You would not expect them to be friends. They look very different. One has long brown hair, chocolate brown eyes and resembles a movie star. The other has short salt and pepper hair and piercing green eyes. They have an age difference, a cultural difference and a language difference. They are not even the same species. One is my 9 year old terrier mix, Benji, who looks like the dog in the seventies movies by Joe Camp. The other is his new cat friend, Shadow. He is a half grown gray tabby named because of his coloring and because he follows the dog around like a little gray shadow. They have had to work out some issues. The dog would try to sniff the cat like he would another dog and the cat did not appreciate it. He would respond with a swat to the dog's nose. They have made their peace, though. Any time of the day or night, Benji and I leave the house for a walk. We never get far before Shadow is either running after us or yowling. He rubs up against Benji, walks under him and switches his tail. Then he follows us on our walk. If he falls behind, Benji stops and waits for him. When we get back to the house, they sit on the patio side by side. At first Shadow didn't want me to pet him or hold him, but once he got a taste of it he decided that as long as he and Benji are friends, I can be his person.
The past few weeks have shown us at our worst and at our best. We have seen rioting over confederate statues and terrorist acts, and we have also seen people helping each other through the hurricanes and flooding. Many of the pictures show people of different races, different ages and probably different religions working side by side. It has been very encouraging to see. We have a lot of room for improvement, but every step is progress.
Unfortunately we often have the same issues in the church as in the world. These issues are not new, either. We see them raise their heads early in Genesis with Cain and Abel and the tower of Babel, and continue all the way through the Bible. In Acts Peter balks when the spirit tells him to preach to the Gentiles and is instructed to call nothing unclean that God has made clean. In Colossians 3:11, Paul addresses the issue this way.
Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.
Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.
1 Corinthians 13, the love chapter, is read at weddings, and rightly so since the kind of love described there is essential for marriage. However, it is just as important for living in peace with our brothers. Look at in this light.
8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
The people I find it hard to get along with you might find easy, and vice versa. We need to rely on the love that comes from God to do so, not the flimsy love that we can work up on our own.
The past few weeks have shown us at our worst and at our best. We have seen rioting over confederate statues and terrorist acts, and we have also seen people helping each other through the hurricanes and flooding. Many of the pictures show people of different races, different ages and probably different religions working side by side. It has been very encouraging to see. We have a lot of room for improvement, but every step is progress.
Unfortunately we often have the same issues in the church as in the world. These issues are not new, either. We see them raise their heads early in Genesis with Cain and Abel and the tower of Babel, and continue all the way through the Bible. In Acts Peter balks when the spirit tells him to preach to the Gentiles and is instructed to call nothing unclean that God has made clean. In Colossians 3:11, Paul addresses the issue this way.
Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.
Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.
1 Corinthians 13, the love chapter, is read at weddings, and rightly so since the kind of love described there is essential for marriage. However, it is just as important for living in peace with our brothers. Look at in this light.
13 If I speak in the tongues[of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,[b] but do not have love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
The people I find it hard to get along with you might find easy, and vice versa. We need to rely on the love that comes from God to do so, not the flimsy love that we can work up on our own.
