Rev. Monica Mowdy
One Family Many Cultures - Week 2
Long before I was a pastor, many years ago, I was sent to cover the preaching duties of a pastor in a small rural church that had about ten elderly people in the church. When I walked in the door, this small little lady came towards me and said, we're going to sing three songs.
I'm going to lead them, and when we're done, you can talk. I said, okay. I was on board for whatever they had planned for that day. As she began to sing. I noticed there was no instrumentation, no piano player, no recorder, nothing, just her voice. And as she began to sing these old hymns that I wasn't familiar with, they seemed very out of tune, very distorted, almost unpleasant to listen to.
And I kept looking at the congregation, and they were making faces to indicate that they weren't enjoying this either, but they kind of mumbled along. Fast forward a few months. I was asked to cover the preaching duties in a different church, in the same community. And that was the day that three churches came together and they sang a bunch of Christmas songs.
And then there was a service. So when I arrived, one of the ladies from that church came to me and said, when we sing, will you sing with us? Sure. I'm not really a singer, but it was Christmas songs. So they put me between this lady and them because they were afraid she would get them off. It would mess them up because she had such a boisterous voice.
It was beautiful, but off key. So I get in my place and there's men behind us and women to one side of me, and this lady to the other side. And we begin to sing. And all of a sudden her voice slips right in without her harmony. This entire time she had been singing alto harmony because she had been part of a group and that was her role.
That was what she did. That was what made her voice unique, was she could sing alto harmony, and she provided some fullness to that whole body of singing that wouldn't have been there without her voice. You see, that's God's design of a diverse body of believers. Because when we are diverse and when we are unique, we reflect God's creativity and we give God glory, and we show off his wisdom to make us different and have different gifts and talents.
Our differences provide a fuller picture of God's nature and character to the world. While each of us are created in Imago day, that doesn't mean that we have all the attributes of God in our image. But when we come together and and work together with all of our unique differences and diversity, then we can reflect back God's total imago day to the world.
And we show God's nature and character to the world around us. Think about if you've ever had a child that played an instrument in a band like a tuba, one of the instruments that maybe didn't really play the melody. And as you hear them practice in their bedroom, you're thinking, that does not sound good. But when you go to the concert and they play their part, you can hear their notes separate from everyone else's.
But at the same time, here their notes with everyone else. And you hear the beauty, you hear the song. That's how it works. Apostle Paul wrote a letter to the church of Corinth because they were struggling with the diversity in the churches that they had there. Corinth was a bordered by the ocean town, so a lot of people came and went.
They had pagans, they had Gentiles, they had Greeks, they had Jews, they had slave people. They had free people. They had all kinds of differences within their church. And he wanted them to understand that these differences provided a fullness that they wouldn't have had otherwise. Paul used the metaphor of the human body to illustrate how diversity is an essential part and an integral part of the church, that we're not created just to tolerate each other, but we are created to incorporate all differences into the function of the church.
Now, just as the body has many parts with different functions, the church is made up of diverse members with diverse gifts and talents and backgrounds and roles due to their culture, their upbringing, their lifestyle. And it gives us a fuller picture of what is in the world. God has intentionally made us different to complement and build each other up.
We're not called to be uniform, but to be united in our diversity. I'm from Oklahoma and I'm a Native American, and I have Osage and Cherokee within my DNA in Oklahoma. Unfortunately, that's the place where many Native Americans were relocated in the late 1800s and early 1900s. And as the white people began to move into Oklahoma, they began to pressure the Native Americans to assimilate to white culture.
And they found very quickly the Native Americans did that in order to succeed and in order to do well in a white man's world, they had to kind of assimilate. Some were forced and some made the choice to do it. And in doing so, they lost a lot of their culture. If the church will do the work of enhancing everyone's uniqueness and diversity and lifting us up with those uniqueness and that diversity, it will make us stronger and make a more complete picture of the nature of God.
Now, how do we take all these differences and make them work together? Well, it says in our communion liturgy. And Paul said to the church in Corinth, the source of our unity is one spirit. Regardless of our background, Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male or female. Paul reminds us that we've all been baptized by the one Spirit, the Holy Spirit, and that Holy Spirit binds us together, creating a unity that transcends cultural, social, and personal differences.
It brings life to the church, a life beyond just the physical life. In Romans it said, If the spirit of one who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, the one who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your human bodies also through His Spirit that lives in you. And as we're united in the spirit, we bring life to the church.
