One in Christ

I remember coming home from church one time when I was young. My dad was grumbling. “How can so-and-so teach Sunday school?” He listed off a few of her shortcomings. My mom was mostly quiet. Finally she said something like, “He who is not against us is for us.” That silenced things for a bit.

There are a great variety of ideas in the church today, both within Lutheranism and without. Churches split over who is right and who is wrong. We hold our convictions firmly. Here I stand.

But I wonder if our energy might be better spent, as our preacher at the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity said, highlighting our likenesses rather than our differences. I wonder further, if we should be looking for those to whom to minister, rather than hunkering down on our pet ideas. God will sort it all out in the end, anyway, without our help, too.

In the meantime, there is so much oppression, so much hunger, so much violence, so much… In Jesus’ name, let us work together to heal the world.

Thank you, creating God, for variety. Help us celebrate, then get on with ministry. Amen. — DAB