Cathedral Windows

For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. (Romans 12:3-5, ESV). In his book God and Other Famous Liberals, Forrest Church writes: ... when it comes to God, many, if not most, believers insist on the absolute truth of their opinions. Their logic is as follows: If A (my belief) is correct, not-A (everyone else's) has to be wrong ... How much better it would be if we thought of the world as a cathedral with thousands of different windows through which the light of God or truth shines. Some are abstract, some representational. Each tells a story of love and death, hope and faith, truth and meaning. Some people think that the light shines only through their own window. Fundamentalists of the right, sure that their window is the only one through which the light shines, may go so far as to incite their fellow worshipers to throw stones through other people's windows. Atheists, fundamentalists of the left, observe the bewildering variety of windows and lapse into skepticism, concluding that there is no light. But the windows are not the light, only where the light shines through. There is one light (one truth, one God), but it reflected through a myriad of windows, each distinct, each different. Those who have worshipped at one window throughout their lifetime almost always see the refracted light more clearly and understand its meaning more deeply than do those who flit from window to window, believing that differences don't really matter. In religion, the discipline that comes from devotion cannot be replaced by sophistication. But in a pluralistic world, the best we can still hope for is the development of deep commitments to our own faith, while somehow remaining able to acknowledge that those who believe differently may, in their own distinctive ways, be just as close to God or truth as we are. Then we may live as neighbors in the cathedral of the world. What a wonderful image: the cathedral windows of our lives with the light of God shining through each one to light our individual ways! Our world is a kaleidoscope of races and cultures, each one being an equal player in the great window of God's world! The Apostle Paul was very clear about that truth in our reading today. We are all parts of the one body, different and unique. We are all essential to the overall health of the body. How tragic when we fail to understand that there can be a basic fundamental connection between every believer regardless of the colors and shapes that our belief system requires to make this wonderful image of God’s light in the world. When we come together around the truth that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, crucified and risen on the third day for our sins, much of the rest may be debated. Faith in Christ is the essential foundation that the Church was founded when Jesus changed Simon’s name to Peter. That same foundation ought to be enough for us as well!