The Myth of Separate-ness - A sermon for April 28, 2013

A Sermon for April 28, 2013 (Pascha 5, RCL C)

Offered by Nathan Ferrell for The Church of Saint Mary

Texts:             Acts 11:1-18; Psalm 148; John 13:31-35

Primary Message:  there are no good people, and no bad people

Call to Action:          see yourself as a member of one humanity

Title:               The Myth of Separate-ness

O God, grant us continual grace to hear and receive your word, and to respond faithfully. We ask in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

My dear friends: this morning, I want us to consider together this morning something that I will call “the myth of separate-ness”.

You know this myth. It’s talked about commonly, and it’s been in the news quite a bit lately.

This myth of separate-ness was common in the days of those first apostles of Christ. After all, it was central to their very identity as a nation.

Now the process of unraveling that myth begins with this story about Peter’s visit with Cornelius, the Roman centurion. What did we hear there?

When Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him, saying, “Why did you go to uncircumcised men and eat with them?”

In the world occupied by Jesus and his disciples, humanity was divided into two parts: us and them. Or to be a bit more clear, the men of the world were divided into two categories: us the circumcised, and them the uncircumcised.

I must say, to be frank, this mark of separateness is rather peculiar. I mean, how did the people in Jerusalem know that Peter ate with uncircumcised men?

Did Peter – or anyone else, for that matter – conduct an inspection?

You know what I mean, though I doubt that we need to speak any more about that!

As we know, it is one of the most normal, most natural things that we can do to separate the world, to divide humanity, into us and them. Right?

What about deciding who are true Mainers, and who are the ones from away?

Oh, I‘ve heard about that one plenty of times already.

It is said that the older of the two Boston bombers, Tamerlan, had protested against the idea that Muslims might celebrate the American holiday of Thanksgiving. He said that this belonged to the kafir, to the non-believer, and that it had no place in the lives of Muslims. 

The myth of separate-ness. Us and them. Here we see the same pattern repeated again. The world is full of such examples, and we must ask the question of ourselves as well. We are not let of the hook so easily.  

Who among us is NOT tempted to replicate this pattern? To define the “us” and the “them”?

I will give you the benefit of the doubt and thank God that you do not make such distinctions on the basis of skin color and any other such ridiculous matter.

I believe that WE are tempted  to divide people in a different way.

Who among us does not – perhaps even unconsciously – make a mental distinction between us “the good people” and them “the bad people”?

I heard an interview this week with a recovering survivor from the bombings in Boston. As this young woman lay there in the hospital bed, she said, “I don’t understand how anyone could do such a thing.”  

And I thought to myself, “Really? I understand it with no problem at all.”

Bear with me now. This may not be the most pleasant line of thinking, but I believe that it is vital for us to grasp this point.

Do you see how easily that young woman made the distinction between us and them? Between the good people like her, of course, and the bad people who do such horrid things in the world?

My friends, let’s be very clear about this. That distinction is a lie.   

I understand how angry young men like the Tsarnaev brothers, like Adam Lanza, like James Holmes, like Timothy McVeigh, and like so many thousands of others could do such horrible acts of violence, because I was an angry young man once who did a number of stupid and foolish things.

And who knows what could have happened to me if  - during those years when I felt lost and yet wanting to do something important with my life – if I was influenced by the wrong people, or brainwashed by some crazy ideology, or if I had some chemical imbalance in my brain!

There but for the grace of God go I.

I understand it with no trouble at all, but I confess that on this score, I am willing to give all of you women a pass!

99% of all horrible actions like this are done by men – by angry young men.

Women seem to be immune to that dangerous blend of anger and adrenaline and misanthropy and testosterone through which young men must swim.

But the overall point remains the same, regardless of your gender!

There is no class of good people on one side, and a class of bad people on the other.

What there is, is one humanity. Human beings in a variety of shapes and forms and colors, with varying abilities. All made in the image of God. All fallen and broken by sin. All in need of healing. All in various stages of recovery.

