Kevin’s Conversations: Seeking Unity

The recently finished National Football League season didn’t end the same way for the Philadelphia Eagles as it had the year before as Super Bowl Champs. 

But for a few weeks there at the end of the season and into the playoffs, it looked like the improbable might just happen again.  While the the Eagles were front runners in the NFL for most of year the season before, this just completed season was filled with all kinds of struggles and missteps, to the point that with just three weeks left in the season the realistic chances of the team making the playoffs were almost non-existent.

Last year the Eagles were cruising through the regular season, led by young star quarterback, Carson Wentz, who was viewed as the likely MVP of the entire NFL.  Then, with only three games to go in the regular schedule, Wentz suffered a season ending knee injury and the hopes of the Eagles winning their very first Super Bowl took a devastating blow.  Improbably so, Nick Foles took over as quarterback and played increasingly better and better with almost each game, to the point that he put on a masterful performance in the biggest of games and led the Eagles to that very first Super Bowl Championship.

While this past season was nothing like the season before, the irony is that Carson Wentz again suffered another season ending injury with the same three weeks to go.  This time Wentz had been playing decently well, but just wasn’t the same as the season before and the Eagles weren’t performing as well as a team.  Nonetheless, Nick Foles stepped in once again and played very well and rallied the team into the playoffs, even winning their first playoff game.  It looked like the Foles “magic” may be happening again until the Eagles suffered a close loss in the divisional round of the playoffs.

The interesting thing that occurred during those last few weeks was a debate that embroiled Philadelphia fans and media as to who the Eagles should commit to being their starting quarterback moving forward.  Despite the fact that the Eagles management and coaches persistently said that Wentz was their quarterback, the debate raged on.  Everybody had their own opinion and there were lots of good reasons to support either candidate.

The maddening aspect of this debate, however, was that so often when people were supporting their preferred quarterback for the long term job, they also had the propensity to tear down the other quarterback.  While there are reasonable concerns about committing to either for the long-term, both Wentz and Foles have done great things for the Eagles, supplying much more good than bad.  However, when people would build-up their chosen quarterback, they would seemingly simultaneously knock down the other to a degree much greater than the legitimate concerns warranted.  The unfavored quarterback would be portrayed to be far worse than they really were, sometimes to the point that it was portrayed to be an unmitigatied and disastrous decision to commit to them.  Often times those expressing their views would spend even very little time building up their candidate and instead would focus on decimating the other.

There seemed to be an innate inability to just be able to appreciate both quarterbacks, even if one was the preferred choice.  One had to be made the hero and the other had to be made the enemy.  I think we can pretty easily see the parallels here to many of the ways in our current culture.  But what had really come to mind for me was the way we conduct ourselves inside the Church in our differing viewpoints.

We obviously have lots of differences within the Church.  Not all differences are necessarily bad, but there are many and they exist in all kinds of varying manners and manifestations.  Some are more serious than others – disparity on the means of salvation is certainly of greater importance than disagreement on something like how long worship services should be.  It is not wise to just brush aside all differences as some can be troubling and/or quite consequential, while others are better left with little attention.

It seems to me, however, that we can often be disposed to overly focus on differences at the expense of appreciating the good of others and where we are united.  Not only do we place too much attention on those differences, but we make those who differ with us to be worse than they really are.  It would appear periodically that some are all but condemned to hell for things like their belief or lack there-of in the Rapture or their preferred style of worship music or their alleged faulty grasp of the third use of the law.  Rather than taking the opportunities to build up, we seek out the opportunities to attack and tear down where we think others are wrong.  Just like the Wentz/Foles debate, we fail in being able to appreciate the many good qualities and points of agreement we have with the “other”, and instead we drill in on their perceived bad features and weaknesses and flawed understandings in order to enhance the superiority of our side.  One would sometimes think that rather than talking about Christian brethren we are instead speaking of Satan’s spawn.

God calls us to be united.  At the same time, He tells us to beware false teaching and doctrine and to expose and rebuke those persisting in sin and darkness.  How exactly we are to simultaneously heed these instructions in each and every circumstance is not always easy to discern.  When two people or two groups have a genuine and fundamental disagreement on a matter of doctrine, it is probably not best that they feign agreement for the sake of unity.  At the same time, it is probably most times a better idea to seek peace and focus on unity with a Christian brother who disagrees with your belief on something like whether or not a Christian should drink alcohol.

My impression is that we far too often fixate on those things that divide us rather than unite us.  And that we too many times portray the beliefs and character and motives of those with whom we disagree to be much worse than they really are.  This is how things appear to me, anyway.  I would love to be proven wrong through a profusion of example and action.  May God help us to seek and find the unity He has called us to and to gain a greater and healthier appreciation for each other and our shared standing in His family.