Sermon: "The Big Picture"

Here’s a story.

Once upon a time, when God created the universe, God took great care to bring order out of chaos. God separated light from darkness. God separated the land from the sea. God separated the sky above from the earth below.

These things were separated, but at the same time, they were connected. Everything that exists in creation is connected. Without light, there would be no shadow. Water from the land flows to the sea, evaporates, then falls to the land as rain. And always,  when you look at the horizon, earth and sky meet.

God created humans - male and female - in God’s own image. And God taught the humans how to live peacefully with one another, how to care for one another, and how to care for the earth and all that lives upon it.

God taught them how to stay... connected.

Religion is a word that literally means “reconnected.” Re-ligio. Ligio, as in ligament. Ligaments are bands of tough elastic tissue around the joints of your body that connect your bones to each other. They hold your bones together. They hold your body together. They keep you connected.

Religion, when it’s done right, reminds us of the connections we have with each other and the connections we have with God.

In the Bible, the first two people we meet are Adam and Eve. These symbolic first humans lived in the Garden of Eden, where God often took walks during the evening. Apparently God enjoyed going for walks in the evening, feeling the evening breeze.

Life was good in the garden. Adam and Eve were in love, connected to each other so completely that the Bible says they were one flesh.

But then they were tempted. By a snake. We think of the snake as the devil, but the Bible just says it was a snake.

“You’ll become like God,” the snake said. “And if you become like God, then you won’t need God anymore. You’ll be independent. Separate. In charge of your own destiny.”

This sounded like a good thing… until they ate, and then realized that being, independent, separate, and in charge of their own destiny would be a lot harder than they thought…

All was not lost, however. God continued to love the humans he created, and Adam and Eve continued to love each other.

Love was not easy now. Confession was now necessary. Along with repentance. And forgiveness...Confession, repentance, forgiveness. Through these tools of healing - through confession, repentance and forgiveness - love would survive and remain strong.

Adam and Eve had two children: Cain and Abel. Cain grew crops. Abel raised sheep.

I think it’s safe to say that they were connected to each other… that they depended on each other. The wool from Abel’s sheep was made into blankets that would keep them both warm at night. The food from Cain’s crops could feed them both.

But one day, Cain got mad at his brother Abel, and decided that he’d be better off without Abel. He didn’t need that connection.

So he killed his brother Abel.

God showed up and asked Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?”

And Cain answered: “I don’t know. Am I my brother’s keeper?”

Woah. Cain denied knowing what happened, AND he denied even having a connection with his brother. He severed that connection in the most dreadful way possible, and now he was alone. Independent. Separate. In charge of his own destiny.

At the time of the killing, when he was filled with anger, it seemed like it would be a good thing. Until he he did it. Until he was left with the consequences of his action.

All was not lost, however. God continued to love Cain.

And the humans who came after Cain: they all made mistakes. They all worked, in some way, against their fellow humans, denying and destroying the connection of love and care and compassion that they were created to share with each other. But through confession, repentance, and forgiveness - all wrapped up in covenant - love survived and remained strong.

The humans that God created multiplied and spread over the earth. And the pattern continued. People valued the connections they had with other people, and they valued the connections they had with God. But they also, at times, divided themselves from other people, and separated themselves from God.

People divided into tribes and nations and cultures. This, in and of itself, was not a bad thing. In fact, it was, at times, a great blessing, when people honored the diversity that was present and learned to live in harmony with one another.

But too often the people tried to distance themselves from one another. Too often, they tried to lift themselves up and pull others down. Too often, they called themselves “good,” and others they called “bad.”

We see a lot of this in the Bible…

In Deuteronomy 23, the Moabites are called bad.

In Jeremiah 25, people from Uz are called bad.

In Deuteronomy 23, foreigners and eunuchs are called bad. They weren’t even allowed into God’s temple.

And we know from scripture that everyone in Jesus’ time thought of Samaritans as bad, and Gentiles as unholy, and women as inferior, and tax collectors and sinners as incapable of rehabilitation.

“We’re good; everyone else is bad.”

All these separations and divisions, right there in the Bible. Page after page, chapter after chapter, detailing who’s in and who’s out, separating and dividing God’s people from one another. Nations attacking other nations, people killing other people, even in God’s name.

It’s all right there in the Bible. And because people were divided and separated in this way, the resources of God’s good creation were not cared for, and were not shared fairly. Some hoarded wealth and resources, while others were left hungry and in poverty.

This was not God’s intention at all. But God did not give up on the people God created. God had a covenant with God’s people; so God sent them prophets, to call them back to a more just way of living.

One prophet was named Nathan. Nathan confronted the greatest king of all, King David. He told King David a story that would help King David see his own sin.

Other prophets did the same. Remember how Deuteronomy said that Moabites were bad? Well, one prophetic writer decided to challenge that. He wrote a story about a Moabite who was good. A Moabite named Ruth. Ruth the Moabite.

