In our second reading today, Paul writes that in the Holy Spirit, we were all baptized into the body of Christ, and each one of us is a member of that body. Some of us are hands..., and some of us are feet, and as we work together, we perform all those tasks that Jesus wants done in the world. It's a wonderful picture for promoting unity in the church, and for explaining how everyone is invited to contribute according to their individual God-given gifts to further the kingdom of God. BUT, unlike on our physical bodies, in the body of Christ, we can't tell by looking at people, who are the feet, and who are the hands. And we get in trouble when we think we can....
A decade ago, at the start of the Trudeau regime, the selection of the first cabinet made quite a stir in the media. Of the 31 members selected for cabinet positions, fifteen were female, several were not “old-stock” European-rooted Canadian, at least one was visibly disabled, and all ten of the provinces and one of the territories were represented. This cabinet was the most diverse ever, if you think about diversity on the basis of visible characteristics. And when asked about why he chose as he did, instead of choosing on the basis of merit and qualifications, the Right Honorable Mr. Trudeau replied, “because it's 2015.” This made perfect POLITICAL sense, because in our society at that time, we were obsessing about our distinctive characteristics, especially the ones that were visible.
Paul, in our second reading, was writing to address a problem raised in the church at Corinth. Apparently, in their society and in their church, people were also obsessing about their distinctive characteristics. The Jews and the Greeks, for instance, did not seem to have much use for each other, simply on the basis of ethnicity. In fact, from Paul's reply, it sounded like there were people in the church who wondered aloud if the church would be better off WITHOUT certain groups – we have no need of THEM. So Paul gives them a very useful description – they are the body of Christ, and individually, members of it. With the possible exception of gall bladders, EVERY part of the body performs some useful purpose...EVERY part of the body has a gift to share for the body's very survival. Hearing is NOT more important than the sense of smell in the body of Christ, likewise Jews are NOT more important than Greeks, and Greeks are NOT more important than Jews. So far, so good.
But in a body, the CHARACTERISTICS of a member, and the GIFTS of a member are tightly linked. Eyeballs, by their nature, will never hear a thing – nor will ears ever see. And when we assume a tight link between people's characteristics and their gifts, we can get trapped into all the popular “isms”. Racism, ageism, sexism, nationalism – all of them ASSUME a link between the characteristics we can see, and the gifts we can't see. Listen to these examples of assumptions based on visible characteristics: People over 50 are... worn out. People under 25 are... dangerous drivers. Black people are... violent. White people are... arrogant. First Nations people are... entitled. Men are... insensitive. Women are... hysterical. Canadians are... apologetic. Norwegians are....well, you get the point. Our society has been HYPER-SENSITIVE to these isms, with the result that we are constantly hyper-aware of everyone's visible characteristics. We have been constantly falling over ourselves making sure that people's visible characteristics are represented in fire departments, and corporate boards, and awards shows. We have been going overboard the OTHER way, of ENFORCING groups with certain characteristics to use certain gifts, of not being happy until 50% of engineers, CEO's, and pastors are women, for example. Even as the whole point of Paul's letter to the church in Corinth was a call to LET GO of these characteristics, let go of Jews vs. Greeks, slaves vs. free, and focus instead on the GIFTS.