Unity in Diversity

The Dodgers had no business winning the World Series in 1988.

By every estimate, they were the underdogs – by a long shot.  The A’s had the Bash Brothers – Mark McGwire and Jose Canseco.  Two of the greatest hitters of their time.  Canseco had just become the first 40-40 player in baseball history – 40 home runs and 40 stolen bases, and together with Dave Henderson they had 3 guys with over 90 RBIs.  The A’s also had the American League rookie of the year in Walt Weiss who manager Tony LaRussa said was better than either of the other two. And the A’s had the best closer in the game with Dennis Eckersley.  Eckersley had 45 saves that season with a total ERA in those saves of 0.02.[1]  If there was ever a sure thing in sports, Eckersley was it.  The Oakland team just got done running over the American League West with 104 wins and crushed the Boston Red Sox in four straight games to get to the World Series.  On paper, even the Los Angeles Times said the Dodgers were in over their heads.  But as the old saying goes, they don’t play the games on paper.  And after Kirk Gibson’s miraculous home run to win Game 1, the Dodgers behind Orel Hersheiser’s amazing season went on to beat the A’s in 5. 

You just never know what makes a winning combination.

It’s the right mix of a bunch of different elements all coming together at the right time to make something beautiful.  Unity in diversity.  The blending together of different elements to make something better. The Dodgers won despite the odds being stacked against them because they were able to come together and through this bizarre mix of chemistry and talent and timing outperform arguably the best team of the decade.  The diversity of talent and what each person brought to the table was exactly what they needed to win.  And that’s true about life in general.  It’s our great diversity that makes us amazing.  When I hear people disparaging the value of diversity or why it might be important, what I really hear is fear.  Fear of the unknown.  Fear of the different.  Fear of their own inadequacy.  What they fail to realize is that it’s in our diversity the best ideas germinate.  It’s our diversity that brings a new perspective to a situation or solves a problem otherwise unsolvable.  In 1956, the Methodist church granted full clergy rights to women for the first time.[2]  Before that, we were of the closed-minded thinking that only men could deliver the Word of God.  But since then we have been blessed with a plethora of female clergy who have made a difference in our lives.  If it weren’t for my pastor Rev. Jane Nugent, I wouldn’t be a pastor today.  It was her counseling and her prayerful thoughts that encouraged me to head down this path.  But what if we had never had female clergy?  What if we had been so closed-minded that we couldn’t see what God was doing in the lives of these wonderful women?  Think of how many lost opportunities there would be.

The Supreme Court overturned decades of precedent when they denied diversity inclusion.

In Students for Fair Admission v. Harvard and University of North Carolina the Supreme Court ruled that race couldn’t be considered as one of many factors in admitting students to the schools.[3]  While some have hailed it as the end of an unfair practice, that conclusion is short-sighted because in the long run we’ve denied the value that people of different perspectives and heritage add to the mix.  It’s not a blow for just the underprivileged and people of color, but even for those who fought against it, because they are missing out on the value of being in a diverse community.  Here are some startling statistics for you from the business world to illustrate this point:[4]

• Organizations in the top quartile for gender diversity have a +25% likelihood of outperforming their peers
• Organizations in the top quartile for ethnic diversity have a +36% likelihood of outperforming their peers
• Diverse companies earn 2.5x higher cash flow per employee
• Inclusive teams are over 35% more productive
• Diverse teams make better decisions 87% of the time

It’s not just an idea, it’s a statistically proven benefit.  And better yet.  It’s God’s idea.  Whether you are Christian or not, you’re probably familiar with this passage.  And whether your believe it or not, it has value for what it teaches us. 

And God said, “Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the vault of the sky.” ²¹ So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living thing with which the water teems and that moves about in it, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. ²² God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth.” ²³ And there was evening, and there was morning—the fifth day.

²⁴ And God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: the livestock, the creatures that move along the ground, and the wild animals, each according to its kind.” And it was so. ²⁵ God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.

²⁶ Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

²⁷ So God created mankind in his own image,
    in the image of God he created them;
    male and female he created them.

²⁸ God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

²⁹ Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. ³⁰ And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so.

³¹ God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day. – Genesis 1:20-31

God created the Earth with an abundance of diversity! 

From the birds in the sky to the fish in the sea and everything in between, God created it to be in harmony with one another.  He saw “all that he had made, and it was very good.”  God finds value in all of creation and if God does, so should we.  But increasingly we strip away the great diversity God has created.  We try to streamline creation into a world designed just for us.  A good example is the tomato.  Tomatoes out in the wild look and taste nothing like the ones we buy in the store.  The ones in the store are genetically modified to withstand days and sometimes weeks of travel, to sit in a supermarket for more days after that, and to retain a nice, red, round look that people find appealing.  But they taste bland compared to their wild and heirloom cousins.  That’s because to create the “LOOK” we expect, they had to breed out what makes a tomato TASTE great.  And who thought that was a great idea?  Today, scientists are working hard to reintroduce flavor by again genetically modifying the tomato to appeal to the most people, but maybe…just maybe we should let God do the work and simply enjoy the variety that pops up in creation.  Enjoy diversity.  It just makes everything better.

As we celebrate World Communion Sunday we are brought together to be one body.

If even for just this one day, we are reminded that even though different groups of Christians have varying beliefs and traditions, we are better when we are one in Christ.  It’s a reminder that we are not in competition with the Catholics or the Presbyterians or the Anglicans, but instead we share one common belief in Jesus who is Lord of us all.  It’s a reminder that we can do more together than we can apart.  The world is becoming more diverse.  Our nation is becoming more diverse.  Over the years our community has become more diverse.  Our churches need to become more diverse with the rest of the world. Embracing diversity is not only a good thing, but exactly what God planned all along.  In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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[1] https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-10-14-sp-3967-story.html

[2] https://www.umc.org/en/content/ask-the-umc-when-did-the-church-first-ordain-women

[3] In case you want to know more: https://www.npr.org/2023/06/29/1181138066/affirmative-action-supreme-court-decision

[4] https://learning.linkedin.com/resources/learning-culture/diversity-workplace-statistics-dei-importance