Gifted Diversity

Do you think these passages today are about new birth, or are they about widening and broadening of humanity?  At Pentecost last year, we considered these passages in the context of birth stories, but this year I would like to consider them in the context of the broadening diversity of God’s world and God’s children.  Both of our passages today engage the meta-story of how the Oneness of God becomes the Manyness of the universe.  And while the stories of Pentecost and the Tower of Babel are about expansion and variation, they invite us into the next question of how we, as God’s children, engage the gift of God’s diversity.  God gifted the world its diversity.  Now, what do we do with it?

Will you join me in prayer?  “Holy Spirit, who births and broadens us and creation, be here in your diverse church.  Come into this place in eternal Pentecost.  Make us One in Christ.  Come, Holy Spirit, Come.  Amen.”

Imagine the Holy Spirit, promised in the Gospels by Jesus, breathing through flames upon the gathered new church in our story in Acts, the Holy Spirit scattering the church into lingual diversity all across the world.  Now imagine the presence of God in the Hebrew Scriptures, watching as the young human race strives for greatness.  Imagine God responding to humanity’s arrogance by gifting and scattering humanity into the world with many languages.  These two stories are about the continuing creation story, re-telling how the Oneness of God urges creation into the Manyness of the universe—the many stars, many planets, many animals, many humans.  This beautiful glorious diversity of the cosmos is God’s handiwork, and God’s love for creation is always creating new things where only the oneness of God had been before. 

These birthing and broadening stories are the first half of the larger meta-story of God’s work in the world.  While the one God births the diversity of creation, as in our stories today, our Bible also contains stories of God’s work in the world inviting us to transform the diversity of God’s creation back into the oneness of God’s family.  If the first meta-story is the diversity of God’s creation, then the second meta-story of the Bible is God’s work in the world transforming the many children of God back into the One gathered community of God.   This is how Jesus framed his ministry in the world in John 17, which we referenced last week.  In fact, verse 21 of John 17 is the source of our motto for the United Church of Christ, “that they may all be one.”  It is God’s desire that we be one in this church, even as God’s creative work continually creates diversity.  The church is the ongoing second meta-story of manyness of the world being re-unified into the oneness of God’s family.

If we were going to use the Hebrews Scriptures to illustrate these meta-stories, we would use the Tower of Babel story for the sermon illustration of God’s work of diversity in the world, and we might use the Book of Ruth as the sermon illustration pointing to how God desires God’s diverse people to transform into One community under God.  In the Book of Ruth, a foreign woman from hated Moab comes to Israel and enters the lineage of King David, a very honored place in Judaism.  Even though Ruth was a triple-outsider (a woman, a foreigner from Moab and a non-Jew) she was included into the story of Israel’s very heart.  In other words, Ruth illustrates how the manyness of the world becomes one in God’s story.

In the New Testament, our story from Acts on Pentecost where the new church is given the gift of various languages would be our illustration for the gifts of diversity.  But where shall we look for a story to use as an illustration of the many becoming One in the community of God?  Certainly one of the most common New Testament metaphors would be Paul’s metaphor of the Body, where the many diverse parts become the One body of Christ in the church.  Another common metaphor would be Jesus’ use of the vine in John, where Jesus says, “I am the vine, you are the branches.”  Indeed, we are all one.

The ongoing challenge of faith communities is to transform the diversity of humanity back onto Oneness of God, assisted by the Holy Spirit.  In our tradition, Jesus challenges us to embrace the gift of the Spirit at Pentecost to re-gather the diverse world back into the unified church.  But, as we all know, embracing diversity is hard work, but whether we individually succeed or fail, the meta-story remains the same: God yearns for us to join back together as One.

However, even as God desires our unity, some people use the very diversity of humanity to say that because God made us different we should be treated differently—for example, men are to be treated differently than women, or different races or nationalities are to be treated differently.  But this way of thinking is opposed to God’s Gospel of unconditional love.  The Gospel of love invites us to embrace the diversity of humanity, treating everyone justly and equally.  God’s invitation is for us to embrace justice and equality, following the model of God’s love in treating all of God’s children equally.  Gender, race, whom we love, skin color, hair color, right-handedness, mental ability, physical ability, national origin, language -- all of these are a consequence of the first half of the meta-story—Gods’ glorious gifted diversity.  The result of the first half of the meta-story is the diversity of human tribe, nation, race and ethnicity.  Without God, the history of the human race is sadly warring against differences, warring against one another in pain and suffering.  But there is an alternate history, an alternate meta-story where God invites us to embrace diversity and work together in unity. 

