We’re A Whole Lot Different, We’re A Whole Lot The Same

For my contribution for this Marion Memo that falls between Thanksgiving and Christmas, I’m going to focus on … neither! We have ample opportunities to discuss both in other settings as a church, so instead I want to share with you some of what I returned with, (other than the beard), from my recent trip to Guatemala.

Foremost among the impressions I bring back is the sense that, in spite of many differences, we are so much the same the world over. We of course were created by, and called into relationship with, the same God, so it shouldn’t surprise me but I guess it still does.

While in material ways Guatemalans have much more obvious struggles, we have in common with them the constant tension of trying to avoid being shaped by our surrounding culture more than we are by the gospel of Jesus. Jesus calls us to live in one way, and our Mayan/Central American and our North American cultures call us to live another. Does that mean Jesus condemns everything in our culture? Certainly not, for within every culture there are some things that do and some things that don’t fall in line with God’s will for us as his people. Our task then becomes one of sifting and sorting. What is in line with the gospel and what is not? How do we best discern these answers? This is where we need each other. Only as we open ourselves to one another can we wrestle together with these questions.

I say that we need each other meaning you and I, and one another in our congregation, but also in the sense of the North American church needing the Guatemalan church. You see, I think our different settings affect us differently yet with a similar result. We tend to say, as we observe the church in Guatemala, “How can they remain focused on following God in the midst of their poverty?” We have concern for them and for the effects their primitive, materially impoverished culture has on their faith and faithfulness. But do you know what I have found there and in Ethiopia as well? They are concerned for us. Their concern runs along a very similar vein and they ask, “How can they remain focused on following God in the midst of their wealth?”

I believe both concerns are valid, and I think we all need to continue to ask the question of one another. How are you shaped by your culture? (And how are we by ours?) How are you shaped by your faith in God and the gospel? (And how are we?)

So much of what I experienced and heard as I talked with church leaders who came to work with us on the roof project, and as I experienced their worship in their churches, and as I sat in their homes, showed to me that no matter how far apart we are geographically, culturally, or economically, the same God is desiring to work in us and through us to bless his world. God has called us all to the same purpose, may we all continue to spur one another on to faith and faithfulness, and may God be made known to his world through us all.

Pastor Carl