United in Difference

From the very beginning of creation, God created differences and distinctions. The important part to realize is that God looked at that difference and he saw that it was good. It didn’t start with humanity, it started with created order. He made the light and the darkness different, he made the land and the waters, he made different animals to govern the sea, sky, and land. In the bounty of creation, in the cycles of its intelligent design, in the beauty of this creativity, we too can know that this difference is good. Yet, when it comes to our differences, we don’t always see them as good. We can look at our neighbor and say if only I was like that, or had that. We can even say to someone we love, or at least we can think it if only you were (fill in the blank). There are of course certain things we are called to change and grow in, but there are huge parts of us that are created by God for good - knowing the difference between what we are meant to change and what God has created for good is a big part of our faith journey and getting to know God’s will. Yet, we know differences can seem unfair. Even if we were to erase the privileges created by societal injustice, or financial greed, there would still be inequality based on people’s health, upbringing, location, training, skills, physique and so much more. The hard thing we need to realize is that inequality is natural, but it is not bad, in fact, it can be really good, as long as we are united like creation, like God intended us to be. This fits right into what we have already been learning. We realized that everything is a gift from God intended to give to others and lift them up. It follows that we should realize that all we are, is a gift to us and others. Finally, this leads today to a mutual-self-giving where we might be united in our privilege, in our differences.

The first place we see this is actually in the creation of Eve. Here is Adam alone in the garden and for the first time God says that this is not good. It is not good that Adam is alone in paradise without anyone somewhat like himself. God puts him into a deep sleep and creates Eve. Often bibles translate this as Eve was created from Adam’s rib, but the closer translation is that God took out Adam's side. The image for me is that God split Adam in half to create Eve. This presents an important idea: It is more important that we have one another than that we are whole or complete. Yet, Adam and Eve do become whole by being together, by being united. This is first a more obvious image of marriage, but it is also an image of our unity to Jesus Christ as His singular body, as His church, as His bride - so we also find unity with one another. Difference might not seem fair at first, but the truth is that difference is far better and it was always meant to unite us in a way that creates something truly good.

To this point we were never meant to erase our differences, instead we were meant to use them to lift one another up. This brings us to the image of the body that Paul uses. Here he compares us as a church to a physical human body. Similar to how Adam and Eve came together to become one flesh, when we join together in Christ, we, His church become one body, but now we are not two sides, we are members, limbs, appendages, and body parts in Christ’s great body. It can be a bit of a fun or silly image, thinking of ourselves as toes or ear hair, but it is a very important one. Our body parts can be vastly different from the eye, to the eardrum, to the fingernail, to the lungs, there is such a range of purpose, potential, and difference. Yet, at the same time, we know a human body for healthy functioning needs all of them. So it is true for the church. We need one another. We depend on one another's difference. Sometimes that is less evident when we feel capable and independent and sometimes it is painfully evident when we lose capacity, as we become too busy, as we lack resources or safety. We need one another for our individual and the full functioning and health of the whole.

In fact, we shouldn’t want to be like our neighbor or want to be someone else, because if you were different in one of the fundamental ways God created you, that would create even more unhealthiness and dysfunction. In relating this to the body, we can think of extreme examples when an eye isn’t an eye anymore, but we can also understand unhealthiness and dysfunction in more common examples, like when our white blood cells attack our body rather than defend it, or when our cells become radical and rebellious in cancer. When the fundamental members of our body become something they weren’t meant to be, the result can be a decreasing health for the other members as well. I’m not going to go into this more because we are starting to get into more complicated realities of unity, creation, and purpose that we won’t have time for right now. My whole point in saying this though, is to say that God created you for a definitive purpose and place in His body and Kingdom. Your purpose and place aren’t what society tells you should be. It isn’t to be like your neighbor. Your purpose and place come from the numerous giftings God has already given you that will help to build up and sustain the whole (let me repeat that). Even if you think of yourself or someone else as less, realize that even the seemingly lesser members of the body have a great purpose - who knows where we would be without a bum?

