most. We are a group of friends who have stayed in conversation for much of our lives since we came into ministry. We are either retired, or pushing in that direction.
But the important thing is that we have stayed together in our friendship, and accompanied each other through the varied experiences of our lives. We all have connections with the Scottish Baptist College. We are collegiate. That gave us our group name, The Eejits. We are now pretty scattered, one in Nova Scotia, one in Alabama, and the rest of us from different parts of Scotland. But we are there for each other, and there are deep ties of affection, commitment and shared life experiences going back decades.
I mention this because we’ve just had a Zoom meeting, with the usual laughter, banter, serious discussion, and asking after each other. Contrast that with the experience of many folk in our communities, maybe including some of ourselves. On Wednesday loneliness made headline news. The most recent report about how the Covid crisis has affected people in Scotland identifies loneliness as a widespread experience. Indeed one reporter described the results as pointing to “an epidemic of social loneliness”
Around 27 percent of our young people report that feelings of isolation, loneliness and lack of social contact, are having an effect on their mental health and emotional wellbeing. Amongst those over 55 years, 71 per cent have struggled with lock down and the prolonged restrictions on social mixing with friends, family and the wider community. It isn’t hard to imagine the sadness and emotional struggles of folk who need to see familiar faces, hear friendly voices, and be in supportive company where they know they matter.
Whatever else the church is, it is a place where loneliness is acknowledged and friendship is offered, to everyone. Christian community is about welcome, belonging, sharing, understanding, listening, laughing, reassuring, encouraging, valuing, and caring. We are called to embody and practice all of these, but the energy source and motivation is, and must be, the love of God.
When Paul wrote, “Hope doesn’t disappoint us because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit whom he has given us”, (Rom. 5.5), he was telling the church where it could find the resources to be the loving Body of the compassionate Christ. “We love because God first loved us”; our love for others is the overflow of God’s love, channelled through our words, actions and relationships to others. Those early Christians, and just as much, you and I, “Once we were no people, but now we are God’s people; once we had not received mercy but now we have received mercy.” (I Peter 2.10) And so, having freely received, we are called to open our hearts and freely give.
It’s hard to know how and when this pandemic will be over. But however that comes about, here is a cry of the heart from all around us. In a lonely society, we Christians can be conduits of friendship, a community where love and compassion flow freely. We are God’s people, a community of the Gospel, a place of welcome, a safe place in a world that feels unsafe and uncertain. I can think of few more important acts of mission and Good News sharing, than us becoming a befriending community reaching out with the welcome of God to people brave enough to admit they are lonely,
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