We are one

In his first letter to the church in Corinth, St. Paul offers a metaphor to teach about the new community of followers of the Way of Jesus. He wrote, in chapter twelve, "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."

It was a radical idea: that where you came from, and your social status was no longer considered relevant when it came to your relationship with God and your faith community. The early church even started calling each other brother and sister to emphasize the new understanding of their relationship with one another in God, whom they called, "Abba" (Aramaic for Daddy) as they were reborn from the water of their baptism. 

As I come to know the people of my church and community over the years, it becomes clear that there are probably as many expressions of faith through people's lives as there are personalities and backgrounds. While we come together to worship one God, we are many people, as St. Paul pointed out so long ago. 

With so many backgrounds, we also have a variety ways we feel closest to Christ. What I'm thinking about in particular is that some people feel the joy of God through service. It is by serving their fellow humans  in need that they express their faith. Others find devotion and prayer draws forth from their heart the prayers of the Holy Spirit. For me and for many others, playing and listening to music is a genuine expression of faith. The list goes on and includes spending time with God in nature, other creative expression like painting or cooking, Bible Study and teaching, or even using their God given skill with numbers to assist the church or families with financial planning. I appreciate and depend upon the variety of gifts. My hope is that the church is a place where people can find support to share their gifts in community, both within the church and beyond.  I believe that God intends our ministry (whether we call it that or not) to be for the lifting up of all people. 

God, the creator of all things (seen and unseen) has made us in our beautiful variety and complex diversity. To paraphrase St. Paul, "Can a plumber say to an electrician, 'I have no need of you to build this house', or a framer to a painter, 'you should use nails to paint'? No way, God has given us all different gifts to share in our communities, and has called us together to build a dwelling place for God."  Ok, St. Paul's  metaphor was a body, which is more organic than my construction metaphor. Maybe an ecosystem would be an even better metaphor to express our interdependence. It is by knowing ourselves and our gifts that we find how to be part of a community, and there we find our fullest human expression of our faith. 

St. Paul helped the early church shift from their conventional paradigm of identity in divisions like Greek or Jew, slave or free, so that the new identity of followers of Christ was found in their participation in the life of God. It is by offering our gifts of worship, service, hospitality, prayer, or music (just to name a few) back to God, sharing ourselves in community that we all, no matter our differences, fulfill the righteous relationship we are called into by our one God.