Christian Community as a Colorful Quilt

I am from a Christian tradition where the women of the church used to get together to create beautiful, hand-crafted quilts. Over the years I have seen some pretty amazing quilts lovingly stitched together by sisters who laughed, talked, prayed and sang together as they gathered around the quilt frame. To my eye, the most beautiful quilts are the ones that have a great variety of colors and shapes stitched together. I think the same thing is true of the Church. Christian Community is most beautiful when it is composed by people of different sizes, shapes and colors who are carefully woven together by the love of Jesus. Why have Christian folk worked so hard through the centuries to make sure that everyone looks the same, acts the same and thinks the same.

I think there are a couple of reasons why we work so hard to look and think alike. The first has to do with the sin of self-centeredness. The first murder recorded in the Bible was committed by Cain who lashed out at his brother, Abel. Cain was a tiller of the ground and Abel was a tender of sheep. Rather than celebrating what was different about his brother, Cain hated what was different. That was the beginning of a conflict that continues to this very day. Cain and Abel were the first conflict between Farmers and Ranchers. That conflict continues to this very day along with others like Labor vs Management, North vs South, White vs Black, Christian vs Moslem, Democrat vs Republican, Pro-life vs Pro-choice... It is a sin to assume that being different is a bad thing, and those who are different from us are necessarily our enemies. It is the sin of self-centeredness; the belief that the world must revolve around the way we look, think and act.

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Another reason we are attracted to those who look, think and act like us is because it is a whole lot easier to be "In Community" with those who are like us. If we are all conservative Repulicans or all liberal Democrats, its a lot easier to get along with each other. We can afford to be intellectually lazy because the people we hang out with readily support our point of view. If we are all middle class, white protestants or all working class, hispanic catholics we don't have to work at understanding and practicing cultural sensitivity. We can afford to be insensitive and biased. But when we come together as different shapes, sizes and colors in the same quilt, the red squares need to be connected to blue triangles. Lord have mercy! How can that be Right let alone Possible? It is Right because God purposed to created each of us as a unique, one of a kind, custom designed child of God. And it is Possible only as we are willing to be woven together by the hand of God with other parts of the quilt. And we will only stay connected if we are held together by the amazing bond created by the love of Jesus. -- Bob