Learning to be we

Fields of grain ground to the softness of sifted flour, yeast that comes alive in kneaded dough, a crusty loaf of freshly baked bread . . . this melding of ordinary things is an example—a picture of God scattered across every time and every place, gathered into one to make bread. Bread for the world, the bread of life, the body of Christ called to feed the world.

Too often this body of Christ looks more like oil and water. Forget the yeast, forget the mixing together. We cling to our individuality, to our corner of truth. Perhaps there is no more important challenge to 21st-century Christians than learning to think communally, than learning to live together as the body of Christ.

In a time of comfort and abundance, of self-expression and self-absorption, how do we live a connected and communally responsible life of faith that moves beyond the me to we?

As Gail Ramshaw wrote, “Prayer is not about the me who is, but about the us whom faith hopes we become.”

In our praying, in our life together, in our struggle to be Christ’s body in the world, let us learn to be we.

Today is the 15th Sunday after Pentecost. This message was adapted from “Learning to Be We” written by Julie K. Aageson that first appeared in the October 2010 issue of Lutheran Woman Today (now Gather) magazine.