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See, we are all already from the same Womb, however, our realization of that is awakened both through the principles in Scripture and our growing sense of oneness with others. This is one reason religion is not a private matter, for the intents of true faith cannot be discerned and lived except as part of community, for community manifests the social nature of our kinship, our womb-ed Creatureliness with others.
I once had a friend, during my seminary days in New Orleans, who was looking for a church for his family. Therefore, one Sunday morning he dressed up in ragged clothes. Walking into a sanctuary that morning, looking unkempt and impoverished, he waited to discover how the parishioners would treat him. He, nor his family, wanted to belong to a faith community that would treat a street person as any different than a wealthy, highly esteemed person.
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I urge you to consider the need to observe how easily we can be prejudicial, and how liberating we know loving everyone is. When we love, we experience freedom. When we love, we share freedom. When we love, we receive back freedom. In loving another, we love ourselves. In this Love, we know the gospel, we know the essence of what is implied by “in Christ,” we know God, the Universal-Universalizing Embrace of Grace, so gracious to all!
Spiritual Exercise
1. Meditate or do Lectio Divina on the following passage:
9Don't just pretend that you love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Stand on the side of the good. 10Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other. (Romans 12, NLT)
2. Recall one person you have come to “really love” and with “genuine affection” in the last year. How did God bring you two together? Do you have any hints or assurance of the intent of that being brought together? Be thankful for that person and that loving. Pray for that person, today, bathing her or him in the Love and Peace, the Comfort, of Christ.
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