By Brother Tom Albin

 

In Christ we belong—to God and to one another. You are not alone. I am not alone. We are adopted into the family of God. We are now brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ!

 

Our spiritual identity and being are eternally connected to one another because we are now part of God’s Kingdom. We share one faith, one hope and one baptism. When we come to the Lord’s table, we share the one bread and the one cup. When we pray the prayer Jesus taught us–we are one!

 

As we begin this New Year, I urge each of us to think and pray and live into this holy mystery—because—in Christ we have the power to resist evil, to do things that are eternally good, and to bear fruit that pleases God and blesses the world.

 

Romans 8:15-17 says it clearly:

 

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, “Abba! Father!” it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs: heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if we in fact suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him. (NRSVUE)

 

Because we are children of God—we are one family, regardless of whether the family we grew up in was a good or bad family. The world needs the kind of family we have in Christ. The world needs the Christian Ashram movement—just as much as it did when Brother Stanley was alive.

 

These words written on the wall of the Sat Tal Christian Ashram:

 

“Unreservedly given to God, 

unbreakably given to each other.”

 

These are the final words spoken in the Closing Circle of each Christian Ashram around the world. They remind us that the relationship with one another is an unbreakable fellowship, for it is in Christ and not in that particular Christian Ashram experience.

 

As we begin this New Year, I urge each of us to think and pray and live into this holy mystery and engage in our holy mission—to proclaim this life-giving truth to all people:

 

You belong here—in the Kingdom of God—where Jesus is Lord!