Church #5 The Church Doesn't Need Us to be all the Same 2/2/20

Rev. Dr. Rebecca L. Kiser

The Church Doesn’t Need Us All to Be All the Same

2/2/20  Church #5   1 Cor 12 – not lectionary

            11:00 on Sunday mornings as been called the most segregated hour of the week.  That comment is talking about race. I’d expand it to include almost any kind of diversity, because finding a church home has become a process of finding a place we’re comfortable… which inevitably ends up being with people like ourselves. People who look like ourselves, people who are economically like ourselves, people who think like we think, people who know how to get along like we do, people whose theology is like ours, and so on.  We like to find a place where we “fit,” because often diversity makes for having to have many long talks, many heavy discussions, having to adjust ourselves to the way other people do things, and often feeling uncomfortable.  Our Roman Catholic sisters and brothers, by being geographically assigned to a certain parish, had to deal more with diversity than we Protestants, who enjoyed church shopping fo a place where we fit without too much trouble - and there were a lot of choices.  Many Roman Catholics now feeling freer to go to different parishes where they like the priest or the way things are done, instead of staying in their geographic parish and waiting out the current priest’s tenure.  

            I have a lot of sympathy for looking for a good fit in a church home - I mean, as my own theology changed, I gave up on my Baptist roots; and I enjoy sitting under a pastor whose sermons I respect and whose theology is similar in ways important to me.  And over the years of searching for calls to various churches, I’ve learned to be upfront about my theology in my search documents, and avoid the fights that would emerge once they started hearing my sermons.

            Yet while I understand this seeking of people like me, I’m not totally happy that churches are this way.  Because it seems to me that the message of Christ speaks the best when it speaks across lines of diversity, and the equality and worth of all people in Christ’s body the church, and Christ’s kingdom.  I mean, it normal for us humans to seek out the comfort of “people like me.” 

            Sometimes when I’m fed up with church wrangling, and when the Presbyterians keep batting an issue back and forth every year in the national gatherings, I (halfway) joke and say I’m going to start my own church and name it, “The Church of People Like Me.”  I did find a home in the Presbyterian Church (USA), where I feel I am respected for who I am and can talk on an even keel with people; people who respect the calling of women to ministry, for example; people who are not listeralists when they read Scripture, for another example.  We’ve got a range of viewpoints in the denomination, and a good system of finding excellent language that focuses on our places of agreement about what is important to faith.  While we’re still mostly white folks, we are addressing issues of racism and seeking to minister together. 

            The early first churches founded by the apostles and disciples of Jesus, of necessity were broadly egalitarian - those who followed Christ in a city were a small minority, and met together to grow and learn and support each other despite differences like being Jews and Greeks together, some being slaves and others wealthy.  So the message of God’s welcome to all people     was visually and obviously being lived out.  Not that it was easy….  Because it’s radically different from how humans tend to slip towards homogenous tribes.  Because it calls for a different way of living and loving each other -  not just tolerance, but essential oneness.  In the early days, the Christ-followers are said to have shared everything, so that no one knew a lack; the poor and the powerless were cared for by those who had more of the world’s goods.  But this turned out to be difficult to maintain as time went on and the culture around them pressured  them to live like others of their kind.  It may be naive of me,  yet I wish the churches of today evidenced more of this radical oneness. 

            On top of these cultural, class and ethnic distinctions, the apostle Paul goes on to recognize yet another kind of diversity - the diversity of what he calls spiritual gifts, the inclinations and talents of certain people which go towards the whole life of the church.  In fact, the apostle Paul says that the Holy Spirit does this diversity on purpose, so that the church will have everything it needs to build each other up, mature and spread the gospel.  Paul writes that these gifts are given “for the common good,” not for individual glory.  And that the purpose of these gifts is the building up of the body of Christ.

            The passage we read from his first letter to the church in Corinth has a kind of list, and there’s another in his letter to the church at Ephesus.  The Greek word is charis, c-h-a-r-i-s; at some times in Christian history these abilities have been called charisms; and that’s where the word “charismatic” came from, in reference to people who spoke in tongues.  Paul, by the way, says that that is a rather lesser gift, and not to get bent out of shape about it, as people evidently tended to be rather flamboyant about it. 

            Anyway, spiritual gifts have become a topic of much writing in the recent years, with lists abounding and spiritual gift inventories available.  As the apostle Paul didn’t really write down exact definitions of the gifts that are mentioned, some speculation has entered the picture.  In our passage in 1 Corinthians 12, Paul mentions an utterance of wisdom and an utterance of knowledge, gifts of faith and healing and working miracles, prophecy and the discernment of spirits, speaking in tongues and interpreting tongues.  Later in this same chapter he names apostles, prophets and teachers, “helps” and administration.  In the letter to Ephesus he additionally names pastor and evangelist.  In the letter to the Roman church, he adds serving, exhortation, giving, leadership and mercy.  Some Christ-followers believe these charisms are only given out by the Spirit and have nothing to do with innate inclinations of personality types or talents.  I personally don’t see why God would ignore a person’s inclinations towards liking order, for example, and ignore the cultivation of that; or overlook a musical genius, or a sensitivity to others, or an innate ability to lead, or a poetic mind or an enjoyment of children.  We bring all of who we are to God; and God uses us as God wills.  All that we are can be used for God’s glory.  Its true sometimes gifts show up in unexpected places - not just stereotypically in the wealthy or those from “good” families.  People are amazingly unique, and there is certainly a hand of God at work in finding gold even when it’s pretty hidden and unexpected. 

