In some ways, January is an unsettling time of year. It is one of those points on the calendar when we are most likely to be made aware of human differences-at the same time as we work to bridge them. Last Monday we observed the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and our sanctuary was packed with people who gathered to remember his legacy advancing civil and human rights and understanding. But, of course, the fact of this observance was itself a reminder of the differences and divisions within our society, especially across the lines of race, that have been present for so long. On Monday evening, we had our local observance of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity at St. Monica's Church, and it, too, was a wonderful service, lifting up our unity in Christ, which transcends denominational lines. But we were also made aware that some Catholic music is jarring to our more traditional sensitivities, and some liturgy can get pretty lengthy, especially when you're standing, and you may get rather wet when a Lutheran pastor leads the renewal of baptism service.

Now, as you know, we live in an age when tolerance is a prevailing value, so even when we are conscious of our differences, we try to be understanding and respectful of them-especially within the Christian family. Yet even so, there are some differences that do try our souls, if we're honest-especially in cases where those practicing the differences seem more successful than we are. Take for example what we might label the "entrepreneurial" churches-the ones

with the splashy newspaper ads and TV programming, and their often grand sanctuaries and programs for every group under the sun. We note how they seem to keep packing people in, and our feelings toward them are often less than charitable. We can be quick to suspect they've made the church a commercial operation and are only pampering people rather than offering an authentic Christian message-though generally we're not close enough to them to really know what people are getting. And what about the fast-growing conservative mega-churches that we see and hear about all around us? We want to believe we've got the right theology-so why are so many people flocking to a way of believing that would never cut it for us? Then we read about the various New Age religious movements on the scene, especially here in southern California, with their crystals and channeling and twelve dozen kinds of meditation. They, too, are growing, and sometimes our own young people are their recruits. By our standards, their beliefs often seem fuzzy-headed, and we find it hard to believe that God could be at work in such a movement. Now, maybe sentiments like these don't speak for you in every case. Yet, I'm sure every one of us can name some church or movement under the Christian umbrella that we have strong negative feelings about and find respect hard to come by.

Our reading from I Corinthians today suggests that times have not changed all that much. In Corinth, the factions apparently were all in the same church. There was the Apollos group, and Apollos clearly was a Greek name. We know that the Greeks of the time often got into esoteric beliefs and philosophy. So maybe the Apollos people were the New Agers of that day. Cephas was another name for Peter, a very Jewish name, and often the Jews in the early church were the conservatives who insisted that Jewish law had to be maintained as part of the Christian lifestyle. So, the Cephas people may have been the conservative group in the church. Paul, we know, was the good Jew who broke free from Jewish legalism when he became an apostle, so perhaps those who claimed to be in the Paul party were the Christian liberals of the day. And apparently, there was even a "Christ" party in the church-doubtless those who thought they were the true Christian believers. Talk about factions in the church-they were alive and well despite all of Paul's good preaching. And now Paul is stationed elsewhere and must try to rectify the situation through a letter. And his message is: whatever else you are, brothers and sisters, you are disciples of Jesus Christ. Neither Paul nor Apollos nor Cephas saves you, but only Christ. The power of our faith is found in the Jesus who not only lived for us, but died for us in redemptive love. And is Christ divided? Of course not! Then to be his disciples means to share the oneness he came to give us, the oneness that comes as we seek to claim the mind of Christ for ourselves. That's the allegiance that really counts.

