We human beings are very good at noticing differences.
We notice when someone’s way of talking is different,
or the kind of food they eat,
or their skin tone or hair texture,
or the shape of their nose or eyes.
And we divide the world up
according to these differences,
creating a sense of “us” and “them,”
of insiders and outsiders,
of the ordinary and the exotic.
People respond to these differences
in different ways.
Some see differences as superficial things
that are best ignored
and not spoken of in polite company—
potential sources of conflict to be overcome
by pretending that we really are all the same.
Others see differences as things so threatening
that those who are different
must be controlled or excluded or eliminated,
by circling our wagons and locking our doors.
Still others see differences as generating
a diversity so deep and identities so fixed
that we cannot possibly imagine the experience
of those possessing a different identity,
much less form a single human family.
We human beings are good at noticing differences,
but we often don’t do difference well.
We either seek to ignore it or eliminate it,
or we make it so absolute
that there is no possibility
for unity across our differences.
But the Holy Spirit does difference differently.
The story of Pentecost depicts a large crowd
gathered in Jerusalem from various lands—
all Jews, to be sure,
but still people of different languages and customs:
Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and so forth.
But as the Spirit-filled apostles begin to speak to them,
proclaiming the Good News of the risen Christ,
each of them hears the words in his or her own language.
The story of Pentecost is sometimes seen
against the backdrop of the story
of the Tower of Babel,
in which humanity’s attempt
to make a name for itself
by building a tower to the heavens
is thwarted by God’s confusion of their speech,
giving rise to different human languages
and furthering the divisions that sin creates.
But Pentecost is no mere reversal of Babel.
It is not the elimination
of the diversity of human language,
but rather it is the giving of a Spirit
that makes understanding possible
even in the face of difference,
a Spirit that accommodates itself to difference
even as it unites those whom difference might divide.
The Holy Spirit does difference differently.
Paul’s letter to the Corinthians tells us
that the Spirit not only accommodates difference,
but creates difference through the giving of diverse gifts.
Some are given wisdom, others knowledge,
others gifts of healing, still others prophecy,
and yet others discernment.
The one Spirit does not make us all the same,
but rather makes us each unique,
for we each receive the gifts of the Spirit in our own way
and manifest the gift of the Spirit in our own way.
And yet, Paul tells us,
while there are different kinds of spiritual gifts,
it is the same Spirit who gives them;
while there are different forms of service,
it is the same Lord who is being served;
while there are different works being worked,
it is the same God who is at work in us,
giving us a diversity of gifts
that are to be used for the benefit of the whole:
“As a body is one though it has many parts,
and all the parts of the body, though many, are one body,
so also Christ.”
The community called together by the Spirit
into the one body of Christ
not by the erasure of difference,
but by the Spirit’s graceful guidance.
The Holy Spirit does difference differently.
And as we come to see how these differences flow forth
from the one Spirit, the one Lord, the one God,
we can begin to see other differences—
differences of race and ethnicity,
differences of culture and experience—
as being likewise rooted in God’s wise providence.
St. Thomas Aquinas says that God
could have created a world of sameness,
a world with only one kind of thing in it.
He notes that such a world
might have had less conflict in it,
since difference can indeed be a source of conflict—
a world with only lions or only lambs
is a lot less bloody
than one with both lions and lambs.
But a world without variety and difference
is also an impoverished world:
would you really want a world
without either lions or lambs?
According to St. Thomas,
a world that encompasses difference
better reflects the infinite goodness
and perfection of God.
And a church that encompasses difference—
the differing gifts of the Spirit
as well as the providential differences
of ethnicity, culture, race, and experience—
better reflects the reality of Christ,
of whose body we are members.
The Spirit does difference differently,
neither seeing it as a threat,
nor ignoring its reality,
nor letting it eclipse our common identity
as those who have been given to drink
of the one Spirit.
Through the power of the Spirit
the risen Jesus steps through our locked doors
and speaks to us the word he spoke
to the disciples in the upper room:
Peace.
In the midst of a world
in which difference
often generates conflict
or is seen as a threat,
he gives us through the Spirit
the gift of his peace,
calling us to embody that peace:
“As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”
May God’s Spirit accompany us as we go forth,
so that we may be for the world
the peace he has spoken to us,
and may God have mercy on us all.
