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So whatever you believe about these [disputable matters], keep between yourself and God … Accept one another, just as Christ accepted you …” (Romans 14:22, 15:7).

This week we will conclude our series Disagree Deeply, Love Deeper Still. But perhaps it’s better to say that we’re only just beginning to grapple with this matter of how we can walk together in unity even though we are so very different!

This week we’re exploring the fourteenth and fifteenth chapters of Paul’s letter to the Christians in Rome.  What the church there was discovering was that Jesus brings them into close—maybe much too close! —contact with the kind of people who are “not my kind of people.”

Roman society was status-obsessed.  Status goes together with privilege and power.  There’s a certain delicious thrill that comes from hanging out with the right sort of people, and another kind of joy that goes with being able to look down our noses at the wrong sort of people.  My kind of people and not my kind of people.

So there are believers in Rome who are Romans, that is, Gentiles, non-Jews.  And there are as well, in the same fellowship, believers who are Jews.  All united by faith around Jesus the Lord, and all seemingly having a hard time not despising or condemning one another.  Because of food and dietary convictions.  Because of which days, if any, are special, holy days, or if one day is pretty much like every other.  Because of who has status, power and privilege, and who doesn’t.  Wouldn’t it be easier to have a church where everybody was more alike and got along more naturally?

Not on your life, says Paul.  Jesus is gathering to God one worldwide family, different in so many ways but fundamentally united around the Crucified and Risen One.  So Roman status-seeking gets subverted, as does Jewish pride in their chosenness.  Everything is redefined and realigned around Jesus, not around our cultures, ethnicities, tribal loyalties, favored customs and practices.  All our customary identity markers are relegated by Paul to the status of “disputable matters.”  He doesn’t say to jettison them entirely, but to keep them between yourself and God.

Why?  Here’s the key: the church is to be Christoform, formed in and by Christ, modeled on who Jesus is and what he says and how he acts.  So when we find ourselves in the community of Christ rubbing elbows with folks we feel are “not my kind of people,” what are we to do?  “Accept one another, just as Christ accepted you.”  Another translation has it “Welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you.”

Think about it: does Jesus come from your culture, your political persuasion, your nationality or ethnic group?  Does he welcome and accept us because our behavior has always been consistently exemplary?  Because the history of our tribe/group has been so very pristine?  Is it possible that some things that are important to you or to us aren’t as important to him?  Or that there are some things that really matter to him that haven’t yet appeared on our radar?  Yet he has accepted and welcomed us, and told us to follow him in that acceptance and welcoming of one another.

A “big tent” church will have all kinds of people who will feel like “not my kind of people.”  But Jesus commands us to welcome and accept one another, just as he has welcomed and accepted us.

What kinds of people are not your kind of people?  Take a few moments to simply list them in God’s presence.

Imagine that we are once again worshipping in person at our building in Pittsboro or our new facility in North Chatham.  Imagine that, with the easing of pandemic restrictions, lots of visitors/new people are showing up to check things out.  What might make some of them feel “Not my kind of people” about us? Take a moment to pray about how God might want to be working on us now to prepare us for those times ahead.

Call to mind someone with whom you disagree deeply.  What are one or two ways that you could demonstrate your love towards them this week?  Send a note or an email?  Phone call?  An act of service?  Simply to pray for them?  Take some time to talk this over with God.