Isaiah 56:1, 6-8; Matthew 15:10-28; Romans 11:1-2a,29-32

Question for the Baby Boomers: Do you remember the rock group Pink Floyd? There’s a song they sung in the early ‘70s titled “Us and Them”. It’s a haunting melody that tells the story, in part, of the death of the father of one of the members of the band, who had been killed with the British Foreign Legion during the early days of World War 11 when the band member was a small boy. The lyrics go in part like this:

Us and Them...after all, we’re only ordinary men...
Me and You...God only knows what we should choose to do...
‘Forward’ he cried (from the rear) and the front line died...
The general sat and the lines on the map moved from side to side...
Black and Blue...who knows which is which and who is who?
Up and Down...and in the end, it’s only ‘round and ‘round...
With/Without...who’ll deny that’s what the fighting’s all about?

“Us and Them.” One of many rock anthems about the senselessness of war, the clashing of classes, and the “division bell” of hatred. But whether it’s 1971 or 2002, whether it’s the time of Christ or even six centuries before his birth, “Us and Them” summarizes a lot about the brokenness of the human condition, our innate compulsion to always draw boundaries and choose sides, to define who we are by who we are not, to declare ourselves winners by making others losers, to kill or be killed...such is the curse of this “inwardly-curved circle of sin that drives us to the labels “Us and Them.”

The first lesson today, from the 56th chapter of Isaiah, was an astounding announcement from the prophet that those boundaries no longer existed, that the walls were to come down, that the labels no longer had any meaning. Before, the Israelite community was clearly defined by biological, racial and national traditions - and in the context of that clearly defined community, they were expected to live religiously righteous, obedient lives. Now, says the prophet, it is precisely that righteousness and obedience that define who belongs to the community. A righteous relationship with God -not race, nationality or even religious association - makes a person a member of Godfor all peoples.

Now, understand how radical that announcement was! Israel at this time was coming out of years in captivity in pagan Babylon, wondering how to prevent such a catastrophe from ever happening again. One very logical answer was, “Let’s have nothing to do with these or any other pagans - that’s how we got in this mess in the first place! Let’s circle the wagons around our Jewishness and keep it absolutely pure. It is our God-given duty to stay away from the Gentiles. That’s even in our Scriptures. (You can look it up in Deuteronomy 23 and other parts of the Mosaic law). We are to steer clear of the Gentiles, especially the foreigners and the ‘unclean’ folks like those eunuchs.” (By the way, eunuchs were those deliberately castrated young boys and men that despotic rulers frequently used as guards - and they were explicitly forbidden in Mosaic law to take part in worship with God’s people.)

It’s all about “Us and “Them.” But Isaiah’s vision is far more inclusive, as he makes clear in verses 1-6. Foreigners and eunuchs are to be welcomed within the household of God. Bold in the Spirit, the prophet proclaims on behalf of God: 'To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbath, and the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord...these will I bring to my holy mountain and make them joyful in my house of prayer. For my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.’ Thus says the Lord God who gathers the outcasts of Israel, ‘...I will gather yet others to him...’ What an incredibly liberating message the grandness of God’s grace, the wideness of God’s welcome, the inclusiveness of God’s invitation!

That liberating message was announced 500 years or so before the birth of Christ. How did God’s people do in implementing that inclusive vision? You know the story. Israel chose a course of action almost diametrically opposed to Isaiah’s dream: lines of separation from foreigners, from the Gentiles - even those who “kept the Sabbath and ‘joined themselves to the Lord’” - were even more sharply drawn, the sense of “Us versus “Them” became even more deeply imbedded in the Jewish cultural psyche...and in all those who lived around and among them. So much so, that 500 years later, one of those “Gentiles,” “unclean,” “pagan” women approaches Jesus, pleading for help....and Jesus, in perfect compliance with proper religious and social behavior, does not reply. After all, public conversation with a woman, let alone such a “Canaanite-Syro-Phoenician” woman, was unseemly, improper, bad form, dangerous even...it simply was not done. The disciples carry it further: “Send this nag away,” they implore. “She’s bothering us.” And Jesus, who elsewhere had said his mission was indeed first to the lost of Israel, seems to reject this woman’s plea as well - but chooses nevertheless to break the speech barrier by engaging in the clever intellectual sparing typical for a rabbi: “It’s not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” But this woman, this Gentile foreigner, this outsider, this...this “dog” - she longs to be on the inside, she has been given faith to see who Jesus really is, she persists in conversation with the One she has called “Lord” and “Son of David.” She says, “You’re right, Lord. But even the dogs eat scraps that fall from their master’s tables.”

