In any case, just recently the Lord 'whispered' into my ear on two occasions. The second time involved our priest/pastor who was talking about the rifts in the Anglican Church among the different brands of churchmanship. She had a burden to promote more unity among the groups. When I asked her further about this issue betraying in the process my allegiance to one of the groups she said lightly (my paraphrase): 'What's important is that the gospel is preached!'
That gentle word brought me up short.
I realised as I began to think about this comment that much of my life and that of my family's life had been nurtured in difference. First, I was raised in a Pentecostalist family in the 1950s and 60s. Second, even this difference was intensified further by the unorthodox views of my grandfathers on questions of the Trinity, the soul's existence after death, eternal torment, and the resurrection.
Such nurturance-in-difference can be associated with intolerance and pride.
Moreover, in my own family, differences with my father was not tolerated. He ruled the emotional and intellectual content of the family like other fathers of his generation. Even the children's different personalities, interests, opinions and gifts were hardly tolerated.
The question now is, where do I go with this new awareness? The temptation is to go off half-cocked which often just makes the situation worse. In rooting out the weeds, we can end up rooting up the wheat as well.
So, I am choosing to sit calmly with what I've been given and see what further things the Lord may reveal.
However, the old adage which seems to have been first used by an undistinguished Lutheran theologian in a tract during the bloody 30-year 'religious' war (1618-1648) also seems appropriate: 'in essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty, in all things charity'.
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