Thomas Merton famously discovered this spiritual reality while standing at the busy corner of Fourth and Walnut streets in downtown Louisville, Kentucky in March of 1958, in the middle of a regular business day in the shopping district.

Even though he was a monk who lived an isolated life of silence and prayer, he realized right there that there is only one humanity. As he wrote in his journal:

“I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all these people, that they were mine and I theirs, that we could not be alien to one another even though we were total strangers. It was like waking from a dream of separate-ness… [As monks], we belong to God. Yet so does everybody else belong to God…This sense of liberation…was such a relief and a joy to me that I almost laughed out loud. And I suppose my happiness could have taken form in these words: ‘Thank God, thank God that I AM like other men, that I am only a man among others.’” (Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander, p. 153-154).

Like waking from a dream of separate-ness.

The first step in truly loving others as Christ commanded is to refuse to deal in illusions and falsehoods, and to recognize our common reality.

In each one of us, no matter what skincolor or gender or age or intelligence, no matter what abilities or mental competency, no matter what markings we do or do not have on our bodies – inside each one of us, there is tremendous potential – for good and for evil – potential to build and to destroy.

Do you know this truth about yourself? Do you know this truth about others?

Peter and those first disciples were being taught this lesson by the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit is still teaching us this lesson today.

“And they praised God, saying, ‘Then God has given even to the Gentiles the repentance that leads to life’” (Acts 11:18).

Let us give our thanks and praise that God has given even to me, even to you, that repentance that leads to life. Amen.

Children’s Message

Good morning!

Let me ask you a question: who is invited to live in God’s house forever?

Am I invited? Are you invited? How do we know? Because God said we were invited!

This morning, we heard a strange story read from the Bible about a giant sheet and lots of different animals.

Did you hear it?

Saint Peter was praying and he saw a vision. Do you know what this is?

A vision is seeing something real but which is not actually there.

Peter saw a vision of a large sheet floating down out of the sky, and in that sheet were all kinds of animals. Wild animals, reptiles, birds.

And maybe it looked a little bit like this! (Acolytes unfurl sheet).

When Peter saw this, a voice told him, “Get up, Peter! Kill and eat.”

He said, No way! I’ve never eaten any food that wasn’t special, wasn’t holy.

But the voice of God told him that it was ok to eat anything.   

Now, guess what? Let me tell you a secret. This story is NOT about food at all, and it is not even about animals!

Do any of you know what it IS about?

It’s about PEOPLE! All those different kinds of animals represent different kinds of people. And all different kinds of people are invited to live in God’s house.

If they want to, they can live with God now and forever. Even you and me are invited. Everyone, no matter what they look like or what kind of abilities they have or don’t have – God has spoken, and God has invited us all to live with God forever. Now that’s good news, isn’t it? Let’s pray.  

Sermon for the 3rd Sunday after the Epiphany

The Present Form of This World

-Well, it is still early in the season of Epiphany – there are many weeks still before the start of Lent – and yet today the Lectionary calls us to stop and reflect together upon the call to repentance.

-Here in the Gospel of Mark, we read of our Lord’s first words after beginning his public ministry: “Repent, and believe in the good news.”
-I hope that none of us miss the significance of this. We can say with confidence that repentance is the first word of Jesus to this world.

-This was not a new message, of course. We see Jonah preaching a similar message to the people of Nineveh: repent or else destruction is coming upon you.

-But, within the kingdom of God, repentance is a bit different than the actions taken by the Ninevites. For those of us in Christ, repentance is not a one time affair. It is not even a once a year activity that we only contemplate during Lent.

-For those of us baptized into Christ, repentance is our way of life. Repentance is the door to a new life and also the path to a new life. Repentance is the gateway into a new land of wholeness and abundance, but it is also the way deeper into this land. It is the Christian’s way of life.

