Madison Street United Methodist Church

 
In the book, Tuesdays With Morrie, Morrie, the author’s former college professor, talks about what is most important in life as he faces his approaching death. One particular Tuesday his discussion with his former student, Mitch, the author of the book, dealt with issues of today’s culture:
 
“The problem, Mitch, is that we don’t believe we are as much alike as we are. Whites and blacks, Catholics and Protestants, men and women. If we saw each other as more alike, we might be very eager to join in one big human family in this world, and to care about that family the way we care about our own.
 
But believe me, when you are dying you see it is true. We all have the same beginning—birth—and we all have the same end—death. So how different can we be?
 
In the beginning of life, when we are infants, we need others to survive, right? And at the end of life, when you get like me, you need others to survive, right? But here’s the secret: in between we need others as well.”
 
I believe the Apostle Paul said the same thing as he wrote the people in the church at Corinth. Paul said, “For by one Spirit we were all baptized in one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all are made of one Spirit.” I think what Paul is saying is that all divisions that exist in the world are all overcome in the Church. In the Church all these people who are different are brought together by the Spirit to become one. The people are still different, but they are now united, and furthermore their unity is based not on the fact that they see things the same way, believe things the same way, or live life the same way. Their unity is based instead on the fact that they have become one in spite of their differences, and in fact because of their differences. Their difference is their gift!
 
That means we all have something that someone else needs. In fact, we need each other, and perhaps what we need most from each other are our differences, because our differences are what help others to grow.
 
In Christ,
 
Cliff C. Wright, Jr.