A MESSAGE FROM REV. LINDSEY ALTVATER CLIFTON: THE COMMON GOOD
Three weeks ago, I was invited to attend Mayor Reynolds’ annual State of the City address. It’s an event that I’ve been to before, and one that always leaves me proud of our community and our leaders. This year, that was even more the case!
While I was impressed by the statistics and 
stories about how Bethlehem is growing economically and physically, I was deeply moved by the vision that Mayor Reynolds shared about what community means here. He said:
To live a happy, full life, we need to be connected to each other. The best version of ourselves isn’t just what’s in our own life, in our own house, in our own phone. It’s all of us, it’s working together. That’s how we accomplish things.
All of you know that your life is richer when you’re connected to other people. That when you have a mission that’s about creating something that’s not just about yourselves, you feel more like you’re part of a community.
We do big things in Bethlehem: we build steel mills, we build steel stacks, we build greenways, we build community centers, we build new parks, we build new trails, we build new small businesses. We also build things that you can’t see: doors that need to open for everybody, we build families, we build people that care about each other.
People say, “I want my kid to have it better than I had.” Around here we say, “We want every kid to have it better than we had.” We say, “We want your kid to have it better than you had.”
Friends, that is the common good. That is kinship. That is koinonia. That is beloved community.
This week in worship, we meet some of the disciples a bit later on resurrection day, and we walk alongside them (and incognito Jesus) for awhile. Together, we consider how to be disciples and how we are called to build community even in the midst of unimaginable circumstances. It is good to remember that we don’t walk alone!
With gratitude and blessings for the journey,
Lindsey