Dear God, come to us in the quiet of this morning, as restless, urgent energy. Come to challenge old assumptions. Come to give us courage to think anew. Come to show us a better way to live. Come to startle us with your truth, your love, your word for us, in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The heart of Paul’s argument—and this is both new theologically and also basic to the Christian faith—is that diversity is God’s idea. It is not an accident of geography or biology. It is not a nuisance to be overcome or a problem to be solved. Diversity is God’s gift to the church. Diversity is part and parcel of God’s good creation. Diversity is good. It is rooted in the very character of God. And so to deny it, to treat people differently, to do violence to people, to oppress, on the basis of their race, is not simply an affront; it is a denial of the reality of God. It is that basic. There is, in God’s kingdom—and therefore there must be in God’s church—a place for everybody. Furthermore, diversity is for the common good. Mixing it up is God’s delightful intent for creation.

Diversity is God’s good idea. The one who is different is God’s gift to you.

It was Jesus who stunned his friends and followers by reaching out to the racially and ethnically marginalized in his day—the Samaritan woman, for instance.

It was Jesus who welcomed at his table those who were different—the poor, the religiously unorthodox, the sinners, prostitutes, tax collectors.

It is our Lord Jesus Christ who comes close to each one of us when we feel marginalized, shunned, shut out, and assures us that we are all one in Christ.

And it is the same Christ who challenges each of us to let go of and to move beyond our discomfort and fear of those who are different and to open our hearts and lives and arms to the beautiful, multicolored, multifaceted, multi-raced and multicultural diversity of God’s good creation.

John M. Buchanan

January 28, 2001

Full Sermon

https://www.fourthchurch.org/sermons/2001/012801.html