Learning to love the differences

One of my favorite things in the world is listening to someone wise speak. Tonight, I went to a church service at "All Souls" church (which I'm absolutely enthralled by). There is something about getting back to the simplicity of life and learning to delve into the basics. The sermon tonight was about how the church of America has this tendency to hate, fear, or dis-respect people who are not "Christians". What we so commonly forget, is that our objective is not to argue our way into converting people. We have nothing to "prove" per say. We have adopted this "us vs. them" mindset about those who do not share our beliefs. What we so easily lose sight of is the fact that we are not supposed to run away from the dominant culture> It is inescapable. If all of us were to leave... what hope would we leave behind? In the Hebrew language, the phrase "to fear God" means to obey him, to respond to him, to worship him. If God is calling you do something... DO IT! The text that was used tonight was from Jonah and the whole point of it was written as a challenge, a challenge to reevaluate the way we think of non-Christians. It was a way of addressing prejudice. What is humbling, as the pastor pointed out, is that many non-christians are seeking God, or some higher power harder and more often than some Christians are.
Three things were proposed in the talk tonight...
1.That we can learn a tremendous amount from non-christians
-If all people are made in the image of God, then God is at work in all people, regardless of their beliefs.
2. We can partner with non-christians in projects, or organizations peacefully
-true, there is a fine line, but if we have a common bond, we can work along side non-christians who have similar passions
3. We need to rethink the language we use for non-Christians and our present culture
-we can acknowledge differences while treating them as brothers and sisters
-we can emphasize love for strangers
-we can talk more about Jesus than Satan
-we can be more welcoming rather than shunning

*We need to recognize difference of faith and difference in opinion as what it is and not as an attack on us. We are so quick to jump on the defensive and argue until we feel as though we have convinced others that we are right and they are wrong. We will be able to better serve our city if we learn to see ourselves as comrades rather than enemies.