Ruth the Moabite was a good, loving, loyal companion to her mother-in-law Naomi. And Ruth the Moabite, it turned out, was King David’s great grandmother.

Which means that King David himself was a Moabite.

But wait: didn’t Deuteronomy say that Moabites were bad? How can it be, then, that Israel’s greatest king was a Moabite?

Oh, and then there is the story of Job, a man from Uz who is the most blameless man on Earth. But wait: didn’t Jeremiah say that everyone from Uz was bad? How can it be that Job - a man from Uz - was so good?

And there is the prophet Isaiah, who said to eunuchs and foreigners: Yes, you are welcome in the temple. But wait: didn’t Deuteronomy say the opposite?

And then there’s Jesus, who once told a story about a good Samaritan. Wait: a good Samaritan? Whoever heard of such a thing?

And speaking of Jesus, there are stories of him associating with tax collectors and praising Gentiles and treating women as equals… and forgiving sinners.

Everything that we read in one part of the Bible gets turned upside down in another part!

The Bible does not speak with one voice. It was written by different people in different parts of the world at different times in history, and they all had different viewpoints. There is a wonderful, confusing, perplexing, holy mixture of diverse voices represented here. Anyone who says “The Bible says. ..,” as if the Bible says only one thing on a particular topic, clearly has not understood how the Bible was written.  

Some Biblical writers say “separate yourselves from those people; they're evil.” Other biblical writers say, “those people you call evil are children of God. Welcome them, love them, affirm them.”

And some people today pay attention to the verses that divide and exclude, and some people today pay attention to the verses that welcome and affirm. Who's right? ...

If you read closely, there does seem to be a movement, an arc, in scripture in which the stories of division and exclusion gradually give way to stories that connect and welcome and affirm.

Like when a eunuch from a foreign land asked Philip if he could join the church, and Philip knew that foreigners and eunuchs were bad according to Deuteronomy but good according to Isaiah, and Philip decided that Isaiah was right, so he baptized the eunuch and welcomed him into the church.

Like when we read in the gospels about how the Pharisees are hypocrites and adversaries to Jesus, then we turn a few pages to hear Paul give thanks for his experience as a Pharisee, which makes us rethink our earlier prejudice against Pharisees.

Like when we read that the early church continually widened its circle of welcome, from Jerusalem, to Judea and Samaria, and eventually, to the ends of the earth.

Like when we read that even Jesus's own way of thinking was challenged to widen the circle of welcome…

Wait. What? Even Jesus needed to be convinced of this? Even Jesus needed to endure a progression of thought, from disconnection to connection, from exclusion to welcome?

Yes. It happened when a Syrophoenician woman came to Jesus, and Jesus initially refused to help her. Jesus had to be convinced.

Here’s what I think is going on. I think the author of this story, this scripture, said “how can I take all this to the next level? People still don't get this idea that we need to find the connection between us; what more can I do?… I know! I'll include a story in which Jesus himself has to expand his idea of who's in, a story in which Jesus's idea of who is included is stretched.

It's a risky story. It seems to imply that Jesus is wrong, and has to be corrected, but how could Jesus be wrong?

But the author of this scripture decides to go with it. In the story, Jesus will not bless the Syrophoenician woman because (he says) he was sent to the house of Israel. But then she says something that blows his mind, something that makes Jesus realize that even he needs to enlarge his idea of who is included, who is welcome, who is a part of God's family.

The writer's hope, I think, is that anyone who reads this story will say to themselves, “gosh, if even Jesus needed to learn to overcome differences that divide and recognize the connection that exists between all people, then I guess I need to do the same.”

It’s all in an effort to make real the dream of the prophets. The prophets described a dream, a vision, of a world in which divisions were broken down and people lived in peace because they recognized their oneness.

Jesus built on this idea and called it the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is the phrase he used to describe a world in which people were so aware of their connection with God and with one another that they structured society in such away that the poor were cared for, the sick were cared for, the oppressed were empowered, and the captives were set free.

And this vision carries all the way thru to the book of Revelation, which speaks of a day in which there are no more tears of sadness, a day in which all things will be made new. It will be a day in which all people recognize their connection with God and with one another…

Revelation speaks of a new city of God, an ideal place, and the gates in the city walls will never be shut. No one will be shut out. And in that city, the world that had been broken and fragmented ever since Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden fruit will be restored and made whole once again.

This is the Bible's story. But it is clear that the story is not over. The kingdom has not yet been fully realized. People are still divided. People are still separating themselves from one another, still fighting each other, still hating each other for no good reason.

But that kingdom, that vision, is alive and present in each one of us. God calls on you to continue the story, to continue building the kingdom, to continue the work of removing all the obstacles that stand in our way: through the lives of those who believe and who follow Christ, every valley that divides shall be exalted, and every mountain that separates will be brought down low.

The story continues in us. All who have been baptized in Christ's name have been baptized into this story. All who gather around Christ's table are gathered into this story. Through us, the dream is alive. Through us, the kingdom is present. Through us - through God working in us - a broken, fragmented world is made whole again.