Readings:
1 Kings 19-1-4 (5-7) 8-15a;
Psalms 42,43;
Galatians 3:23-end;
Luke 8:26-3

Collect:
God of truth
help us to keep your law of love
and to walk in ways of wisdom
that we may find true life
in Jesus Christ your Son. Amen

Reflection

In this week’s reading from the letter to the Galatians, Paul writes:
“There is no longer Jew or Greek,
there is no longer slave or free,
there is no longer male and female,
for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.”

It is a powerful reminder of the equality of all people in Christ, and also of our interconnectedness: in Christ we are all one, we are all connected with each other, members of the same body.  

As we look at the world around us, we can easily see that the equality and unity which Paul envisions is not the reality of our society today. (Nor was it when Paul was writing, of course!) This week alone has provided plenty of reminders of the inequalities and injustices which abound.

The fifth anniversary of the Grenfell Tower fire is a stark reminder of the devastating impact of housing inequality, and the inaction of those in power when the lives at risk from unsafe housing look very different from their own. 

The threatened deportation to Rwanda of people seeking asylum in this country from violence and devastation in their own homelands – though thankfully prevented by the tireless work of activists, legal teams and ordinary people – is a particularly clear example of the racist and inhumane way in which migrants who are perceived in some way as ‘other’ are so often treated.  

And of course there are, as always, plenty of injustices which don’t come anywhere near making the news headlines. 

I am reminded of a line which has stayed with me from Lutheran pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber’s thought-provoking and entertaining book ‘Pastrix: the Cranky, Beautiful Faith of a Sinner & Saint’. She says: “every time we draw a line between us and others, Jesus is on the other side of it”.

So much of the injustice we observe and encounter – and even perhaps unwittingly participate in – has its roots in trying to divide the world into ‘them’ and ‘us’. And yet, as Paul makes clear to the Galatians (who presumably had been doing just that), in Christ there is no ‘them’ and ‘us’, no division between us at all: we are one, just as Jesus prayed for us to be. 

As followers of Jesus, part of our calling is to notice, to speak out about, to pray about, and to take action about those injustices we see which divide neighbour from neighbour. How we do that will look different for each of us, and it is an important part of how we live out our faith in a loving and reconciling God.

And part of our calling too is to self-examination and repentance, to notice who we try to position as ‘them’, as somehow ‘other’, and to remind ourselves daily to look for the image of God in those who are different to us. Doing so will not only help us to act more justly, but will also enrich and expand our own encounter with and experience of God.

Ruth Harley