The last time hubby and I were at Costco we got a 3-pack of turkey lunchmeat. I needed to portion it out into smaller portion-sizes, to put in the freezer.
As I laid the lunchmeat on the kitchen counter to do just that … I couldn’t help but think: “You know, something about this isn’t normal.”
If you have ever cooked (or eaten!) a turkey for Thanksgiving Dinner … then you know what “real” turkey looks (and tastes!) like. No matter if the Thanksgiving Turkey was cooked in a Traeger Smoker, or if it was deep fried, or if it was broiled & basted … we all know what “real” turkey is like.
How about those little frozen Butterball Turkeys? Once again … even though the turkey meat has been stuffed into a little mesh bag … it is still distinctly “real” turkey. The texture looks and feels like “real” turkey. The flavor tastes like “real” turkey. It smells like “real” turkey.
As I looked at the perfectly uniform stacks of turkey lunchmeat, all in the exact same shape, all perfectly sliced to the exact same thickness, all the exact same color, and yes … even the exact same distinctive lunchmeat sliminess, I couldn’t help but think: “You know, a lot of Christians are just like this.”
Religious systems in which everyone is expected to look the exact same way, dress the exact same way, behave the exact same way, think the exact same way, read the exact same things, listen to the exact same things, talk & reason the exact same way, pray the exact same way … this is not normal. In fact, this is every bit as abnormal as the stacks of slimy turkey lunchmeat.
I’m sure the turkey lunchmeat is indeed turkey … it’s just not “real” turkey. I don’t know what’s been done to it … but obviously it has been processed, and squeezed into a mold.
In the same way, Christians who are all exactly the same aren’t “real” either. Just like the turkey lunchmeat, they have been processed by a religious system, and squeezed into a mold.
This is not normal.
“Real” turkey has variations and differences. There are variations and differences in size … Thanksgiving Turkeys come in every size imaginable, and for Thanksgiving Dinner they are sliced up in every portion-size imaginable.
There are differences in the types of meat … “real” turkeys have dark meat and light meat … gizzard meat, liver meat, etc. There are differences in flavor … between the different types of meat. There are differences in moisture … dark meat is juicier, while light meat is dryer.
The variations and differences are what make a “real” turkey taste so good!
When it comes to being a Christian … variations and differences are what make the body of Christ so wonderful! It’s what makes the Church so authentically “real.”
Unity is not the same thing as uniformity. A “real” turkey, with all its wonderful variations and differences, is still a unified Thanksgiving Turkey, which tastes delicious!
Seek Unity.
But beware of uniformity!
