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.  

The Greatest Nation & the Servant-Ideal

A Sermon for October 21, 2012 (RCL B Proper 24)

Offered by Nathan Ferrell for Trinity Episcopal Shared Ministry

Texts:           Hebrews 5:1-10; Psalm 104:1-9,25,37b; Mark 10:35-45

Themes:        service to others, self-sacrifice

Title:             Whoever Wishes to Become Great

Earlier this morning, nearly 4,400 miles to the east of this place, the Bishop of Rome officially canonized a woman who had consecrated her life to God as a Sister of Saint Francis and who is exalted because of her service at a leper colony in Hawaii, nearly 4,900 miles to our west.

Saint Marianne Cope is how the Roman church refers to her now, though most of her life she was known as Mother Marianne. In July 1883, while serving as the mother superior of her community in Syracuse New York, Mother Marianne received an Emissary from the Hawaiian government who was sent throughout North America in hopes of finding religious sisters who would relocate to Hawaii in order to offer medical care to a colony of people with Hansen’s Disease – which is the official name for leprosy.

Faithful to the spirit of St. Francis, and in memory of his famous encounter with a leper on the road outside of Assisi, Mother Marianne agreed to accept this challenge. Three months later, Mother Marianne and six other sisters set out for the island of Molokai in the Kingdom of Hawaii.

Before setting out, Mother Marianne made a bold promise to her sisters: no one, she said, who was willing to minister to lepers in the name of Christ would ever contract that horrible disease. The risk was very real indeed. This leper colony had been established hastily in the 1840s because of the sudden arrival and rapid spread of the disease. People in Hawaii were afraid, and every one with Hansen’s Disease was immediately exiled to this remote peninsula, completely cut off from the rest of Hawaii by the highest sea cliffs in the world which fall straight down into the ocean.

The Kalaupapa peninsula on the island of Molokai

Mother Marianne and the sisters risked their lives to help these isolated, desperate souls who had no help, no supplies, no homes – about 1200 people in total, all suffering from a deadly and debilitating disease. They risked a painful and gruesome death in order to serve these people, but, amazingly, no Sister among them ever did become infected.    

When the sons of Zebedee made their infamous request to sit at the right and left hands of Jesus when he took his place as King, they had no idea what they were requesting.

To drink the cup of Jesus does not ever lead one to a position of royal, earthly power like that which James and John had requested. But it does lead one to a position of service to the poor, the needy, the sick, the outcasts.

“Whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all” (Mark 10:44).

It may be that Mother Marianne’s example of living out the servant-ideal of Christ is, perhaps, an extreme one. But it is a faithful example, and it teaches us much about the kind of risk-taking and self-sacrifice that is part-and-parcel of following Jesus.

Last week, we considered together the importance of reading and meditating upon Holy Scripture on a regular, daily basis, because “the word of God is living active” (Hebrews 4:12).

This is crucial for our daily lives as individual Christ-followers, but it doesn’t stop there. What we learn in the Scriptures has implications for every facet of human life.

Right now, I am going to push to the edge of what is culturally acceptable by talking a bit about politics. I do this because it is true that what we learn from the scriptures has bearing not only upon our individual lives but also upon how we conduct ourselves as a nation.

Now, let me be perfectly clear at the onset by stating that I do not believe that America is a Christian nation.

I do not believe that it ever has been such, nor do I even think that a Christian nation is a true possibility, to be entirely honest.

But if it were – if we were to set out to live collectively as a Christian nation, as a entire country dedicated to following the teachings of Jesus – what might that look like?

What might we learn from the Gospels that would shape our policy as a nation?

What about from today’s Gospel reading?

What would it look like to be a nation which intentionally took the position of servant to the other nations of the world? A nation which took extreme care to ensure that we never lorded it over others, never threw our weight around, and never demanded from others what we are unwilling to do ourselves?

What would it look like to have a foreign policy shaped by this teaching of Christ?

“Whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all.”

Thankfully, I am not a politician, nor am I a policy adviser to any. But it doesn’t take expert eyes to notice immediately the stark contrast between the servant-ideal of Christ and the foreign policy of this nation.

