1 Corinthians 12:13
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.
While it is the spring and some of my house is missing football season, I always enjoy this period of time when there isn’t a lot of sports on. While I know that there is always something to watch, it feels less in my house when Saturdays are not devoted to college football and Sundays to watching the pros. It feels like we have less time and a lot less talk of us versus them. Our society tends to think in terms of us and them most of the time. If they align with our values or we are a member of a club, then we are like the other. When we see someone with different values and background, we have a tendency to think about what divides and separates us at the forefront.
The time that Paul was writing was in many ways no different than our current age. There was a lot of ways that people separated themselves in the early Christian world as well: free and slave, Greek and Jew, male and female, and many other distinctions that divided people into categories. What Paul is reminding the people of Corinth is how much our faith is the great equalizer and the common ground in humanity. Rather than seeing people as a sum of their allegiance or details of their person, we are called to see one another as a child of God and that is it. As we come across someone who is different than us, we are called to love them as our neighbor and see the beauty in them that God sees in them too. As Paul reminds us, “we were all made to drink of one Spirit.” We aren’t made to be separated and think in an us versus them mentality, but rather we should seek to come together to the table.
Prayer
God of love, thank you for reminding us to seek out what unites us rather than divides us. Help us to seek out the other not as someone who is different but who is your child worthy of love, kindness and grace. Give us courage to open our hearts and remind us that we are all one body. In your name, Amen.