division

The Moral Arc

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Today’s readings:
Psalms 122; 149, Isaiah 51:1-8, Galatians 3:23-29, Mark 7:1-23

The Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. famously said: “The arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.” However, he was not the first to use this particular metaphor. In 1857 Unitarian minister Theodore Parker used it in a sermon against slavery. Between Parker and King, other religious leaders also referenced the “moral arc.” This image endures because it bears out across time. Over the years, as discrimination has become less acceptable, increasing numbers of people have gained access to freedom and justice.

Jesus constantly expanded the circle of justice to include the disenfranchised and despised. As Paul wrote to the Galatians: “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.” Distinctions that separate human beings have no meaning in the kingdom of God.

Since Paul’s time, the church has traveled the moral arc to challenge divisions and champion justice in the form of abolition, civil rights, child labor laws, and other social movements. Like society at large, the church experiences an uneven ebb and flow of progress, but on the whole it moves in the direction of justice. What barriers to justice is it helping tear down right now?

Popular wisdom says we are more likely to think of individuals and groups as our equals after we get to know them. While this is generally true, and while it is desirable to broaden our understanding of the world, a hard truth remains: we simply don’t have time to understand all the people Jesus would have us love. Does Christian love – expressed in mercy and justice – require us to understand its recipients? It does not, and demands to be extended especially toward those who remain alien to us.

Perhaps the only real division is between people we understand and people we don’t. Can we rise to the challenge of loving people justly even when our lack of understanding create social or emotional barriers? The road to justice runs straight through those barriers and often beyond our ability to see, but it is where Christ waits to meet us.

Comfort: The Kingdom of God is always expanding.

Challenge: Read or listen to MLK’s Sermon at Temple Israel.

Prayer: Infinite God, share with me your vision  so I may see beyond the horizon of my own limited understanding. Amen.

Discussion: Have you ever been part of a group that was excluded by the church? Have you ever actively excluded any group from church?

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Common Ground

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Today’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 98; 146, Leviticus 26:1-20, 1 Timothy 2:1-6, Matthew 13:18-23

Politically speaking, Christians are all over the map. Conservative, moderate, or progressive, we all believe the principles of our faith inform our decisions about how to vote. How can it be we vary so widely? The Southern Baptist Convention and the United Church of Christ read the same Bible, but arrive at very different conclusions about gay marriage. Jimmy Carter and Mike Huckabee are famously Christian, but agree on little when it comes to the moral implications of federal budget making. These organizations and people are passionate about their faith, but understand it in very different ways. How should we respond to such a polarizing environment?

If we are to find common ground, we need to start from the ground up, rather than the top down. For example, both conservative and progressive Christians should want to address poverty, since Christ tells us to take care of the poor and the sick. One side endorses a free market solution, while the other relies more heavily on social programs. Both approaches could benefit from insights of the other, but in the top-down scuffle to impose ideology on actual lives, the poor are treated more like turf than people. Whatever end of the spectrum we fall on, Christianity is not about winning, it is about serving, and the tribalism of politics make us lose sight of that.

The first letter to Timothy advises believers “that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone, for kings and all who are in high positions, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity.” When it comes to modern politics, “dignity” doesn’t exactly spring to mind. In a culture where winners say “respect the office” and losers claim “the officeholder is illegitimate,” the message remains revolutionary.

Even when a candidate we despise wins office, we should pray for them to be successful in serving the people well. Our actions in the public sphere should reflect a humility to serve, not the viciousness of campaign rhetoric. Christians have always disagreed. Our role is to model how to disagree with love.

Comfort: Standing up for your beliefs doesn’t have to mean alienating those who believe differently.

Challenge: Spend some time listening to or watching conservative or liberal radio or television – whichever one you tend not to agree with. Do so with an intent of discovering common ground.

Prayer: God of diversity, help me hear truth, even when it is spoken by those I am inclined to disagree with. Amen.

Discussion: Do you extend a fist or an handshake to those who disagree with  you?

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Sticks and Stones

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Today’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 103; 150, Genesis 24:50-67, 2 Timothy 2:14-21, Mark 10:13-22

We all grew up hearing some variation on “sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never harm me.”

Turns out life is more complicated than childhood nursery rhymes.

Words are paradoxical things. While they are little more than scribbles or puffs of air we agree have certain meaning, they can actually contain immense power and create considerable harm. Laws and their consequences hinge on the order of words and the punctuation between them. Contracts can bind or fail based on a comma or its absence. Some words expressed too freely threaten the powers that be and become cause for censorship and prosecution.

