I’ve been pondering Christian community during the COVID era, especially as it relates to social justice. Over the years I’ve witnessed how Christians can shift their fellowship, based not on the love of Christ, but on their particular social-issue perspectives, and I’m always sad when there is division in the body of Christ. We claim nothing can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:35), but so much in our world seems easily able to separate Christ’s disciples. These days I ask myself if, in this age of Cancel Culture, do Christians have their own Christian Cancel Culture?
On the Friday after the 2016 presidential election, a close-knit group of faithful Christian women met at my house, as we had done for over 20 years. Yet that day, a cluster of women came in bemoaning President Trump’s election simultaneously with another cluster jubilantly celebrating his election. The two groups regarded one another with horror. We engaged in some tough, honest, and loving conversation that day, deciding our fellowship would hold despite these different perspectives. We did not cancel each other!
This encounter, along with many others, has convicted me that I often speak in shorthand about important issues. That I am not always attentive about possible diversity of opinion within a group. Assuming everyone agrees with me can cut off honest conversation and leave others feeling shut down, judged, and silenced. Christ calls me to maintain a genuine curiosity about what others think and believe, to maintain space in our congregation for each member of the body of Christ and their diverse views.
This is not always easy. Deep passions and convictions have divided Christ’s church throughout its history and threaten to divide it today. God calls us to “argue it out,” or “reason together,” (Isaiah 1:18) before God and before one another, rather than demonizing one another or becoming estranged. Then we will show the world how powerful, uniting, and overwhelming is the love of God in Jesus Christ. This love is like super glue that holds us together.
“How can we be in deep community if I can fire you?” asks Angie Thurston, graduate of Harvard Divinity School, in an August 30 New York Times article. The answer is: we may not fire one another! My hope is that as Grace Church follows Session’s direction for us in maintaining that Black Lives Matter, we will discern God’s will for us as a diverse people of God called to do justice. God’s people, diverse politically, geographically, ethnically, socially, racially, and in every other possible way, even theologically! Can you imagine it? Pro-life and pro-choice people in fellowship! Republicans and Democrats in fellowship! Millennials and ninety-year-olds in fellowship! In a polarized and reactive world, that gets our community’s and our world’s attention, and points to the extraordinary power and love of God.
Pastor Margo Walter, September 2020