A member of the British Parliament appeared one day at the Gates of Heaven and demanded entry. "Sorry, sir," said the Admitting Angel, "but sexism is a sin, and our records show you to be a Male Chauvinist Pig. There is no room for you here."
"Humph," said the MP, "I suppose you got that nonsense from Maggie Thatcher!
I see her over there, gloating at me."
"More bad news, I'm afraid," said the Angel. "That's not Mrs. Thatcher. That's God."
Susan B. Anthony called on editor Horace Greeley one day in 1860 to ask for his newspaper's support for women's suffrage. Greeley was not sympathetic. He was an opponent of women's rights, mainly because he considered women to be of no military value. "What would you do," he asked, "in the event of a civil war?"
"I would do just what you would do," Susan Anthony replied. "I would sit in my office and write articles urging other people to go and fight."
Men prejudiced against women; women prejudiced against men. Christians prejudiced against Jews. Jews prejudiced against Christians. White folks prejudiced against black. Black folks prejudiced against white.
One of the great challenges facing our society today is that of diversity.
Why in the world did God create so many weird people?
Let's begin with men and women. God surely saw right from the very beginning all the problems by creating us male and female. According to the title of one book, MEN ARE FROM MARS AND WOMEN ARE FROM VENUS.
In her best-selling book, YOU JUST DON'T UNDERSTAND: MEN AND WOMEN IN CONVERSATION, author Deborah Tannen tells about a study of male and female students at a Baptist seminary. The study found that women are likely to suggest, whereas men command. When the women gave devotions, they gently invited their listeners by saying, "Let's go back to verses 15 and 16." The men, on the other hand, gave orders: "Listen carefully as I read Luke chapter 17." Women use “let's” much more frequently than men. (Female nurses will even say to patients, "Let's take our medicine.")
You'll always find exceptions to the rule, but research and experience consistently point to basic differences between the way men and women act, think, and feel. For example, men generally base their self-esteem on achievement. They are more competitive and aggressive than women. Women generally base their self-esteem on relationships. They relate to other people on a more personal level.
A University of Pennsylvania study conducted by brain researcher Ruben Gur demonstrated that women were better able to read emotion in facial expressions than men. And a survey conducted by GLAMOUR magazine showed that 60 percent of conversations between women are on emotional or personal topics, compared with 27 percent of similar conversations between men. Men and women see the world through different eyes. No wonder men and women don't understand each other.
But that's just one kind of diversity. We are different in many ways. They say even the order of our birth can help determine our brand of weirdness.
Studies show that the oldest child is usually more conservative than his younger siblings, reflecting the mores and attitudes of his parents. He is often jealous or anxious as a result of being superseded in the family nest, and often dissatisfied with himself because so much was expected of him as a child. Various researchers have found a tendency for first-borns to choose studies such as mathematics, engineering, physics, architecture, and chemistry.
Later-born men and women make up the majority of those practicing the creative arts. One study found, for example, that writers tend to come from the ranks of later-borns. Among writers polled in a statistical study, only 23 percent were oldest children. Nine percent were only children.
Does the order of your birth really make that much of a difference? Listen to these statistics: Of the original 23 astronauts in the U.S. space program, 21 were first-born children. All of the original Mercury astronauts were first-borns. More than 50 percent of all U.S. presidents have been first-born children. More than 60 percent of people listed in WHO'S WHO IN AMERICA are first-born children.
How do you explain that? Don't brothers and sisters grow up with the same parents? in the same environment? Not according to Hans Eysenck of the Institute of Psychiatry in London. Eysenck maintains that within the same household siblings grow up in essentially different environments.
For one thing, they don't have to deal with themselves. For another, each member of the family treats every other in a distinct way. So it's as if each child has a distinct set of parents and siblings. So, psychologists tell us not only does our gender determine a lot about our personality, but also the order of our birth.
We are a wonderfully diverse people. Men, women, oldest child, only child, baby of the family, short people, tall people, skinny people, large people, black people, yellow people, brown people, white people. People who take pride in their descent from a particular ethnic group "Italian, Greek, Hispanic " and people who take pride in their particular area of the country " Boston, L.A., Charleston, Dallas.” What a diversity of people.
EVEN IN THE CHURCH WE ARE DIVERSE. St. Paul talks about spiritual gifts. To one is given the utterance of wisdom, says Paul, to another the utterance of knowledge. To another is given the Spirit of faith, to another gifts of healing. To another is given the working of miracles, to another prophecy, and so forth. Paul seems to be saying that the same diversity we confront in the world is also found in the church.
