Tuesday, April 12, 2016

Devotion - Tuesday, April 12


Christianity has too often been co-opted as supporter of divisions between persons.  This is ironic, and perhaps heretical, in that the first challenge faced by Christianity.  Paul and Peter and much of the early church struggled with whether race should be a barrier to admission.  Did Gentiles need to become Jews in order to be followers of Jesus.

Paul makes the definitive statement on this.  He proclaims (and Jesus' followers agree) that in Christ there are no divisions - we are neither Gentile or Jew, man or woman, slave or free - but we are a new creation in Christ our Lord.  In essence, he tells us that we will not be able to divide persons.

But then the Christianity practiced by too many includes divisions.  Or at least tolerates divisions.  It was "god-fearing Christians" who owned slaves.  It is church-going individuals who protest against dark-skinned refugees being allowed into "our country."

A Church which is silent on these injustices is a Church which is complacent on these issues.  If we fail to speak up, our silence is permission for the wrong to continue.

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