I grew up Southern Baptist. Then I became a Methodist. Then a Presbyterian. Then another kind of Presbyterian. Then a Mennonite. Right now, I go to an Anglican church. But to me it’s always been just church. It’s all pizza, just with different toppings. The thing that drives me nuts is how pissed off all these pizza lovers get because they can’t agree on the toppings.
What I’m about to describe might sound silly if you haven’t hung around church very much, but, trust me, people lose their minds over the finest points of religious doctrine and practice. Churches have split over things like dunking versus sprinkling, wine versus grape juice, infant versus adult baptism, predestination versus free will, transubstantiation versus symbolism, inerrancy versus infallibility of the Bible, contemporary music versus hymns, and hardwood pews versus cushioned ones. (No, I did not make up that last one.)
All these things are just toppings. They are not the pizza. They are not central to the Gospel of Christ. Even controversial topics like homosexuality and abortion, though understandably sensitive issues, do not change the fact that all Christians still follow Jesus Christ and his message of grace, love, and justice. So what’s the big deal as long as we’re all eating pizza?
At the risk of running my pizza metaphor right into the ground, let’s pretend the pizza is The Trinity. The bread is God, the foundation without which there would be no pizza. The sauce is Jesus, without whom we’d just have a bunch of bread and cheese that resembles lots of other foods. And the Holy Spirit is the cheese, our point of contact with the divine in our lives. The stuff we put on top just reflects our individual preferences. Unless some idiot throws on an anchovy and ruins it for everybody, it’s still pizza and it’s still delicious.
Okay, I admit that my Trinity metaphor is a bit … ahem, cheesy. Nevertheless, pizza, like God, can fill you up and make you smile. Pizza brings people together. You order it when you have a party. In fact, you can order different topping on different sides, so everyone is happy. Or you can just get plain cheese pizza. Remember the last time you were at a kids’ party and had cheese pizza? Remember how you thought, “This stuff is really good even without toppings. In some ways it’s even better.” But then you forgot about that and loaded up on mushrooms the next time.
