What's with this unity thing, anyway...

It's everywhere in our little community. All generations - preschoolers to grandparents. People are missing work for it; school has been cancelled for it. Tears have been shed over it.
You know...School Pride.
We head to the state tournament tomorrow. Another check written for tickets, more money sent to school for yet another "school spirit" t-shirt. Fresh yellow and blue ribbons bought for the braids the girls will wear. Vans all over town with their windows painted with our school colors, favorite players' numbers, basketballs, megaphones. You know, all united for the cause.

Why isn't it that way for the Church? I don't know how many times in the last 18 months I've been asked "isn't that the church that....?"
You know, some churches have praise teams, some have a song leader. Some sing songs 300 years old, some sing songs 3 years old. Some let women pass the plates, some let women only work in nursery. In some, a man never sets foot in the nursery unless it's to serve communion. We interpret the scripture this way, they interpret the same scripture that way. Our kids wear jeans to morning services, only "church" clothes allowed in others.
All the differences aren't a problem until....we judge each other and declare each other wrong.

How can so many of us - all from different economic, religious, educational backgrounds come together to support a basketball team, when only a small portion of us even have a child on the squad? Because we want to show our school spirit, our community pride. We want to show that we support what this coach and these students have done.

But, even those of us who are huddled under the same umbrella of church names, can't unite for The Cause. The cause of Jesus - showing Him, living Him, being Him. So what's with this unity thing anyway and why can't we get it right?