There was a bumper sticker that was popular a few years ago which read, “Celebrate Diversity.” Upon seeing these stickers I often pondered what the driver of the vehicle was hoping that I should do. Should I immediately pop open a bottle of champagne in impromptu celebration of diversity, raising a glass like Leonardo DiCaprio in on of those movies that he is in (I really can’t remember any of them and my therapist has advised it is best that it stays this way). And as you may have guessed by now I am a bit cynical about such stickers not because I hate all diversity, but because I don’t see a whole lot of people living lives that actually do.
Statistics in this country bear out the fact that most people do not celebrate diversity when given the choice. If you ever look at those blue and red election maps you will have noticed that over the past several years the coasts have become more uniformly left wing while the center of the country has become more uniformly right wing. And the thing is everyone is guilty, not just politically but religiously as well. For example in 2003 the Episcopal Church voted to allow Gene Robinson, an openly homosexual man, to serve as Bishop of New Hampshire. In response to this five diocese and several individual congregations left the Episcopal Church to form what is known as ACNA or The Anglican Church of North America. On the other side last week in the Methodist Church they voted that there could not be homosexual clergy or same-sex unions. In a fairly typical response by some parts of that church, the Rev. Mark Fowler, pastor of First United Methodist Church in Madison stated, “There are parts of the church that are more progressive that are trying to find a way to form a new denomination if we are not allowed to practice ministry the way we feel is important to us.” In one version the conservatives flee and in the other the progressives flee – not a whole lot of diversity celebrating in those cases, unless your definition of diversity is “people who agree with me.”
But God is not pleased by fellow Christians despising one another. If you don’t believe me, maybe you can believe St. Paul when he says today, “For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all and is generous to all who call on him. For, ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’" I assume if you surveyed those who decided to flee the church be they Methodist or Episcopalian they would tell you that they did or are doing so in the name of God. But if there is no distinction and all who call on God will be saved why do people who call themselves Christians feel that they can be only be the true church if there is distinction, distinction to the point of starting your own new church? And just for full disclosure I must say that some of this very personal to me. As most of you know I was sent to seminary by the Diocese of the San Joaquin in central California. Six months before I was supposed to graduate, the diocese voted to leave the Episcopal Church, leaving me as a man without a diocese. Incidentally at the time of this vote the diocese had around 9,000 members while today it has 3,981. Now some of the missing 5,000 or so stayed with the Episcopal Church, some found another church but a number simply stopped going to church.
A number of years ago back in my finance days a Roman Catholic friend and I were trying to explain to a rather non-religious co-worker what the differences were between Episcopalians and Roman Catholics. At some point she said, “If you guys can’t get along why would you expect me to join?” I have a feeling the sentiment she expressed caused a number of people who lived through the schism to simply throw up their hands and say the same thing. And so again if we believe as St. Paul says that there is no distinction why do we have so many? And no the answer is not because the other side is wrong. I do not have all the answers but let me offer something that I find useful in these divisive and contentious times.
There is an old joke that if you have two economists you will get three opinions. And naturally the more opinions we have the more disjointed we become. But it is simply the opinions that cause the disjointedness, but rather the importance that we give our own opinions. We have given our opinions almost God like importance and that which does not agree must be ostracized. Furthermore we tend to believe that there can be no room given to the possibility that we might be wrong. If my worldview is that it is only those who live in accordance with my will can be saved then I am going to find myself living in smaller and smaller communities, because not even my dog obeys me all the time.
So back to my small idea about how we can live in the world without distinction that St. Paul discusses and this idea comes down to humility. It might be good to think now and then that maybe we could be wrong in the same way we think that the person with whom we disagree is wrong. Just for a little evidence to support this; the human brain weighs around three pounds, which incidentally is also the average weight of a cantaloupe. It would seem a little presumptuous for us to believe that this three-pound device for all of its wonder and power could be right about everything. Sure we are right about some things but we may be wrong about others. I have heard many stories about people converting to Christianity but the one I have never heard is of someone reporting that they didn’t believe until someone argued with and harangued them about the asininity of their beliefs. People convert because they see something beautiful and wonderful. They convert because they see grace filled lives. Our present problems largely exist because we refuse to see the beauty and wonder in others because we are so fixated on their opinions.
The obvious criticism of what I am saying is that I am advocating a sort of go with the flow argument wherein we do not hold anything as sacred and that there are no lines we will not allow to be crossed. But the thing is I am not saying that we should give up on believing anything, but rather that everything we believe does not have to be a cause for separation. In the movie The Incredibles there is the line where a character states that if everyone is special then no one is. I think we have reached a stage like that with our opinions. If every one of our opinions is a cause for separation then none of our opinions are special or sacred. And here is one further point. If we truly follow Christ’s call to go and make disciples of all nations, how are we to make disciples if we refuse to be in the same room as other people? If we truly believe our opinions are right and are necessary for salvation isn’t it our duty to help bring other people to our way of thinking? And this will be done not through exiling but through loving them. If we are truly united under Christ we cannot believe that others are not worthy of being in communion with. If Christians are just one more bickering organization in a bickering world we do not have much to offer. But fortunately that is not what God calls us to and what we have to offer is a truly diverse place that is united in its love for and submission to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Or as St. Paul says, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” In this season of Lent we need to call upon the Lord and grow more like him so that we may show forth the love and unity that is found only in Christ both this day and forevermore.