Classes of people can be created simply because we impose upon them a word that describes a single one of their characteristics. Take for example the idea of people being “black” or “white.” We all started out the same color and became more varied through circumstances of time, climate, and genetics. Before we started to travel and become reacquainted with each other, we didn’t think of ourselves as white or black – we were just people. It’s such an inexact distinction that over time we had to invent yet more words (and legal categories) to describe people who didn’t fall neatly into one of those two categories. Yet those words – arbitrary and inaccurate as they are – have had a real and tremendous harm on the history and freedom of millions.

It seems the more we insist on parsing words, the less we agree on them. Take for example the phrase “Black Lives Matter.” It’s a simple statement in response to a documented and ongoing history of disproportionate violence against black people by authorities, yet many insist on reading something anti-white into it. We see an “only” at the beginning where there is none. We insist a “too” at the end would clear things up. We want to overwrite it with the essentially meaningless “All Lives Matter” because then we don’t have to face actual and specific problems.

In 2 Timothy, Paul advises the church to “avoid wrangling over words, which does no good but only ruins those who are listening.” In other … words … getting caught up in semantics does no service to the church. Rather, it creates false divisions and distracts us from the central message of the Gospel. Schisms have occurred over such unnecessary distinctions. Scholars and theologians in their ivory towers may wage battles (both well intentioned and prideful) over such matters, but the rest of us could pretty comfortably stick with The Word of God – the Logos, the Christ – and loving God and loving our neighbors. Insisting on the “right” words – such as the Sinner’s Prayer to accept Jesus, or a specific Bible translation – alienates us both from each other and from unbelievers who look upon the petty squabbling (and therefore the faith) with justifiable skepticism.

Sticks and stones can break bones, but they can also build shelters. Are we using words to harm or heal? Are we twisting other people’s words to fit our own agendas and assumptions? When we speak, do people hear Jesus … or hear us trying to prove we hear Jesus (and forcing them to also)?

Let us pray for discernment about which words to embrace and which to let go, which to support and which to oppose. Let us be humble in wielding their power, as Christ calls the last to be first. Let our yes be yes, our no be no, and all our other words authentic and carefully considered.

Comfort: When words hurt, Christ is there to heal.

Challenge: Precise use of language is important for communication, but avoid nitpicking and dismissing people over semantics when you know their intent.

Prayer: God, may I be quick to listen and slow to speak. Amen.

Discussion: “Black Lives Matter” is often portrayed as an anti-authority movement because of a few sensationalized stories of people behaving radically under its banner. Early Christianity had the same reputation, and in later years after becoming the authority had a history of violence and oppression. How is any movement different from its best and worst examples?

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The Sword and the Word

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Photo by James Pond on Unsplash

Today’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 36; 147:12-20, Jeremiah 38:1-13, 1 Corinthians 14:26-40, Matthew 10:34-42

Some Biblical passages are challenging to understand. Not because of difficult language, but because of difficult ideas. And which ideas seem difficult vary from person to person. For me, today’s passage from Matthew has always been tough:

Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth;
I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.
For I have come to set a man against his father,
and a daughter against her mother,
and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household.

How do we reconcile the blessed peacemakers of the Beatitudes from Matthew 5 with the sword and household strife in Matthew 10?

Is it a literal sword? That depends on who you ask. This passage has been used to justify taking up arms. But if we look at the physical use of swords by Christ and his disciples in the gospels, including the time he tells them to sell their cloaks to buy swords, he never encourages using them and chastises the disciple who strikes with one to defend him.

This divisive sword, this render of home and family, seems more akin to the metaphorical eyes we are to pluck out to avoid sin. But what does it represent?

I believe that, under the right circumstances, love and forgiveness can be perceived as a threat and, yes, even a weapon. Not everyone is willing to get on board with the radical call to sacrifice – both material and spiritual – that is part of discipleship. Not everyone wants to forgive. Maybe they simply don’t agree with the whole philosophy behind it. Maybe they don’t like having a mirror held up to their lives. Maybe they’ve been so abused by twisted religion that they can no longer associate Christ with anything good.  Whatever the reason, standing firm in our beliefs has the potential to alienate even the closest family members – to sever bonds, however regretfully, like a sword. And like any true swordsman, once we’ve unsheathed it, we must be prepared to follow through.

