Anabaptist World Fellowship Sunday is an invitation to gratefully remember the faith and family of Anabaptist churches around the world. This year’s theme is “Following Jesus Together.” We will consider 1 Corinthians 12 and the apostle Paul’s declaration in verse 13: For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body – Jews and Greeks, slaves or free – and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. How does baptism bond us to one another? How does the Spirit refresh and unite us, even when it appears our differences outweigh our similarities?

Scriptures: 

• Genesis 12:1-5
• Psalm 104:1-4, 24, 31-33
• John 20:19-23
• 1 Corinthians 12:3-13

1 Corinthians 12:3-13

Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking by the Spirit of God ever says ‘Let Jesus be cursed!’ and no one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except by the Holy Spirit.

Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses.

One Body with Many Members
For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.