Birds of a Feather

“Birds of a feather flock together.”  A proverb based in observation.  It’s true.  If you drive across South Park in central Colorado, you may see a herd of cattle, a herd of buffalo and a herd of pronghorn antelope.  But you will rarely see them intermingling.  The different species are not enemies, they’re just different.  They just like to be with their own kind. 

People do the same thing.  We tend to gravitate toward those who resemble us – similar economic status, common age demographic, same skin tone.  We even “herd” with people who like the same stuff we do – baseball, or country music, or the opera.  Even our churches seem to follow this maxim.  We can “flock together” with similar personalities and style preferences.  “I prefer to worship with others who are as expressive as I am,” or, "I like to be with people who see how important traditions are."  

But what if the church is supposed to be different?  What if what hold us together really is stronger than what keeps us apart?  Or, what if our ‘feathers’ were the marks of our common salvation in Christ?  Could we maybe become a different kind of bird altogether?