The real issue of our time is polarization - division instead of cooperation.  As we become polarized on issues, we guarantee two things:  all our energies will be go to maintain our position against even logical alternatives together with working to convince others of the correctness of our position AND nothing substantive will be accomplished for the benefit of those whose victimization may well have spurred our passion in the first place.   Our strength as individuals, as national entities, and even as religious groups is found in our diversity - the diverse ways we express the wonder and mystery of life.  Diversity is not the same thing as division just as unity is not the same thing as uniformity.  We need to find ways to work together.

 You and I are on a journey.  We are on a journey through time, from birth to death to what lies beyond death.  Though this seems like a reasonable perspective to take, the truth is it's a perspective centered on us rather than on God.  As children of God, we are created in eternity and for eternity, for oneness with God.  On the journey through the years of our lives, we are largely cut off from a clear awareness of our home.  The result is that much of life is shaped around a core of fear.  Many of our choices are the result of fear.  Even our prayers can flow from a center of fear.

 Jesus seems to have lived in touch with eternity.  He was one with the Father and in touch with eternal unity.  We follow Jesus on the same path toward same the goal of oneness that the Bible calls shalom and the Kingdom of God.  Remember that this kingdom is not so much a place to go after we die, but the reality that surrounds and supports life here and now on the journey.  The pathway of prayer is approaching all of life with an attitude of gratitude, being truly grateful for all of life and our experience of it.  This does not mean we should live in a naive state of denial.  Many things are broken, or at least bent, in the world.  The most fundamentally broken thing is how we live out of touch with the universal mystery, the One, the reality we call God.

.Does unity mean that I must give up my own interests?  Yes, sometimes.  It is not healthy to ignore our own interest.  We need to value ourselves, but there are times it is necessary to put the good of community or nation ahead of self-interest.  Sometimes we, as national citizens, need to subordinate our individual self-interest to the good of the country.  We certainly see this with those who volunteer for the military in times of war.  Sometimes America needs to subordinate our national self-interest to the good of all people, the good of humanity as a whole.  Both presidential candidates have lived and articulated the importance of giving ourselves to a cause greater than ourselves and even greater than our nation's self interest.  We will discover that the good of humanity is ultimately in our self-interest nationally and personally.

 There is not just one way of being united.  Diversity is not the opposite of unity.  There are differences between people, nations, cultures, and religions.  Those differences constitute our diversity.  It is vital for our health and strength as human beings to be clearly defined individually.  Unity cannot mean the loss of personal identity by being absorbed by an amorphous uniformity.  Being different cannot mean being cut off from one another - judging and condemning.

 Religion often causes great division.  This has been true throughout recorded human history.  Sadly for us, no religion has been more divisive than Christianity, though some have probably been just as divisive.  But we are entering a new era of Christianity - a postmodern era.  There is a possibility that the Christian church can be a force for unity, but only if we can model respect for others who disagree, who hold different doctrinal, theological, or philosophical positions.  Our individual faith communities can lead the way by following Jesus in such a way that it is clear that the reign of God includes all people.

 Recently, I had the privilege of helping to celebrate a wedding between a member of the congregation I serve as pastor and a member of a Roman Catholic congregation.  Despite the official stance of the Catholic Church against open communion, we non-Catholics were included.  This experience gave evidence of what church can be for our nation and our world.  The church can be instrumental in overcoming division in the house of humanity.  We can value diversity and embrace the fundamental unity of all of life as a matter of faith as this hymn text illustrates: 

Let us build a house where all are named.
Their songs and visions heard and loved and treasured,
taught and claimed as words within the Word;
built of tears and cries and laughter'
prayers of faith and songs of grace.
Let this house proclaim from floor to rafter
"All are welcome!  All are welcome!
All are welcome in this place!"  (Marty Haugen)

 Thanks for continuing to bless me as we journey together.

--Jack Price

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