Othering

The scriptures referred to are Acts 11:1-18, Psalm 148, Revelation 21:1-6, and John 13:31-35.

If you are racist, you can't be scientific. For one thing scientists will tell you that race, classifying people according to a bunch of superficial physical characteristics, is a social construct. We are not like cats and dogs, different species, but like pugs and chihuahuas, which are different breeds but can be interbred. So can the different “races” of people. And they have for millennia. I remember being told at a museum in the UK that archaeologists found many graves where tiny Celtic women were buried next to tall Anglo-Saxon men. My own DNA test revealed that, despite my Scottish surname, I was part Scandinavian, as indeed are most Scottish and English people. I also have hitherto unsuspected Eastern European ancestors. My mom never uncovered any of that when she researched our family tree decades ago. It seems that the Angles and Saxons and Vikings and others may have come to invade Britain but they remained to intermarry. That is the story of all peoples everywhere, as white supremacists are finding out to their horror as they in turn get genetic tests to prove their racial purity. They have found instead that no one is wholly one race or another. And indeed this discussion came up many years ago on white power message boards on the internet. The administrators were trying to figure out who was really white and who wasn't. They decided that they just had to go with the person's self-identification and whether most folks accepted them as white. Because ultimately race is in the eye of the beholder. That's something comedian Dave Chappelle ably skewered in his skit where a popular white supremacist author turns out to be a blind black man. He is so valuable to the movement that his supporters keep him ignorant of his real race and bring him to a book signing in head-to-toe KKK regalia, lest his fans find out the truth. When Chappelle's character pulls off his hood, one white supremacist's head literally explodes.

And yet it wasn't that long ago that science supported the theory of different races. The eugenics movement was all about improving the human race by trying to stop various groups of people from reproducing. People like J.H. Kellogg, Alexander Graham Bell, Luther Burbank, Margaret Sanger and the heads of many prestigious universities believed that upper class people achieved and maintained their position in society because of their superior genes. Even African American sociologist and historian W.E.B Du Bois supported eugenics, though he felt that “the best blacks were as good as the best whites and 'The Talented Tenth' of all races should mix.' (Wikipedia) This supposedly scientifically valid idea led to the first immigration laws, which restricted the number of “less-civilized” and “less-evolved” people like the Chinese, Japanese, Italians and Jews. It led to even classifying certain people within races as unfit, feeble-minded and/or morally degenerate. And that in turn led to the compulsory sterilization of those deemed mentally defective or criminal, which was largely confined to poor whites, African Americans and Native Americans. 2/3s of the American people supported this and these efforts were cited by the Nazis as proof that mass sterilization was feasible.

Yeah, it was that last thing, and seeing the results of a society ruthlessly committed to racial purity, that killed the eugenics movement in the US, long before DNA was discovered to totally blow that philosophy out of the water. As Shakespeare said 400 years ago “There is no art to find the mind's construction in the face.” Nor in skin color.

The origin of the idea of race probably goes back to when we lived in nomadic tribes and used family resemblance to judge if someone was friend or foe. But this rule of thumb was never that accurate. In times of peace, the clan chieftain was more likely to be killed or deposed by a relative or a group insider than a foreigner. And indeed most crimes take place within so-called racial groups. You are 4 to 5 times more likely to be a victim of someone your own race than of another.

Yet the cooperation of different peoples can accomplish much more than one group alone. As roving tribes gave way to settled communities and they grew into cities and nations and empires, they had to figure out ways to bind together people of different kinship groups. Shared languages and similar cultures helped. Scientists now think that religion was the key element in bringing together large groups of people. It helps a civilization adhere if we all worship the same God or gods and share the same rituals and moral code. But then a new barrier arises: can we cooperate with those outside our religion?

