What Unites Us?

10th day of Advent December 12th, 2017 Acts 11:1-18

“Then I remembered the word of the Lord, how He said,

‘John indeed baptized with water,

but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’

If therefore God gave them the same gift as He gave us

when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ,

who was I that I could withstand God?”

What divides us? Why?

Love unites. If we put the interest of the other ahead of our own, will that not draw us closer together? If you seek to serve me, as I seek to serve you will we not come together in a fellowship of mutual Love? Love does not drive us apart.

Over the past few decades, sociologists and economists have come to view our countries, communities and even families as shaped more by the principles and language of the "free market" economy than of God's Love economy. The market idea that prosperity is achieved through competition for scarce resources and the concentration of wealth betrays the nature of God and His desire for our unity. God has provided enough for every person's needs. The greed promoted and rewarded by market competition has resulted in the global crises of hunger, disease, and violence - all can be traced back to the greed that divides us and then pits us against each other.

Christ came for His people - not His peoples. We who are in Him are one as He is One with the Father and Holy Spirit. Our God is the essence and effectiveness of Love. His people must be also. In unity there is peace. That is the lesson God taught Peter, the Church in Jerusalem, and all Christians in Acts 11- faithfully God fulfilled His promise to Abraham; in Jesus Christ, all the people are blessed and made clean. What God has cleansed you must not call common - for what God has cleansed is blessed.

Let there be peace on earth as Love reigns among all God's children forever.

Be blessed