Children of God

       This seems to be a starkly divided time. Us and them. The right, the left. Liberals and Conservatives. Often these are also equated to right and wrong. As a faithful person I try to view the world and allow my actions to follow the teachings and life of Jesus Christ. Even this does not escape the us versus them paradigm. If every this was highlighted it would be Mayor Pete compared to Mike Pence. There views of Christianity are wildly disparate.

         In today's passage I take extreme solace in my view of the world and Christianity.  I am not taking a snippet as some do and run with it to support my own agenda. John clearly is reminding us we are all children of God and there is no clarifications, no 'if this', or 'only when'. We are all children of God.

          This passage also portrays the other view of Christianity though too, just not in a complacent or endearing way.  No, the Trumpian view of the world of Christianity is firmly noted in the last paragraph of today's passage. In fact, it might almost seem that John the Evangelist is speaking squarely to Donald Trump and his ilk, the top one percent that hoards the 90% of the wealth. That kind of paradigm is not consistent with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And for the record here, neither is the hate rhetoric, the constant barrage of bold faced lies and the obfuscations ( more lies ) of those that support him. 

            We are not all called to be legislators, politicians or leaders of the world. Most of us live our faith in a seemingly hum drum world as mothers, fathers, gay men and woman, soldiers, postal workers , nurses, doctors etc, etc. We live simply decent lives guided by whatever faith we are called to.  What is apparent are the aberrations of faith on a titanic scale that must be called out lest we make the same mistakes, becoming minions of this world or worse, Satan. 

         For peace and love for all our brothers and sisters as Children of God, we pray.

1 John 2:12-17

I am writing to you, little children,
   because your sins are forgiven on account of his name. 
I am writing to you, fathers,
   because you know him who is from the beginning.
I am writing to you, young people,
   because you have conquered the evil one. 
I write to you, children,
   because you know the Father.
I write to you, fathers,
   because you know him who is from the beginning.
I write to you, young people,
   because you are strong
   and the word of God abides in you,
     and you have overcome the evil one.

 Do not love the world or the things in the world. The love of the Father is not in those who love the world; for all that is in the world—the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, the pride in riches—comes not from the Father but from the world. And the world and its desire are passing away, but those who do the will of God live for ever.