Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“But God has so arranged the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior member, that there may be no dissension within the body, but the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it.”
NL Daily Devotion for Friday, May 10, 2024
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
Just as we tend to value gifts differently, we sometimes tend to value people differently. If it’s our nature to think that someone who is well-spoken in talking about God has a more valuable gift than someone who enjoys washing dishes in the church kitchen, we might be tempted to see our pastor as more valuable than a kitchen volunteer. It sounds awful in the writing—of course all people are of equal value! But I think if we’re honest with ourselves, we’ll find that without thinking about it, we hold one person above another in some way, even against our own beliefs. And thus is there dissension at times within our congregations. I don’t know about you, but I have been floored at times over my years in the church at the sorts of things people complain about—at the people they complain about. Especially when we are supposed to care about one another equally, suffer with one another, and honor one another, as this passage points out. In fact Paul says that God is actually preferential to those who others want to value less. Why is this sometimes so hard for us to do when we are in community with one another? I think it bears revisiting this passage in 1 Corinthians as a congregation, and challenging every member to recognize their own value and the value of every other member, so that maybe we can move away from dissent to the kind of mutual rejoicing Paul calls us to.
How might my congregation work together to move toward this ideal?
