Daily Devotion for Monday 14th October 2024

As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.  There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.

Reflection

We each have many identities –  they make us who we are, and are part of creation’s rich diversity and reflect the very image of God within us.  We perceive the world, and our part in it, through those identities even if they involve risk or evoke hatred.  In the West the civil rights won, for various social groups, since the 1960s are contested: easier divorce, fairly free access to abortion, decriminalisation of homosexuality, an equal age of consent, the right to legally change one’s gender, the right to marry, alongside anti discrimination legislation, which protects those who are ethnically minoritised, and a range of laws to safeguard women have transformed society.  In recent years, however, these hard won rights have been threatened with movements headed by Vladimir Putin, Patriarch Kirill, Herbert Kickl, Victor Orbán, Nigel Farage, Marine Le Pen, and Donald Trump showing varying degrees of hostility to some or all of these changes.  

Many in the churches see the undermining of hard won rights as being central to their view of being faithful.  Patriarch Kirill, for example, has condemned Pope Francis for his stance on the blessings of same sex couples, compared marriage equality to laws enacted in Nazi Germany, and condemned moves to criminalise domestic violence in Russia.  

In Paul’s writing today we see an important part of baptismal theology; distinctions around social status, identity, ethnicity, or sex were all secondary to the primary one of being in Christ.  We might add any number of other identities which we recognise in our world.  Paul’s words do not minimise those other identities which find their completion and fulfilment in Christ.  Our primary, Christian, identity should inform all the others – and those other identities should inform what it is for us to be Christian.  Our many identities entwine in symbiotic relationships with each other and shouldn’t be feared as they provide a way to discuss the richness and diversity of our world, our faith, our church and God’s own self.

Prayer

Labouring God, Almighty One,
Merciful and Faithful Protector of Your people,
fierce Mother Bear, Loving Father running to welcome the estranged,
tender teaching Mother Eagle, firm Rock on which we stand,
like a long suffering Spouse You embrace us as Your own
in our various identities and journeys.
Help us to see the diversity of Your creation
as a reflection of Your own nature.  Amen.