In our lectionary today all of the readings touch on this question. In our passage from the book of Acts, we see the church confronting for the first time a major hurdle to the spread of the gospel. Peter is reporting back to the Christians in Jerusalem, all Jews, on his baptizing a group of Gentiles. And not just any Gentiles: Cornelius was an officer in Rome's occupying forces in Judah and Galilee. So that isn't winning Peter any points. But notice that the first thing that concerns them is Peter breaking the dietary taboo of eating with non-Jews. “Why did you go to uncircumcized men and eat with them?” That was one of 3 fundamental things, along with idolatry and marrying a Gentile, a Jew would never do.

So Peter repeats his vision where God lowers a big sheet full of all kinds of non-kosher animals. Peter is told to kill and eat them. He tells God he has never eaten anything considered unclean. God says, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.” In essence God is declaring the Gentiles clean. The vision occurs 3 times to make its point sink in. And then Peter is invited to the house of Cornelius. It turns out Cornelius had a vision in which he was told to contact Peter. Peter goes and while he preaches to Cornelius, his family and close friends, the Gentiles suddenly start speaking in tongues. This is a sign that pops up as each new group outside Judaism, such as the Samaritans (Acts 8:17) and followers of John the Baptist (Acts 19:6), accept the gospel. It's like an echo of Pentecost.

When Peter saw this display of the power of God, he said to himself, “If then God gave them the same gift that he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could hinder God?” And at this Peter's critics were silenced. Instead they praised God, saying “Then God has given even to the Gentiles the repentance that leads to life.”

It is interesting that they need to be taught this since it is right there in the Hebrew Bible. God chooses Abraham and his descendants in order to bless the whole world. (Genesis 12:3) Our psalm calls on “kings of the earth and all peoples, princes and all rulers of the world” to praise the Lord. The great-grandmother of King David was Ruth, not a Jew but a Moabite. (Ruth 4:13-17) Jesus' genealogy includes 4 women who were not Jews or who had been married to a Gentile. (Matthew 1:3-6) God's people tended to interpret his choosing of them as a validation of their worth rather than of their instrumentality in bringing the world to God. Yes, God loves his people but he wants them to share that love with others.

In our passage from John, where Jesus gives the disciples the command to love one another as he loves them, John uses the term “the Jews” even though Jesus and the Twelve are all Jews themselves. This reflects the fact that John was the last canonical gospel written. It was composed after Christians and Jews had consciously split from each another. Judaism had been a legal religion in the Roman Empire and when the emperor decided to persecute the Christians, Jews were anxious that they not be seen as a legitimate sect within Judaism. And when the Jews in Palestine revolted against Rome, Christians were likewise not interested in being lumped in with them. So John uses “the Jews” anachronistically in his gospel to differentiate Jesus' opponents from his followers. Today it would be clearer to replace the term with “Jewish religious leaders.” After all, during his earthly life all of Jesus' followers were Jews.

But the minute non-Jews began to follow Jesus, his command that Christians love one another applied to Gentile believers as well. And that would become a major problem in the church in the New Testament period. Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles, emphasizes the importance of unity in most of his letters to the churches. (Romans 12:4-5; 1 Corinthians 1:10; Galatians 3:27-28; Ephesians 2:14-20; Philippians 2:1-2; Colossians 3:11-15) Unlike the kingdoms of this world, there are no second class citizens of the kingdom of God.

Again Jesus said, “I have other sheep that do not come from this sheepfold. I must bring them too, and they will listen to my voice, so that there will be one flock and one shepherd.” (John 10:16) Jesus knew the good news of God's kingdom, where forgiveness rather than fighting, love rather than hate, and healing rather than harming were the rule, would spread to all the world. And in Revelation we get a vision of a world where the God who is love lives and reigns.

