A Penny for Your Thoughts

May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus.

– Romans 15:5

According to the CoinNews website, the United States Mint produced 4.5 billion pennies in 2023. And on each one you’ll find two brief sayings of immense importance.

First, the motto In God We Trust appears above Abe Lincoln’s profile. Now, look at the coin’s reverse side. There you’ll see the phrase E Pluribus Unum, which is Latin for Out of many, one. An early motto of the United States, it’s a reminder that our nation was born when the 13 colonies united behind the common cause of liberty. The Founding Fathers from Massachusetts often clashed politically and socially with their compatriots from Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Georgia. But they set aside their many differences to write the Declaration of Independence, win the Revolutionary War, and eventually ratify the Constitution.

Here’s where the Bible lesson comes in: The Church — meaning all the Christ-followers on Earth — is also an entity that’s marked by distinct differences. Believers come from various religious traditions and have a broad range of preferences regarding worship music and sermon style. Likewise, the Church is also a place where all races are welcome and present. It mingles the rich, the poor, and the middle class. But what unites them all — or at least should bring them together — is a common faith and focus on Jesus as Lord and Savior.

And that’s just the way God wants it. Shortly before his arrest and crucifixion, Jesus prayed to his Father about the Church — and not just his original followers, but also Believers like us in the centuries to follow: 

"I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”

Christ’s prayer for his followers’ unity links the dusty streets of 1st century Israel with the crowded superhighways of modern North America and Europe … and everywhere in between. Moreover, it’s a reminder that Believers were never meant to go through life alone. Instead, we’re to gather regularly to share our joys, troubles, triumphs — and even doubts — all to strengthen our walks of faith. And since the human experience has its share of disappointments, we’re also to encourage one another. As the apostle Paul admonished some of the earliest Christ-followers through 1 Thessalonians:

"Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing."