July 4 – One Birth (Psalm 62:5-10)

“Lowborn men are but a breath, the highborn are but a lie; if weighed on a balance, they are nothing; together they are only a breath.”(Psalm 62:9)

IN WORD:
We human beings have all sorts of ways of dividing ourselves. In some cultures there is an overt, recognized caste system. In others, it is much more subtle. The western world, for example, tends to classify people in terms of economic status, race, or skill level. We’ll do nearly anything to define ourselves in tight, distinguishable groups.
There’s nothing wrong with identifying with a group of like-minded or similar-background people. The problem comes when we attribute relative worth to our different groups. We get hung up on ideology and education, pedigree and ancestry, or spending power and net worth. There’s a reason Wall Street barons and welfare mothers don’t usually hang out together, and it’s not just because they have little in common. Our sociology is not just an accident. We like our class distinctions and we want to keep them.
We are naturally divisive, but the Kingdom of God makes no such distinctions. We will all commune together at the throne. When members of every tribe and nation meet together to praise Him, there will be no borders between them. When rich and poor are gathered in His name, there will be no first-class seating. The Kingdom of God knows only one species of human beings: His children.

IN DEED:
If the Kingdom of God in heaven looks like a united fellowship of saints, shouldn’t the Kingdom of God on earth look pretty similar? The psalmist is right: In God’s eyes, there is no difference between the lowborn and the highborn. Centuries later, Jesus’ teaching would make only one distinction — between the born again and the lost. Only one kind of birth matters in His Kingdom, and it has nothing to do with pedigree. It’s all about grace, right now, here in this world. So are we.

“The union of men with God is the union of men with one another.” -Thomas Aquinas-