Today's Lectionary Text1 Corinthians 3:4-6For when one says, “I belong to Paul,” and another, “I belong to Apollos,” are you not merely human? What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you came to believe, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.  Today's Devotional
It's official. Nebraska and Maine are purple states. Because of the way we divide up our electoral college votes, we have 1 of the total votes for our states injecting some opposing pigment into our color on the map. Sure, Nebraska is mostly red, but lay that blue over the top, and it looks pretty purple. Same for Maine -- mostly blue, but with a cast of red. Purple again.
Truth be told, we are all purple. Even the reddest and bluest states have at least 30% of the “other“ color thrown in. I'm not a graphic artist, but it seems to me that if you add 30% blue or red to the opposite color, you're gonna get a purple. This is not to say we don't have differences. We certainly do, but I wonder what would happen if everyone insisted that their state was purple, and their neighbors weren't either red or blue, but they were all purple? Could we then agree to love our purple neighbors because we are more the same than different? We live in a purple country. We are called by God to seek the welfare of the purple country in which we live. This requires us not to leave anyone behind. We can't say “forget you“ to the rural farmer, nor can we say "forget you" to the inner-city dweller. We have to say, “I love you, and I am willing to sacrifice my own advantage until we all have safety and sustenance and health.“ We all have to live from a place of love. That's our Christian call. Maybe I'm a dreamer, but I still believe that love will transform us into people who love our purple neighbors ... so that one day, all the world will see this country and know we are Christians, not by our dogma, but by our love. Prayer for ReflectionGod of all people, we ask for redemption today. Extinguish the lie that we are enemies when in fact we are all family in your beloved kin-dom. Give us the courage to love who you love – all of your manifold creation. Heal our hearts, and move our feet, so that we may work with you to heal our nation and our world. In your holy name, we pray. Amen.
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