The Friend Who Ran Into the Water

At the end of Tolkien's The Fellowship of the Ring, Frodo Baggins decides he must carry the Ring to Mordor alone. He has seen what the Ring's power does to those around him — it breeds suspicion, division, and violence. So he slips away quietly, pushes a boat into the river, and paddles toward the far shore. He will bear this burden by himself.

But Samwise Gamgee sees him leaving. Sam cannot swim, yet he wades into the river after his friend, splashing deeper and deeper until the water closes over his head. Frodo pulls him, gasping and sputtering, into the boat. "I made a promise, Mr. Frodo," Sam says. "Don't you leave him, Samwise Gamgee. And I don't mean to."

That moment captures something the church has always known but often forgets. Real community is not a pleasant arrangement we maintain when it is convenient. Real community means running into water over your head because someone you love is trying to carry a weight alone.

The Apostle Paul told the Galatians, "Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ." Notice he did not say, "Wish one another well from the shore."

Look around your congregation this morning. Someone near you is quietly pushing a boat into the water, convinced they must face their Mordor alone. Be the friend who gets wet. That is what the body of Christ was made for.