FRIDAY JULY 30, 2021 - LOVE WINS

 FRIDAY JULY 30, 2021 - LOVE WINS

On Friday I do a “LOVE WINS” blog.  

Let’s look at 1 Corinthians 12: (with some editing)

“Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.

“Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body.  And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body.  If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be?  But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

“The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!”  On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty,  while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other.  If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.”

*****

This says we (human beings) are all parts of one body.  My third toe on my right foot is part of my body as much as my left eye.

So it is with people, society.  

Take my car.  It might be assembled in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Japan, Korea, Germany, Sweden, China and other places in the world.  Within its components are parts from around the world.  There are computer chips, wires, gauges, tires, tail pipes (and it seems like), millions of other pieces, parts and components.  

My car is a Nissan - built (I assume) in Japan.  One of the workers on the car might eat bread made with some flour from the United States, or fish harvested from the oceans around the world.  The harvesting equipment might be John Deere from the United States or some other brand from some other place in the world.  I can watch television, probably made someplace in Eastern Asia.  I play a tuba made in China (really).  Of the millions of things in my household, they might have come from many sources.  There might have been Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindis, Buddhists, and other religions that were involved in the making of the products.  Scientists and engineers went to colleges around the world.  We are all parts of one body.  BUT, unfortunately, we have let nationalities, language, religion, philosophies, and whatever else stop us from being on the same team.

The reality I sense is that mankind on his own can’t really love each other.  Of course, I have a bias.

There are some good parts to John Lennon’s Imagine lyrics:

“Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us, only sky
Imagine all the people
Livin' for today
Ah

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion, too
Imagine all the people
Livin' life in peace

*****

I anticipate a ‘heaven’ (even though Lennon didn’t). All of us one day will die.  Then what?  Ashes to ashes?  Dust to dust?  I want (believe?) some utopia beyond the grave.  I like the concept of  “living life in peace”.  

He says “no religion”.  That if anything has been a stumbling block for me.  But, the Jewish rabbi that I follow wasn’t preaching a religion but a relationship.  A relationship that involves forgiveness, loving your neighbors, and even loving your enemies.  

I’ve heard the concept that “religion divides us”.  To me, there are times when formal religious concepts are good, and there are times when such puts barriers in the way.  I don’t know how God thinks - “his way is not our way”.  I believe that God is so far different from us - as infinity is different from limits.  

I believe that somehow, someway, God - the infinite, the source, the Father, the ultimate beyond human comprehension said “Let there be light” - did God speak it?  Did God just think it - and it happened?  I don’t understand the infinity of God, but I think humans who have tried to make sense of the impossible have put God in a ‘box’. But God is so big and beyond us.  

“And, No religion too”.  Maybe that is one of our hang-ups.  We try to “play God”, and that part is already taken!!!   

But, today, I want to promote the concept of being on the same team - all members of the human race - and to kill and hurt others because of our viewpoints is a questionable approach!!!

*****

So, as we have looked at “Love your neighbor as yourself”, indirectly all people are my neighbors!!!   And, we are on the same team!!!  

 

LOVE WINS!!!

Karen