Justice Conference 2013: Philly

Welcome to Philadelphia, a city where I deign to think of myself as a local already, knowing the difference between Market Street and Southside, Passyunk and East Passyunk. I know where not to buy cheesesteaks and where to buy seafood and I know several actors in shows I see in posters as I walk down the street.

This city, bedecked with grandiose Masonic architecture, crowded with row-houses shoved together in delightfully close-knit unity, jostling with national history on cobbled streets, is an inspiring place.

And somehow, it is a city that welcomes you in with open arms.

So I am not a local so much as the city simply becomes my friend, invites me to its parties and lets me in on a few secrets. It showed me love, not I it.

Philadelphia - as we all know our greek etymology - means brotherly love, or love between brothers. Love is a strong concept and I don't mean that random city dwellers lock me in an embrace as soon as they see me (though that would be swell, I think), but it speaks to a certain unity that we all want. A certain bond we all desire - a communal fraternity (ladies included) of people.

This makes me think of the Church. Big C. It makes me wonder if the Church is, at times, as welcoming as this city? And this city is just a large-scale experiment in human community, like any other. But do we as a Church, as the Bride of Christ, have as open arms? Do we beckon and invite others to our tables; do we show them more hospitality than these few strangers-become-friends I've met?

This is a big yes and no answer and more than a mere blogpost can tackle, especially as I sit minutes before the Conference begins with the last sugary dregs of street-cart coffee. But suffice it to say I've been thinking about "adelphoi" - Brothers and Sisters - the Church. The greek word Paul and Jesus used to talk about the People of God. Paul used it all the time and Jesus, who spoke Aramaic, used it via translation - but the word is often treated in most Bible translations as simply "Brothers" - perhaps because of past patriarchy or perhaps not - and "adelphoi" given a nice little footnote.

But my point is: the Church was and comprised of Brothers and Sisters and referred to as one word, as "adelphoi", as those joined in love so strong that it is considered "philadelphia", brotherly love - strong, open, bold and unbreakable love. Jesus is the only "friend who sticks closer than a brother" so apart from Him we, Church, need to love each other with the unity and sacrifice that comes with "adelphoi"- only then will we rightly love this world. This world needs love and more than that it needs real Love and if Christians believe what we say we believe we've got a lot more loving to do.

My train into this city saw the outside, the less-loving parts, where the row-houses not so quaintly lean near-to falling down, where most buildings lie in decay and abandonment, where the trash of struggle and cheap living stick to the fences and gather in the corners. This isn't a diatribe about 'urban decay' but a microcosm of the larger story - the larger brokenness pervading this Creation that looks for its fix when only one Fix will do. The Church is tasked with this work, this work of brotherly love.

Thus am I here at this conference, to learn better how to put action in my arms and meaning behind my words. There's more to say and better ways to say it but for now, this is where things are.