Great Scot December 2017 GreatScot_152_Dec_Online | Page 8

Chaplain
Rev David Assender – School Chaplain
Diversity, not division
Equal, united, different, forever: this is God's vision for mankind.
REV DAVID ASSENDER
SCHOOL CHAPLAIN
When I was a teenager I loved watching The
A-Team on TV: a cliché crew made up of a tech guy, a
muscly guy, a good-looking guy and a master-planner.
They were ex-military personnel trying to redeem
themselves. Even though they were very different,
their chance at freedom had them working together
cleverly to accomplish spectacular outcomes. It is a
very popular model repeated in countless multiplayer
computer games to this day, and it is very biblical.
The Bible does not fragment us into races and
subcultures. From Genesis to Revelation we are one
race. We are all created in the image of God and
through Christ we are all one family. The Apostle
Paul writes: ‘From one man God made every nation
of the human race, that they should inhabit the whole
earth’ (Acts 17:26). Furthermore: ‘There is neither
Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there
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male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus’
(Galatians 3:28).
But diversity is seen as an essential element for
unity to function: ‘The body is a unit, though it is
made up of many parts ... so it is with Christ’
(1 Corinthians 12:12). Diversity makes us strong
when we work together. The Apostle John’s vision of
a great celebration at the end of time is described as ‘a
great multitude that no one could count, from every
nation, tribe, people and language’ standing before
the throne of God (Revelation 7:9). Equal, united,
different, forever: this is God’s vision for humanity.
Yet, just like an episode of The A-Team, diversity
within unity isn’t an end in itself – it’s what you do
with it that really matters. The purpose of diversity
in the Bible is to build one another up (Ephesians
4:1-16) – each individual contributing to the other
what the other doesn’t have. Diversity isn’t celebrated
as much as it is necessitated. We are weaker when
Great Scot Number 152 – December 2017