God loves diversity. (A talk delivered in the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, 2021.)

In this week of prayer for Christian Unity, I would like to make a confession. Until a few months ago, I don’t think I’d ever heard of the theologian Jacob Arminius, let alone realised that I am an Arminian by religious disposition. This realisation came when Carla Vincencio Prior kindly lent me a theology book by Roger Olsen entitled ‘God in Dispute’. It contains 29 imagined conversations (indeed, many of them could be called arguments!) between theologians, ranging from the 2nd century to the 21st century. One of these is an imagined 16th century conversation between Jacob Arminius and John Calvin. We don’t need to concern ourselves here with the subject of their conversation – suffice it to say that Calvin and Arminius had very different views on a number of theological topics and Calvinists and Arminians have been debating these issues ever since.

What is clear, however, is that Christians have held divergent views about their faith ever since the word ‘Christian’ came into being. But the most important question for us today is: does this apparent division within the Church of Christ really matter? Is it such a bad thing? Indeed, should we even think of what we politely call ‘denominationalism’ as division, or rather think of it as diversity?

Well, let’s think more widely. It seems to me that everything about Creation tells us that God loves diversity! Consider life on Earth: the global biodiversity is massive – 1.7 million species of living things are known about, but it’s estimated there may be up to a trillion different species on Earth!

Then thinking about ourselves – Homo sapiens – there are 7.8 billion of us and, again, we are all different. So often we concentrate on the problems caused by these differences – seen as discrimination based on race, religion, culture, gender, sexual orientation, social status, political persuasion.....the list goes on! But think about how much poorer, how much ‘less rich’, our lives would be without this diversity – if we all looked the same, spoke the same, thought the same, liked the same things.

So that brings us back to diversity amongst Christians. Perhaps we should celebrate our diversity rather than agonise over it. Perhaps God rejoices in our diversity – and so should we. Perhaps, also, in a spirit of humility we should be prepared to admit that none of us have got it totally right, because God’s truth is a greater truth and, perhaps, a simpler truth, than any of us can completely comprehend.

With this is mind, let me mention another of the imagined conversation in Olson’s book ‘God in Dispute’, this time between Thomas Aquinas and Francis of Assisi. This imaginary conversation takes place in 1274, early in the year in which Thomas died, and forty-eight years after Francis died. So, in this encounter, the soon-to-die Thomas is visited by the spirit of the long-dead Francis. Olson emphasises the differences in theological outlook between these two saints in the title of the piece, which is ‘Medieval scholastic philosopher-theologian Thomas Aquinas and tree-hugger Francis of Assisi enthuse on how to know God’. Here’s the final part of their conversation, with me as Thomas, Ricky as Francis and Sue as Narrator:

THOMAS: Our God is the one that Aristotle’s philosophy aimed at proving. God is perfect. Perfection is incapable of change. A change must be either for better or worse, but God is already perfect and therefore cannot be improved or impoverished. What is already perfect cannot change. Therefore, God is pure actuality without potentiality and is immutable and impassible.

FRANCIS: Sounds good—as a syllogism. But what does this immutable and impassible God have to do with the God of Jesus Christ and of the Bible? I’ve come to warn you, Thomas, that although you’ve done much good for God’s cause on earth, your love for philosophy and the authority you grant philosophy in theology are dangerous.

THOMAS: Uh-oh. God sent you to tell me that? Maybe it’s time for that contemplation exercise you mentioned earlier.

FRANCIS: Yes, it’s time. Let’s open all the windows and sit here in silent meditation. Ask God to fill your heart with love for nature and show you his presence in all things.

NARRATOR: The warble of birds and the rustle of trees in the breeze wafts through the windows.

FRANCIS: So now what do you have to say, Brother Thomas?

THOMAS: All that I have written appears to be as much straw after the things that have been revealed to me.

FRANCIS: Good! Then my work here is done. Peace be with you!

Olsen goes on to comment that: Those final words of Thomas Aquinas (that is “All that I have written appears to be as much straw after the things that have been revealed to me”) are not, in fact, invented; this is what he actually said near the end of his life. Nobody knows for sure what he meant. Apparently he had some kind of mystical experience of God that made all his theological work pale in comparison to what was revealed there.

So, perhaps the finer points of doctrinal disagreements mean far more to us than they do to God. It seems that the well-known 20th century theologian, Karl Barth, understood this. When he was asked by a student if he could summarise his theology in a single sentence he replied, “In the words of a song I learned at my mother's knee: 'Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.” And, ultimately, isn’t that all that matters for us all, whatever our denominational label?

We heard in Psalm 128 that ‘Happy is everyone who fears the Lord, who walks in his ways.’ The angel who spoke to John in the reading we heard from Revelation put it very simply: ‘Worship God!’ And Jesus confirmed in the passage we heard from Luke’s Gospel: all that truly matters is that we love God, and love one another.

So, perhaps we should celebrate our denominational diversity, because diversity is a wonderful part of being human and that’s how God has made us. After all, ‘Variety is the spice of life’! But, at the same time, we need to acknowledge and pray for a better understanding of that which unifies all who ‘call on the name of Jesus’ – and that is God’s immeasurable love for everyone of us. It is this love that every individual, wonderfully unique person in the world needs to know, and we are the ones that Jesus expects to make this known. So, in the coming days, please give some thought to this: in what ways do others see God’s love shining through your life?