A Thought For The Week Of December 8

"For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body- whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free - and we were all given the one Spirit to drink." 1 Corinthians 12:13 offers us a vision of unity within the church - the way it should be, you might say, but the way it rarely is. We divide ourselves up over so many different points - and so many of those points are things that really seem to have little to do with what Christ taught. I think, for example, of the issue of authority in the church: who has it, who gets to exercise it, and how does it get exercised - which seems  so meaningless when you consider that we are supposed to be following Jesus, who said of himself that he came not to be served but to serve. And, of course, we divide on the understanding of baptism and the Holy Spirit.I think this verse speaks very clearly to that. How we baptize with water (immersion, sprinkling, etc.) is really rather meaningless. Who we baptize (infants or adults) is really rather meaningless. It's the Holy Spirit who really baptizes us and incorporates us into the church - water or not. And when I say that the Holy Spirit baptizes us, I'm not thinking in the charismatic sense of the word - accompanied by so-called signs and wonders. What I'm suggesting is that the Holy Spirit baptizes us by simply sealing our relationship with Jesus - by making us one with him and a part of the church, with no signs or wonders required. You know that you've been baptized by the Holy Spirit not because you speak in tongues, for example, but because you feel yourself (in fact, you know yourself) to be one with Christ. That, after all, is the work of the Holy Spirit - to unify the body of Christ and bring us together, and not to drive another wedge between us. Have a great week!