Did you know that not all of us in this church have the same tastes? Some people are comforted by the old hymns. Inwardly they groan when we ask them to learn something new. Others are tired of the old hymns; they want to learn something new.
For some, singing is the high point of the service; others wouldn't mind if we dispensed with the music altogether. We all have different tastes. We come from a wide variety of backgrounds and that affects our relationship to the church.
Did you know that men and women may hear the Gospel through two different sets of ears? Here we can be guilty of over-generalizing, but think with me for a moment. If the experts are right and men think competitively, whereas women think more in terms of relationships, what does that say about the life of the church? Might it be that men respond more positively to a word of challenge, to the setting of goals, to building a bigger and better church, while women might be more concerned with improving the life of the church we already have? Women might be more concerned about creating community than setting goals or accepting challenges. Each of us listens to the Gospel through an unique set of ears.
I’m sure that you have heard about left and right brained people. Did you know that left-brained people hear the Gospel differently from right-brained people? The way we think may be determined by which side of our brain is dominant, scientists tell us. Left brain dominant people are more literal, more fact-oriented, more opinionated, more verbal, whereas right-brained people are more creative, more emotional, more visual.
The left-brain person wants the sermon to be doctrinally sound. He or she wants the pastor to get all the facts right. Those things may not be that important to the right-brained person.
The right-brained person wants the pastor to tell some good stories, insert some humor, be warm and accepting. Did you know we have both kinds of persons in this church?
People brought up in a rural environment look for different things in a church than do people brought up in an urban environment. People who were brought up very strictly look for different things than people who were raised permissively. Younger folks have a different agenda than do those late in years. We are an amazingly diverse group! But here is what we need to see.
SINCE GOD MADE US ALL THIS WAY,
A CERTAIN AMOUNT OF DIVERSITY HAS TO BE GOOD.
What a dreary and dull world this would be if we all looked the same, talked the same, had the same perspective on life. If God had not wanted us to be diverse, God would have stopped with Adam. Adam could have been God's friend and God could have made Adam eternal. But it's evident that God wanted richness in His world. God wanted a multitude of persons and God wanted every person who came into the world to have his or her own unique place. Think of it, if that was God's purpose, then there would have to be an enormous amount of diversity so that each of us could be an unique and precious individual.
What St. Paul is urging these diverse members of the church at Corinth to do is to respect one another's differences and to understand that each of us has a place in God's family. And I believe that is God's message to us. I am not exactly like you, but I am a unique and precious person in the eyes of God. And so are you " and so is everyone in this room " and so is everyone in this world.
Tomorrow our nation celebrates the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. This holiday won't be celebrated by every person in every place. Some people did not like Dr. King's politics, others had questions about his lifestyle. We respect that. Still, this is a good time for us to affirm that God created us as a diverse people. This was God's plan, not ours. God chose to make us male and female, right-brained and left, short and tall, oldest child and youngest, rural and urban, brown and white and black and yellow, speaking different languages and coming from different backgrounds. This was God's plan for reasons only God can know. And, if it is God's plan, it must be good. It must be beautiful. It must be an occasion for celebration.
James Moore tells about a man named George. George was a peacemaker with a big heart and wonderful sense of humor. George claims he was, "so tenderhearted that he cried at supermarket openings!" Everyone loved George at church and he was respected at the hospital where he worked. The reason why so many people loved George was because he was always kind and respectful to everyone he met.
His children vividly remember the days George spent in the hospital before his death. The president of the hospital paid him a visit; they spoke as though they were old friends. A few minutes later one of the janitors came to visit George. They too had a nice visit. When the janitor left, one of George's children said to him, "Dad, did you realize that you treated the president of the hospital and the janitor just alike?"
George smiled and chuckled at the remark. "Let me ask you something," he said, "if the president left for two weeks and the janitor left for two weeks, which one do you think would be missed the most?"
Then George called his children around his bed. "Let me show you something I carry in my pocket all the time," he told them, "even when I mow the lawn." George pulled out a pocket-sized cross and a marble with the golden rule on it.
George said, "On the cross are written these words, 'God Loves You,' and on the marble are these words, 'Do unto Others as You Would Have Them Do unto You.' The cross reminds me of how deeply God loves me," he said, "and the marble reminds me of how deeply God wants me to love others. "
That is what God wants from each of us. To love God as God loves us and to love one another. We are a diverse people. That is the way God created us. Let's celebrate that diversity and pledge to respect one another as members of the family of God.
