“What Makes A Hero: Us, Them, and the Body of Christ”

What Makes A Hero? The Death-Defying Ministry of Jesus Christ

“Us, Them, and the Body of Christ”

Galatians 3:23-29 (New Revised Standard Version)

Now before faith came, we were imprisoned and guarded under the law until faith would be revealed. Therefore the law was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian, for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 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. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.

We must be careful when using the word “we,” because by doing so encourages people to build walls around their differing beliefs, thereby creating a “them.”

“Them” is anyone who is not in the “we.”

Through God, we learn what it means to become more than just us and them. We learn what it is to become the body of Christ.

How might our disagreements end up looking if we could recognize the illness rather than acting on the symptoms?

The way we frame an argument is just as important, and maybe more important, than the argument itself.

How can we articulate a point that is sturdy and clearly defined, but flexible enough for the Holy Spirit to move?

Through Jesus, God showed us exactly what we needed to see in order to have the opportunity to be transformed into the body of Christ.

It wasn’t just Jesus who was nailed to the cross. It was our expectations rooted in the hope for power, influence, violence, and selfishness.

It was the desire to have a strong “us” at the expense of a weak “them.”

Jesus came so we might realize that there is no “us” and “them.”

Because of Jesus, being connected with God is no longer about seeing God up there and out there but seeing God in the face of one another.

To be the body of Christ is simply to show up, to be present, and to learn how to love.

We will disagree at times, but God dwells even in the person with whom we disagree.

To see God is to look into the eyes of our neighbors, all our neighbors.

Christ carried the weight of our misguided expectations of the salvation we think we needed, but he rose again to reveal that our unity in the body of Christ is stronger that any disagreement, prejudice, division that we use to create a we/them, and is stronger than even death itself.

If our church disappeared today, who in the community besides us, would even know that it was gone?

The answer to this question is where we begin defining the steps to fulfilling our calling to be the body of Christ.