Conformity as a Loss of Mystery
some thoughts on unity and individuality
Unity without diversity is not true unity, for no two humans are alike, which means that anything that looks like unity in conformity is actually two or more people not being themselves.
A marriage is one of the most intimate unions imaginable, but there is not a couple out there that has 100% of everything in common. And, honestly, I don’t know if I could handle that; I’m a bit much.
But we’ve talked about this before. We’ve talked about how unity cannot be based upon conformity because it would mean that we all reach the same conclusions at the same time, having followed the same trajectory.
And the idea that there is a magical list of “essentials” or “salvation issues” out there is preposterous. In fact, if you start quizzing people on what is essential versus nonessential, you’ll have a tough time finding the same two lists after just a few obvious (to that groups’s) entries.
On a retreat I attended, my friend Tara said something similar to the title of this post—at least that’s how I summarized it in my notes.
Our differences don’t only matter because they add some variety or spice to life, but our differences let us know that we are each an infinitely knowable being that is infinitely loved by God. That is, I could live with my wife Laura for one hundred years, but I would never get to the point where I would know everything about her.
I don’t even know everything about myself, which is why I get so excited when a friend of mine reveals an observation they’ve made about me; it’s often something that’s flown under my radar or something I didn’t have language for yet.
Anyway, if we were all the same—all white or Black, all male or female, all Church of Christ or Baptist, all Auburn fans or Alabama fans—then we would lose the mystery.
There are two things that are simultaneously true:
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3:28
After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands; Revelation 7:9
How can both of these passages be true?
Well, on the one hand, we can have perfect unity in the body of Christ; our differences do not define us or separate us as they do in other areas of society. The body of Christ is meant to follow in Jesus’s steps by rupturing that wall of division for everyone.
On the other hand, our unity doesn’t mean uniformity. Our identity doesn’t dissolve in the body of Christ; it’s what makes the body so beautiful. Moses and Elijah appeared as Moses and Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration, not as disembodied, unidentifiable spirits.
So we don’t have unity DESPITE our differences; we have unity BECAUSE of our differences.
Proverbs 27:17 says that we sharpen one another as iron sharpens iron. When we have that friction, it makes us alive and sharp, not dead and dull. So, when Christ, who is the Word of God, the sharp two-edged sword, the one who pierces us to our soul, comes into our life, we are invited to a great sharpening of who we are. As we are conformed to the image of Christ (not the image of each other or of one particular expression of the faith), the thing that makes us different—call it a gift or talent or whatever—is sharpened, and because it becomes sharp, not dull, the unity actually increases.
There is a direct relationship between the sharpness of our originality and the unity within the body of Christ. So when our originality is dulled by expectations of conformity, the body of Christ actually suffers.
And this holy mystery is lost.
There is no infinite you to explore because we only can see the finite you that is you separated from who you are meant to be. Only when you are joined to Christ, that is, when you are in tune with who God made you to be, are we able to enjoy the infinite you, the you created in God. Because the false self, in this example the dull self, is not actually you.
As long as the illusion holds, the mystery is gone, you remain dull (to others but also to yourself), and the body of Christ appears to be divided. But when the Sword that is eternally forged in the fires of love pierces your heart, the spell breaks, you appear, and we are invited into the grand mystery that is you, a mystery that can be infinitely explored because it is joined to the Infinite Creator, Love Incarnate.
Do you see, then, why conformity is so destructive? Do you see why we have to say both “there is no Jew and Greek” while simultaneously recognizing the multi-lingual chorus before the throne of God?
My friends, we have to get this. The body of Christ needs this, I need this, you need this, and the world needs this.
You are beautiful. You are loved. We need you, all of you.
A Prayer
The day after writing this post, I wrote this prayer in my journal:
I feel as if my heart is expanding to
fill the hole/ whole that is me. Will I
protest against this coming into myself,
or will I embrace this joyful flourishing?
May your iron sharpen mine, oh Lord.
May I offer to you my own soul and spirit
to be divided so I can continue to grow.
We’ve moved through order, disorder,
and reorder together in theology.
Now let’s do me.