But is Paul suggesting here that differences in the Christian family will all disappear if we get a true connection with Jesus? I think Paul was too much a realist to think that. Paul clearly hopes that the factionalism and divisiveness will be gone, for that's what he saw as so hurtful and so contrary to the spirit of Christ. But he understands that differences will persist, because people are different. We come from diverse backgrounds and have diverse experiences and differing needs, and thus we have different ways of seeing life. As Konrad Adenauer once put it, "We all live under the same sky, but we don't all have the same horizon." Doubtless you've observed this for yourself in the church. No matter how strong our commitment to Christ, we do not end up with identical views of what Christ means to us or how to follow him. Some of us will be "head" people, for whom particular beliefs will be important, while others of us will be "heart" people, who look for God in prayer and devotion. Some of us will be moved to hold strongly to tradition while others will look for new ways of experiencing faith in today's culture. For some the focus will be on personal, individual faith, while others will be energized by the meaning of the gospel for social issues. And these differences will be manifested both between churches and within churches. The Apollos and Cephas and Paul groups are all going to be there; that's simply the human reality. Now, I think we can assume that a Crusade mentality that seeks to do in those we don't agree with is neither a viable alternative nor a Christian one. So how do we rise above the divisive spirit and the hurtfulness that our differences naturally seem to engender? I think this is possible only when we recognize that Jesus Christ is greater than any of us can ever comprehend. Whatever following Jesus means for us, our grasp of it is not the total picture. Very likely, other people will have hold of a piece of the truth that we don't have. We are adherents of a faith bigger than any of us. I believe this is what Paul had in mind in today's passage. Who of us can ever get our minds around the reality of a Jesus who reveals God to us-and who loved us enough to die for us? It's mind-blowing! Yet, as Christians each of us has been claimed by this mind-blowing reality which we know we cannot fully comprehend. Our unity lies in the fact that we all seek to follow Christ, no matter how differently. So, surely the implication of this is that a sense of humility is in order, for none of us has hold of the whole truth. And by the same token, we are called to a tolerance of other approaches that we may not understand or be able to appreciate. You and I may not be able to appreciate or find meaning in the Christianity of the Fundamentalist or the New Ager; we may even think they are totally wrong. But, you see, it's not our business to "approve" them. If they are truly seeking to follow Christ, as we are, then we have a oneness with them that we need to take into account, and we need to make room for the possibility that God is at work in them in ways we can't understand. There is a mystery to the diversity of Christ's body. But when we take seriously that we are part of a faith that is truly greater than we are, then we may be able to be gracious rather than adversarial over our differences, and surely Christ's cause will be the stronger for that.

Let me close with this thought. I believe the more we experience Christ's abundance for ourselves, the less we will be wrought up over differences with others we can't understand or agree with. Jesus told us he came that we might have life abundantly, and he promised the presence of his spirit that we might continually grow into his fullness. Our destiny is not to hunker down in our entrenched positions, on guard against those whose Christian understanding seems at odds with ours. Rather, God wants us to keep growing in our own spiritual abundance, so we may live with confidence in the truth of Christ that has come to us.

Recently I read the story of an unfortunate church cat. This particular church had deep window wells for its basement windows. One rainy Sunday, as the pastor was about to leave for lunch, he heard a cat's yowling coming up from one of those window wells. The well was so deep he knew the cat couldn't climb out of it by itself. But he was also afraid that if he opened the window where the cat was, the cat would jump inside and get lost in the church. The cat would get wet staying in the window well-but the pastor decided the cat could just wait until he'd had his lunch. When he returned from lunch, he got a ladder to put down the window well to rescue the cat-but there was no cat. Sure enough, he soon found that someone had come in his absence and let the cat in through the window, and now the cat had vanished somewhere in the building. The pastor and church staff spent the next week desperately trying to find the cat. They knew it was there because it kept leaving little remembrances in the most unlikely places. Even a group of middle-school children from the church couldn't find it. Finally, the Humane Society offered a cat trap. With a little tuna fish for bait, they found the cat trapped in the cage the next morning. It was most unhappy, and hissed and scratched whenever anyone came near. Finally, the church staff managed to carry the cage outside in an area with a lot of bushes and trees, where they thought the cat would be happy. They opened the cage with a bit of fanfare, and out bounded the cat into a bush. They gave each other high-fives and declared that they had won. At that point the cat took one look at them-and jumped back down into a window well.

Friends, that cat is not meant to be us-fearfully hiding out in our familiar little bunkers of faith and clawing at those whose otherness seems threatening. Our destiny is to move out into the sunshine and fresh air of God's abundance, confident we live in a faith bigger than we are, a faith that will bind us together with all our brothers and sisters in God.