A sermon on "Exceptionalism"

Lectionary Link

14 Pentecost, Cycle A Proper 20, September 18,2011

Jonah 3:10-4:11   Psalm 145:1-8
Philippians 1:21-30  Matthew 20:1-16

   Believe it or not a Frenchman or two actually had good things to say about America so when such praise is forthcoming from the French, we should savor it. (We’ll have to ignore what they say about our cuisine).   There was Lafayette, who fought with us in the American Revolution.  And we did get the Lady Liberty Statue in the New York Harbor as a gift from France.  Perhaps the most quoted French admirer of America is the traveler and writer Alexis de Tocqueville.  In 1831 he admired the birth of the new nation America and the ingredients of American ideology that included egalitarianism, individualism, populism and laissez-faire.  In 1831 and 1840 he described America as “exceptional.”  As individualists we probably did not need a Frenchman to tell us this, but we’ve agreed with him and almost every American has an opinion about our “exceptionalism.”  Politicians give their opinions about our “exceptionalism” all of the time and “exceptionalism” has been re-written by many to mean something different. American exceptionalism to people around the world is different.  Some would define our exceptionalism to be our military might and our possession of the best bombs and the best unmanned drones.  American “exceptionalism” has had religious overtones; indeed what gave our founders the right to run the Native peoples from their land?  It was an “exceptionalism” something like the Israelites had when they chased the inhabitants of Canaan from their Promised Land.  America was our Promised Land; it was our Manifest Destiny to possess it.  It is not surprising that so many places in America have been given biblical geographical names.

  The book of Jonah was a book written by a very wise and satirical writer who was challenging how the people of Israel were living with their notion of “exceptionalism” as God’s Chosen People who had been given a Promised Land.  I believe that every nation and every group or community and in fact every person has to come into a right relationship with “exceptionalism.”  A wrong relationship with “exceptionalism” is an exclusive, boastful, chauvinistic pride which demeans disenfranchises and devalues others.

  What did the writer of the book of Jonah believe?  The writer believed that Israel had been made exceptional through the gift of God and that gift was not to be hoarded or kept within the borders of Israel.  The writer of Jonah believed that the foreigners in Nineveh, if given the message about God and repentance, would discover a new sense of their “exceptionalism.”

  And so you have the rather comedic story of Jonah.  God said to Jonah, “Go preach to those foreign Syrians in Nineveh.”  And Jonah said, “Why would I want to share with them the gifts of our nation, the Torah for living and the message of God’s mercy?  Why would I share that with our potential enemies?  Why would I give them our State secret?  I’m not a traitor.”  What did Jonah do?  He as it were tried to take a “slow boat to China” to get as far away from Ninevah as possible.   But a storm arose and when Jonah realized that his disobedience was the cause of the storm, he asked to be thrown overboard to Davy Jones’ Locker at the bottom of the sea.  But God sent a big whale to swallow the pouting prophet.  The prophet was so caustic, the digestive juices of the whale could not digest him for three days and night, and so the whale vomited the prophet upon the beach.  And Jonah reluctantly obeyed; he went to Ninevah and preached and sure enough, the Ninevites repented and received the message.  And the pouting Jonah was angry? “See I told you God.  The message is so good about God love and mercy, I knew they would accept it, but they are our enemies.”  The pouting Jonah is an example of someone who did not understand why he had been given an exceptional gift.  The gift was not to be hoarded or limited to people within the borders of Israel.  The gift of God’s mercy is catholic, it is universal and open to people who are different than we are.  The sense of “exceptionalism” and God’s favor is so wonderful that it always makes us feel like we are the privileged first in honor and recognition.  But we are made exceptional in God’s grace and favor so that we can share the gift with others and become the last in honor as we see the enthusiasm and joy of those newly born in the experience of God’s grace.  “Exceptionalism” in our relationship with God takes us from first to last and we are to become happily last in honor when we see the joy of the new ones who have experienced the sense of “exceptionalism” from God.

  The parable of Jesus from the Gospel today is also about “exceptionalism” but it is also highlights what came to make our country exceptional.  “All are created equal.”  All are different but equal; equal in honor, dignity and justice.  Our baptismal vows to honor the dignity of every person expresses this ideal.  Different but equal.   In our difference we can appreciate that God meets us with favor in our uniqueness.  But in honoring equality, we also celebrate that God meets others with equal honor and dignity in the very ways in which they are different from us.

  Sometimes in our difference we want to protest how God measures and quantifies the value and worth of people.  As good capitalists, just like the original hearers of the parable, people’s worth were determined by the same standard of wage and work.  It seems unfair that a person who worked one hour would get the same wage as the one who had worked all day.

  But we do understand the equality of human dignity.  The worth of a child is not determined by how much work he or she can do to earn money.  The worth of an elderly person is not determined by what they can contribute to the national economy and work force.  The worth of people with impairments is not imputed as being less because they don’t have the able bodies to complete with those who do.  People are different but equal.  And this is the everyday struggle that we have with “exceptionalism.”  Sometimes we who have been blessed with exceptional wealth, gifts and talents, wonderful backgrounds with loving parents and every kind of social and educational opportunity;  sometimes we need to learn how to practice being last to help people who are different and who have not yet been able to experience their own “exceptionalism”  in the eyes of God.  We as followers of Jesus Christ, need to share our sense of “exceptionalism” and become those who bring the message of God’s favor and mercy and grace to those who are living in a world that does not give them easily the sense of being exceptional.  Parents naturally will give up their part of the stage of “exceptionalism” to let their children rise in the experience of “exceptionalism” in order to build their esteem.  But we need to know that the Gospel can make us exceptional in how we come to practice the justice of equality for all people.

  I believe that the book of Jonah and the Gospel parable provides us some insights on how we can be related to the experience of being “exceptional.”  But the greater message is how can we come to let others know that they are “exceptional” in God’s eyes too.  When we can see the success of esteem come to others, it is easy for us to be last.  The joy of the success of God’s love coming to another person, is unmatchable.  Amen.