Irreconcilable Differences?

Richard R. Crocker                                                                                     Psalm 89:20-38

Irreconcilable differences?                                                                        2 Samuel 7:1-17

Norwich Congregational Church                                                               Ephesians 2:11-22

Norwich, VT                                                                                               Mark 6: 30-34-53-56

July 22, 2018

          All of us are different. None of us have exactly the same opinions or experiences or perspectives on life. Even if we all speak the same language, we can use the same word and have different meanings. We want different things. But, most of the time, in our common life, we can manage those differences. We don’t allow the differences to interfere with normal courteous interaction.

But sometimes people have irreconcilable differences. They can be about trivial things – like the trope going around on the internet where people disagree about the color or shape of an object. There is no way that dress is purple; it’s green, not purple., and that’s a fact! Luckily, we do not usually come to blows over such differences, because they are trivial. But then, what about our political opinions? Have you ever been able to convince someone who voted for Trump that they should have voted for Hillary, or vice-versa?  Probably not. And those political opinions can become so strong that we can’t stand being around those who disagree with us. I am no longer using Facebook. I simply could no longer deal with being assaulted by the posts of my many friends who were so eager to make me see the light.

Differences can become irreconcilable; that is, they become so important that they break apart friendships, or families, or churches. Or nations. Remember our own Civil War – from which our nation has not yet fully recovered. Lincoln was correct when he said “ a government cannot endure, permanently, half slave and half free.” That irreconcilable difference led to a war that is still, by far, the bloodiest in our national history.  And the memory of different feelings about the Vietnam War still resonates in my life - as perhaps also in yours.

Irreconcilable differences also occur in religion. All of us Protestants, whether we know it or not, stand with Luther when he said, “Here I stand, I can do no other.” We became Protestants because of irreconcilable differences with the authorities of the Roman Catholic Church. Wars resulted. But then the Protestants began to split, endlessly. My own church, the PCUSA, split in the 1960’s when some churches could not agree to the ordination of women; it split again in the 1990’s over the issue of ordaining gay church officers. These were seen as irreconcilable differences. They still are. They no longer matter so much to most of us now because we have agreed, most of us in this congregation anyway, I expect – that God loves us all, despite our differences in theology. But that perspective was hard-won, and it is not shared by everyone – not even by all Christians; and it is still quite fragile – especially when we remember the religious conflicts still prevalent in places as close and recent as Northern Ireland and as far away, but contemporary as Egypt, Sudan, and Syria and perhaps even in our own nation.

          My intention today is to help us understand persistent and sometimes virulent differences in our own religious tradition – especially the differences between Christians and Jews. We cannot really understand the scripture passages that we have read today without addressing these differences, and seeing how they became apparently irreconcilable.

          When we look at our old testament lessons today – the lessons from Psalm 89 and from 2^nd Samuel – there is one concept that is central to both of them – which is God’s promise to David, and to the Hebrew people, that the royal lineage of David will be preserved forever. In second Samuel God speaks to David through the prophet Nathan and says: “When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come forth from your body, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever….. Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me; your throne shall be established forever.

And in Psalm 89:

          v. 20: I have found my servant David. With my holy oil I have anointed him; my hand shall always remain with him; my arm also shall strengthen him; … (27) I will make him the firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth. Forever I will keep my steadfast love for him, and my covenant with him shall stand firm. I will establish his line forever, and his throne as long as the heavens endure.  …(34) I will not violate my covenant, or alter the word that went forth from my lips. Once and for all I have sworn by my holiness; I will not lie to David. His line shall continue forever, and his throne endure before me like the sun. It shall be established forever like the moon, an enduring witness on the skies.”

          These are pretty definite statements, made almost 3000 years ago. After David, there were kings in Judea – good ones and bad ones – but kings, for almost 1000 years. Even when the Israelites were overrun and taken captive, there was the hope that the throne of David would be re-established, because it was the promise of God. And in those many years, the books of Jewish law, the priestly law – what we call the ritual law, or the codes of purity contained in books like Leviticus and maintained through the teaching of the rabbis and the words of the prophets, guided Jewish life. When the great kingdoms of Assyria and Babylonia and Alexander the Great and the Roman Empire subjugated the Jews, two things held them together: the expectation of a king in the line of David – a Messiah; and the laws that governed their daily lives.

And then came Jesus.

We know about Jesus, don’t we? We are like those people in the gospel lesson today – those who flocked to him, because of his teaching and because he healed them – those people who came to think that he might indeed be the long awaited Messiah, the along awaited King. He gave them a new understanding of the law; he said he had not come to the righteous ones, but to sinners. Well, the Romans put an end to that, didn’t they, when they crucified him. Didn’t they? Didn’t they put an end to it?

Strangely, no they didn’t – because his disciples said that he had risen from the dead, that he continued to teach them, that he ascended to heaven, and promised them that he would come again to bring in his rule – a rule that transcended earth and death.

