Rev. Abby Cole Keller Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment.  And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”  (Matthew 22:34-40) This past Sunday I preached a sermon on how God created each person with different aspects of God’s self. Thus, it is all of us in totality that reflect a part of God’s wonder and might. It takes the whole body to see the vastness and diversity of God. It takes the totality of God’s people to truly reflect the complexity of who God is—and even then, we fall short, by rejecting those that we deem ungodlike.   Jesus prayed that we be one. But, too often sin causes us to divide. This division prevents us from seeing the fullness of God and the wholeness that God desires for us. Political differences, theological pondering and pandering, humankind imposed ‘ideals’ all stand in the way of what God desires for God’s people, unity.   Story after story in the Bible, New and Old Testaments alike, reveal to us that God desires God’s people to work together for the glory of God. Yet, humanity works so hard to divide. Human nature (and sin) makes us divide into “us” and “them”; male and female; black, white and brown; and yes, now around differences in human sexuality and identity. God desires unity in God’s people, yet sin separates us from each other and thus from