The Many among One

“As the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body – whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free – and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. For in fact the body is not one member but many.” - 1 Corinthians 12:12-14 NKJV

Everyone has an agenda. This is not ground-breaking news nor is it a derogatory statement. The simple fact is we all have a different way of believing and a different way of expression. While these attributes are influenced by our backgrounds, we should acknowledge that these attributes are also manifestations of the various spiritual gifts with which we have all been endowed. We are different because the Lord needs us to be different. The Body of Christ – the Holy Church – needs us to be different. But we must never allow these differences to become the means by which we cause divisions and create “cliques” among the One; that is, the singular Body of Christ, for it is by these divisions that the spiritually weak among us – particularly those who struggle with faith and Christian fellowship – are harmed or outright neglected. If we pursue our own personal agendas at the expense of others the unity of the Church falters, the mission of the Church becomes distorted, and the ministries of the Body of Christ fall flat. In other words, we become more and more like the secular world chasing its own tail for its own sake and its own pleasure; anarchy in which only the strong survive.

Christ came to us to strengthen the weak among us. He came to restore, not destroy. And when His time on this earth was up, He commissioned His Holy Church to carry on His work until the Day comes when the world as we know it is no more. Maybe this is the essence of so-called “rapture theology” that has been in the news lately. Maybe this is what doomsdays prophets have always tried to tell us: that it will be the Church – all the faithful who gather and work and worship as One – who will be raised up on the Last Day, not a bunch of individuals seeking their own.

May we be mindful that we are only “one” among many, but there is only One whose agenda must prevail. And may we pray to be the instruments by which His Agenda – to reconcile all of humanity to the Holy God – is our singular pursuit.