There are days when I think peace is no longer part of our society's vocabulary. However, this thought is quickly erased when I look in the right places. While we often talk about peace during the holiday season, what does it really mean? Why would God "fill you with joy and peace as you trust in Him?" There are many different answers to these questions, but the one I feel should be the most immediately addressed comes from the need to build community. I am not just talking about Methodist communities, but also interfaith communities, interracial communities, and interdenominational communities. Yes, I am saying we should be willing to befriend a Baptist.

Every day I look out my window into a rapidly segregating society; we tend to associate primarily with persons of similar socioeconomic class, political party, religion and race. To a limit, I see no problem with this. It is human nature to want to be around people of similar ideals and backgrounds. The problem comes when we become exclusionary. If a dirty, impoverished woman walked into church one day, would you welcome her, invite her to sit next to you? If an Islamic man said hello to you on the city bus, how would you respond? I guess a more important question here is would you even be willing to ride the city bus? The point I am trying to make is that we as St. Stephen United Methodist Church need defy the stereotypes society has set up for us.

Paul writes to the Romans, "Accept one another...just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God." It may be asking a lot of you to acknowledge a Jew, a person of another race, or even a person of the opposing political party, let alone respect and appreciate their existence as a fellow human being, but I hope not. Some of my closest friends are Catholic, Baptist, African-American, and Islamic but it took work for me to get there. I had to learn to value differences in opinion and I quickly understood that I was becoming a stronger, more well-rounded human being because of the relationships I was forming. I am not asking you to go force yourself on someone, but rather let us try and break the stereotype that Christians are exclusionary and intolerant. If anything, let us become one as a body of Christ. The first step towards valuing those who are different than us is to be able to respect the people most similar to us. It is difficult for one person alone to challenge the odds, but if we as St. Stephen United Methodist Church could become the community I think we can be, great things will happen in Charlotte.