As new Christian communities were established, the inclusiveness of the invitation meant that all sorts of different people, different backgrounds, regions, religions, found themselves joined together in their new common faith. These differences were genuine and deep-seated, making “community” life in these churches a challenge. Little wonder Paul spent much of his correspondence addressing the riffs among the factions within the faithful.

In his letter to the Roman Christian community Paul had once again used “body” imagery to celebrate and affirm the differences among the various “members” of Christ’s body. In last week’s text in Romans Paul emphasized that “we have gifts that differ according to the grace given us” (Romans 12:6). He then went on to enumerate many of those unique gifts. …