But how do we get there? Not by forcing people to become Christians. Sadly, that has been the preferred method ever since the church allied itself with the kingdoms of this world and used their methods of violence and conquest to spread the faith. But the kingdom of God can only be entered voluntarily. Cornelius invited Peter to come to him; Peter didn't barge into Cornelius' home and start forcibly baptizing people. The Christian way of dealing with people of other religions is, as Paul says, “If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all people. (Romans 12:18)

Notice that Paul does not say, “Hector your neighbors and acquaintances with religious talk every time you encounter them.” That will engender tension, not peace. But if you live according to the commands Jesus gave us and treat others the way you would like to be treated, seek reconciliation, forgive, and act lovingly even towards those who would be classified as an enemy, you will win some people over. As Jesus says in our gospel, love is how people will know we are his disciples. And, yes, if they show curiosity about why you act as you do, in the words of 1 Peter, “always be ready to give an answer to anyone who asks about the hope you possess. Yet do it with courtesy and respect, keeping a good conscience, so that those who slander your good conduct in Christ may be put to shame when they accuse you.” (1 Peter 3:15-16)

Unfortunately, a lot of so-called Bible believing Christians either haven't read those verses or are ignoring them. They seem to think they can win people over by insulting them and their religion. But as science, experience and common sense tells us, that just makes people double down on their beliefs. I have never heard anybody say, “It was all of the abuse and disparaging of my intelligence when I was an atheist that brought me to Jesus.”

Nor are we going to convert people by changing laws so they have to behave as we do. I find it amazing that preachers who spend much of their time in the book of Romans talking about how the Law cannot save, will then turn around and work to enact laws that reflect the way certain Christians feel people should behave or not behave. If God's law cannot save people's souls, how can they argue that man's laws can? Laws restrain external behaviors; they cannot change hearts.

What changes people's minds and hearts are the people they know and care about. Many a person has changed his or her mind about an issue when they see its impact on a child, a relative or a friend. We need to befriend people, treat them with kindness and understanding and genuine interest. Which means, paradoxically, not having an agenda. Don't befriend someone with the ulterior motive of converting them. Love them because they are created in God's image. And if you really listen to and observe and interact with them, eventually they will reveal something you didn't know about themselves, about you and about God. And hopefully it will be mutual.

Jesus famously compared evangelism to sowing seeds. The word of God will grow when, and only when, it lands in good soil. We can't change that and so we needn't worry about it. We are called to sow seeds and when they are ripe, harvest their fruit. To switch the metaphor, Jesus said his sheep will hear and recognize his voice. We are called to relay his message. His sheep will respond.

But often people came to Jesus initially to have some other need taken care of: to be healed or to be fed. It's hard to care about your spiritual needs when you have physical or social or psychological needs that are going unmet. Historically, what attracted the pagans in the Roman Empire to our faith was the example of Christians nursing people suffering from plague. It wasn't talk of “pie in the sky in the sweet by and by”; it was people giving their time and talents and treasure, and sometimes their lives, to helping others here and now.

As a nurse, I have at times found myself in situations where patients had spiritual questions or problems. They thought God was punishing them or they feared death. I was glad to have along with my nursing skills and equipment the spiritual tools needed to help them. We know that faith helps people heal. Because we are both physical and spiritual beings.

But we live in a world where people think they can get along with just having their physical needs met. And in our 24/7 world loudly selling you entertainment and every kind of pleasure and a million self-help books, it's easy to see how it can be hard to hear the voice of Jesus amid the cacophony. But I remember how, when healing a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment, Jesus communicated to him in actions. He took the man to a place where they had privacy, and put his fingers into the man's ears to indicate he was going to restore his hearing. The Jesus spit and touched the man's tongue to indicate he was going to heal his ability to speak. Then Jesus looked up to heaven and sighed dramatically, showing that he was praying to God from whom the healing would come. And it did. (Mark 7:31-35)

Our way to cut through the noise of this babbling world is with actions. As Jesus showed what God was like through his actions as well as his words, we, as the body of Christ, must communicate God's love and grace in what we do as much as in what we say. Because actions still speak louder than words. And when those from another flock get Jesus' message, they will respond. They will reach out to us. And we must be like Peter, who said, “The Spirit told me to go with them and not to make a distinction between them and us.” Because there is no distinction. God made us all in his image and God loves us all and Jesus died for us all. It's just that some of us haven't realized that yet.