Diversity

     I had the opportunity to preach at my home church here in Indiana Pennsylvania. I seem to get the opportunity to fill in for the pastor when he and his wife are able to visit family. The last time I preached was on Labor Day weekend. As I was preparing my sermon, I reflected and prayed on what I should preach. Did I want to talk about what led to the making Labor Day a nation holiday? The result of  a protest parade held in New York City following the shooting of laborers by the government. Another thought was that in most of the churches I served the county fair was around Labor Day. This was true for the county that Nancy and I live. I’ve always enjoyed seeing the many exhibits and the talent of so many people. It mattered not what type of ribbon they one but what mattered was their willingness to share their creation. It reminded me of how diverse people are and how important it is to honor their  diversity. 

    I began to think about how we have tried to eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion in our society. As I continued to reflect on this, Paul’s letter to the Romans seemed to inform my thinking. Romans 12:1-8 is the passage that I was reading. In summary, Paul was saying we should never think to highly of ourselves or spend so much time judging others and their gifts but to take the gifts that God has given each of us through the Holy Spirit and use them for the benefit of our world. 1 Corinthians 12 also talks about this comparing our gifts using the metaphor of our body. I felt that this was the nudge I needed as I prepared. (BTW one can see the sermon on YouTube at Trinity UMC Indiana.)

    So I tried to think about what would be a good illustration to convey the importance of diversity.  The image that came in mind was a jigsaw puzzle. I used a children’s puzzle to illustrate that each piece of the puzzle was unique. It wasn’t until all the pieces were in place did one have the complete puzzle. I pointed out that each of God’s creation is unique. We have differing fingerprints and different DNA. That it’s important that we all need to use our differences to make the church, community, nation, and the world complete.

    Throughout history, there have been efforts to do away with different ideas, cultures, religions, and people who look different. In more recent times, this has been at the turn of the 20th century eugenics. The idea of making us homogeneous. One of the banned books by Huxley “Brave New World”, talked about the ability to program children to be the same. Nazi Germany talked about the ideal “Aryan Race” This was based on the idea of eugenics. The manipulation of genetics to produce a superior race that was popular at the turn of the 20th century. Today we continue to see ways of denying race, culture, and history to do away with diversity, equity, and inclusion.

    Going back to jigsaw puzzles. I am not a fan of putting them together. I enjoy the finished product but often get frustrated with the process. I find a piece that looks like it should fit but doesn’t. So I try to force into place, rather than accept that it doesn’t work. I often wonder how many times we try to force people to fit our preconceived notions. I believe it has been true of churches, communities, government, and even the world. We often choose to not celebrate differences for a variety of reasons. Yet like a jigsaw puzzle, the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. It is in the putting together of the diverse parts, that the beauty is most evident. Our local paper printed a quote by Gene Roddenberry, creator of Star Trek. “If men are to survive, he will have learned to take delight in the essential differences between men and between cultures. He will learn that differences in ideas and attitudes are a delight , part of life’s exciting variety, not something to fear.”

    Paul stated that we are all gifted with differing gifts. We are called to use those gifts to create a better world. We are not called to use those gifts for ourselves but rather for others. We also should not brag about how great our gift is compared to others. I ended my sermon with this. Why should we celebrate diversity, equity, and inclusion? DEI leads to better problem solving, stronger community, and better learning opportunities. We need to use our diversity, our gifts, to a world that is desperately in need of hope and love. Truly make the world greater than the sum of the parts.