One of the amazing things about the human body is that despite the vast difference between the tongue and the teeth, they are still part of the same mouth, the same body, they are sustained and guided by the same heart, mind, eyes and so much more. So it is true for us. In our modern world of separation, individualism, hostility, opposition and so much more, this unity can feel impossible. What can connect people when there is so much difference, so much that can become a barrier and wall? Our modern society’s solution is often to erase or ignore the difference, but we have already seen how this is not good and also unhealthy. The only way to find unity is to be united in something far greater than our differences. Some in society have realized this and have tried to find something, but without something guiding us how can we even find a common definition of morality, or even what is good? The one and only thing that can fully unite us in our differences is Jesus Christ. He is the only one who is bigger than it all and yet entered into it. He is the creator and yet became flesh. He is distinct, particular, human, and yet united in our singular God. He has already overcome the greatest difference that anyone could ever imagine. He can and will do it in us too.

We know this brings another difficulty, because what if our difference is Jesus Christ? It has been many times. We have seen where this has been a cause for disunity too. If we explore this question in our three readings it will help us to understand it a little more.

First, that brings us to God’s purposes at the end of our reading from Corinthians. It’s interesting after Paul spends so much time talking about unity, he suddenly starts to rate the importance of qualities. He says the first and most important thing is to be an apostle. We might think, well that’s great for you Paul, because you are an apostle, way to single yourself out. But then we must remember what an apostle is, it is someone who has seen and known Jesus Christ. Paul wasn’t an apostle because he walked beside and knew Jesus while he walked this earth, he was an apostle because he met and had his life changed through an encounter with Jesus and then continued to live in that relationship. Paul wants us all to strive after this singular gift as the most important thing we should seek.

Do you know what directly follows this passage from 1 Corinthians 12 about us being a united body in Christ? 1 Corinthians 13, is that great poem about love, which reminds us that we might have the most amazing gifts, or we might even give the most amazing gifts, but if we don’t have love even the most wonderful gifts are worth nothing. Even if we have met God, if we do not live in love, what does it do for us or others? Remember, even the devils believe and know God. God is love and that should shape it all.

Our gospel parable about the separating of the sheep and goats reminds us what this looks like. One of the fundamental ways we serve God and show Jesus our love is by seeing him in others. Ultimately, first, our brothers and sisters in Christ, as the reading professes, but also to all of Jesus’ little ones whether we know them to be his or not. An apostle sees and knows God, but he also sees and knows God through others and so serves him there. This might not always lead to unity with the ones we serve, but first and most importantly it shows our unity in Christ. Secondly, if as we serve people physically and socially, we also serve them spiritually and invite them to meet Jesus Christ it can lead to a greater unity than we can imagine.

Finally, this brings us to the surprising and idealistic image we see in acts. The community of Jesus followers has come together in a way that fundamentally changed society and how they exist together. We hear amazing phrases like “No one went without” and “They shared everything in common”. We immediately think of financial means, which is really important and is probably the simplest way to serve and share, even if we resist it. Finances are also referenced in the passage, yet this having everything in common also speaks to a greater unity like the one we have been talking about. If it was true that no one went without, and everyone shared everything, then that speaks to a unity in Jesus Christ, where their differences, even if distinctly their own, were shared in such a way that talents, experience, and knowledge became everyone’s. At first, we might think difference is unfair, but in God’s hopeful community, we actually see that unity in difference can make us far more than we could ever be on our own. We can be united in our privilege and find an even greater privilege because of it.

So, it has been laid before us a difficult, but incredibly life-changing reality in Jesus Christ. Our difference, whether we see it as a privilege or not, is not an injustice, it is an opportunity. It is an opportunity to share our differences in such a way that it adds to the health and life of the whole. It is an opportunity to be united not in sameness, but in the glory, grandeur, and wonder of our created difference. It is an opportunity to find our purpose and place in Jesus Christ’s amazing created order. In Jesus’ love, we can be united. In Jesus, we can become more together than we ever were apart. AMEN