What does God show us about DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) practices? With all the recent attention in the media regarding DEI policies, or more specifically the elimination of them, how might our faith inform us about such matters? Does God care about such things as diversity, equity, and inclusion? Yes, of course! Scripture shows us much about how God values diversity, equity, and inclusion of all people. And if these values are important to God, then they should be important to us as followers of God.
Below is a sermon I preached in October 2024 on World Communion Sunday. So, I shared this sermon weeks before Election Day and the recent policy changes in the news. It’s purpose was to celebrate our diversity but also unity in Christ. Thus, it speaks mostly to the “D” in DEI. My preaching text was Genesis 11:1-9, the story known as the tower of Babel. In this story, humanity makes a tall tower for themselves “so that they won’t be dispersed over all the earth.” The people of Babel were determined to isolate themselves and keep themselves a homogeneous people. They were anxious and afraid of being dispersed and becoming different from one another. Building a tower was their plan to avoid diversity amongst humanity.
And what was God’s response? It was an emphatic NO! God intentionally mixed up their languages and dispersed them over all the earth.
I pray that these words may strengthen your faith and encourage us to remember that diversity is not something to be avoided. It’s not something to be feared. And diversity is certainly not in God’s plans to be eliminated. Rather, diversity is God’s beautiful gift for us to enjoy. We’re a better world and a stronger humanity because of our diversity.
God’s DEI Policy by Rev. Theresa Johnson (sermon preached at Smyrna First United Methodist Church in Smyrna, TN on October 6, 2024)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srC1NTlCuTw (Sermon begins around the 28 minute mark.)
Diversity is a gift.
The diversity of people, cultures, and languages found throughout the world is a profound and beautiful gift that God has given us. The world would be dull if we all looked the same, talked the same, ate the same food, and even worshiped in the same way. Diversity enlarges our perspectives and understandings, sparks creativity and innovation of ideas, and reminds us that the world is much bigger than the bubbles of isolation and homogeneity we’re so prone to create around ourselves. And diversity within the world has always been part of God’s plan and purposes, as we’ll see as we explore the text from Genesis.
I was blessed to catch a small glimpse of the diversity of our world on my recent travels. However, we are also incredibly blessed with tremendous world-wide diversity right here in our community of Smyrna. According to a Mission Insight report of a 5-mile radius around the church, we are a “moderately diverse” area with around 1 in 3 people being non-white. Approximately 16% of the total population of this area is Black or African American and 13% is Hispanic or Latino, with the remaining 7% being Asian and Pacific Island Americans and other. Furthermore, a 2024 US News High Schools ranking report of Smyrna High School indicated total minority enrollment of 62% of the total student body with the percentages of White and Hispanic students being similar at 38.0% and 34.2%, respectively (https://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/tennessee/districts/rutherford-county-schools/smyrna-high-school-18199). I will be forever grateful that my daughter Elizabeth was blessed to experience this kind of diversity in her time at Smyrna High School. We are privileged to experience a beautiful sampling of the diversity God intends for our world without even leaving our 37167-zip code! Of course, as we look around this room, we see much opportunity for growth when it comes to diversity of race and ethnicity.
Always part of God’s plan and purposes
Diversity within the world has always been part of God’s plan and purposes. God has always had what we might call today a DEI Policy, or Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Policy. The Genesis text I read earlier points to God’s plan for a diverse world. It seeks to explain how the world came to have such incredible diversity of languages and cultures. It looks back to a time when “all people on the earth had one language and the same words” and were completely homogeneous. However, the people became afraid that they might be dispersed or scattered over all the earth. They wanted to remain together and comfortable in the bubble they desired to keep themselves in the specific valley in which they settled. Therefore, as the story goes, they began building a city and a tall tower to keep them together and make sure they kept speaking only one language and preserved their culture exactly as it was, insulating it and them from change and growing different. They feared the change of growing different and feared expanding to new lands and places they didn’t know.
Diversity can be scary.