To be a servant of others, like Mother Marianne Cope, means that you are willing and ready to lay aside your own needs and interests in order to focus instead upon the needs and interests of others.

This is sacrificial service and it is costly. To willingly accept the baptism of Jesus is to join him in his sacrificial service on behalf of the world.

I do not have any clear and easy prescriptions for how this ought to be applied in our relations with the other nations of the world, but this is how I understand – on a personal level – the teachings of Jesus regarding self-defense and the legitimate use of violence.

As a follower of Christ, it is NEVER appropriate to defense myself.

The one who gave himself up to death on the cross on MY behalf calls me to follow his same path, to carry my cross, to offer myself as a sacrifice for others.

That is what we call agape love. As a Christian, I can NEVER hurt another human being in order to protect myself or to protect my honor.

This is what it means to turn the other cheek, go the extra mile, give away my cloak also.

However, as a Christian, I have a duty to protect the innocent and the needy.

If I were ever to see someone harming a child or abusing a woman, I would not hesitate a moment to inflict serious pain upon the perpetrator.

By taking up the defense of those who are defenseless, I am risking myself and my safety and security in order to serve someone in need, and I personally am willing to do that at any moment, whenever called upon.

As a student of the Bible, I understand this distinction between self-defense and the defense of others to be clear and decisive.

Again: I believe that the Bible is clear that I never have any right to cause harm in defending myself, and at the same time that I have a moral obligation to defend others who are in need. And in that case, force may be necessary and is therefore justified.

So how does this distinction work for a nation as a whole who might seek to follow Jesus as our Master, Savior, Lord?

If we actually wanted the policies of our nation to be shaped by the teachings of Christ, how would we carry out this distinction in the use of force? How would we see ourselves as the servants of others?

Tomorrow night, during the last scheduled debate between the two leading candidates for President, there will be a lot of talk about the use of force by our nation.

After all, the principal subject is slated to be foreign policy.

You will hear these two men speak often about doing what it is in the interests of the nation, about protecting our national interests, and about projecting our power throughout the world.

I invite you, as a Christ-follower who might be observing this discussion – or talking about this debate among you family or co-workers – as you do this, I invite you to hold in your mind this clear teaching of Christ about the servant-ideal, and to remember also the example of Mother Marianne in her sacrificial service to the lepers in Hawaii.

As you listen, consider the Bible’s teaching that force and violence are never to be used in self-defense but only in service of those who are powerless, of those who are in need, of those who are defenseless.

“For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45).

Thanks be to God that the Son of Man has served us, and has ransomed our lives, so that we might show off his glory and greatness throughout the world. Amen.

A Human Point of View

Sermon for the 4th Sunday in Lent (RCL Year C), offered by Nathan Ferrell for Trinity Episcopal Shared Ministry

Texts: Joshua 5:9-12; Psalm 32; 2 Corinthians 5:16-21; Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32

“We regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way.”

My friends, our lessons today point the way to a paradigm of life that is so vastly different from the one in which we live. Changing our paradigms for life is what Lent is all about, and so it seems fitting today for us to reflect together upon the dark realities of hatred, prejudice, and fear and upon the contrasting vision of life that Jesus brings.

It is a sad fact that prejudice is one of the most predictable patterns of any human community, and indeed one of the most common attitudes of the average human being. Our own nation is struggling to find ways to overcome the legacy of 400 years of systematic racial and ethnic discrimination, but it is not unique to this land. In Africa even today, dominant tribes abuse and discriminate against weaker neighboring tribes. In Europe, distrust of foreign workers from Arabic lands and the Middle East is a growing and widespread problem. All of us here have been educated recently on the depth of distrust and resentment between the Sunni and Shiite branches of Islam in the Middle East.

All of this is part of the human point of view to which Paul is referring. This point of view sees difference as threat and the other as a danger.

In his earthly ministry, Jesus was relentless is undermining and subverting this human point of view. This parable of the prodigal son, as it is commonly called, is one example of his intention to teach his listeners a different way of seeing reality.

Only Luke’s gospel records this amazing story which intends to turn the established order of righteousness on its head. The original weight and force of this parable is not found in the actions and attitudes of the prodigal son. It is found in the reactions of the older son and the father.

