Diversity

God upholds it and I think , as part of followers of God incarnate in the form of Jesus , we've got to hold on to it and point to all of the myriad positivities .

We're on our way to celebrate this Sunday and , and usually we use the second chapter of Acts and the first 21 verses of the first chapter , I'm sorry of the second chapter , and you know it's just this amazing psychedelic , you know vivid , you know God is doing a new thing with a sort of an old gathering , penta 50 , right .

So five or 50 days after Easter we call it the , you know the church's birthday flaming tongues and and rushing wind descend on a gathering of very , very , very diverse , ethically diverse , linguistically diverse gathering and and you know it's the diversity I like to say that is affirmed , enabled and commissioned in Pentecost .

So no talk about how it's a bad thing , no talk about any of the ways that we have come to talk about diversity these days .

I mean , it was an accepted fact of the then known world that lots of people looked lots of different kinds of ways and that that was a good thing and that , you know , while there was no sort of millennia in the world that was perfect . You know , on several scores it was easier to have these kinds of gatherings than it seems to be to

have now , anyway . So God rushes in , as God was promised . Jesus promised that when I go the Spirit will come , and that the Spirit will enable , will strengthen , etc . And so , over this amazing group of lots of different kinds of names .

What's always a little bit humorous every year when we get together in church is people trying to read all those different kinds of names , right , all those wonderful you know , pointing to all this wonderful ethnic and linguistic diversity . And then Spirit comes and does this amazing thing .

What I always like to point out in this text is that they're able now to understand each other . And , uh , part of the understanding is they're all talking about the wonderful deeds of God in their own way , and and I always , that always holds out my hopes .

I don't believe in a whole lot of Kumbaya , but but I do believe there are spaces and places and practices that we can take up . That might bring us a little bit closer together If we could suspend some of the other silliness , silliness that we sort of default to when we get together . So they began to talk about the wondrous .

The Spirit enabled them to talk about the wondrous deeds of God . And so , as they do this , and then , as we read later on , that it is affirmed , this diversity , this beautiful imagination , creativity , example of creativity of God's imagination , is affirmed , and then it's enabled , and then it's commissioned for God's purposes going forward .

And so I think that's the best way to think about who we are and we being , you know , speaking globally , is that we are each individual parts of a marvelous whole , and we can't see all of God until we see all of us .

And I know it's become sort of a political fodder to even use the word diversity , and I'm just not going to let go of that word to appease some people who want to make political correctness somehow a demigod . Diversity belongs to God's imagination , diversity belongs to God .

God upholds it , and I think , as part of followers of God incarnate in the form of Jesus , we've got to hold on to it and point to all of the myriad positivities . And so , yeah , you know . When I was a little boy I was a . I was a big nature nerd . You know National Geographic before you know it was a magazine , before it was a .

You know a documentary series or all that . And then Jacques Cousteau and the amazing underwater . You know sea world and all that you know sort of nature stuff I could get my hands on as a kid . I loved it . And so look , what would the coral reefs be without diversity ? You know , what would the African savannas be without , you know , biodiversity ?

What would the Amazon rainforest be without diversity ? And so , and what would , and what would we be without all the different ways that we are distinct ? I just think it's wrongheaded to give up the word .

The difference between you know , sort of 1619 , you know , with the Africans coming as enslaved people and later Ellis Island and so on and so forth . So we even came here different ways but you know we want the same thing and that's again this is what the story conjures up . People came differently to this gathering , which was a longstanding Jewish tradition .

They came differently and somehow some new unity happened , by the grace of God , that they were able to sort of walk out transformed and changed a bit , with their ethnicity intact . And , you know , no one had to be diminished who they were , how they , how they spoke . No doubt cultural stuff was not diminished .

As far as we can read the text , they were sent out enhanced Right by the grace of the Spirit .

pride ? When I think of the Pentecost , I think of the commissioning and the very . I mean it was in your face , you couldn't ignore it right . And I'm curious how we might have distorted or get lost in the idea of pride what it is and what it isn't .

We also celebrate , incidentally , juneteenth , which is a celebration on the diverse way that many of us came to the knowledge that we were now freed under the law in this country , even though it took a little while .

So if we're talking about that pride , I think how I come to it is it's very much in keeping with this conversation about diversity and the celebration of that . So the truth of the matter is is that human sexuality is in many ways , a mystery and it's a spectrum and it goes .

You know , that kind of conversation about it being a spectrum and an unfolding sort of mystery has been with human beings since the beginning of time . It's now in some places , not every place , but it's in some places .

The United States tends to be one in many places where we get to say that out loud that we are fearfully and wonderfully made , as the Psalmist says , and that looks lots of different ways .

So I celebrate pride and I affirm that we need space to maybe recover the years , decades , that we weren't allowed to say that we were here and that we are distinct and nevertheless we are human and deserve respect and justice and dignity . So that's sort of how I come to pride . It's pretty easy .

Frankly speaking , it's a pretty low bar , which is to create space for other people who have had a very difficult journey in just claiming a space for themselves .

