"They'll Know We Are Christians by Our Love"

     Show-up at any Christian youth gathering in the 60's, and among the tie-dyed T-shirts, bell bottom jeans, and swinging medallions...you would hear this song. It was core curriculum for every camp-out, campfire, and coffee house...a simple song with a simple message: God's love is more than an idea; it is visible action.

     The song was written by a Roman Catholic priest, Peter Raymond Scholtes. His obituary in 2009 said, "Throughout his life---whether as a priest, musician-composer, social worker, teacher, community organizer, therapist, author, or consultant---Peter had a genius for making complex and important ideas easy to grasp and put to use. He was confident in his convictions, but embraced differences, and cherished his friendships that bridged cultures and countries."

     They'll Know We Are Christians by Our Love was written in 1966 while he was a parish priest at St. Brendan's (which was half Irish and half Black) on the South Side of Chicago. The story goes that his "church basement youth choir" had no hymnody that addressed ecumenical issues and interracial events. No song adequately called the church into the streets of the Chicago Civil Rights movement.

So he wrote one. It goes like this:

We are one in the Spirit

We are one in the Lord....

And we pray that all unity may one day be restored

And they'll know we are Christians by our love, by our love.

Yes, they'll know we are Christians by our love.

It goes on to say, We will work with each other. We will work side by side; and we'll guard each man's dignity and save each man's pride. They'll know we are Christians by our love.

     I want to believe this blast from the past is in the DNA of NDBC; and it is part of our everyday life through the power of the Holy Spirit. The simple lyrics are linked with large words: prayer, unity, work, dignity, pride, and the biggest of all: love.

     The challenge, of course, is for us to live into our future while being nourished by our progressive past. Remember what we say in the Pledge of Allegiance? We say words so large we almost choke on them: with liberty and justice for all.

     Mercy. What a big bite of responsibility! But long before this vision was wrapped in stars and stripes, it was birthed in the heart of God and has been wrestled throughout the history of God's people. Liberty and justice for all. Really? Not just for us, and those like us? All?

     To this adventure, God has called our church on the hill. Through this challenge, the world will know us...know us by what we do, how we act, how we welcome strangers, how we care for one another, and how by God's grace we transcend provincialism and prejudice. In other words, like Peter Scholtes taught us, they'll know we are Christians by our love.