We have
some friends who are moving next month from Toledo to Jerusalem. Angela and
Marty Zimmann are both Lutheran pastors. You may remember Angela as the woman
who ran for United States Congress a few months ago. She lost her race. But
because she ran such a good race, the leaders in the Lutheran church noticed
her and thought she would be a good candidate to serve one of their mission churches
in the Middle East. She and her husband Marty will be the co-pastors of the
Lutheran Church in Jerusalem and she will be the assistant to the Bishop there,
working to educate people in America and negotiating issues in the Middle East
for the church. They have two children, just the same age as our two. To be
honest, Kurt and are a bit horrified that they are taking their children to
such a dangerous place. But we know
they are smart people who have looked at the risks versus what their children
and the world will get out of this opportunity.
You see,
for thousands of years (back to Biblical times), two groups of people, have
been fighting over the same land in what we know as Israel and Palestine. Some
of you know much more about this than I do. It is an extremely complex history
of relations. At its heart, there are the Jews, the people who are ancestors of
Jesus. They are the ones we read about in our Old Testament who know themselves
to be God’s Chosen people. And then there are all these other people who have
lived in that part of the world for just as long. We call them Palestinians
now. Some are Christian Palestinians. Some are Muslims.
Some have
roots back to the ancient Samaritans in the Bible – you remember them. The Jews had a long standing aversion to the
Samaritans. You see, from ancient times, The Jews understood themselves to be
the Chosen people of God. They believed it was their calling to keep their
religious rituals and culture pure and so they stayed to themselves. They were
the insiders and everyone else was an outsider. The called the rest of the
world Gentiles. We are Gentiles. And
so were the Three Wisemen, or Kings, or Astronomers (from Matthew 2:1-12 in the
Message paraphrase for those following along at home). But they traveled so far to bring those
gifts. And they were the them of the
Jewish culture of the time.
Let me
remind you of the story of Epiphany. Today is January 6th the last
and 12th day of Christmas, the day of Epiphany, also called “Three
Kings Day.” Epiphany refers to the appearance of Jesus to the Kings from a far
away country in the East. The word means that we have a sudden realization of
something. On this day, we learn that God sent Jesus not only for the Jews but
for the whole world. This was huge. Because, you see, up
to this point, the Jews thought that the Messiah was coming only to save them.
And as I have just described, because the Jewish people had an understanding
that God wanted them to keep their religious rituals pure and holy, it was part
of their tradition to stay separate from anyone who was not a Jew. So they
called all the rest of the world: Gentiles.
They had
what they believed to be a God-given destiny, to remain separate. There is “us”
and there is “them.” When the Magi (the Kings) came following a star from the
East, and came to bring gifts and worship Jesus – suddenly the story was out. The story shows us that Jesus was not coming
for one set of chosen people, but for all of us. The whole world knew that God had sent God’s
own child to the world. God’s love incarnate in a human being was being shared with
the whole planet. God’s love cannot be contained. God’s love cannot be
limited to any country, or to any one group of people, it is for everyone. This
is the gift of Epiphany. There are no insiders and outsiders. Everyone
is included in God’s circle of love.
I want to
tell you a story that illustrates what happens when this message gets through
to us. Last weekend in Columbus, a man
named Joel (who happens to be a friend of mine) was walking to a late night
pizza truck, one of those hip, upscale neighborhoods, in the Short North in
Columbus, Ohio. It was cold and he was standing in line with his friend Ethan.
They were cold and they were holding hands. A man in line in front of them saw
them started harassing them because they were gay. I won’t repeat what he said
but it was clear that he was put off by the fact that they were gay.
The Short
North is usually a very safe place for people like Ethan and Joel. It’s an upscale, arts neighborhood of
Columbus. The man continued to harass
them continuing to say negative things about gay people. Someone in the crowd
told the man he was out of line. And the whole crowd joined in. It was not just
the gay folks in the line, but the straight folks too. They all said, this is
our neighborhood and our city and these two men are not doing anything wrong.
In fact the owner of the Pizza Truck realized what was happening. He asked them
man to stop being so hateful and said basically that we don’t tolerate that around
here. When the man would not stop, he told the man to get out of line.
We will
not stand for bigotry. The story has gone viral. It was all over Facebook, and
was the highest trending story on Huffington Post earlier this week. We like to
hear a story where people who have been oppressed are finally surrounded by
others who will stand up for them. It was victory for the good guys.
I love
this story. And I am thankful that we have come to the day when gay bashing is
no longer socially acceptable in so many circles. However, the neighborhood was the Short North
in Columbus. It is an identifiable gay friendly neighborhood. The man, who was
doing the gay bashing was really the “other” in this crowd. He was the them.
But I
have to ask a couple of questions. Because that’s what I do. I wonder, what if a couple of young African
Americans, a man and a woman, the woman with tight jeans and a low cut shirt;
and the man with saggy, baggy jeans, had been in the line and well, you know,
they are kind of sneaking a kiss or two in line, and what if someone had said
to them: Cut it out, get a room. We don’t want any gang bangers in this
neighborhood . Do you think the crowd would have defended them and said, they
are welcome here? Because I’m guessing they might have been seen as the “other”
in that trendy upscale urban neighborhood.
Or what
if there were two older people from Mexico with a thick accent, talking in
Spanish and someone said, “We don’t want any more illegals here taking our jobs
away. You are not welcome here.” Would
the crowd have spoken up if those people were in line? Would the Pizza Truck
owner have refused service to the person who was harassing them? Maybe he
would, and maybe not.
But here
is the last question. Why do we cheer when the Pizza Truck Owner refused
service to the one who was the hater? Now I know that I am tired of the Joels
and the Ethans of the world being harassed. It has gone on for too long. They
deserve a little urban street justice. That mean guy got his due. He went home
hungry for that great pizza. He was mean and mean guys don’t deserve pizza. But
I heard what happened and the pizza truck owner gave him a chance to calm down.
He would not and so he was refused service.
But I just
wonder what could have been an Epiphany moment in that story for that man? A
moment of sudden realization. What might Jesus have done had he been there? I hate it when Pastors ask me these kind of
questions.
Now, of
course, there were times when Jesus cast judgment. But there were many time that he used
conflict as a teaching moment. I wonder
if it could have been a sudden moment of realization if somehow the man who was
being harassed might have been moved to say to the pizza truck owner, “You know
what, let the man order, and I will pay for his pizza.” I don’t know if I could have done that. And I am certainly not judging Joel &
Ethan for not doing it. But imagine the
realization that might have occurred.
There is
no more sense of “us” and “them” when that sort of generous mercy takes place. God sent Jesus in order to show us there is no
more “us” and “them.” Whoever your “them” is, Jesus says: “I came to love them
too. I love you, and I love them. And I want you to love them too. That is how
this works.” That is how it works. I love them and I love you God says, and I am
challenging you to love the them too.
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