The Rev. Vernon L. Suter
St. Margaret's Episcopal Church & School
Isaiah 57:14B-21 | Psalm 22:22-30 | Ephesians 2:11-22 | Mark 6:30-44
I’d like to start by taking us back in time a little bit with a few newspaper headlines:
Dateline Portadown, Northern Ireland, July 10, 1997: - - - -Police and soldiers threw an armored cordon around Portadown yesterday while government officials sought to thwart a clash over an annual march of the Orange Order, which last year triggered Northern Ireland’s most widespread rioting in a generation, leaving two dead, hundreds wounded, and more than $30 million in damage.
The Orange Order, Northern Ireland’s main pro-British Protestant fraternal group, planned to march through the town, including a Catholic neighborhood, where locals have vowed to block the road. This Order, founded in 1795, was a dominant influence in the creation of Northern Ireland as a Protestant-majority state in 1920. To Catholics, this is synonymous with anti-Catholicism.”
Dateline Mexico City, July, 2006: “Disputed presidential election leaves Mexico adrift, its political future uncertain. The stock market is dropping. Protesters are marching on the capital. Citizens are lighting candles in hopes of divine intervention
And Finally: Dateline Beirut, Lebanon, July16, 2006: Israel tightens noose around Lebanon. Planes pound central “Beirut as Hezbollah fire deepens in Israel.
Pick up a newspaper or turn on a television and you can’t help but encounter a news item detailing some kind of conflict somewhere in the world. Every day newspapers and television carry news about the troubles and disagreements of nations and people from all over the world. We can also see that these kinds of things go back further than the first headline I read to you about Ireland. Actually, differences and conflict go back to the beginning of time and we in the United States have seen our share.
In our own country we’ve seen bombings and murder over differences in belief about abortion. We’ve seen the bombing of our Federal Building over political disagreement, and of course, we experienced or witnessed Pearl Harbor and 9/11. We have huge conflict among our own population over the war in Iraq. We have racial, sexual and gender prejudices, which, of course, produces conflict. We have dissension within and between our churches, regardless of denomination. You name it and a difference of opinion exists.
In all of this conflict I am constantly troubled with the same question, especially when these differences are so strong and passionate as to wreak blood and devastation. - - And my question is, - - “Where does God fit into all of this?” “Where does Christianity fit in?” Well, I for one, don’t think God fits into any of this conflict. Or, perhaps more appropriately put, I don’t think any of these devastating behaviors aimed at resolving the issues, bombing, kidnaping, killing, fit in any way into God’s plan.
In last weeks Gospel when Jesus sent his disciples out two by two to evangelize and to get the people to repent, he didn’t say to take a club to them if they didn’t come around to their way of thinking. He didn’t say to blow up their house, or worse yet, blow up their neighborhood. He merely said to shake the dust off their sandals and leave.
It seems that in a good many cases, if we think or believe differently from one another, we must make the other become like us or they are wrong. For that matter, the same is sometimes true if we look different from the other; the other is not acceptable, and in the other person’s eyes, we aren’t acceptable either. There’s no way around it. We all have differences and they often result in conflict.
In his letter to the Ephesians Paul speaks of one of the earlier differences between Gentiles and Jews: Circumcision! There were some real hassles over whether circumcision was necessary to become Christian.
Paul makes the point that circumcised or not, it is the blood of Christ that counts. He says, “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.” He goes on to say, “ For he 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.”
Jesus Christ has made both groups into one. Now Paul is talking about the circumcised and the un-circumcised, but what about any two groups where circumcision isn’t the issue? What about Ireland’s Protestants and Catholics? What about any two opposing groups? Paul says Jesus reconciles all to God in one body through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility.
I believe the whole thing is so simple, but for some reason we, the human race, complicate it. Think about this for a moment. Aren’t we really all the same - - when we get past our beliefs and prejudices? Underneath it all we are all children of God, empowered by the Holy Spirit to carry his love to others. The problem is we cannot see how someone can believe differently than we do and be OK.
Several years ago a mother of a teenager call me on the phone. She was, to quote her, “a Christian.” Her problem was her 16 year old son. She believed the music he played in his room to be satanic and immoral.
(And by the way, this was a number of years ago, before we had some of the rap music currently heard on some CD’s.)
As I heard the music this mother was complaining about, it was certainly loud and I admit didn’t make much sense to me, but I didn’t think it was satanic or immoral.
When I asked about her son’s other behavior, she told me her that he honors his curfew, coming home when he’s supposed to, makes very good grades in school and as far as she knew, didn’t drink or use other drugs. She said, “Really, he’s a very good kid otherwise.”
Now, I’m not sure how popular I was when I suggested that he was his own person and had different ideas about music than she had. She was sure that she needed to make him change because that wasn’t the kind of music a good Christian should listen to.
We spend so much time trying to change others beliefs, behaviors and attitudes; attitudes that we believe to be wrong because they differ from ours, but in doing this, we sometimes miss the forest for the trees. The kid was, indeed, a good kid. He just liked different music than his mom liked.
I think back about my childhood and then I think about my kids in their childhood. I’m old enough now to even take a look at my grand kids childhoods. You know, even though we are of the same family, have the same genes, are literally alike as human beings, we are all different in our beliefs and understandings of the world; - - - even though we are all one family.
Paul is telling us in Ephesians today that although there are differences, we are united in Christ. As Christians, we are all the same. I believe if we, the folks in Northern Ireland, all the folks that get involved in demonstrations and other problems over their differences, would realize that we are all God’s children and that basically we are all the same, there would be no more violence.
Shel Silverstein, one of my favorite poets, published a poem in his book called, Where The Sidewalk Ends. I think it makes my point well. So, in closing, I’d like to read it to you now. - - - - It’s titled:
No Difference.
Small as a peanut
Big as a giant,
We’re all the same size
When we turn off the light.
Rich as a sultan,
Poor as a mite,
We’re all worth the same
When we turn off the light.
Red, black or orange,
Yellow or white,
We all look the same
When we turn off the light.
So maybe the way
To make everything right
Is for God to just reach out
And turn off the light!
Amen
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