And there’s the Christian paradox. Christ asks us to wield a metaphorical sword which creates real-world enemies … even as he commands us to love those enemies and do good to those who persecute us. We don’t seek to create strife, but it will happen. And we are to respond to it with a love and humility that seemingly gives our foes all the advantages. For if we abandon love, we have surrendered everything.

Christ’s teachings divided his people against themselves and against him, and he forgave while he looked down on his foes from the cross. Surely we can make peace across a dinner table.

Comfort: Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.

Challenge: Just because someone rejects you doesn’t mean you must reject them.

Prayer: Do not hide your face from me. Do not turn your servant away in anger,
you who have been my help. Do not cast me off, do not forsake me, O God of my salvation! If my father and mother forsake me, the LORD will take me up. (Psalm 27:9-10)

Discussion: Have you ever been at odds with friends or family over your faith?

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A House United

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Today’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 104; 149, 1 Samuel 22:1-23, Acts 13:26-43, Mark 3:19b-35

Jewish religious leaders were beside themselves trying to explain the popularity and power of Jesus. When they said his ability to cast out demons came from Satan, he replied: “How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand.”

At this time his mother and brothers were growing concerned for him, so they called to Jesus from outside the house where a great crowd had gathered.

And he replied, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” And looking at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”

We can hear this a couple ways. The first is a dismissal, if not quite a rejection, of his family in favor of his followers. The second, more in keeping with his comments about a house divided, is an expansion of the definition of family; an expansion which includes all who dedicate themselves to God.

Ironically, Saul invited Jesus’s ancestor David into his house, and the resulting division threatened all of Israel. Because the people loved David more, Saul no longer saw him as a member of his faith family, but a dangerous rival. When his son Jonathan conspired to save David’s life, Saul’s rage was uncontrollable. He slaughtered eighty-five priests and their city of Nob because he believed they had helped David escape him. (In reality, they believed David was still serving Saul.) David, who believed Saul was God’s anointed king, had no plans to harm him.

Like so many divided houses, this was a one-sided war.

When we experience conflict with other believers, let’s not make Saul’s mistake and assume they are out to destroy us … and thereby become what we fear. Through Christ we are always challenged to expand our definition of family, even when that expansion feels threatening.

Jesus said “My father’s house has many rooms.” We don’t all have to sleep in the same one.

Additional Reading:
Read more about today’s passage from Mark in Just. Plain. Crazy.

Comfort: You have more family than you know.

Challenge: Find someone who is a member of your church, family, neighborhood, or city who thinks differently than you do. Have a conversation about what common good you agree on.

Prayer: I give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and your faithfulness. (Psalm 138:2)

Discussion: Are you a member of a divided “house?” What do you think can unite it?

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I’m Rubber; You’re Glue

/ JJS / Leave a comment

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Today’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 92; 149, Ezekiel 43:1-12, Hebrews 9:1-14, Luke 11:14-23

“Two wrongs don’t make a right.”

We hear that message from the time we are children, yet many adults don’t seem to get it. We divide ourselves into polarized tribes until what’s wrong and what’s right surrender to what’s won and what’s lost.

“My liberal candidate is corrupt? Well what about this conservative corruption over here?”

“My orthodox church acted hypocritically? Well your progressive church is intolerant of my beliefs!”

When our tribe sins, we rationalize away exactly the behavior we condemn our opponents for. An idea we loved when our side recommended it becomes toxic if the other side does. When Jesus cast out demons, the Pharisees accused him of doing it in the name of Beelzebub. Jesus countered by asking them in whose name they cast out demons. Too often we want “them” to lose more than we want to do what’s right. That’s just the way things are.

Or is it?

Let’s not be fooled into thinking there’s any such thing as a “typical” liberal or conservative, politically or religiously. Whichever camp you fall into (if you do), you know the tribe is not in lockstep. Internal divisions can be as spiteful as external ones. We allow the most extreme and loudest members of the “other” to define them, but dismiss our own extremists as aberrations. The truth is, people of good faith and intent can disagree on any number of issues but still find common ground and common good … as long as they remain one body.

Jesus said “Every kingdom divided against itself becomes a desert, and house falls on house.” It seems the first step to removing divisions is not to label other people, but maybe it’s to stop labeling ourselves. Once we embrace a label, we diminish critical thinking about our tribe and adopt antagonism toward the “other.” No label – even “Christian” – is definitive. We are limbs of the same Body. We can make slow, clumsy progress trying to force both legs to jump together, or we can stride steadily forward trusting both legs are working in opposition to get to the same place.

