Divisions

For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us.

 - From Ephesians 2

You can't have peace with divisions. 

Paul is talking about two groups of humanity. The two fundamental divisions. The actual, root, down-to-the-core source of all human strife: divisions. 

It's not really about race. Race it just one expression of the problem. It's not about nationality. That too, is a smoke screen that hides the real problem. It's not the beautiful against the ugly. Not the athletic versus the artistic. Not the rich against the poor. Not the powerful against the weak. Not even, really, the wedge between human religions.

Although, these are all part of it. They are part, but not the whole. They are an outward manifestation, albeit a crude one. (Judge not by appearances). 

Simply put: It's the haves versus the have-nots. And it's fueled by jealousy. 

Prideful ignoramuses on the one hand. Petulant children on the other. 

And they're all just woefully human, doing what we should not be surprised that they do. 

We saw it on the school yard, ages ago. A bully . . . a kid bigger than the others, athletic, maybe from a wealthy family, probably blessed with a glib manner and a cute smile; this bully, having his way while the other kids pretend to like him. 

Or we might recall the forming of youthful gangs, practicing that most primitive of human traits: groupthink. The mob forming around a sense of anger towards one or two of the others; the gang developing its own character out of the unconscious movements of its individual parts. Moving inevitably towards a malicious purpose, until someone, or something, slaps some sense into enough of the kids, to cause the breaking up of the gang. 

We remember how Cain resented Abel. Ishmael resented Isaac. Esau hated Jacob. Joseph was loathed by his brothers. Saul feared David. And the Pharisees dreaded the growth of Christ's movement. 

We have every reason to recognize it for what it is . . . and yet, here in this "advanced" year of 2021, we see, playing out, the most baldly insidious fomenting of division in human history. We have division, for division's sake. We seem to want to be divided, simply because we like being divided. It's a fake and malicious sense that we become important if we are divided. 

The Apostle Paul articulated the most fundamental form of human division: Those in God's Kingdom (and possessing eternal life), versus those outside of it (mortal). 

And Paul says that God wishes to break down this barrier between us and them. 

If that is the case . . . shouldn't we actively, and aggressively, topple the superficial walls between us today, that have such potential to yield irreversible catastrophe?