Celebrating our Christian Diversity

(from the "Reflections" column in the Erie Times News, Saturday Nov. 23, 2013)

My non-Christian friends think that Christianity is a cluster of aggressive tension and mutual distrust. And whenever I can, I deny their accusations with a kind smile and gentle shake of the head.

Yet if we look at ourselves honestly, we are Christians in different ways , a strange misalliance of disagreements. Let’s be honest: we are many Christianity’s evangelizing distinctive gospel messages. We cannot attract others when we angrily disagree – “You’re not a true Christian!” “You turn your back on Christ!” “You’ve denied the Holy Spirit acting in the world!”

But what do we share? We affirm in our faith that God is revealed not just in scripture but in God’s own wonderful living, breathing, evolving universe around us and in us. And that God strives to reach out to humanity in the world through the person of Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus himself was not one for uniformity. His prayers for unity were not an attempt to cookie-cut churches in a singular spiritual orthodoxy, but rather allow faithful followers to be individually expressive of the many dialects of Spirit.

One religious community loves contemporary music, while another treasures traditional hymns. One loves “high” liturgy and deeply symbolic gestures and vestments, while another responds with spontaneity in prayer and worship in denim and madras. One values a deep experience of Jesus Christ in a powerful re-membering of Jesus’ last meal with his friends, while another heightens the experience of the Spirit moving and working in all aspects of their lives. These are not differences that divide us, but diverse expressions of our shared faith that, when lived out in our individual communities, sound together in a harmonic affirmation that we are all disciples of Jesus Christ and are all living as subjects of our true monarch, Jesus our Savior and Redeemer.

For many Christians, this weekend we bring to a close our church year, celebrating the end of our growing season and spiritual harvest. We also remind ourselves that our trust is in God, that in spite of distractions and diversions, it is Jesus who reigns in our lives; it is Christ’s love that we treasure and, hopefully, share. Let us strive to celebrate our diversity in our various Christian lives and love one another as we are loved by God and wish to be loved by one another.