Has anyone been watching the Olympics?

I’ve only seen a little of it, but one of the things I have noticed is that, for the most part, people from different countries seem to get along with each other.

They may be fierce competitors in the games, but they can be friendly off the field.

Let’s go to God in prayer.
God of wisdom, may the words that I speak, and the ways they are received by each of our hearts and minds, help us to continue to grow into the people, and the church, that you have dreamed us to be.
Amen.

We are going through another presidential election season, and there is a lot of division: both between the parties and within the parties.

Both major parties say the other party will destroy the country.
I hope they’re not both right.

But within the parties there is also a fair amount of division over the candidates and how they were chosen.

It looks like division is almost baked into society.
Look at how many different belief systems there are.
And even within belief systems there are various sectarian divisions.

Perhaps the belief system with the most sectarian divisions is Christianity. Over the centuries Christianity has had three major splits, but after the last one – the protestant reformation – the protestant part of Christianity fell apart into dozens of denominations, and those denominations often split as well;

the Lutheran Church in America forming the Lutheran Church (Missouri Synod), Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

The American Baptist Church splitting into American Baptist, Southern Baptist, and a number of independent Baptist churches

The American Presbyterian Church splitting into Presbyterian Church USA, Orthodox Presbyterian Church, Presbyterian Church in America, and Evangelical Presbyterian Church.

Those are just a few examples.

For people who claim to follow the same teacher, we’re all over the place.

Moreover, it looks like we have a hard time living with each other.

Today’s reading is part of a letter to a church. It is generally accepted that it was written by Paul, though some think it may have been one of Paul’s disciples.

And while it is recorded in Bibles as a letter to the church in Ephesus, some think it was written to others, perhaps a church in Laodicea.

The portion we read today is specifically about how to be a community: speaking the truth, allowing for anger but not to have anger last into the next day, doing work that creates rather than stealing, building each other up instead of tearing each other down

This is good advice to churches.
It’s good advice to families.
It’s good advice to any group of people.

We are a church that is made of two churches united together, from two denominations, one of which itself is made of multiple denominations.

We are an example of how people can overcome differences and be part of something bigger.

That same spirit can be at work at home, where two people may see things differently, but love overrules those differences.

That same spirit can be at work on the job, where rivalry can take a back seat to cooperation.

I’m not going to try to solve political or religious division today, but I’m going to challenge us all to take these ideas to heart: loving one another more than we disagree with each other, so that differences do not become divisions.

Amen.

Amen.

• Scripture quotations are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. https://www.friendshippress.org/pages/about-the-nrsvue