Comfort: The only label you need is Child of God.

Challenge: When you talk about or with someone you disagree with, try avoiding blanket words like conservative, liberal, etc. and describe the specific attitude or behavior you oppose.

Prayer: God, help us to remember we are one Body in Christ. Amen.

Discussion: What labels for people have you found to be especially harmful?

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Miaphysitism?! YOU a physitism!

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Today’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 47; 147:12-20, Ezekiel 1:1-14, 24-28(b), Hebrews 2:5-18, Matthew 28:16-20

Readings for The Ascension of the Lord:
Acts 1:1-11, Psalm 47:1-9, Ephesians 1:15-23, Luke 24:44-53

Today many churches celebrate the Ascension of the Lord, or the bodily ascent of the risen Christ into heaven. This story challenges the modern and scientific mind. Its accompanying readings are no less difficult. Ezekiel’s vision of four-faced beings and a god of fiery metal are highly symbolic and almost incomprehensible to anyone but a dedicated Bible scholar. Paul’s letter to the Hebrews explains the human and divine interplay in the person of Jesus. Heady material that for many of us is fairly inaccessible.

In contrast, the Matthew reading is short and clear: Jesus asserts his authority and commissions the disciples to spread his commands and teachings to make and baptize more disciples. Notably his teachings did not include technicalities like hypostatic union or Miaphysitism: Christ’s nature in both the human and the divine, versus a nature which is of both. Clearly different… right? Yet centuries ago these semantics, which matter not one iota to loving as Christ instructed, caused schisms that last to this day. Passages like the one in Hebrews fueled the debate. What do we imagine Christ – who brought together Jews, Samaritans and Gentiles – might say about his followers feuding over such distinctions?

Theological discussions have their place; after all, why follow Christ if we do not believe he is a unique confluence of the human and the divine? But sometimes we get so wrapped up thinking or talking about faith we become like people who believe reading a child psychology book equips them to be parents; being able to quote theories does not help us touch a human life in a loving way. Maybe we don’t denounce Monophysitism (don’t ask) on a daily basis, but based on mere opinion we do make “religious” distinctions of the kind Christ worked to overcome. Even our choice of Biblical translation may decide whether we are “in” or “out” with a specific clique, congregation or denomination.

Christ’s nature – human or divine – was radically inclusive. Any effort spent separating us from others, rather than loving them, betrays that nature. Christ tells us to love God and our neighbor. Why add more?

Comfort: Christ’s commands are simple.

Challenge: Look up “Christology” on Wikipedia or another reference.

Prayer: Holy God, may your love live in my heart and not just my head. Amen.

Discussion: When have you encountered religion getting in the way of following Christ?

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The Multiplication of Division

/ JJS / 3 Comments

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Today’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 5; 145, Zephaniah 1:7-13, Revelation 14:1-13, Luke 12:49-59

Jesus is known as the Prince of Peace, so why would he have told his disciples: “Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division! From now on five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three; they will be divided.” He says sons, fathers, daughter, mothers, and in-laws will be set against each other. Is this the picture of Christianity we try to embrace and promote?

Fortunately, we have the entire Gospel to help us understand the broader context and character of Christ. His vision of love, mercy, and forgiveness was uncompromising. To follow him meant (and often still means) taking a stand against social and religious norms. For many people, such a challenge is unacceptably threatening; truth and mercy don’t always trump the desire to maintain the status quo. In families struggling with dysfunctions of alcoholism or abuse, family members who seek to regain emotional health through counseling and treatment, which necessitate exposing the problem, are often vilified by other family members who believe they benefit from keeping the situation under wraps. Dysfunctional religion involves similar behavior, and people confronting problems are often accused of creating them.

When you stand for what you believe in, you will create enemies, even out of family members. But Jesus tells us to love our enemies and do good to them. He tells us to forgive as many times as we have to. And in the midst of it all we must remain humble, because despite our best efforts to follow Christ, some of the stands we take in good faith … will be mistaken.

Have you heard of “cheap grace?” There’s also “cheap peace.” It’s the kind of peace defined by an absence of conflict. Cheap asks us to compromise our principles and values to achieve an imaginary state. Divisions will always exist. Real peace, the kind we find in Christ, exists in our hearts and relationships despite passionate arguments and harsh disagreements. We must decide whether to address them by building bridges or walls.

