In our second reading today, Paul writes that in the Holy Spirit, we were all baptized into the body of Christ, and each one of us is a member of that body. Some of us are hands..., and some of us are feet, and as we work together, we perform all those tasks that Jesus wants done in the world. It's a wonderful picture for promoting unity in the church, and for explaining how everyone is invited to contribute according to their individual God-given gifts to further the kingdom of God. BUT, unlike on our physical bodies, in the body of Christ, we can't tell by looking at people, who are the feet, and who are the hands. And we get in trouble when we think we can....
A decade ago, at the start of the Trudeau regime, the selection of the first cabinet made quite a stir in the media. Of the 31 members selected for cabinet positions, fifteen were female, several were not “old-stock” European-rooted Canadian, at least one was visibly disabled, and all ten of the provinces and one of the territories were represented. This cabinet was the most diverse ever, if you think about diversity on the basis of visible characteristics. And when asked about why he chose as he did, instead of choosing on the basis of merit and qualifications, the Right Honorable Mr. Trudeau replied, “because it's 2015.” This made perfect POLITICAL sense, because in our society at that time, we were obsessing about our distinctive characteristics, especially the ones that were visible.
Paul, in our second reading, was writing to address a problem raised in the church at Corinth. Apparently, in their society and in their church, people were also obsessing about their distinctive characteristics. The Jews and the Greeks, for instance, did not seem to have much use for each other, simply on the basis of ethnicity. In fact, from Paul's reply, it sounded like there were people in the church who wondered aloud if the church would be better off WITHOUT certain groups – we have no need of THEM. So Paul gives them a very useful description – they are the body of Christ, and individually, members of it. With the possible exception of gall bladders, EVERY part of the body performs some useful purpose...EVERY part of the body has a gift to share for the body's very survival. Hearing is NOT more important than the sense of smell in the body of Christ, likewise Jews are NOT more important than Greeks, and Greeks are NOT more important than Jews. So far, so good.
But in a body, the CHARACTERISTICS of a member, and the GIFTS of a member are tightly linked. Eyeballs, by their nature, will never hear a thing – nor will ears ever see. And when we assume a tight link between people's characteristics and their gifts, we can get trapped into all the popular “isms”. Racism, ageism, sexism, nationalism – all of them ASSUME a link between the characteristics we can see, and the gifts we can't see. Listen to these examples of assumptions based on visible characteristics: People over 50 are... worn out. People under 25 are... dangerous drivers. Black people are... violent. White people are... arrogant. First Nations people are... entitled. Men are... insensitive. Women are... hysterical. Canadians are... apologetic. Norwegians are....well, you get the point. Our society has been HYPER-SENSITIVE to these isms, with the result that we are constantly hyper-aware of everyone's visible characteristics. We have been constantly falling over ourselves making sure that people's visible characteristics are represented in fire departments, and corporate boards, and awards shows. We have been going overboard the OTHER way, of ENFORCING groups with certain characteristics to use certain gifts, of not being happy until 50% of engineers, CEO's, and pastors are women, for example. Even as the whole point of Paul's letter to the church in Corinth was a call to LET GO of these characteristics, let go of Jews vs. Greeks, slaves vs. free, and focus instead on the GIFTS.
GOD has so arranged the body, giving the greater honour to the inferior member, that there may be no dissension within the body, but the members may have the same care for one another. Jew, Greek, slave, free...these characteristics have been given by God for the purposes of arranging the body. But they do not preclude us from striving for the greater gifts. And by greater gifts, Paul does not mean the gifts that are more important, because all member's gifts are important. By greater gifts, Paul means the gifts that God gives out less frequently, the rarer gifts – the gift that maybe our community does not yet know it has – that is the gift to strive for. And as a church, our role is to encourage people to discover and to strive for those gifts, and to find where in the community those gifts are most helpful to Jesus in building up the kingdom.
We have the opportunity as a church, to be an example to the society around us of the benefits of IGNORING visible characteristics. As you will see at our AGM after this service, the Right Honorable Mr. Trudeau would be upset with the preponderance of European roots in our choices for church council. And he, or our national church office, might have words to say about how similar they are in skin colour. And from my perspective, they all seem a bit short for the job. But what is IMPORTANT – the diversity that MATTERS – is the different GIFTS they bring. We have people on council who are good with numbers. We have people on council who are good with people. We have people on council who are good with children, with seniors, with money, with planning, with execution, with discernment, with prayer, with maintenance, with innovation. We think we will have people on council and in the congregation who will enable this miniature body of Christ known as Central Lutheran Church to operate at a high level for the kingdom. But it's possible we might be missing something on council. Maybe YOU have one of the greater gifts, the rarer gifts, and maybe YOU are willing to explore developing it as part of our church council. We have openings for a TASTE of council, a 2-year term and even a 1-year term available to be filled. And nobody here is going to have a problem, if you nominate yourself!
Gracious God, help us to use the gifts you have given us in your service, and help us to develop the gifts you want us to use next. Guide us to value and encourage the gifts in everyone, in Jesus name, amen.