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One New Humanity – Love Beyond Measure · Still, Here

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: This is still here.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: A quiet moment to remember what is true.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: Listen to these words from the book of Ephesians chapter 2 verses 15 through 18.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: He made peace and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: Having killed the hostility through it,
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: he came and preached peace to you who were far off and to those who were near.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: For through Him, we both have our access in one spirit to the Father.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: The categories of us and them can offer a quick sense of security.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: When people feel uncertain,
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: wounded,
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: or incomplete,
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: they often gather with others who share the same fears,
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: convictions, experiences, or grievances.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: The group provides belongings.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yet it may also require an outsider.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: Superiority becomes a way of hiding insecurity.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: The small ruler says,
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: My identity and safety depend on maintaining the divisions between us and them.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: Political, racial, religious, social and moral labels can become walls.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: They may describe real differences, but they cannot carry the full weight of who we are.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: Paul says Christ creates one new humanity.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: He does more than persuade opposing groups to tolerate one another.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: He forms something new through the cross.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: People, once separated by hostility,
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: receive the same access, through the same Spirit, to the same Father.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: New humanity does not mean sameness.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: God does not erase culture, personality.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: History, Conviction, or Distinct Experience.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: The goal is not a colorless community where differences are ignored
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: and everyone is required to conform to the group with the greatest power.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: We remain different and we are bound by a love deeper than the differences
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: that once gave hostility its power.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: Tolerance keeps a polite distance.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: Love moves closer.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: Listens with curiosity and seeks understanding without pretending
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: that every belief is wise or every action harmless.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: Love can name what wounds.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: It can confront injustice.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: It can oppose what dehumanizes,
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: protect people who are vulnerable, and refuse cooperation with evil.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: Yet love also refuses to surrender the humanity of the person on the other side.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: Hostility is the energy of separateness.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: It tells us that another person must remain beneath us,
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: beyond us, or against us so that we can feel whole.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: It reduces a human life to a label and then treats the label as permission for contempt.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: Diminishing someone else cannot heal what feels incomplete within us.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: It only deepens the division.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: Christ gives us an identity secure enough to release the need for an enemy.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: Because we have been brought near,
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: we do not have to create belonging by pushing someone else away.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: Because we are loved,
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: we do not need constant validation from a group that proves its goodness
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: by announcing the inferiority of another group.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: We can become curious instead of contemptuous,
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: humble instead of superior,
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: courageous enough to speak truth, and secure enough to listen.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: We can seek the good of people whose lives are different from ours.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: The cross has already judged hostility as too small for the future God is creating.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: One new humanity is not merely a distant ideal.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: It begins wherever the life of Christ becomes stronger than the need to divide.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: In Christ, differences remain.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: Hostility does not have to.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: Take a moment for this prayer of presence.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: God of Reconciliation, You have given me an identity deeper than every dividing label.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: I confess the ways insecurity has tempted me Form me within your new humanity
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: and teach me to seek the good of others with humility in truth.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: And as you move on to what comes next carry this prayer with you.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: I release separation.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: I am a child of God.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: I release separation.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: I am a child of God.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: I release separation.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: I am a child of God.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: Until next time, stay steady, stay open, stay present.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: You are still here.