Comfort: Christ brings peace to the most difficult places.

Challenge: Grow your faith not by appeasing your enemies, but by finding ways of doing good to them while holding firm to your values.

Prayer: God of peace and love, I will look for your peace in all situations. Amen.

Discussion: When have you been forced to cooperate on a project at work, home, or church with someone you disagreed with? How did it go?

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Borders

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Today’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 19; 150, Hosea 11:1-11, 1 Corinthians 4:9-16, Matthew 15:21-28

Our society talks a lot about borders. Usually we mean national borders, no small source of contention. We talk about them as though they are real, permanent things when the truth is they are in a state of continual flux. We are concerned with people who cross borders, but in many cases, such as Mexican-American war over the vaguely defined territory of Texas, borders cross people.

When Jesus met a Canaanite woman, the encounter was informed by centuries of borders drawn and redrawn as the Jewish people settled the area. According to the Book of Joshua, the nation of Israel had seized Canaan, slaughtered its people, and inhabited it as the Promised Land. That kind of history doesn’t unfold without leaving scars. The woman was very bold to approach Jesus, who first rebuked her by saying he had come for Israel and wasn’t going to waste the children’s food on the dogs. She countered by saying even the dogs got crumbs that fell from the table. Moved by her faith, Jesus healed her daughter of a demon.

Not all borders are geographic. The Canaanite woman bravely crossed a dangerous border. We establish such borders all the time, sometimes willingly and sometimes not. Borders drawn by race, income, and religion define us both geographically and socially. Ethnic neighborhoods may form because people like having something in common, but at least as often they form because other neighborhoods wouldn’t have them. With gentrification the income border crosses impoverished neighborhoods and drives out long-time residents. Christians establish borders of denomination and right thinking. Borders, no matter how arbitrary or unjust, are forced upon us.

Despite the dog comment, Christ was in the business of erasing borders: between sinners and the righteous, Samaritans and Jews, the clean and unclean. In God’s kingdom, borders become meaningless. Humankind insists on the vanity of division where God has put none, and we are the poorer for it. What borders do we allow to define ourselves and our faith? Are they really borders Christ would have observed? The neighbors we must love are waiting on the other side.

Comfort: As citizens of the Kingdom, all the world is within our borders.

Challenge: Breaking borders often involves making sacrifices. Ask yourself whether the borders you preserve are creating safety at the cost of your discipleship.

Prayer: Infinite God, teach me to see the world as you do. Amen.

Discussion: What spiritual borders have you crossed? What borders do you know you still need to cross?

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Right Thinking / Wrong Headed

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Today’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 42; 146, Job 29:1-20, Acts 14:1-18, John 10:31-42

Jesus replied, “I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these are you going to stone me?” The Jews answered, “It is not a good work for which we are going to stone you, but for blasphemy.”
– John 10:32-33

No matter what power Jesus displayed, it was his words the Jewish leaders feared most. Maybe this was because their own power depended on strict adherence to the letter of the law, and not its spirit. They could handle transgressions against the specific rules, but a revolution in thinking was a serious threat to their power. Unfortunately, this attitude survives in some of our churches even today.

While the two great commandments are simply to love God and our neighbors, some churches more strongly emphasize specific beliefs, or right thinking. An insistence on right thinking is another form of legalism which betrays God’s command to love. Over the centuries Christians have been forced to accepted certain creeds or face rejection by the church. Many schisms – and denominations – are directly attributable to differences in theological opinions that have little if anything to do with loving God and our neighbors. Trinitarian vs. Unitarian; transubstantiation vs. consubstantiation; predestination vs. election; the list goes on and on. Christianity might be easier if we all thought alike, but we don’t – and aren’t required to!

Schisms are less common today – as we have already been divided along some pretty fine lines – but we still struggle with problems caused by an insistence on right thinking. When we don’t like the way another church thinks, we can be quick to dismiss the good it may do. We may withhold support from worthwhile projects because we don’t like a church’s liberal or conservative stance. This temptation is understandable, but who really pays the price for our stand, no matter how principled we believe it to be? Even when differences in thought result in persecution and enmity, we must remember we are called to love our enemies. We all naturally believe our own thinking is right, but none of us is as right as Christ.

Comfort: Grace doesn’t depend on being right.

Challenge: Consider what types of thinking keep you from loving.

Prayer: God of sky and waters, wash away divisions among your people. Amen.

Discussion: What creeds or doctrines have you questioned or challenged?

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