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 2nd
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.
