It's a gift

   "In the epistle this week Paul calls us to a better way of dealing with our differences. He compares the church to the human body; although it's made up of many different parts, it forms one body. And so it is with us. Despite our obvious and many differences, God calls us to a unity that's not bland uniformity, and to a diversity without division. To three different churches Paul writes, "There is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, Scythian, slave or free, male or female, but Christ is all, and is in all."

           Paul draws some practical conclusions about our unity in diversity. I need you. And you need me. "The eye cannot say to the hands, 'I don't need you!' And the head cannot say to the feet, 'I don't need you.'" Paul subverts our normal human tendencies: "Those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor." Despite our differences, we should have "equal concern for each other."

            Schwartz tells how he was helped by a gay friend who related his own story about a college experience. One day Brian was talking about a writing project with his professor, Betty Sue Flowers (who later ran the LBJ Library and Museum), and happened to mention that he was gay. He was shocked by her response: "It's a gift," said Flowers.

           "I would have never thought of that as a possible reply," said Brian. "Yet I immediately knew exactly what she meant. Because I was different, I would see things differently than everyone else, and that would be valuable to me in ways that I would only discover over time. I don't think it's too much to say that her words changed how I looked at my life.""

http://www.journeywithjesus.net/Essays/20130121JJ.shtml