Losing My Religion ~ Flavors, Factions, or Fractures
A house divided against itself cannot stand.
Greetings Dear Reader,
In losing my religion and keeping my faith, I need to address something. It may step on some toes but I assure you my intention is to better us all. Still, I would not start stepping hard without warning you.
Let us begin with ice cream. It is an ice cream celebration day after all. If you like ice cream, you like a certain flavor. My favorites are coffee, rum raisin, and strawberry depending on my mood. We never chide someone because of the flavor of ice cream they like. If we do, we are being foolish.
Ice cream flavors are a preference. So I would say we can treat differing flavors of following Christ. As long as we agree on the very short list of fundamentals, we can have flavors of Christ-followers. The difficulty is we turn our flavors into factions.
We fail to love those who follow differently from us when we make jokes about them or insult them. We divide our house of prayer. Jesus makes it clear, “And knowing their thoughts Jesus said to them, ‘Any kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and any city or house divided against itself will not stand.’” He said this when the Pharisees accused him of casting out demons in the power of Satan. Lincoln quoted him regarding our divided nation during the War between the States. Our church and our nation is divided. I say our failure to love as Christ commanded us to is at the heart of it all.
The house of Christ-followers is divided. We treat each other with disdain. We fail to work together to care for our communities. We even disrespect each other and excuse it as jokes or innocent fun. I cannot condemn even in jest and claim to be loving the Father. This is why we have fractures in the Church. It is our failure to love.
Our religion is worthless if we use it to deride others. It is a failure if we ignore the love required of each of us. We are fractured and unable to do the work of the Gospel in areas where it is desperately needed. Our house is divided, Dear Reader. It may only be healed by setting aside the differences that do not matter. We must become known for our love and the unity it provides. If we do not, we have religion and not faith. This leads to a divided house that cannot stand. The call is to community and we are the ones called to provide it.
Wishing you joy in the journey,
Aramis Thorn
Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, “That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a homeowner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”
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Every human story is part of the great story that leads to the Father getting everything back to Good.
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A house divided against itself cannot stand.