Jesus’ Ministry
January 24, 2019
Scripture Reading: 1 Corinthians 12:12-31
For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. –1 Corinthians 12:12-13
Our logic is paradoxical regarding diversity and faith. We acknowledge that God created the earth and all that is in it including the wide diversity of people with differing skills and talents, various colors and sizes, gender and divergent sexual orientations, and even ecumenical and interfaith understandings of God. In the creation stories God looked at the final product and recognized it as good. Yet, we humans seem to have a need to categorize and separate, rank and judge by our own discernment what is good and what is not. Why do we suppose that is?
The next several verses of the above scripture (not included here) go into detail on how separating out and ranking various body parts is nonsensical. What would happen indeed if we were all eyes? The message of creation is that unless we work in oneness the world does not work well at all. Thus, the snake was added to the story to make this point even stronger and we are still mesmerized by the snake of greed and lust for power today.
God does not want puppets. God’s greatest desire is that we love God and each other by choice as God loves us. I trust we are fully equipped to do just that. What is stopping us? Why do we fall to the enticements of the divide and conquer temptations? More importantly how do we remove ourselves as individuals and groups from divide and conquer’s grasps?
God gives us the answer, I think, when we are instructed to love our neighbors as ourselves. When we feel whole, we lose the need for others to be less than we are. We long for all to be whole.
Prayer: Lord, make us whole make us one. Amen.