            I’ve been intrigued with all the different ways there are to try and understand human personalities.  This didn’t come from my family’s inclinations - or maybe it did in the sense that I didn’t fit in well, and kept trying to figure it all out.  I enjoyed learning about the Myers-Briggs Type Inventory, which was a popular tool that emerged from the writings of Carl Jung - it had a big heyday in seminaries as well as in business, the making up of work teams that would include people of different strengths.  Later I was intrigued by the Multiple Intelligence theories, which made an impact on education and Church School curriculum. I eagerly read the personality theories of Piaget, Erikson, Kohlberg, Transactional Analysis, moral development, emotional development - and the work of James Fowler who used these theories to look at faith development in people at various ages and stages.  That’s my bent, you see, trying to understand and figure out.

If we look at children, we recognize that some have the ability to concentrate more easily than others; some are more physically adept; some take to reading and others have to strain at it; some take to math and others don’t.  Some are good workers, some jump at any distraction.  I learned a new word this week - hyperlexia - the precocious ability to read words without prior training in learning to read, typically before the age of 5.  A friend posted about it, saying she finally had a name for what her mom told her about herself.  Mozart composed his first piece at age 5, and was performing at 6.  I remember being in college as a music major, and my professor had a 9 year old coming straight from soccer practice to play for us one afternoon - he played better than I did, effortlessly….I realized the boundary of my own ability right there - although of course I do enjoy and comprehend music in an educated way, I was a long way from genius. 

People called to ministry have different strengths - we can learn and strengthen our skills, and work on developing on our weaker places, but we are all different - except that we have heard the calling of God towards this place in the church.  Some can lead find-raisers, some are extroverted and go out meeting people easily; some have a more scholarly bent, some can learn the BIblical languages easily and can enrich how we understand our texts.  Some have a more natural empathy, some can organize offices while others work best with piles of stuff around them. Some are good with technology and others might be gifted educators.  Thank God that some people in the church are great with details and managing money, some are good with music  & others with children.  Some enjoy cooking and some enjoy organizing.  Some eat up the details of Bible study and others are known as powerful pray-ers.   Some have creative ideas, some make friends fast, some enjoy the caring of hospital visits.  Some like the hands-on of mission trips, some are skilled at how machines work and building things.  Some have a heart for mission in the world, and some have that urge to make the world better through civil involvement.  Some are good salt-of-the-earth folks that can be depended on for anything. Some are capable of deep insight into issues of justice and moral healing. 

The church needs us all.  All of us have a place in God’s church.  All of our abilities and gifts can be used for God’s kingdom.  And all of our differences are usable  for building up the body of Christ, and are given for the common good. 

The apostle Paul compares the differences in people’s gifts to the way cells in our bodies are shaped to form different organs and body parts.  A body can’t be all eyes or all hands, or all lungs or all toes.  Bodies are made of a huge variety of different parts doing their thing, and thus making the whole function.  It’s a good example of diverse people working together.

This last week at the MLK Jr event at Syracuse University, I was privileged to hear Dr. Raphael Warnock, who is currently the senior pastor at Ebenezer Baptist church in Atlanta, where Dr King as his father before him both pastored.  He made a point about the prophetic text we often read in Advent and Christmas, where the prophet exclaims that the glory of God would be seen by all flesh together.  He opened a new view on those words for me, because I’ve usually imagined that all people would be standing with open mouths and wide eyes when the glory of God is revealed.  All flesh shall see it together.  Dr. Warnock offered this turn of the crystal so to speak - that only when we humans are all one, all diversity embraced and all honored together, when all flesh is together as one, will we be able to see the glory of God - because it takes the viewpoint of all the parts of humanity to ever embrace the wideness of God’s glory.  Because while we are all in God’s image, God’s image is completed when all flesh is together as one.  That’s a great take on the words of the prophet, and I will never hear those words again without hearing that call to inclusivity as a prerequisite for seeing God’s glory.  We are indeed one body of Christ, in all of our ways of difference, and the call to us is to seek that oneness that overrides all diversity, and yet is fulfilled in the embracing of that diversity. 

 May it be so for us here at JCC.  May we value one another, and anyone and everyone that God sends to this gathering of Christ-followers.  May we be able to stretch our love and our understanding towards all persons in this community, and witness to the One Body of Christ.  AMEN.