It's a low bar to just say now we're going to create a space and now you can use your voice to celebrate who you are , I think , doing violence to that , as we had , you know , over the centuries that we've been , you know , a country really needs to be reflected on and for us now to really acknowledge the ways in which we've missed the mark that all people

are created equally , et cetera , because that's not been the legal code for lots of different categories . And so now , as part of the recovery of that , yeah , of course people need space to be able to say here we are , and so pride is a very easy thing . I'm glad I'm part of a church that can do that .

I think what we've got to be careful in the church is to put all of our eggs in one basket , so to speak , and here this might be a little controversial for some people and , as I think about the Episcopal Church and , of course , there's lots of different kinds of folks who are listening from lots of different expressions .

What concerns me is that , while I stand completely with the members of the LGBTQIA community and affirm their right to claim their space and the fact that they're made in the image of God , I do that . What worries me is that we've sort of made our understanding of diversity and thinking of justice only on that issue , and I think that puts us out of balance .

I think there are a myriad ways for us to talk about injustice in the world . There are places and spaces that need to be recovered .

There are groups among us in the human family that need a space to talk about historic , economic and legal trauma that's been done to them simply because they're different , and so what I would say to all of us is is that we need to be proud of all that we are and all that we've been , and to take the steps that are necessary to begin to say that out

loud and to reclaim that space . Sadly , however , it threatens some people when groups previously excluded from the full benefits of being a citizen in this country . When those folks start to speak up , it gets really uncomfortable .

Sadly , the equation in some people's minds seems to be if we give other people space to acknowledge sort of historic deficits imposed upon them , then somehow we are less , and that is really tragic . That is really tragic and I think we have to really think about that again . That's small , that's small and we're , and we're bigger and we're better than that .

Whether we're talking church , or whether we're talking , you know , political , the political world , whether we're talking about , you know , civil society , we're just better than that . But unfortunately

for some people , you finding your voice , claiming your story , et cetera , seems to put some people on the back foot and they feel diminished . And I've and it's difficult for me to find that in Scripture , it's difficult for me to find that in Jesus . The disciples certainly flirted with that . But then Jesus comes along .

He gives this wonderful correction that he's in the friend-making campaign , he's in the affirmation campaign , he's in the wholeness and health and healing campaign , and there's enough to go around .

The Spirit made it so that the Spirit even highlighted the distinctive , diverse nature in which people could experience it , and so I don't know what that means for how we might behave and honor the diversity in real time , just because of how spirit worked . I don't know . Do you have any ideas or thoughts about ?

So there's something about being in step with God , or being the recipient of grace , that adds square footage to you , to your heart , right To your mouth , to your mind , to your imagination . The spirit gives ability .

And so they were given ability , not only linguistic ability and listening ability , because it's also that's a big piece in this story too that listening increased right , listening deepened , listening broadened right . They were able to hear from one another , and , god knows , we could talk an hour about how sort of reactivity is not the same thing as a response .

Reactivity has to do with just waiting for your turn to talk or just scoring your own points , et cetera , whereas response has to do with me listening to you and maybe saying to you you know , melissa , you've said a lot to me today . Let me get back to you . I need to sit down . So that's an ability . We call that maturity , right , we call that you know .

Differentiation , you know . We call that you know sort of what I would call is managing self . So , so all of this , I think is , and I've been talking about spiritual maturity since , you know , jesus was a little boy . I like to say so , but spiritual maturity is part of it .

So they're given ability and I think we could use a dose of that ability nowadays . And you're quite right , I think , what undercuts this is , you know , the constant , you know diet of fear that we're ingesting , right so ? So neighborliness is not something to grow and be all about . You know it's , it's cut by fear .

And you know all the scarcity , all of this , all that , the other parties coming for you . You know , I mean , the list is long . And so you know we may need to adopt some new habits , we may need to find , you know , the spigots of fear in our lives and turn them off .

I wish I did ,

but I know , I know this that if we begin to try to apply some of these lessons and welcome the Spirit into our own personal lives , it's amazing how that can actually work at home with the people we love but struggle to love , et cetera . And is it messy ? And is it slow ?

Hell yeah , because the truth of the matter is is that we've got to do some dying to ourselves . Look , this assembly was never the same after this event , right , because you know , once you know the genie's out of the bottle , right , it's hard to go back and be small like that again , right ? And so that event has changed . And then the people are changed .

You can't unremember the fact that you came there so radically different and then somehow you had this new cord of unity .

People didn't forget that , and I just imagine people you know were saying this to people that they loved and knew for the rest of their lives , and so one can't even account for the fact how this inspired some people to begin to talk about God , to begin to find common ground , maybe to begin to bury historic grudges .

This thing about God is God is always calling us to grow up , and then , when we sort of see ourselves in God's eyes without shame , we really realize we've got to grow up . And then , you know , when we sort of see ourselves in God's eyes without shame , we really realize we've got to grow up . We're made for so much more .

We're made to be bigger , broader , deeper , more joyful , and it's our ability to sort of hold on to the things , obstacles that make us small , that just must frustrate .

You know , the hell out of God where God is just inviting , but you know God's always patient but inviting us beyond that , but the work is ours , and so , again , we continue to offer people these stories as just small distillations and , you know , a little bit of nitroglycerin maybe to blow open .

You know some of these things that need to be blown open in our lives .