Just look at the context. The grumbling scribes and Pharisees are the older brother. Jesus has the position of the father, and the tax collectors and sinners are the younger brother. The ones on the inside – the Pharisees, the hard-working brother – can easily point to the many flaws of the outsiders. They are obvious for all to see.

And to be fair and honest, I can relate in some ways to the feeling of the scribes and Pharisees, the attitude of the older brother. It is not easy for me to sympathize with those who are reaping the consequences of poor decisions.

It seems like every winter we hear about groups of mountain climbers who get lost in bad weather and need to be rescued. Last month I heard about a climber who fell into the crater of Mt. St. Helens because he was standing near the lip peering in and the snow gave way under him. I confess that I become incensed when I think about the millions of taxpayer dollars spent on these search-and-rescue operations when anyone with a brain would know not to climb in the mountains in winter! Why should we have to spend our money and to risk more lives in order to save people who are stupid?

But…then I think about the older brother, and about Jesus’ warning to the scribes and Pharisees, and about the dangers of a hardened heart.

It is very easy to focus upon that which divides us from others, to dwell upon the us-versus-them mentality. It is very easy for us humans, isn’t it? It seems almost natural, like second nature to distrust the other, the outsider.

But Jesus teaches us that this path leads to pain and suffering. Listen, please: It is one of God’s goals for your life that you finally reach a point where you see every single woman as your sister, and every single man as your brother. Every single one, without distinction or exception!

Not that it’s so easy to live this way! But this why the Holy Spirit is continuing to train us in this way of life.

In 1979 in Nicaragua, during the Revolution against the brutal military dictatorship of General Somoza, Tomás Borge was one of the revolutionary leaders of the people who was captured by the military and thrown into a dungeon. There he was chained to a wall and tortured. He was forced to watch as the soldiers dragged his wife into the dungeon, violated her physically, and then murdered her. The soldiers later castrated Borge as a way to humiliate him and to break his spirit.

But, thanks be to God, justice prevailed and the people’s revolution succeeded and Borge was finally freed. He was paraded by cheering crowds through the streets of Managua as a true hero of the nation. But as he marched along, Borge saw in the crowd the face of one of his captor’s, one of the men who had killed his wife.

So Borge broke ranks with the parade and ran over to this man. He grabbed his former captor by the shoulders, shook him and yelled, “Do you remember me? Do you remember me?” This man trembled with fear, fearing for his own life now, and he pretended that he had never seen Borge before. But Tomás Borge persisted and said to him, “I will never forget your face! I will never forget it!” And he asked, “Now do you understand what this revolution is all about?”

That very frightened and confused man could only answer weakly, “Yes.Yes”, all the while hoping and praying to avoid the obvious retaliation for what he had done. But Borge responded, “No! You don’t understand what this revolution is all about!” Then Borge embraced the man and shouted out, “I forgive you! I forgive you! That’s what this revolution is all about!”

Not only in Nicaragua, but everywhere, at all times and in all places: that is what the revolution of Jesus Christ is all about! “We regard no one from a human point of view.” Do you realize how revolutionary this statement is? Can you imagine with me for a moment what our world would be like if the human point of view was consistently replaced by God’s point of view? Can you imagine a world where forgiveness of wrongs is the instinctual response of the average human being rather than the desire for revenge?

Recently, a friend told me of his father’s secretary who was cut off while driving by a pick-up truck. In frustration, she made an obscene hand gesture. The driver of the truck saw this, stopped his vehicle, walked over to hers, tapped on her window, and when she rolled it down, he knocked her in the face and broke her nose! Just like that!

Don’t fool yourself, my friends. This is the kind of world we live in. Anger and violence are all around. Forgiveness and reconciliation are in fact a very rare commodity.

But, my friends, the good news is this: God has a plan to change the world!

“If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!” In Jesus Christ, we average human beings are immersed into a brand new reality called the kingdom of God. Jesus teaches us how to live a full, joyous and abundant life through the ministry of reconciliation. And the Holy Spirit empowers us to grow in grace and love. This is what it means to become the righteousness of God. One heart, one soul at a time – God is doing away with the human point of view. I pray that you will know what it means to sign up and join in this revolution. Amen.