Our Shared Values -- Diversity

Last year, we spent time speaking clearly & listening deeply to one another about what the values are that bind our Cathedral community together. Who is it we believe God has made us to be? Who is it we believe Christ is loving us into becoming. From this came five core values, five things we believe Jesus dreams for us to love: 

Spirituality & Faith, Diversity, Communication, Growth, Service

This week, I'm looking at one of these each day through the lenses of scripture, tradition and reason/experience.

Diversity

As he and his disciples and a large crowd were leaving Jericho, Bartimaeus son of Timaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the roadside. When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout out and say, ‘Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!’ Many sternly ordered him to be quiet, but he cried out even more loudly, ‘Son of David, have mercy on me!’ Jesus stood still and said, ‘Call him here.’ And they called the blind man, saying to him, ‘Take heart; get up, he is calling you.’ So throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. Then Jesus said to him, ‘What do you want me to do for you?’ The blind man said to him, ‘My teacher, let me see again.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Go; your faith has made you well.’ Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way. - Mark 10:46-52

This might not be the scripture reading you were expecting for a reflection on diversity.

Maybe you were expecting Galatians 3:28 ("neither Jew nor Greek ...neither slave nor free... all are one in Christ Jesus.), or maybe Acts 10:1-48 (Peter's dream and his meeting with Cornelius ... "God shows no partiality") or even Revelation 7:9-10 ("a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb.")

There are many pieces of scripture that tell us of Jesus' surpassing love for the diversity of God's people, and our call to do the same. The story of blind Bartimaeus tells us even more, though. This story tells us what loving like Christ loves looks like in the context of our community.

Bartimaeus was different, an outisder who lived on the margins. The disciples didn't think he was even worthy of their attention much less Jesus' attention. But look what Jesus does. Jesus takes this outsider and brings him into the center of the community. He makes Bartimaeus' concerns -- not the concerns of the disciples or the people who were majority of the band around Jesus, but the concerns of this outsider -- his focus. He brings Bartimaeus to wholeness and then Bartimaeus becomes part of the community.

The diversity of the Body of Christ is not about tolerance. It is not about "anyone can join as long as they act like us." It is not about "anyone can join and be who they are over there ... away from the community's center." The diversity of Christ is about every person who joins being able to be who they are and having that identity shape the entire community. The diversity of Christ is about not just letting the stranger in the door but putting them at the center and making their concerns the community concerns. And then being a part of Christ's healing and making whole.

It is about making insiders out of outsiders.

We have a proud history of this kind of diversity in many ways as Christ Church Cathedral. Certainly our being an Oasis congregation and embracing our identity as a GLBT congregation is a wonderful example of this ... and it hasn't been without struggle. The struggle exists in other areas, too. In embracing the racial diversity of our Cathedral. In embracing that we are a Cathedral of children and youth. In embracing that we are a Cathedral that has people who have no homes who are every bit as faithful to Christ and this Cathedral as people whose addresses fill up our directory.

In my nearly four years walking together with you, I have seen us deeply love the richness of our diversity and still struggle mightily with the conflict and challenge it brings. Diversity is hard ... perhaps the hardest one of these values for us to embody. It says something about us that, hard as it is, we are adamant that it is a piece of who we are and who God dreams for us to be.

As we prepare for our annual meeting and conversations next Sunday, think about this:

Why is diversity important to you? To us?

What are the opportunities for us to embody diversity today and in the future?

Tomorrow: Communication.

See you Sunday!