And Jesus...and I picture him smiling, almost laughing, in admiration, says, “Woman, you have strong faith!” This Syro-Phoenician woman, you see, this non-Jew, is no longer a “Them”...and her daughter is healed.

In our readings from Paul’s letter to the Romans over the past few weeks, we’ve been hearing Paul wrestle with that very same theme: the “Us” and “Them” of Jews and now Gentiles who have come to faith in the God of Abraham, through Jesus Christ. Paul grieves over the walls that were already being built in the early church between Jewish and Gentile Christians, between Jews and Christians themselves. But Paul warns the Gentile Christians not to make the same prideful mistake of treating the Jews as “Them.” Jews are yet God’s chosen people, says Paul, the recipients of the gifts and calling of God that are irrevocable...

Well, what does all this have to do with “us” today? Let me tell you, over the past few days, I have thought about these Scriptures - with images of the nation of Israel in 500 BC, of eunuch outcasts and foreigners and the place of women at the time of Christ, of Jewish/Christian relations in the first century... not to mention the violent state of affairs in Israel and Palestine today...not to mention eunuchs and outcast and foreigners and the place of women today...And, as I was thinking, that Pink Floyd song “Us and Them” kept going through my mind, and I was saddened to know that as time marches on, some things never seem to change. Surprise. Sin is still quite the problem isn’t it? For all of our modern sophistication, our one-world global marketing and networking and our universal vested interest to “just get along,” we nonetheless are still driven to draw lines, to separate and divide, to throw rocks and suicide bombers and guided missiles at each other, fighting and waging war...”Us” against “Them.”

We can’t hate the godless Russian communists and their “evil empire” anymore, but have no fear! We can hate the godless Islamic fundamentalists and their “axis of evil.” After all, they hate us. It’s “Us and “Them.” We’re good at this “Us and Them” stuff! Liberals versus Conservatives. Men versus Women. Teenagers versus Parents. Straight versus Gay. Dividing and polarizing people, capitalizing on fear and hate is even a long-honored entertainment industry in our culture. After all, it’s all about the ratings! Even the gentle American pastime of baseball has started to look like hockey with regular bench-clearing brawls these past summers. And, since moving here, I’ve learned that for some folks Cal versus Stanford is something worth literally fighting for...what is that about? See, we just love “Us” versus “Them.” It is a symptom of sin, and our bondage to it.

And don’t forget for a moment that where that “Us “ versus “Them” cancer is spreading most is among those who call themselves God’s own people. “Us” mainline. “Them” fundamentalists. “Them” Catholics. Sunday morning remains the most segregated hour of the week. Church growth gurus still teach congregations to “market” their church to people who look, act, and earn incomes just like “Us.” Denominational groups are almost indistinguishable from political conventions, complete with party voting lists, back room power plays and polarizing rhetoric. And in individual congregations, the cancer of factions, power circles, cliques and outcasts continues to plague the Church as it has since the first congregation in Corinth that Paul wrote to nearly 2,000 years ago...

“Us and Them.” If all we had was that song to go on today...if all these Scriptures did for us was to merely describe and diagnose our bondage to that insidious, divisive sin...if all we had this morning were ourselves and our own resolve to do better...well, then, we would be, of all people, most to be pitied.

What, then, shall we say to all of this? Earlier in that same letter to the Romans, Paul, faced with the seemingly overwhelming weight of such power of sin to divide and conquer, asked that same question. Do you remember how he answered it?

What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else? Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?...No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

In Christ, you see, it is always “us.” It is always “we.” And it is forever a gift. If God is for us...who can be against us? If God has crossed the boundaries, torn down the wall, erased the labels, who are we to say they have any ultimate power over us?

There’s another song that speaks Truth as well as “Us and Them”; it also sings of the way things really are. It speaks of grace, of Christ, the Christ who reached across boundaries to this outcast woman; the Christ who died for Jew and Gentile, Arab and Israeli; the Christ who broke through the boundaries of human sin; the Christ who - remember - loved you and reached out for you and me - even when we were outcasts, when we were yet and still sinners; the Christ who died for us...for them...for all; the Christ who says we are no longer strangers, no longer aliens; the Christ who now calls us to share that same wide, inclusive grace, welcoming all to come to this house of prayer for all peoples...

One bread, one body, one Lord of all; one cup of blessing which we bless,
And we, though many throughout the earth, we are one body in this one Lord. (John Foley, c. 1978)

The Rev. Esther Hargis
August 18, 2002

© 2002, Esther Hargis

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