Daily Reading: 22 January
(from www.christianaid.org)
You are salt of the earth.
Something to read
Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you should be in agreement and that there should be no divisions among you, but that you should be united in the same mind and the same purpose.
- 1 Corinthians 1: 10 from full reading 1 Cor. 1: 3-17.
Something to think about
Sometimes sharing a tent with others (however wide we make the guy ropes as Isaiah suggested yesterday) can be fraught with tension. We think we’re all on the same adventure, but we walk and talk in different ways and we annoy each other.
Paul is begging the believers in Corinth not to indulge in arguments, but to be mindful of the journey they are on and the way they are to travel together.
We are often quickest to criticise those with whom we should be in sympathy if they don’t exactly match up to our model of good practice; ‘I thought you were on our side, so why do you think this or do that?’
We have all been enriched with gifts of the Spirit, says Paul, to help us on our way, but they are different gifts and will be expressed differently.
The challenge is to look for what unites us, celebrate and build on that, treating the other things with patience and tolerance.
This is not to say that differences cannot be aired, but that they should teach us to enlarge our capacity to understand and embrace the attempts we are all making to change our world.
Something to do
Recall a time when you felt disappointment, irritation or even anger with someone who you thought should just know better, be more sensitive, be more, in fact, like you!
Ask for the insight to see beyond that moment to the intention lying beneath and ask what is most important.
Something to pray
O God, you speak to us in different ways, you call us to come to you on different roads; may we not seek uniformity but take what challenges us as an invitation to grow in our appreciation of diversity.
Today’s reading was provided by Sue Richardson, former theology advisor for Christian Aid.