January 20, 2019 | Rev. Gary Nicolosi
When you think about it, there’s an enormous amount of diversity in God’s creation. Animals run, others hop, some swim, others burrow,and some fly. Each has a particular role to play based on the way they were shaped by God.
The same is true of human beings. We are all the same, yet different. God made everyone and God made everyone unique – and that includes you and me.
I read an interesting article in the online Harvard Business Review lastMay titled “The Three Types of Diversity That Shape Our Identities.”There is demographic diversity tied to our identity of origins – the characteristics that classify us at birth and that we carry around us for the rest of our lives. There also is experiential diversity based on our life experiences that shape our emotional universe. Finally, there is cognitive diversity that makes us look for other minds to complement our thinking.
Trying to harmonize or reconcile our diversities is becoming a major challenge today, not only in the church but in society.
Take, for example, the hearings on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and his accuser Christine Blasey Ford. We can debate forever who was more credible, but what I found fascinating is the different reactions of men and women to the testimonies of both individuals. The majority of men believed Judge Kavanaugh; women believed Dr. Ford. Why the discrepancy?
Well, for one thing, according to the Myers Briggs Personality Type, 60% of men are thinkers while 60% of women are feelers. In every other area of personality, men and women are the same, but not in this one. Men tend to think through issues and women tend to feel through them. This affects how the different sexes make judgments, act in the world, and even perceive reality.
Jordan Peterson, who is the most well-known Canadian psychologist in the world, wrote an interesting article in the National Post that men and women are more similar than different. However, the differences thatdo exist are significant. Professor Peterson wrote: “Men are lessagreeable (more competitive, harsher, tough-minded, skeptical, unsympathetic, critically-minded, independent, stubborn). …Womenare higher in negative emotion, or neuroticism. They experience more anxiety, emotional pain, frustration, grief, self-conscious doubt anddisappointment.”
Another notable difference, says Professor Peterson, is that “men are comparatively more interested in things and women in people.” This, Professor Peterson says, “is the largest psychological difference between men and women yet identified.” (1)
Other studies over the years seem to confirm what Professor Peterson has identified. Harvard Professor Carol Gilligan, for example, in her book In a Different Voice, writes that faced with an important issue,women are more likely to ask, “How is this going to affect the people?What is going to be the human consequences if we do X or Y or Z?” A man is more likely to say, “We got to be sure we are doing the right thing. This is the just thing, the fair thing.” Little boys are more likely to shriek, “It’s not fair.” Little girls are likely to grieve over something that hurts, that it isn’t right because it hurts somebody. Men and women doin fact see the world through different eyes. No wonder that men andwomen sometimes don’t understand each other and come to different conclusion about the truth.
But that’s just one kind of diversity. Human beings are different inmany ways. Men, women, introverts, extroverts, short people, tall people, skinny people, large people, black people, yellow people, brown people, white people. People who take pride in their descent from a particular ethnic group – Italian, Irish, Greek, German, Hispanic, English – and people who take pride in their particular area of the country – New England, California, New York, Virginia, Illinois and right here in Arizona. What a diversity of people!
In today’s epistle, St. Paul talks about spiritual gifts. To one is given theutterance of wisdom, says Paul, to another the utterance of knowledge. To another is given the spirit of faith, to another the gift of healing. To another is given the working of miracles, to another prophecy, and so on. Paul seems to be saying that the same diversity we confront in the world is also found in the church.
Now this may shock you, but did you know that not all of us in this church have the same opinions? Some of us are comforted by the old hymns. Inwardly, they groan when we ask them to learn something new. Others are tired of the old hymns; they want to learn something new. And there are some of us who would rather forego singing altogether. We all have different tastes. We come from a wide variety of backgrounds and that affects our relationship to the church.
Did you know that men and women may hear the gospel through two different sets of ears? Here I may be guilty of over-generalizing, but think with me for a moment. If the experts are right and men think competitively, whereas women think more in terms of relationships, what does that say about the life of the church? Might it be that men respond more positively to a word of challenge, to the setting of goals, to building a bigger and better church, while women might be more concerned with improving the life of the church we already have, fostering relationships, caring for people? Women might be more concerned about creating community than setting goals or accepting challenges. Each of us listens to the gospel through a unique set of ears.
Did you know that left-brain people hear the gospel differently from right-brain people? Do you know about left-brain and right-brain? The way we think may be determined by which side of our brain is dominant, scientists tell us. Left-brain dominant people are more literal, more fact-oriented, more opinionated, more verbal, whereas right-brain people are more creative, more emotional, more visual, and more intuitive. The left-brain person wants the sermon to be doctrinally sound and theologically challenging. He or she wants the preacher to get all the facts right. Those things may not be that important to the right-brain person. The right-brain person wants the preacher to tell some good stories, insert some humor, and be warm and accepting.
Did you know that we have both kinds of persons in this church? People who were brought up very strictly look for things differently than people who were raised permissively. Baby Boomers (those born between 1946 and 1964) have a different agenda than those who struggled through the Great Depression or experienced World War II, a group referred to as the Builders. Gen Xers, Millennials and Generation Z are even more different from Boomers and Builders. We are an amazingly diverse group!
But here is what we need to see. Since God made us all this way, a certain amount of diversity has to be good.
What a dreary and dull world this would be if we all looked the same, talked the same, had the same perspective on life. In creating this world of ours, it is evident that God wanted diversity – or else God could have made us all the same. But God wanted every person who came into this world to have his or her own unique place.
Think of it. If this is God’s purpose, then there has to be an enormousamount of diversity so that each of us could be a special person. What St. Paul is urging these diverse members of the church at Corinth to dois respect one another’s differences and understand that each of us has a place in God’s family.
And I believe that is God’s message to us. I am not exactly like you,but I am a special person in the eyes of God. And so are you – and so is everyone in this church – and so is everyone in this world. Our gifts, our talents, our life experiences, our uniqueness, have been given usby God to build up one another. As St. Paul puts it, “…To each is giventhe manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.”
Tomorrow our nation celebrates the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Dr. King gave his life so that people of different races could live together as one people in this country. So, this is an appropriate time to affirm that God created us as a diverse people. This was God’s plan for reasons that only God knows. And if it is God’s plan, it must begood. It must be beautiful. It must be an occasion for celebration.
Some years ago there was a story about two female musicians who performed together. One was black and the other was white. They called their duo Ebony and Ivory. Both of the women were handicapped. One had lost her left hand in an accident. The other had lost her right hand. Neither knew the other, but both were brokenhearted after the tragedy they had individually faced. Each of them believed she would never again experience the joy of creating the sound of music. But a third woman heard the plight of the injured musicians and put them in contact with each other. When the two one- handed pianists came together, they found that each could supplement the loss of the other. Together, they could again play their beloved piano. When the black-hand and white-hand were skillfully coordinated with each other, the maimed musicians could coax beautiful sounds from the piano.
That, dear people, is a parable of how God calls us together in our brokenness and with our differences. We are a diverse people. That isthe way God created us. Let’s celebrate that diversity and pledge torespect one another as members of the family of God. Let’s celebratethe diversity of the human race and love one another, and then share that love with as many others as possible. For when you think about it,God’s love for us and our love for one another should be the one thing we all have in common.
As the old hymn puts it:
In Christ there is no East or West, in him no South or North,
but one great fellowship of love throughout the whole wide earth.
Dr. Gary Nicolosi
January 20, 2019
Text – I Corinthians 12:1-11 Epiphany 2, C
1. The National Post, “Jordan Peterson: The gender scandal – inScandinavia and Canada,” December 12, 2018