The church, from the very beginning, was designed to be a community of "Unlikes," a community of "Differents." There is a palpable tension in the New Testament around the inclusion of the Gentiles in the early church. Christianity was born out of the Jewish faith, and there came points along the way where there was pressure to let Gentiles be part of it. But God's plan—from the very beginning—was for Jewish and Gentile Christians to worship together, and do life together, and sort out the tensions and disagreements together, in the shadow of the cross and in the shadow of an abundant communion table.

Now, the dislike and hatred between these two groups cannot be overstated. Let me put it this way: If the Jew-Gentile tension was a great Dane, the Democrat-Republican tension is a toy poodle. It doesn't compare. God's plan was to pull them together as one people united under King Jesus to witness to a chaotic world how powerful and good He is.

The church is supposed to be a society of different people who are seeking first the Kingdom of God, and navigating everything—including political chaos—in a way that is in sharp contrast to how it's done everywhere else. So we're talking about politics because we, Oak Hills Church, have a marvelous opportunity to demonstrate who Jesus really is, and sort out the political tensions and disagreements in the shadow of the cross and in the shadow of an abundant communion table.