<a href="http://www.halfwaytonormal.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/peace.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-489" title="peace" src="http://www.halfwaytonormal.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/peace.jpg" alt="" width="411" height="458" /></a>
<h5 style="padding-left: 300px;">Photo by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/rs-foto/">rs-foto</a></h5>
<strong>I think it's pretty safe to say that nothing gets more in the way of peace than our differences.</strong> Different values and beliefs, opposing goals, different affiliations and approaches to problem-solving—they all tend to result in something bad, whether it's constant bickering or deadly violence.

This has been on my mind a lot, lately. I listen to news stories on NPR about the health care debate and the escalating problems in Afghanistan. All of the tension is rooted in differences. I try to address issues at my daughters' schools, where a classroom of kids can have so many different educational and emotional needs—how can everyone be properly cared for? I think about why my first marriage failed, and my overwhelming frustration with the many ways we were different. Could we ever have overcome that?
<h4>Ephesians is all about embracing a whole new way to handle differences</h4>
The pastors at my church have been teaching this fall on the book of Ephesians, so we also decided to study it in our small group. One of the first things our pastor pointed out is that the word "you" is used by Paul over 100 times in  Ephesians, but only <em>once</em> is the "you" in the Greek singular form. In other words, <strong>Paul isn't talking about an individual faith or personal goal we should each be striving for, he's talking about a communal process of faith.</strong>

It's hard enough for a group of people to band together and do something collectively; when stark differences are involved, it can be nearly impossible. That's what's so amazing to me about the book of Ephesians. This collective group Paul is writing to includes both the Jews and Gentiles—two groups that had historically seen each other in stark contrast and division. And they weren't joining together to throw a party or start a business, they were focusing on the very thing that divided them most, and starting a church. Surely, if they were to accomplish such a crazy thing, they'd have to start by abolishing their differences, right? That seems like a reasonable route to peace.

We all know how differences are generally put to rest in a marriage or other personal relationship: lots of coercion, compromise, give and take. You make one decision, I'll make the next. <strong>In less healthy interactions, the person or group that is more powerful—bigger, stronger, more educated or wealthy—just forces everyone else to conform to their ways.</strong>

In the early church, the Jews had that power, both in terms of number and because they had a historical claim on the God the new church was worshiping. They could have easily demanded mass Gentile circumcision or adherence to any of the other Jewish customs and laws. In Acts, we learn there was plenty of debate and discussion about what exactly they should enforce.

<strong>But as it turns out, with Jesus it isn't a "my way or the highway" sort of deal. It isn't even a painful compromise—we'll do some things your way and some things my way, so we'll both be sort of happy and sort of frustrated. Jesus makes it possible to choose a "third way."</strong> Here is how Paul puts it in <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=ephesians+2">Ephesians 2:14-15</a>:
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><em>For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace....</em></p>
The rules, the law—done away with, entirely. Even the wall, the very symbol of division, destroyed. It's not like it was left up but a doorway was cut in the wall so you could take turns visiting each other from time to time. It was taken down, completely.
<h4>A dose of hope for the cynics</h4>
It's easy for the cynical among us (a category that often includes me) to say "Well, that's a nice idea, but it isn't very realistic. It's symbolic at best, and anyone who looks at the history of the church can see that the followers of Christ have done a terrible job living this out."

And that's true. Much of church history makes me cringe, and not want to have anything to do with it.

<strong>But what's also true is that this whole movement, which has survived for nearly 2000 years, was built on this principle of embracing, incorporating and celebrating differences. And it wasn't just a nice idea. It happened. </strong>It worked. Not the way things work when we try really hard and put all of our effort into it, but in the more mysterious way things work when we trust something bigger.

And I believe this "third way" can keep working in our world, wherever there is no peace because of our differences.