Rivalries exist, even in Alberta: Flames vs. Oilers, Stamps vs. Eskimos, Rebels vs. Hitmen, or the Rush vs. the Roughnecks.

The sport of my youth was basketball which was the cultic occupation of the whole State of Montana during the Winter season. I remember games with more than half of the people in town present while watching cheerleaders, pep bands, and the more coordinated of the teenage crowd running back and forth on the court. The school rivalries were intense. Generations of players watched on with painful or joyous memories as their children played the same sport against the same teams in the same gymnasium as they did.

Professional sports such as the NHL, the CFL and the NFL have some of the rivalry, but the feel seems less dynamic to me in that players are paid salaries to compete.

As the Church of Jesus Christ ,have we learned to co-exist with one another without rivalry, realizing we are on the same team? The early church was extremely diverse as it dealt with merging Jewish believers with Gentile believers. If we measured out the difference between that generation and our own we would likely find fewer aspects of difference in this day and age.

Does difference need to mean dissonance? Certainly it does not! The Kingdom of God is to be from every tribe, tongue, nation, and cultures. We are to have a theology that celebrates our diversity, not denying it. The work of Jesus supersedes our opinions, our methods, our education, our manner of behaviour, or even our constructed systems of operation. God does not necessarily need buildings, paid pastors, efficient church by-laws, electronic drums, choirs, pianos, sound systems, or theological degrees. All of these are likely helpful in our current context, but what is essential is that we keep to what our faith is really about … which involves theologically embracing our diversity within the Body of Christ. The intense feelings attached to our personal rivalries, along with their invisible high-walled boundaries, do not need to exist to the extent to which we have created them. The Apostle Peter met with Cornelius in Caesarea and saw the Gospel do its marvellous work among the Gentiles. What was the first response by Peter’s home church? It was, “You went into the house of uncircumcised men and ate with them” (Acts 11:3).

It seems as though the hard work of ministry often gets compounded by the work within the church family because some are unwilling to bring down the walls they have raised.

Going forward, may God give us insight into how to affirm what is of Him!