FAITH: Sanity begs us for unity

Having been reared with a Bible close by, Bible passages and Bible verses rumble through my head constantly. I have many favorite messages that come from The Book. None are more so than chapter 12 of Paul’s first letter to the Corinthian church. The church in Corinth was a thriving church that apparently had a lot of disagreements among its members. Paul’s advice is brilliant. He wants no losers. He wants everyone to be a winner. Every person is different. Every person is special and valuable. Every person has a role to play. People need one another. All confess that “Jesus is Lord.” In Christ they are one.

In order to make his point memorable, Paul compares a church to a human body. “For just as the body is one but has many members, and all the members of the body, though many are one body, so it is with Christ…the body does not consist of one member, but many. If a foot should say ‘because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,’ that would not make it any less a part of the body. If an ear should say ‘because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,’ that would not make it any less a part of the body.”

Paul continues to make his case. If every part of the body were an ear, how would we smell? If the whole body were one organ, what would the body be? The head cannot say to the feet, “I have no need for you.” In reality, parts that we think of as less important, and many times invisible, are indispensable. We have been put together in such a way that we all need one another. If one member suffers, we all suffer. If one member is honored, we all rejoice. We are all parts of the same body.

Paul clearly was writing to a single church congregation. However, the principles of which he writes have many legitimate applications. The same argument can be made of a local community, a nation, or the whole world. While we recognize individuality, the bottom line is that we are all a part of one another and need one another in order to function effectively.

I live just outside of Palmer, a small town of about 7,000 inhabitants. Its population is amazingly diverse. Elections are non-partisan. We know one another. We have a police department, and the crime rate is very low. We have a good city owned water and waste system. Our electricity comes from a local, member controlled utility; I receive my phone and television services from a local, member controlled utility; and our credit union is the largest banking institution in town. Churches are generally friendly with one another. Lutherans, Presbyterians and Catholics do things together. Catholics operate a very good used goods store and share the profits with community causes and organizations. Palmer has its own community controlled radio station. The city owns and operates its own airport with a 6,000 foot paved runway. I could go on, but I have cited enough to illustrate that our lives are interwoven.

People love to live in and around Palmer. Palmer is not perfect, but it is a functional illustration of what Paul was talking about in his Corinthian letter. Diversity is respected and honored but within a well-functioning unity.

Can these same dynamics do their work in larger settings? This is being put to the test in the State of Alaska. It is now mid-January and the Alaska Legislature is reconvening. In its 2017 session, after a regular session and three special sessions, the search for the common good was not successful. Common ground, concern for neighbor, and first class education for all were lost to greed and power plays. Courage and a vision for a better life for everyone are crying out for attention. When one suffers, we all suffer. When one person prospers, all should prosper. We Alaskans are in this thing called life together. Paul’s formula of honoring diversity within unity makes sense and begs us to give it a try.

There are much larger stages than local churches, small towns, and states like Alaska. They are national and world stages. Can Paul’s vision work on a national scale? Can it work on a world-wide scale? We have recently celebrated the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. I see him as a companion with Paul. King was a dreamer. He was a marvelous orator. His speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC is one of the greatest speeches ever given in American history. “I have a dream.” An assassin killed King, but his dream will not die. His dream was not about winners and losers. His dream was of a world that was diverse yet one.

The advocates of winners and losers lead us to the next war. We have had enough of those. Paul and Martin Luther King Jr. point us in a different direction. Can a world that forsakes war actually work? I do not know. It has never been tried.

Sanity begs us to give unity a good try.

The End

The Rev. Howard Bess is a retired American Baptist minister, who live in Palmer, Alaska. His email address is hdbss@mtaonline.net.