yesterday at my church, the worship pastor preached on the idea of unity through diversity (based on 1 corinthians 12:12-20). it was probably about the best sermon i’ve heard in the last six months (partially, to be sure, because the preacher is really an artist, not an orator or expositor; so it had a wonderfully different feel from most sermons i hear). (you can hear the sermon here.)
in the middle of the sermon, he used this video (viewed over 10 million times on youtube, so you have likely already seen it!) as a way of talking about the difference between unity in diversity and unity through diversity. anyhow, i just found myself totally suppressing tears while watching it. what a great metaphor for what the church is invited, called, created to be.
i too enjoyed this particular metaphor as well as the whole message, but as someone who works with a middle school worship band, I will definately be using this illustration and verses he used to explain how a band (or body) was designed to work
This may or may not be off-topic (didn’t listen to the message), but just returning home from spending time in Phoenix, AZ. Took a drive through the desert and visited the desert botanical gardens. It’s the first time I’ve been to an authentic desert region. What struck me, was that all the cacti were blooming. Their flowers aren’t much different from what I typically think a flower should look like in “normal” climate, but the plants that support and produce them look far different (alien-like) from what I’m used to seeing.
The parallel I drew was that we are all called to make disciples of Jesus (flowers). No matter where we are culturally, a disciple of Jesus (flower) is going to look very similar to other disciples (character, integrity, faith, hope, love, etc). But how do we go about supporting/”producing” disciples? That’s going to look very different depending on where we are. It may not look like anything we see/hear about at a youth or church convention, but who cares? Trying to produce flowers in AZ using “conventional” plants and finding the water, etc to grow them will be a complete failure. You have to be willing to look “weird” to make it happen. Diversity is weird, but beautiful, at the same time.