“ . . . for the Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” We acknowledge that truth every time we participate in the Holy Eucharist: “Almighty God, unto whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid, cleanse the thoughts of our hearts that we may perfectly love you and worthily magnify your holy name.”

We are well aware of just how often we look at the world around us from ”a human point of view,” as Paul puts it in our epistle lesson. We see all the differences and all the similarities in the people, places, and things we come across. Our analytic mind tends to separate them into discrete categories that we have found to be useful in one way or another. Because we are more comfortable with those who look like us, talk like us, think like us, we consider them right, good, and true, and likely those who are different less so. That leaves us in a self-centered box, “standing in the need of prayer” as the old gospel song admits.

Our hope is in coming to know Christ Jesus, trusting that “in Christ there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see everything has become new!” As we experience God’s transforming work in our lives, we come to realize that we are being changed from within, that day by day the Holy One is bringing us into the imago dei we were created to be. That is the process the Eastern Church calls “deification.” As we grow in Christ, we find differences less important, and similarities that we had missed before begin to open our eyes to the reality that we all are indeed children of God. We come to recognize that we can cheerfully and compassionately greet one another with “Namaste, the Divine in me greets the Divine in you.”