Diversity is a God-Given Gift

The lectionary, which is the three-year cycle that assigns readings for each week, aligns with the church seasons.

There is a cycle for each of the synoptic gospels—Matthew, Mark, and Luke—and John gets sprinkled in throughout the years.

The modern lectionary was developed in 1969 as part of the Second Vatican Council.

1969 is also the year of the Stonewall riots, which are generally considered to be the beginning of the LGBTQ+ civil rights movement.

I think it’s safe to assume that the clergy assembled for Vatican II gave no consideration whatsoever to Stonewall or the nascent gay rights movement.

But honestly, there couldn’t be a better set of readings to kick off Pride month.

Humanity is God’s favorite creation.

We are the only creation that God saw as “very good”.

When we were created, God intended us to be in relationship with God.

But God also intended for us to be in relationship with each other.

In ancient times, people were focused on the community.

They relied on group welfare for survival.

We’ve gotten away from that in our culture.

We are more focused on individualism and personal gain.

That kind of self-importance is not the Way of Jesus.

Because we were created for community.

Today’s first lesson is about the Tower of Babel.

The traditional viewpoint is that God created multiple languages and dispersed humankind as a punishment.

The idea was that humanity was becoming too prideful and were building a tower to reach God.

So God makes them speak different languages to stop them in their tracks.

The tower never gets finished.

And then humankind is dispersed to the four corners of the earth.

It’s what I was taught in Sunday school and I never really questioned it.

It just kind of goes along with the idea that we’re inherently bad.

Adam and Eve were prideful and they wanted to know what God knew.

Those early people in the valley of Shinar were prideful and they wanted to reach the heights of God.

But there’s a problem with that line of thinking.

We know that God is not “up there”.

And, even if God were, we’re not going to reach heaven by building a tower, now are we?

Now, it does sound like people may have been getting prideful—a little too big for their britches, if you will.

But there is another way of looking at God making people speak different languages.

God—the creator—was creating diversity.

Now, maybe you’re saying to yourself, “why would God do that?”

The need for diversity seems counterintuitive.

Differences separate and divide, don’t they?

It’s true, diversity can do that.

But diversity also fosters creativity and innovation.

You see, different life experiences encourage different approaches to problems and challenges.

Diverse groups containing members with different perspectives are more likely to think out of the box and arrive at more creative solutions.

Having a variety of skills and perspectives on a team makes them more resilient and more easily adaptable to changing circumstances.

Diversity in communities can increase tolerance and reduce conflict.

So, diversity strengthens.

Some people look at Pentecost as a “correction” to the Tower of Babel.

But that is simply not true.

It is also supercessionist.

Pentecost did not return humanity to one language.

Multiple languages remained.

The diversity—created by God—remained.

What differed is that each person heard the word in their own language.

The Spirit allows us to relate to each other—despite our differences.

When diversity was a stumbling block to the community, the Spirit intervened.

Because we were created for community.

Today’s story from Genesis tells us that God created diversity.

Diversity is what God intended for us.

Diversity strengthens us—whether that is diversity in language, culture, sexuality, or gender.

Diversity makes communities more resilient.

If diversity divides us—that is our doing, that is not God’s intent,

The story of Pentecost tells us that we can relate to each other—be it through faith, through the example of Jesus, or the action of the Spirit.

In 1 Corinthians, we read, “The body is one, even though it has many parts; all the parts—many though they are—comprise a single body.”

Humanity is the one body.

The many parts is the God-created diversity that we see in each of our siblings—differences in culture, country of origin, language, sexuality, gender identity, and gender expression.

God sees the diversity in creation and says that it is good.

God see the diversity in God’s human children and says that it is very good.

We were made for community, my friends.

Not a boring, cookie cutter community.

But richly diverse community, created by God.

Let us remember that our faith is not simply a belief.

It is meant to be lived out.

And, try as we might, we cannot live out our faith alone.

Jesus showed us that God intended for us to live out our faith in community.

We need each other.

We need people who are different from us.

They make us stronger.

They make us better.

I wish this beautifully diverse congregation a blessed Pentecost and a happy Pride Month.

May you see the differences in all your divinely-created siblings as the gifts that they are.

Because we were created for community.

Thanks be to God!

May this meditation on God’s word keep our hearts and minds on Christ Jesus. Amen.