Inspired by Genesis 45:7-11, Psalm 133, Matthew 15:21-28
This week marked 9 years since the “Unite the Right” march and confrontations in Charlottesville. I was six weeks into my appointment in Madison County when that event occurred. Leading up to that week there had been announcements of a rally of KKK and other entities that the Sothern Poverty Law Center designated as “hate” groups. Today, we all remember what happened on August 11th and 12th of 2017. Pastoring 30 miles north of Charlottesville with congregations that I was just getting to know meant that I had very little idea where my congregants were in relation to the removal of Confederate soldier statues and the marching of protestors. What I did know was that I needed to speak pastorally into the emotional state in which my congregants found themselves.
When I looked up my scriptural reflection from that Sunday nine years ago, I realized that the Bible readings for that day are the same as today’s! My reflection nine years ago centered around how we are all one family in Christ, regardless of our political or worldly viewpoints. Much has happened to us as children of God over the intervening years and one thing that is true today is that we still have not reconciled our oneness in Christ with our behavior toward other Christians (and other people) throughout the world. We often speak about “brothers and sisters in Christ” and the church being “family”, but that family system is often broken and dysfunctional when compared to the way Jesus instructed us to live together. Therefore, maybe it is not a “family ties” issue – maybe the brokenness is something more fundamental that we have neglected to embrace?
Our scriptures today speak about families being reunited, but they also speak of a deeper issue of how we can become not just united but unified through embodying the unconditional love of God. The writer of Psalm 133 emphatically states in the opening line of the song, “How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity!” For this is what God wants most from us – living unified in faith and love. Jesus said so in his farewell soliloquy in John’s Gospel. Jesus prayed, “…for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you….”
That same Jesus and the disciples are traveling to the Gentile region of Tyre and Sidon in what is present day Lebanon. A Canaanite woman begs him for help for her demon-possessed daughter. Jesus tells her that he has only come to “the lost sheep of the house of Israel”, but she continued to beg for his healing power. Finally, her great faith in him and love for her daughter moves Jesus to heal. It shows that even during the time of Jesus, God’s unconditional love was unifying all nations.
The five or so chapters before our reading in Genesis has Joseph being reunited a couple of times with his brothers who have come to buy grain during an extended famine. The brothers do not recognize Joseph as he is dressed as an Egyptian and it has been a number of years since they sold him into slavery. Joseph has been toying with them but cannot hold his emotions back any longer and announces that he is their brother. Joseph forgives his brothers for their sin against him and tells them that it was God’s plan all along to have him be in Egypt in order to save the whole family. Joseph tells his brothers to go back and get Jacob and bring him and all the family to live in Goshen near him. The family has been reconciled and unified through God’s great love.
The “Unite the Right” rally was ostensibly a protest against the removal of some statues in Richmond, Virginia. It brought people into Charlottesville who carried torches, shouted incendiary slogans accompanied by offensive gestures. It brought to the fore negativity, violence, authoritarian rhetoric and hate of other children of God. Brothers and sisters, what my reflection on this situation has pointed me to once again, is that this is what evil looks like…this is how evil operates. It lies about who we are and whose we are. It creates chaos instead of order. It destroys bridges instead of building them. It creates an artificial dualism – Us vs. Them, We vs. They, I vs. It. This rhetoric stands in opposition to the unifying message of God which is always the collective “we”.
One of John Wesley’s most read and quoted sermons is entitled, “Christian Perfection”. In it he has much to say about combating division and divisive rhetoric with God’s unifying love. He said, “…Ceasing to have a reciprocal love ‘for one another’ (1 Cor. 12:25), is inner disunity which is at the very root of all outward separation. Beware of everything which leads to this separation. Beware of a dividing spirit.
Therefore, do not say, ‘I am of Paul,’ or ‘I am of Apollos.’ This is the very thing which caused the schism at Corinth…this tends to breed division, to disunite those whom God has joined…
Do not even give a single thought of separating from your brethren, whether their opinions agree with yours or not. Just because someone does not agree with everything you say does not mean that they are sinning. Nor is this or that opinion essential to the work of God. Be patient with those who disagree with you. Do not condemn those who do not see things just as you do, or who think it is their duty to contradict you, whether in a great thing or a small. O, beware of touchiness, of testiness, of an unwillingness to be corrected. Beware of being provoked to anger at the least criticism and avoiding those who do not accept your word….” In other words, John Wesley is teaching us that we are called to do the hard work of being unified in love rather than divided by evil and hate.
God’s unifying love always creates an ever enlarging “we” by healing and bringing reconciliation into the realm of possibility. Over the last few weeks, we have reflected on examples of division and reconciliation between Esau and Jacob and today between Joseph and his brothers. Jacob wrestled all night with God’s unifying love, before coming to place where he could look on the face of his brother, Esau, and see the face of God.
God’s transformative love changes hearts, minds and lives over and over again across the Bible. God’s love worked in Joseph’s life, leading him through enslavement and incarceration, to where he could be the agent of God who was positioned to save his family and move God’s future plans forward. God’s unifying love always makes it possible for people to seek cooperation and understanding - a state of grace - with the other, rather than separation and division.
God’s unifying love breaks down artificial human-made barriers of race, creed, gender, or other attributes that contributes to uniqueness. Jesus’ dialogue with the Canaanite woman shows how God’s love even worked on Jesus to help him be as inclusive as possible of someone who would otherwise have been understood as outside the love and care of the One, True God. Afterall, the Canaanites worshipped many gods and had encouraged countless Jews over the centuries into breaking their covenant with the God of Israel. Yet, the Canaanite woman’s daughter is healed because Jesus recognized the great faith in his God and the love of a mother for her child. It is the same great love that God has for all God’s children and all of creation!
We see how God’s unifying love transforms our hearts and minds to be inclusive of those considered “Gentiles” or “Greeks” in Paul’s time. Peter receives a vision from God to include the non-circumcised into the Jesus movement. God’s unifying love continues to create ever larger and more inclusive community. Revelation provides us a vision of what that ultimate community looks like – the kingdom of God here on earth.
God has shown us the way through Jesus to put away our differences, to name and overthrow evil, and to once again become unified in God. Hip-hop song writers and the ever-present Taylor Swift have told us that “haters are gonna hate” – that there will always be people seeking to tear us apart. We as disciples of the Christ are gifted and called to be “lovers who are gonna love” and who will build with God one big beloved community. The gospel – the good news here is that after all is said and done, what God is telling us throughout the Bible is that all things, including being unified in our love for God and each other is possible because of God’s unconditional love for us. Thanks be to God for transforming us so we can be unified in love. Amen!