This is the real work of the church.  We are challenged to embrace and live the second half of the meta-story where God dreams of human unity, living and caring in compassion for one another in inclusion, acceptance, and love for all of our brothers and sisters.  The real work of the church, and for us as individuals, is the work of forgiveness because of our diversity. 

Here I need to make a confession to you.  During the past months, I have placed my need to be right ahead of the needs of the church.  But I am learning as your new pastor that the reign of God has much more to do with right relationships than with being privately right. And so, as you may have been affected by my sin of pride, I ask for your forgiveness, and I forgive you so that we can work together for the good of the church.  We are a diverse church, and the work of diversity is ongoing and complex.  May God be with all of us on this challenging journey.

The second half of our meta-story is God’s dream of a diverse and unified family of God, caring for one another, even in our differences.  And for us, here at Spring Glen Church, the champion and hero of the second half of our meta-story is Jesus, the head of our church, who invites us to be the place where the many diverse people of the world become one in love and compassion.  And so, we celebrate our differences at Spring Glen as we embrace our gifted diversity. 

Here we declare that we especially welcome all who are single, or are single parents, married folks, whether you are with or without kids, divorced folks, widowed, gay, lesbian, questioning, wondering folks, and we welcome you here whether you are proudly normal or proudly different.  You are welcome here if you are very rich, or very poor or very in-between; whether you have a job or not, whether you are looking for a job or not, or whether you are blissfully retired. 

You are welcome here no matter what your longevity, whether a burbling newborn, or a discrete “woman of a certain age.”  You are welcome here if you walk, roll, use crutches or slowly use a cane to come down this aisle, whether you know us all by name, or do not yet know a single name. 

You are welcome here if you can’t see well or hear well or think well right now—we have all been there at some time or other.  You are welcome here if you are an opera singer or shy shower-singer, if you can’t sing or are a world-class musician.  You are welcome here if your skin is pale, or freckled, or any of a hundred shades of beautiful brown.  You are welcome here if you speak English at home, or Spanish, or Italian, or urban slang; your language doesn’t matter, because here, we all speak love. 

You are welcome here no matter what foods you like, or which clothes you wear, or what music you listen to.  You are welcome here if you have body ink, or piercings, or both or neither.  You are welcome here whether you are a Red Sox fan or Yankee fan—or even a Giants fan, whether your football is round or shaped like a pigskin.  You are welcome here if you are happy or sad, whether you do or do not feel like you fit in; whether you are down in the dumps or just wondering what it’s all about. 

We welcome you here if you think the world was created in seven days or seven eons, whether you think organized religion is awesome or hopelessly out-of-date—because we’ve wondered that at times, too.  We welcome you here if you came to see for yourself, or because grandma is in town and made you come, or because your GPS messed up, and you are lost and looking for Best Video. 

We offer a special welcome to those of you who come needing a prayer today;  to those of you who have had religion shoved down your throat as a kid and just need a safe place to worship without any guilt. We welcome you who love your church elsewhere, but are looking for a faith community where women are treated equally to men.  Here, all are equal in God’s love, even those of us who have sinned or wronged others. 

We welcome you here if this is your 800^th time or your first time, whether you are church shopping for a home for you and your children, or are just passing by.  Here, we welcome strangers, inquirers, seekers, tourists, doubters, friends, wanderers and all those who are just plain lost. 

Because, no matter who you are, and no matter where you are on life’s journey, you are welcome here.  On this day of Pentecost, in our gifted diversity, here we claim God’s promise, “that we all may be made one.”  Come Holy Spirit.  Unite us in your diverse church.  Amen!

Acts 2:1-21

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.

Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappa-docia, Pontus and Asia, Phry-gia and Pam-phylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.” All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” But others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.”

But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, “Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel: ‘In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy. And I will show portents in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and smoky mist. The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day. Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’