A Lesson from Last Sunday | Opinion

Last Sunday Restructured Faith was held at Sanctuary, and during this month's service, we discussed passages from Matthew that talk about a conversation between Peter and Jesus.  The question posed was "Is the church built on Peter?"  Community of Christ believes the passages discussing Peter and the church are talking about Continuing Revelation rather than saying that the church is built on Peter.  Instead, Community of Christ teaches that since God has revealed to Peter that Jesus is the Messiah to which Jesus replies "upon this rock I will build my church," the passage refers to the way in which God continually reveals his intentions to us.  

I did not grow up in Community of Christ but rather in a Baptist church where the teachings were very different from those of Community of Christ.  However, I saw a thread of commonality in the idea that the passage is about how God reveals his intentions to us.  Growing up, I would ask how people who had never heard of the Bible were supposed to "get right with God."  I was told that God comes to everyone no matter their situation, and that sounds a lot like continuing revelation to me.  The idea that God speaks to each of us, I realize, is an idea I grew up hearing even though it was never referred to as Continuing Revelation.    

This realization reminded me of another truth.  The world consists of many religions.  Many small differences exist not just between different faiths but even between different denominations of the Christian faith.  There is constant disagreement over the details, splits between churches, and in more extreme cases sometimes even wars being fought over theological differences.  The sad thing is that while we all fight over details and minutia, we all essentially worship the same God and, in many ways, believe the same things.  For example, almost every religion  from Christianity to Islam to Wicca have some form of the Golden Rule, a very important concept in Christianity as we look at the teachings of Jesus and the idea of loving one's neighbor (treat that neighbor the way you wish to be treated).  Such a realization makes all of the hate and division in our world seem very pointless, and consequently, it is important for us to look for our similarities rather than our differences.  If we respect one another and try to find common ground, we may just see we are more similar than we realize.