Lumpers & Splitters
In Genesis Adam is everyone. So, we’re all made of earth dust and God image.
In Jesus’ story, we see someone from a specific place and time, but his ministry presses beyond the approved boundaries of “us” and “them”. As Chalice Worship puts it, Jesus the Son of God and our Savior “was born of Hebrew mother, but rejoiced in the faith of a Syrian woman and a Roman soldier, welcomed the Greeks who sought him, and suffered a man from Africa to carry his cross…”
In Acts chapter 2 the disciples are wowed because God’s Spirit reaches out to Jewish people from all different languages, homelands, and cultures.
In Acts 11 it’s because God’s Spirit reaches out to people who aren’t even Jewish.
In Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12, and Galatians 3, the Apostle Paul celebrates the diversity of people, but highlights the startling good news that they are all one.
On and on it goes.
I had a professor who said people tend to be lumpers or splitters.
A splitter is someone who focuses on how things (music, food, people, whatever) are different from one another; a lumper focuses on how things are similar.
Obviously, there are advantages and risks to both approaches.
Yet I sense our better angels lean in the direction of lumping.
For it is in perceiving our deep, uniting similarities that we give birth to our compassion and our capacity to do onto others as we would have done to ourselves.
It is in claiming the bedrock of shared dignity and value that we set the stage for our differences to create beauty and not wreak destruction.
For God’s sake (literally) please see other people as sharing the image and love of God you claim to enjoy.
And act accordingly.
In Jesus’ story, we see someone from a specific place and time, but his ministry presses beyond the approved boundaries of “us” and “them”. As Chalice Worship puts it, Jesus the Son of God and our Savior “was born of Hebrew mother, but rejoiced in the faith of a Syrian woman and a Roman soldier, welcomed the Greeks who sought him, and suffered a man from Africa to carry his cross…”
In Acts chapter 2 the disciples are wowed because God’s Spirit reaches out to Jewish people from all different languages, homelands, and cultures.
In Acts 11 it’s because God’s Spirit reaches out to people who aren’t even Jewish.
In Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12, and Galatians 3, the Apostle Paul celebrates the diversity of people, but highlights the startling good news that they are all one.
On and on it goes.
I had a professor who said people tend to be lumpers or splitters.
A splitter is someone who focuses on how things (music, food, people, whatever) are different from one another; a lumper focuses on how things are similar.
Obviously, there are advantages and risks to both approaches.
Yet I sense our better angels lean in the direction of lumping.
For it is in perceiving our deep, uniting similarities that we give birth to our compassion and our capacity to do onto others as we would have done to ourselves.
It is in claiming the bedrock of shared dignity and value that we set the stage for our differences to create beauty and not wreak destruction.
For God’s sake (literally) please see other people as sharing the image and love of God you claim to enjoy.
And act accordingly.