We Shall Overcome

By The Very Rev. Sherry Crompton

January 24, 2010

Read: 1 Corinthians 12:12-31a

“I would have made a good evangelist,” said Sally to Linus. “You know that kid who sits behind me at school? I convinced him that my religion is better than his religion.” “How’d you do that?” asked Linus. “I hit him with my lunch box.”

Somewhere inside all of us there is a longing to hit each other with our lunch boxes. We tend to shy away from diversity, and love conformity. In particular, we love conformity to our standards. In other words, we want other people to behave like us, to believe like us, and to be like us.

This seems particularly true in the church. After all, we are supposed to be one big happy family, right? Shouldn’t we all behave the same way, believe the same way, and agree—at least about spiritual matters?

But this kind of thinking goes directly against the grain of the scriptures. In First Corinthians, chapter 12, Paul addresses the problem of unity amidst diversity. And he does not say that unity demands conformity. He does not say that all the Christians should look alike.

But unity does not equal conformity. Paul says,
Just as the body is one and has many members,
and all the members of the body, though many, are one body,
so it is with Christ.

We are one body. But a body has many parts. Paul goes on to point out that the eye and the ear and the hand all need each other to make the one body. They may not do the same things, but put them all together, and they make a rather nice body. This piece of scripture is probably a familiar one, used often in the church community. There’s a reason for that. We need to hear it over and over again. We need to be reminded. Paul knew that it wasn’t easy to be in community, to find a sense of unity amidst our differences.

The real challenge of this text is to celebrate difference that is possible because of the radical claim of Christian unity. To celebrate difference finds its necessity in the history of human existence. How we reject, negotiate, and accept difference has been a constant of our collective experience.

There is a yoga instructor whose mantra is: “Let go of all judgment, competition, and expectation.” It is a first step in accepting ourselves as we are and then, in turn, being able to accept others as they are. None of us is perfect. And I’m not sure about you, but I don’t want to be held to that standard. And guess what? I will let you down if that’s your expectation of me – I’m not perfect. And guess what else? None of us is perfect. It is my brokenness and your brokenness coming together that can make our experience “whole.”

We know that, as a church community, there are differing ideas, styles, solutions, desires, the list goes on. If we can let go of needing the outcome to be “my way”, but instead strive for an outcome that benefits the larger community in ways that none of us individually could have envisioned, then we are on our way toward the “greater gifts” that Paul’s words end with today. More to follow next week.

Neither power-struggles nor even church-hopping take seriously the biblical solution of living in community, the solution of love.

-Love calls us to give up competing with each other.
-Love calls us to accept our diversity, to know and profit from each other’s gifts.
-Love calls us to talk with each other when we disagree and to listen when we are disagreed with.
-Sometimes it calls us to compromise for the good of the other.
-Sometimes it calls for us to accept a limitation on our gift, so that the other person can exercise his or her gift.

Once upon a time, the inhabitants of a small village built a tower. All the groups brought stones from their yards to build it—the town council, the potter’s guild, the teachers, the cooks, the farmers, the seamstresses, and all the others worked hard to build the tower.

But almost as soon as it was done, they started fighting among themselves.
-The town council wanted to use the tower to hold political meetings.
-The potters wanted to use it for guild meetings.
-The farmers wanted to have agricultural forums.
-Some groups wanted artistic and cultural events.

And on and on it went.

Finally, all the groups got mad, and stone by stone, they dismantled the tower. And the people took their rocks home. But one old man remained, sitting by the foundation of the decimated tower. Someone passed by and said, “Old man, take your stone and go home.” The old man replied, “From the top of that tower, I could see the ocean.”

We are not here merely to exercise our own gifts. We are here to use those gifts to worship God, to love God, and to serve each other. God called us together, with all our diversity, so that we can see beyond the horizon—so that we can get a glimpse of eternity.

I have been so moved by the outpouring of support for the people of Haiti. I watched the special “Hope for Haiti” on Friday night which was the result of many actors and musicians coming together to raise money for our Haitian brothers and sisters. And there are so many other events and organizations actively doing what they can to support, to show that we do indeed understand that a part of our body is hurting. We’ve come together to help heal a part of our body. Our differences put aside for the time being. You and I both know it’s not perfect, there are problems, there will be problems when we come together as individuals – but WOW, if we focus on the positive in the coming together, in spite of our differences, we can see the miracle. We are getting a glimpse of eternity. We can see the power of Spirit working in us and through us. One of my favorite quotes from scripture is in Ephesians 3:20-21: Glory to God whose power working in us, can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine. Glory to him from generation to generation in the Church, and in Christ Jesus for ever and ever. Amen.

May we all be like the old man who remains by the foundation of the tower with our stones, knowing deep inside, that if we continue to share our gifts, to strive to love each other, we shall overcome some day! I ask that we all sign together the words of the great spiritual, We Shall Overcome Some Day. It’s in LEVAS # 227

We shall overcome,
We shall overcome,
We shall overcome, some day.

Oh, deep in my heart,
I do believe
We shall overcome, some day.

We’ll walk hand in hand,
We’ll walk hand in hand,
We’ll walk hand in hand, some day.

Oh, deep in my heart,

We shall live in peace,
We shall live in peace,
We shall live in peace, some day.

Oh, deep in my heart,

We shall all be free,
We shall all be free,
We shall all be free, some day.

Oh, deep in my heart,

We are not afraid,
We are not afraid,
We are not afraid, TODAY

Oh, deep in my heart,

We shall overcome,
We shall overcome,
We shall overcome, some day.

Oh, deep in my heart,
I do believe
We shall overcome, some day