Second Sunday after Epiphany January 14, 2007
Preached at Kingston Road United Church by the Rev. Richard C. Choe
Preached at Kingston Road United Church by the Rev. Richard C. Choe
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Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses.
“Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” Thus begins Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina.
My Dad often recited this line whenever he wanted to stress the importance of the family. He conveyed to us his belief that being part of the family meant trying our best to find our family’s commonality. He believed that the more we have in common, the better we will be as a family.
The longest distance in the world, I think, is a distance between two people in an unhappy relationship. Each person in an unhappy family suffers as an isolated and disconnected individual within the family regardless of how small the family is.
Church, as a community of faith, is no exception in having unhappy relationships amongst the members of its family. The passage read today from the 1 Corinthians 12:1-12 portrays a relationship in crisis in an urban congregation in Corinth. The church in Corinth was founded by Paul a few years before he wrote his response. Members were from diverse cultural and religious backgrounds. Paul had received several letters regarding issues arising in the congregation. So he wrote in response to the questions they asked.
The members in Corinthian church were having difficulty understanding the diversity of spiritual gifts. Paul stressed that the variety of gifts they saw in one another all came from one Spirit. Paul asserted that although there were many gift expressed through the different members of the congregation, those gifts are all for the common good of the church and there is only one Spirit.
Like the people of Corinth, we, too, see and understand diversity as a dividing force rather than a gift for a community. Difference is often regarded as a negative element rather than embraced as a positive attribute in creating healthy community. After all, we grew up hearing and reciting that “birds of a feather flock together.”
I came across an organizational theory while I was working with ecumenical partners in the United States that helped me to understand a bit more about how diversity can help individuals within a community and the community itself.
George Land wrote a controversial book in 1973 entitled, “Grow or Die: the Unifying Principle of Transformation.” His idea was picked up by many business organizations and applied in order to increase the production and wealth and, ultimately, the health of the organizations. Churches could also benefit from his theory on transformation.
The work of George Land helps us understand the growth patterns of everything from individuals to ecological systems. According to George Land, there are three stages of growth.
The first stage of growth is called “accretion.” This is a stage where an organism, community, or individual begins to grow by gradual addition of smaller parts. Accretion is the first stage of growth and it is a required stage of survival. Infants are in this stage.
The second stage of growth is called “replication.” This is when an organism, community or individual has moved beyond the immediate survival needs. This is a stage where like attracts like. Group identity comes from homogeneity. Teen-age period would be a phase of replication. This is a stage where an organization benefits through maximizing sameness. This is a stage of development where sameness is rewarded and difference is feared and demonized. Peer pressure, conformity, and “keeping up with the Joneses,” “birds of a feather flock together” would be words and phrases that describe this stage of the development.
“Mutualism” is the third stage of growth. This is a stage when an organism, community, or individual seeks something with different traits and qualities to exchange with and strengthen one another. This is a stage where diversity is valued and prized. This is a stage where a community takes advantages of heterogeneity. [i]
The Great Famine in Ireland in 1845-1848 is a prime example of how the pursuit of homogeneity could result in disaster. By mid 1800 all the potatoes in Ireland ended up having the same genetic make up since the differences had been bred out over the years. So when a fungus disease hit one potato, it affected all potatoes. More than half the Irish potato crop failed in 1845. In 1846 the entire potato crop failed in Ireland. The population of Ireland was 8,175,124 in 1841. Scholars believe that the actual population would have been much higher than the official census record. By 1851, after the famine, the population has dropped to 6,552,385. "The census commissioners calculated that, at the normal rate of increase, the total should have been 9,018,799 so the loss of at least 2.5 million persons had taken place." [ii]
In Peru, one of the original sources of potatoes, farmers have been planting and harvesting more than 200 varieties of potatoes over several centuries. They have maximized the diversity of genes in such ways that regardless of weather or altitude, they will always have a variety of potatoes that will flourish regardless of changing weather conditions. They had potatoes that would flourish on wet climate, dry climate, high altitude, low altitude, in the shadows, and so on.
Joel Barker was the first person to popularize the concept of paradigm shifts for the corporate world. He states that “mutuality has magnitudes of combinations which allow for solutions to problems not available any other way. … The power of the third stage of growth lies in its ability to create new complexities that could not have been possible in the second stage of self-similarity.” His message is that “those who do not think like us, who live with different paradigms, are our greatest allies in solving our own problems. No one sees the entire world.” [iii]
I have shared my experiences of working with differences in congregational ministry when I was being interviewed by the search committee from Kingston Road United Church. One of the things I shared with the committee was that I believe in solidarity of a faith community. Solidarity is not about everyone in any one community having sameness but rather the strength and commitment to stand together as one even when individuals within a community differ with one another. Paul, I believe, was speaking of solidarity when he wrote back to Christian community in Corinth. There are variety of gifts, services, and activities of individual members of the congregation; however, there is one God and all those different gifts are given for the common good of the community.
Where are we in terms of the development stage as individuals and as a faith community? Are we at a stage of accretion where we are mostly concerned about survival? Are we at a stage where we are only seeking those who think and act like us? Are we at a stage where we are not only celebrating diversity but intentionally seeking people who are different from us, to be with us in order for us to be challenged and transformed by those who are different from us? In order to allow the differences to help us to grow, we must have enough self confidence and courage.
At the 9th Assembly of the World Council of Churches, the Rev. Dr. Sam Kobia shared an African proverb in his opening remarks. “If you want to walk fast, walk alone. But if you want to walk far, walk together.”
In our haste to be “effective” and “successful” as a congregation, there are times when churches forget that we are called to walk far, to the end of the earth, to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ that nurtures and liberates. Paul wrote to questioning community in Corinth to remind them that the journey of faith is about valuing one another’s gifts of diversity in Jesus Christ. Our faith journey takes a life time of mutualism.
May we learn to walk together with compassion of Jesus Christ. May we learn to cherish the different gifts amongst the members of this congregation. May we learn to value the differences that strangers bring to us and learn to stand with them in solidarity for the common good of all.
Let us pray together.
Giver of every good and perfect gift, our God, help us to celebrate and call on the many gifts that all your children bring. Give us prophetic hearts and voices like the psalmist, Isaiah, Paul and Jesus, like our shining sisters and brothers, to name oppression and call forth newness. Shine. Shine in us. [iv]
Amen.
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[i] Washington Deming Study group January 1996 Newsletter, http://deming.eng.clemson.edu/pub/den/files/barkernt.txt &Joel Barker, “Wealth, Innovation & Diversity,”
http://www.starthrower.com/wealth_innovation_diversity.htm
[ii] The Great Irish Famine, http://www.nde.state.ne.us/ss/irish/irish_pf.html
[iii] Washington Deming Study group January 1996 Newsletter, http://deming.eng.clemson.edu/pub/den/files/barkernt.txt
[iv] Shining For Justice, Out In Scripture (web site), for January 14, 2007
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