If you grew up in church, and the high majority of my friends and colleagues did, chances are you grew up in some type of denominational bubble. I have no qualms at all with denominational bubbles. In many ways, they can be good things. They help us hold onto meaningful traditions, provide a place where we know friends and family, and give us theological distinctions that help shape how we understand and practice our faith. In my case, my Pentecostal bubble was pretty hard to burst. There was a sense in which our bubble was the “right” bubble, while everyone else’s seemed a little more frail and easily busted. After all, didn’t we as Pentecostals have it all figured out while everyone else had somehow missed the mark? If we pause for a moment, whatever our denominational marker was growing up, or even as an adult, we may have found ourselves feeling much the same way. We are part of this particular tradition because we align with what it teaches and how it worships, because we believe it represents Scripture well. And really, shouldn’t we feel that way about wherever it is we gather to worship?
I think all of that is fine and good. Where the challenge can creep in, however, is when the smaller things that make us different begin building walls between us. We can spend so much time defending our theological positions, pointing out where someone else has it wrong, or protecting our particular expression of Christianity that we lose sight of the things we share. If our differences are not matters of salvation or hindrances to becoming the people Christ has called us to be, are they really worth all the finger-pointing? We are all on a spiritual journey, no matter what we call it. We are all seeking direction, asking questions, and trying to make sense of faith and life. But as Christians, perhaps we need to remind ourselves from time to time that the One we follow was not a confessed Baptist, Presbyterian, Catholic, Pentecostal, Lutheran, Anglican, Methodist, or any other denominational title. He was Jesus Christ, the Son of God. He came pointing us toward a way of living in the here and now while giving us hope for what is still to come.
Paul seems to understand this tension remarkably well. Writing to the church in Rome, he speaks directly to the tendency we have to turn differences of practice and opinion into reasons for division:
Welcome those who are weak in faith, but not for the purpose of quarreling over opinions. Some believe in eating anything, while the weak eat only vegetables. Those who eat must not despise those who abstain, and those who abstain must not pass judgment on those who eat; for God has welcomed them. Who are you to pass judgment on servants of another? It is before their own lord that they stand or fall. And they will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make them stand.
Some judge one day to be better than another, while others judge all days to be alike. Let all be fully convinced in their own minds. Those who observe the day, observe it in honor of the Lord. Also those who eat, eat in honor of the Lord, since they give thanks to God; while those who abstain, abstain in honor of the Lord and give thanks to God.
We do not live to ourselves, and we do not die to ourselves. If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and lived again, so that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.
Why do you pass judgment on your brother or sister? Or you, why do you despise your brother or sister? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. For it is written,
“As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me,
and every tongue shall give praise to God.”
So then, each of us will be accountable to God.—Romans 14:1-121
There is something wonderfully freeing about remembering that we do not have to agree on everything to do life together. Our lives can be spent arguing over the small things, the minor things, while completely missing the opportunity to appreciate the agreement we have on the major things. By and large, Christians from many different traditions can agree on the work of Christ and what He accomplished on the cross. When we find ourselves getting lost in the weeds of our differences, perhaps it would do us good to revisit the Apostles’ Creed from time to time, a simple reminder of the central truths that Christians around the world have held onto for generations. There is a great deal more that unites us than we sometimes allow ourselves to remember.
So, do we truly want to follow through with the aim of the Great Commission, to spread the Gospel to our neighbor and around the world? If we do, then perhaps our hearts should be more concerned with the message of Christ than with the things that are not matters of salvation. And perhaps the old, almost cliché question is still worth asking ourselves as we move through our ordinary days and encounter the people around us: “What would Jesus do?” Jesus wasn’t religious about being religious. He simply did life with the world around Him. He challenged people with truth, but He did so with love and wisdom. He welcomed people who were different from Him, met them where they were, and continued pointing them toward the Father. May we strive to do the same. May we hold tightly to what matters most, loosen our grip on what does not, and remember that the world needs to see Christ in us far more than it needs to see us win an argument.
O God, because without you we are not able to please you, mercifully grant that your Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
—Book of Common Prayer2
