November 23 We're All the Same

 Rich and poor have this in common: the Lord is the maker of them all. ~Proverbs 22:2 

You have heard that it was said, “Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.” But I tell you: love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in Heaven. He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. ~Matthew 5:43-48

My brothers, as believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, don’t show favoritism. Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring, and fine clothes, and a poor man in shabby clothes also comes in. If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, “Here’s a good seat for you,” but say to the poor man, “You, stand there,” have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? ~James 2:1-5

I will never forget a comment made by one of the members of my congregation at our first church. “I don’t know. I used to think that the pastor was something special. But hey, he puts his pants on the same way I do, one leg at a time.” Humbling to be sure. But I fully agree. I believe in the priesthood of all believers. Why do we make distinctions among ourselves?

I find it interesting that we all enter this life the same way and exit the same way. It is in the living between both ends that we get the idea that we are so different from one another. Yet, we all cry, we all love, we all get hungry, we all function pretty much the same physically. Yet, we make distinctions.

When we think about it, many of the distinctions can be so shallow. I suppose that the most obvious one that we hear about today is based on the amount of color pigmentation in our skin, but that isn’t the only one. We separate out by language, ethnicity, interests, politics, we find a lot of ways to distinguish ourselves from one another.

Solomon started us off by talking about wealth. Yes, there are those who have more opportunity than others. Sometimes we take the differences in stride, but at other times, we can make a big deal about those differences and that’s when we can get into trouble. Solomon reminds us that God is the maker of us all. James outlines some of the trouble that is caused by those distinctions. These should not be, especially in the church. I think that the comment, mentioned at the beginning, made by my friend, was meant to acknowledge his relief at finding out how much he and I have in common.

James focused on money as the distinguishing characteristic, and the church has certainly done a lot of that over the centuries, but in truth, the church should be the place where all distinctions should be muted. Instead, we should be recognizing each other’s gifts from God and appreciating how we can bless each other with them despite our differences. He gifts us differently so that we will work together well, but we often see the differences and place more value on some and less value on others and separate ourselves instead. It’s in our separation that we begin to have enmity toward one another, what Jesus, who prayed for unity among us, (John 17:20-26), never wanted to happen.

Jesus talks about our enemies. What makes an enemy? Isn’t it often a focus on our differences? So, Jesus says, love them. Why? Because you have more in common with them than you realize, and God is the maker of them both. Jesus says: “God causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” We’re all on this planet together.

God spreads blessing on those He disagrees with, the unrighteous, so Jesus challenges us to do the same. “If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

Rise above what comes naturally to us and be Christ like, or as Jesus says, “Perfect.” See beyond the differences to the humanity, to the image of God stamped in all of us. That is one of the main features of us all. We are created in the image of God. There are no defects or flaws in His image stamped on us. We see distinctions, handicaps, brokenness and often pull away, but God’s image is there. He is in the face of our enemy as well as our friend. He is in the broken just as much as in those we consider whole.

At birth and at death, the field is leveled. What God wants of us is to walk the path between the two ends noticing the distinctions as part of His creation and blessing, but not then using those differences to pit ourselves against each other. Rather, in Christ, He wants us to rise above the differences to love each other anyway.

“You are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” (Galatians 3:26-29) This is not an exclusive club, but one in which it really is true, the more the merrier, of all types, for the Kingdom. Praise the Lord!

Prayer: Father, we’re all the same where it really matters. We need Your love, and we need each other. Help me today to love everyone I meet, with Your love. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Song: We’re All the Same