But are we so different? There’s a tempting sense of comfort and security in sticking with the known familiarity of our own language, culture, ethnicity, and race. I love to travel to other countries and experience different cultures, languages, nationalities, races, and ethnicities of many other people. Yet, even as much as I appreciate being enmeshed in this kind of diversity, I also confess that I have some anxiety about being places where English is not the first language and where I don’t fully understand the customs and culture as I make my way around on someone else’s turf, so to speak. I even did a Duo Lingo course in Italian and Greek for a few months before our trip, so that I might pick up on a few key words and phrases. However, when it came to it, I lacked the confidence to say little more than Buongiorno, grazie, and bagno, which means restroom. Of course, English is an international language, with most people we encountered speaking at least a moderate amount of English. There’s a joke that goes, “What do you call someone who speaks one language?” The answer? An American.
But jokes aside, it can be scary and intimidating to be in situations where we don’t speak the primary language being spoken or don’t understand various culture nuances of those who are different than us. It can be scary to be scattered to places of other languages and cultures. And it can be scary and challenge our comfort zones as those who speak different languages and are from different cultures are scattered from their countries of origins to come settle in our communities. The Genesis 11 text acknowledges this normal human tendency and temptation to seek homogeneity of language, culture, race, and ethnicity.
God pushes us towards diversity.
However, it also shares how God challenges this tendency and desires multilingual and multicultural expressions within humanity. The Lord saw the city and tower the humans created to keep themselves speaking the same language, having the same culture, and staying in the same geographical place, and the Lord was not pleased. Therefore, God mixed up their language and dispersed them from there over all the earth.
This core message of God’s desire to create diversity against the desire of humanity to remain homogeneous is often overlooked in this text. We read it as indicating humans desire to build a tower in the sky and storm heaven and challenge God. However, if you carefully read the actual text, it doesn’t speak of a challenge to God’s sovereignty. It clearly says the aim of humanity in building the tower was “so that we won’t be dispersed over all the earth.”
Unity amongst diversity
However, it’s also vital to note that God doesn’t just want diversity or differences amongst humanity. God also seeks our unity amidst our diversity. God wants all of humanity to be in relationship with God and so be one and united in this way even while our many differences remain. Sometimes the miracle of Pentecost in Acts 2 when the disciples spoke in other languages and the crowds heard them speaking in their various native languages is described as a reversal of the story of the tower of Babel, but here’s a key difference. At Pentecost, God doesn’t bring everyone back to speaking the same one language. Many different languages are still spoken. However, now the Spirit enables common understanding of who God is in Christ Jesus across many existing languages and cultures, which will only continue to expand as the mission expands to also include the Gentiles throughout the world. God’s plan is unity within diversity.
On World Communion Sunday, we celebrate our unity within our diversity. Christ is our unifying bond that ties us together as one even with our many differences. And there is surely no better way to signify this unity within diversity as Christians all over the world similarly come to the Table to celebrate Holy Communion together. Sure, we use different liturgies that are offered in different languages. Some observances are more informal and some more formal. Some traditions use grape juice. Some use wine. Some traditions use unleavened wafers. Others use Kings Hawaiian or Publix bakery bread! Some traditions dip the bread by intinction. Others have individual cups of juice or wine to consume with our pieces of bread. But regardless of the many ways we come to the table, we all come to the table to meet the same Jesus. And as we all dine with Jesus for this sacred meal, we also symbolically and spiritually dine with one another together at the table. Our languages, cultures, races, ethnicities, and even geography does not separate us when we all come to feast at this table.
In a world that is hyper focused on making sure our differences keep us separated and even against one another, we find unity and togetherness at this table. We’re reminded of our common inner connectedness and common unity with Christ Jesus our Lord. So, by all means, let’s celebrate our diversity and differences and follow God’s example of continually creating and encouraging diversity in our communities and throughout the world. But even as we celebrate our diversity, may we also never lose sight of the powerful unity in Christ Jesus we are blessed to enjoy within our diversity. And as we worship and come to this table as those who are different yet united as one in Christ, may we find strength for the journey ahead to wherever and to whomever God may disperse us from this place. Amen.
“Diversity within the world has always been part of God’s plan and purposes. God has always had what we might call today a DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) policy.”
Rev. Theresa Johnson