What Is Reconciliation If We Segregate People Who Are Different

8 Pentecost  B,P.11     July 22, 2012

2 Samuel 7:1-14a Psalm 89:20-37

Ephesians 2:11-22   Mark 6:30-34, 53-56

Lectionary Link

  "Christ is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us."  The writer in the tradition of St. Paul saw multicultural difficulties in the Ephesus Christian community.  What did the Jewish followers of Christ think about the Gentile followers of Christ?  And what did the Gentile followers of Christ think about the Jewish followers of Christ?

  The Ephesian writer in the tradition of St. Paul uses some political terms to speak about relationship with God and the relationship within the Ephesus community.  Words like citizen, alien and commonwealth.    America’s very identity is based upon our immigrant identity that has been renewed with each wave of immigration.  Our identity is also like the identity of Israel in Palestine; we are conquering immigrants who have made native peoples strangers and aliens in their own lands.  King David wanted to solidify his consolidation of the lands of Israel and he was inspired to build a Temple as a sort of statement that his God was to have a sort Capitol Building Temple in the Land of Israel.  It happens that is what the Phoenician religions in the region also had.  Religious Buildings and Belief systems can be associated with political power and in subtle ways those who are not part of the “official” or “majority” religion are made to feel like strangers and aliens.

  In the time of Jesus there were many people who were made to be religious and socio-economic aliens to the people who had power.  Jesus found many people who were strangers in their own land.  Most did not have the privilege of Roman citizenship, but further they did not have significant status within the various communities of Judaism which negotiated the conditions of the occupied peoples of Palestine with the Roman occupiers.  Obviously many people suffered as part of the underclass of Roman occupation, but Jesus was very popular with that group of people who were doubly oppressed.  Jesus was trying to bring a sense of belonging to people who felt neglected and left out.  

  You can notice how the lectionary is set up by the clergy so one might be suspicious about how today’s Gospel got selected in the middle of the summer.  Today is a day when the rector is supposed to be on vacation and the substitute preacher is in the pulpit saying, “Father Phil is just obeying the words of our Lord when he said to his disciples, “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.””  But as the Gospel records, there was no such rest or solitude available.  The truth is that no one can take a vacation from the Gospel.  No one can take a break from the conditions of human need whether they be spiritual or physical needs.

  The church cannot take a vacation from the conditions of human need or the conditions of difference that threaten to divide us.  What physician who has taken the Hippocratic Oath would not stop and assist someone who showed the signs of a heart attack while playing golf?   The human condition cries out at all times for peace and reconciliation.  Peace and reconciliation define the health and salvation that is needed in the human community.

  Peace and reconciliation is what was needed in the Ephesus Church.  People with significant religious, ethnic and cultural differences came into an agreement about Jesus Christ.  And their differences were hindering them from living together within the community.  Their differences were bringing about division and when differences bring about division what gets lost is the good news we have to share.  Outsiders who see the church fighting often say, “Well I don’t want to be a part of that group.  They don’t practice the good news.”  Apparently the situation in Ephesus was not like the America religious scene at all; apparently there were not enough people who were called Christians and since they were such a minority, there was good reason for them to try to stay together.  In America, we tend to believe if you start fighting in the church because of different views, just go down the street and attend another church that is agreement with your specific point of view.  In American Christian religion we tend to believe in peace through religious Smorgasbord, pick and choose your own menu.  If you don’t like McDonalds, go to Burger King or In-N- Out Burger.  In American Christian religion we tend to believe that high fences make for good neighbors. One wonders if the diversity of Christian practice and Christian groups today could be called peace or reconciliation at all.

  The church in Ephesus was a church that aspired to live a message of peace and reconciliation.  And that is good aspiration for us to have in our parish too.  There are people who can only live with people who agree with them completely on all manner of details of life, political, philosophical, cultural and socio-economic perspectives.  Some people believe that peace and reconciliation is achieved by being with only one’s kind, however one defines one’s own kind.

  I am an Episcopalian because I believe that peace and reconciliation can be a reality in the midst of diversity.  Reconciliation in the midst of diversity means that my life is stretched and enlarged as I am brought out of the ignorance and fear that keeps me from befriending people who are in some way different than I am.  Peace and reconciliation efforts may know great failures but the effort of reconciliation is never a failure.

  Let us remember the famous Sunday School song, “Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world; red and yellow, black and white, all are precious in his sight, Jesus loves the children of the world.”  This is the reconciliation aspiration and in the practice of reconciliation we all get our hearts enlarged if we make the effort.  Let us be thankful for the diversity of people who are united together in the Eucharist who come to receive the body and blood of Christ, people of every race, gay, straight, single, married, old, young, conservative, liberal, carnivores, vegan, tall, short, and all shapes, jazz lovers, classic music lovers, junk food lovers, Giants fans, A’s fans……on and on we can define the qualifications that could be used to separate us from each other. 

  Let us be on the path of reconciliation and there are differences that will arise of which we have not yet even imagined to challenge our practice of the grace and the peace of the reconciliation of Christ.  Rather than escape and become yes-people in some group that excludes differences, let us prove the reconciliation of Christ in our parish life experience.

  Let us remember again the words of the Ephesian writer when we feel threatened by our differences with others: "Christ is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us."   Amen.