Sunday, August 16, 2020
Dear St. Luke Community,
This week’s lectionary includes a Psalm that is only three verses long – Psalm 133. And it begins with, "How very good and pleasant it is when kindred live together in unity!”
Unity is an interesting word and concept. It’s what we strive for when we imagine God’s kingdom. But sometimes the idea of being “one” is turned into a kind of homogeneity reducing us to being all the same.
On the one hand, being one is a beautiful as reflected in scripture:
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus (Gal 3:28) .
Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one (John 17).
On the other hand, seeing all God’s children as one and the same can diminish the unique experiences that diverse people have within the same town. Our cultural experiences, our religious backgrounds, and our race (a social construct) each brings unique experiences which does not always provide equal treatment. In God’s eyes we are one; but that doesn’t mean we are all experiencing God’s justice equally as one.
How can we strive towards being one and at the same time respect our differences and diversity? Our country is far from unified as the gap between the have and have nots continues to grow. Relations between political groups and those who support or do not support movements grow. Unity is running scarce even within Christianity, and even within our own denomination you would be hard pressed to find two churches who are unified in their belief systems.
So what does God call us to do when we enter into covenant with God at baptism? How do we makes sense of our role as Christians when it comes to living as kin with all of God’s people in unity without diminishing the experience of those who are crying out for justice? And if we are to love one another, what does that look like when you cannot stand the belief system of the person who sits next to you at dinner or in the pews?
One small Psalm, lots of big questions. Thanks be to God.
See you Sunday,
Nicole