Have you ever just laid out under a September sky and watched the fluffy white clouds colliding and shifting? I got to do that yesterday afternoon. There were several huge white puffs moving in various directions and at various speeds. Sometimes the clouds appeared to blend together, other times they looked like they were splitting apart. If you lay still long enough, you could eventually see the different altitudes of each one as it moved. They were distinct, and yet the same.
It made me think of the Church. There are so many distinct denominations and traditions. And even within each one of those, there are many different ideas on how best to live a God-honouring, Christ-centered life. There are as many denominations as there are ice cream flavours, and not all of them work well together in an ice cream sundae. And can I tell you something that might sound a bit controversial? It's okay.
With all the different shapes and ways of being in the Church, it is really easy to forget that at the very center of our faith, we are all called to the same thing. Oneness with God, through Jesus.
“I ask not only on behalf of these but also on behalf of those who believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, 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." John 17:20-21, NRSV
The problem is that if we get our eyes off this foundational truth, we begin to "major on the minors", as it were. When we get distracted by all our differences, we start fighting each other to prove who is "right". That does not convince anyone that Jesus was sent here to give us back an avenue for a real relationship with the Creator of the Universe, let alone that this might be beneficial or desirable. This is not to say that there are never times when any particular denomination needs to reevaluate their doctrine. There are plenty of examples in history of Christian traditions getting things wrong, sometimes in some pretty horrific ways. None of us get this Christianity thing 100% correct, 100% of the time. There's a reason why Scripture tells us "do not forsake the gathering of yourselves together."(Hebrews 10:25) and that "iron sharpens iron"(Proverbs 27:17). We need to be able to count on our brothers and sisters from other denominations to give us fresh perspective and to lovingly set us straight when we've gone off the rails and done harm. What we don't need is to be constantly attacking our own house over things that may not even matter in the long run.
At the end of the day, whether they are a stormy, dark grey cumulonimbus, or a white and fluffy puff of altocumulus, a cloud is a cloud. They are all made up of the same stuff at their core. Maybe we should try to remember that about ourselves.
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