Now this was a very hard thing to understand. It was very hard for his followers; they were confused and yet they were certain that he had been raised. Who was he anyway? A carpenter? The son of Joseph, who was from David’s line? Well, yes, some of his followers said, Jesus was descended from David, through Joseph, his father. He was the promised king. But others said he wasn’t really physically descended from Joseph; rather he had been born directly from God. He was God’s son. Or at least some of them thought that.

So far, I am sure are with me, I am not telling you anything that you haven’t heard before, I am sure. But now I want to tell you something that you don’t hear so often, even though it is true.

The Christian Bible as we have it was not consolidated, verified, authorized or canonized until almost 300 years after Jesus’ life. During those three hundred years, there were many different kinds of Christian communities, with many different  - sometimes rival – leaders and beliefs. There were differences that became irreconcilable.  One of the major differences was among those who, following Peter, and perhaps Jesus’ brother James, saw continuity between the Jewish and Christian traditions – who saw a place, in Christian life, for observance of Jewish law and ritual --- and others, supremely in Paul, who saw in Jesus a new covenant, inclusive of Gentiles, dependent only on God’s grace, not on the Jewish law. There was rivalry between these groups, and many others, about what exactly Christian faith was, what its message was, and what constituted discipleship. This rivalry continued until the Emperor Constantine, after having become a Christian, wanted his empire to have one religion even as it had one Emperor, and in the conference of bishops from all the world that he called at Nicea, in what is now Turkey, in the year 325. He kept them confined until they could come up with one authoritative scripture – one Bible, and one authoritative church, with its all powerful bishop in Rome - the one who came to be called the Pope.

          We now know, through the almost miraculous discoveries of modern archeology, that the gospels selected for inclusion in what we call our New Testament were not the only gospels. There were other gospels, attributed to Thomas and Mary Magdelene and Peter and others, that were discarded, condemned, destroyed.  Even in the canonical gospels – Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John - there are different ways of understanding Jesus. This tension is implicit in

the beautiful and challenging words of Ephesians - a letter to an early group of Christians either written by Paul or written by one of Paul’s disciples. The group contained ”gentile Christians” as well as, perhaps, some “Jewish Christians.” What was being addressed was the emerging issue, the emerging irreconcilable difference, in their understanding of the authority of Jewish tradition, especially Jewish law, versus their understanding of Jesus. in it, we hear Paul say – in these lovely, powerful, but in the context of the first three centuries of the Christian era, very controversial words:

“So then, remember that at one time you Gentiles by birth, called “the uncircumcision” – a physical circumcision made in the flesh by human hands – remember that you were at that time without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 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. He has abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of two, thus making peace, and might reconcile both groups to God in one body through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it. So he came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those of you who were near; for through him both of us have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. In him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God.

          These words of Paul, or his follower, have been used by Christians to discount Judaism; indeed they have been used, recklessly and blasphemously, to justify the persecution of Jews. They came to represent irreconcilable differences. For Jews, the expected Messiah has not arrived; there is no king on the throne of David; their law has not and can never be repealed. For Christians, the king has arrived and reigns in a spiritual sense even now; he will reign more completely in time to come. For Jews, the laws remain, as God told them. For Christians, the spirit of Christ has replaced the written law. The walls have been broken down. Some early Christian groups emphasized continuity with Jewish tradition; others emphasized discontinuity. Differences of opinion became irreconcilable; church and synagogue became mutually exclusive, with sometimes disastrous results.

          In my career as a pastor, chaplain, professor, I have been blessed to know many wonderful young people – over extended periods of time. I recall, especially today, a student from long ago who was among those who was a spiritual pilgrim, a seeker – attending chapel, political discussions, social protests, He was very confused about his vocation after college – considering all sorts of option. He was a from a Jewish family, but he was interested  even in ministry. Finally he decided to become a psychologist. I saw him once, later, in New York City, and we discussed his pilgrimage. By this time, he was not only a psychologist, but also had become an Orthodox Jew – one who attempts to observe in his daily life all of the 641 laws in the Hebrew scriptures. In our discussion, I asked him why, having considered becoming a minister, he had embraced orthodox Judaism. He answered, characteristically, with a question of his own: if Christians believe in the Bible, why don’t they observe the law?

          I could have said, “read Ephesians.” Instead I said, “I am glad you find living your life according to Jewish ritual law meaningful. We are different in our understanding of faith, but Christ has made us one.” I knew that, and I think he did too. Once we were far off, but now we have been brought near. Christ came to create “one new humanity.” Our differences remain, but they are not irreconcilable. They are all subsumed in the two great gospel proclamations: first, God loves us all, and, second, in the central, unique teaching of Jesus –“Love your enemies.” And the proof of both of these teachings is this: That while we were sinners, Christ gave his life for us.

          Well, it’s time for his sermon to end, and I can hear some of you saying in your minds, “Well, preacher, you’ve talked a lot, but what is the take-away message of this sermon?” Fair question. The take away is this: Christianity is about overcoming differences, not erecting them.

He drew a circle that shut me out--

Heretic, a rebel, a thing to flout.

But Love and I had the wit to win:

We drew a circle that took him in!

                               - Edwin Markham (1852-1940)

          Amen.