Now, whether we want to believe this or not. Each member of the body is interdependent. We have a mutual dependance that honors the body. One part cannot say, I don't need you. We had a woman that lived next door to us in a small town when I was a young woman, and nobody in the church knew but this woman.
Miss Thelma would get up every morning at 5:00 and walk the two blocks to the church, and she would tend to the flowers in the flowerbeds, and she would pull the weeds, and she used the little hand tool to edge along the sidewalk. I don't think anyone ever knew that she did these things, and I am certain that they had no idea how the grounds always look good.
In fact, I'm not even really certain they noticed the state of the flower beds until she fell ill and she was missing for two months due to her illness. And then you started hearing things within the church. Why is no one taking care of the flower beds? Why do they look so bad? We need to find out who we're paying to do this.
Because they're not doing their job. And that's when I spoke up all three months of a member of me and said it was Miss Thelma. She gets up every morning at 5:00 and comes down here and takes care of these flowers. The humility that fell on them, bill quickly, and they all rushed out, and we began to work on the garden together to make it pretty, so that when she came back to the church, it hadn't fallen to ruin.
Paul also wrote to the Corinth church. Certainly the body is at one part, but many. If the foot says, I'm not part of the body because I'm not a hand. Does that mean it's not part of the body? If the ear says, I'm not part of the body because I'm not an eye. Does that mean it's not part of the body?
And the whole body were an eye. What would happen to hearing? And if the whole body were an ear, what would happen to the sense of smell? Funny story. As we were working on the flower beds together as the church. One little girl, a little second grade girl said, Miss Thelma's a pinky toe. And we looked at her really funny.
Like what? And she said, Miss Thelma and Sunday School taught us this very scripture about the body of Christ. And she said, we can all be pinky toes. We need our pinky toe. We don't even always notice our pinky toe. But if we didn't have our pinky toe, it would be missed. And she said, Miss Thelma's a pinky toe.
I will never forget that metaphor, that she extended Paul's metaphor even further to make sure that we notice people that don't seem to have gifts that are big, that matter, that make big movements within the church, but they still are needed, and they still should be recognized. Now, I know that embracing diversity requires effort. You can't just say, okay, I accept you.
I don't see color. Everybody get along. It's not that simple. It requires effort and intentionality. We have to intentionally work towards understanding where people are in their lives, what they're doing, where they came from, what they know, and maybe even help them uncover and polish the gifts that they have and have been given by God. That requires humility.
It requires the same humility that caused an entire church to go work in their flowerbeds one Sunday after church, in church clothes so that they could honor the glory a little lady gave to God through her work in that flowerbed.
We need to ask the Holy Spirit to help us see others as God sees them, and then empower them and empower us to love each other selflessly, to actively listen to and learn from others experiences and perspectives. I have a son with autism now.
He's low support needs. He went through regular classes in school, but my favorite teachers and the teachers that made the most impact on his life were the teachers that loved him for who he was not in spite of who he was, not a teacher that tried to make him normal, but a teacher that allowed him to be who he is and how he is and whose he is because he's a child of God and he has great gifts and great skills.
We need to celebrate different gifts and talents and encourage each person to contribute in their own unique way. And most importantly, we need to promote inclusion, ensuring that all voices are heard and valued in decision making and ministry. It was said one time to me in a conference that you're really not allowing people to be part of the voice of the church.
It's not like inviting them into your home, or it's not like even giving them the best seat in the house or making their favorite meal. It's not even like letting them sit in your chair while you watch television together. Hearing their voice and empowering them to be part of the ministry is like handily handing them the remote to the television.
So often we want to hang on to that, and when we do, we neuter the voices of people who have various backgrounds and skills and gifts and knowledge and experiences that they can add to the beautiful diversity of the church. But when the church embraces that beautiful diversity and work together as one body under Christ, we began to flourish and grow and reflect.
God created. Let us pray.
Almighty God, give us the energy to commit to being a church that reflects this unity and diversity, an energy that glorifies God as we serve this kingdom. Let us be friends that put things in order, and let us respond to this encouragement that you give us.Let us be in harmony with each other. Let us live in peace. And when we do, we know that you, God, the God of love and peace, will be with us. You will greet us with a holy embrace as we greet each other in the same manner. Lord, may the love of Christ and the love of God, and the peace that reigns within you that is pulled together by the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. Give us honor and the ability to give you honor and glory. It's in Christ's name. We ask all these things. Amen.
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