-Well, that is my claim, and this is the primary matter I believe that we desperately need to consider together this morning. But I am sure all of you right now are saying to yourselves, “Oh great. Repentance, huh? Gee, this sounds like fun.”

-But it is fun! Really! And it is exciting. And it is crucially important. Let me show you what I mean.

-We human beings desperately need to change. This human society in which we live is very, very messed up. God has given to us free will, and we have used this to sow destruction throughout every part of the earth.
-True, there is beauty everywhere, to be sure, but the amount of pain and suffering in this world is immense, truly unbearable if we try to hold it all. I will spare us a list of any relevant statistics.

-We need to change, and we all know it. In fact, the call to change echoes everywhere today.
-“Change we can believe in.” “The change we need.” Sound familiar? Talk about change is everywhere in our society today, starting from the top, but what does it mean?

-Now, I did not vote for Barack Obama, but I do recognize and applaud his ability to energize people and to give many a new sense of hope and optimism. The inauguration this past week was amazing – just the raw sense of energy and emotion and joy and anticipation.

-But the problem is this: real change comes from within, and it is slow to come. Passing new laws, writing new executive orders, cutting federal checks – none of this will really change anything. All action comes from within. “You will know a tree by its fruits.” Our actions are the fruits of our hearts and they faithfully reveal what is inside.

-Our family likes to watch movies together. I remember once two years ago when we all decided one night to watch a movie together and we watched An Inconvenient Truth – the movie by Al Gore which presents the looming crisis of global warming in stark relief. It is startling to see all of this information put together, even for someone like myself who has studied environmental issues for my entire adult life. But for our oldest children – who were 11 and 9 years old at the time – it struck a deep chord. They immediately wanted to spring into action and began talking about what we can do to reduce our carbon footprint. “Angus,” our daughter Se` said to her older brother, “maybe we can spend less time watching TV and playing X-Box, and maybe we can play outside more!”
-It was heartwarming to see this kind of response, but little does she yet know of human nature.
-She does not yet understand that human beings, left to their own meager resources, are rarely able to transform themselves. Her resolve to change lasted only a week or so. Most New Year’s resolutions for 2009 won’t make it out of January still in force!

-So how then do we change? How do we effect real and lasting change within ourselves or within our communities?

-The self-help gurus of our culture tell me to look inside and to recognize how powerful I truly am. But it’s just not there.
-No, I need another source of power, another source of energy outside of myself in order truly to become myself, truly to become the man who God has intended me to be.
-You see, from all eternity, God has designed me to be a certain kind of man. Try as I may now to fit into that design, I am not able. I try to change my life to be that Christ-like model, and I fail. I try and I fail. I try and I fail.
-I need something else! I need a source of power, a source of energy outside of myself to enable me to become who God has intended me to be!

-When our Lord began his ministry, he preached this message: “The kingdom of God has come near.” The kingdom of God is near, right at hand, surrounding us at all times and in all places. In that kingdom, the very life power of God is made available to us through our Lord Jesus Christ.

-Power – dynamos in the Greek – from which we get the word dynamic. Dynamic energy, power, force, vigor – this is the message of the Gospel.
-Kingdom power right here and now available to us through the means of grace.

-This then is the path of repentance for us. It is not a one time affair. It is a continual way of life in which we turn away from the present form of this world, our weak and fallen selves, and become empowered by the grace of God to claim our true selves.

-The apostle Paul taught us that “the present form of this world is passing away,” and that’s a good thing because it is weak. Instead, we continually turn to the kingdom of God and receive power, strength, energy to be transformed daily more and more into the fullness of Christ.

-The temptation is to be fooled by the present form of this world. All is not as it seems, and every single day we are being sold a bill of goods, a stack of lies about how to be happy and whole. All we need is a flatter tummy, or whiter teeth, or smarter investments, or a better car, or hair with less gray in it. The list is endless.

-But thanks be to God that we can hear a different voice, the call of the Holy Spirit to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. Thanks be to God that grace and power are available to us when we repent and believe in the good news. Amen.