Us and Them

One thing human beings do, time and again, is divide up humanity into them and us. At one level this is harmless. After all if there were no “Us” and “Them” rugby matches, cricket matches or football matches for example would be pretty pointless.

And in politics of course there is “Us” and “Them” all the time – even though it is often said that it is often hard to differentiate between the policies of the main parties nowadays.

So at one level “Us” and “them” doesn’t matter. But human nature being what it is “us” and “them” can quickly move from being a bit of fun to something far more serious.

Holocaust Memorial Day is a time for everyone to pause to remember the millions of people who have been murdered or whose lives have been changed beyond recognition during the Holocaust, Nazi Persecution and in subsequent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur. On HMD we can honour the survivors of these regimes and challenge ourselves to use the lessons of their experience to inform our lives today.

HMD is a time when we seek to learn the lessons of the past and to recognise that genocide does not just take place on its own, it’s a steady process which can begin if discrimination, racism and hatred are not checked and prevented. We’re fortunate here in the UK; we are not at risk of genocide. However, discrimination has not ended, nor has the use of the language of hatred or exclusion. There is still much to do to create a safer future and HMD is an opportunity to start this process.

Given that 27 January 2015 marks not only the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and death camp, but 2015 is also the 20th anniversary of the Genocide in Srebrenica, it is important that memory is at the heart of the 2015 commemoration.

The Holocaust of the Second World War was of course based very much on “Us” and “Them”. The Nazis oversaw the murder of millions of people who weren’t one of us. For the most part of course Jews. But gypsys, homosexuals, people of different political viewpoints, or nationalities deemed to be racially inferior e.g. Russians, were also murdered.

Sadly, there have been many other examples of genocide since then all based on “Us” and “Them”

Whilst genocide as a concept has only been defined since the end of the Second World War, there have been many examples of what could be termed genocide in human history. And human history is littered with plenty of examples of the tribalism and hatred that can lead on to genocide if it is not contained.

For Holocaust memorial Sunday, the suggested Bible passage was the story of Jesus encountering a Samaritan woman at the well. (John chapter 4) In the passage Jesus is dealing with a woman from a different culture and ethnic group to him. And as such the passage tells us a great deal about how as Christians we are supposed to relate to people.

The setting of this passage in Samaria would have been scandalous to many in the first century because in this passage Jesus openly challenges and breaks open two boundaries. The boundary between the “chosen people” (Jews) and “rejected people” (Samaritans) and boundaries between male and female.

This passage in other words is all about “Us” and “Them”.

Samaritans were outcasts as far as Jewish people were concerned. The Samaritans claimed to have a common heritage with Jewish people in that Samaritans claimed to be descended from Jacob just as Jews did. However, the Assyrians who conquered the area around 700 years before Jesus, brought with them colonists who intermarried with the Samaritans. Therefore Samaritans were not thought of as pure Jews.

Jesus then as a Jew would have been expected to avoid contact with a Samaritan. And similarly Jewish convention said that a Jewish man would not have contact with a woman unless she was his wife or a close relative. In this passage Jesus is ripping up the rule book! Dealing with a Samaritan and a woman.

Jesus is treating the Samaritan woman – and later the Samaritan villagers the woman brings to meet Jesus – as full human beings. He treats them as people who are worthy recipients of the grace of God. Not as despised enemies from whom to fear contamination.

The preoccupation with protecting boundaries between the chosen and despised peoples is not just limited to the Jewish / Samaritan conflict of the first century. Throughout human history people and nations have defined themselves over and against other groups.

The history of race relations in the USA and South Africa, the notion of racial purity in Nazi Germany, the ethnic wars that have come and gone and sometimes come again in the Middle East, African, Asia and Europe, all have their roots in the same fears that divided Jews from Samaritans. The fear of contamination. “Us” and “Them”.

What this passage does is to summon those of us who seek to follow Jesus to be different from the ways of the world. We’re summoned to not be like the world. We’re summoned to not take on society’s views of who is acceptable and who is not. As followers of Christ we are to show there is no “us” and “them”.

As Paul reminds us in Colossians 3 in Christ

there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.

In other words if we are in Christ, if we are seeking to be like Christ, there is no “Us” and “them”

Sadly, we know only too well that although we as Christians try to follow that teaching, the world does not. And, if truth be told, there are Christians who are more than happy to see the divisions in our world.

I profess to not knowing enough about Islam. And I profess that nowadays I do not know any Muslims. It was different 30 years ago when I was at university. Then among people I got to know on my course and became friendly with were several Jews, Muslims and Hindus as well as a mix of those who came from a Christian background or no faith.

And when I look at our wedding photographs it is a joy to see that cross section of society there. Sadly over time we have lost touch. But I have not lost that recognition that those people of different cultural background and faith could put aside differences and be friends.

Although I don’t know much about Islam, my experience 30 years ago showed me that just as most Christians are caring loving people so are most Muslims. So are most Jews. So are most people FULL STOP.

When we see images of extremists murdering journalists or people in a supermarket we can start to believe that is how the world is. But the world for the most part is not like that.

Just after the attacks in Paris the other week, I was saddened to see two surveys of Jewish people in France and this country. Both surveys found that Jewish people feel threatened and feel that anti-Semitism is on the rise.

No doubt this in response to the Paris attacks and certainly in London Jewish schools and synagogues have been given police protection.

And yet at the same time Muslims feel threatened too. Many feel that the press labels them all the same way.

Last Monday evening (19th January) BBC’s “The One Show” carried a report from Manchester which showed how there some Muslims and Jews are coming together.

Two women – one Jewish and one Muslim – who were members of the Manchester Muslim and Jewish forum were shown having a meal together. And the Muslim woman said “Both communities need to be together. Our faiths have so much in common and we’re all Mancunians.”

In the interview Rabbi Silverman and Imam Abid were interviewed. And a telling remark was made by the Rabbi. “Anti-Semitism and Islamaphobia are two sides of the same coin. Do you agree Imam Abid?” “Yes I do.”

And that is the point. The hatred engendered in our society by terrorists like those in Paris isn’t just targeted at one group. It is hatred that encompasses all people. And it is up to all people to stand up to hatred but not with more violence but with love and by seeking to understand other cultures and beliefs.

Martin Luther King, a man who knew a great deal about “us” and “them” once said this:

Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.

We are called to reflect the light of Christ into the world. To show people his love.

Or to put it another way:

“This life is about what we can do. Whether we’re doing something for our community or something bigger. We make the world the way it is.” Kemal Pervanić, survivor of the Omarska Concentration Camp, Bosnia

This blog is an abbreviated version of a sermon preached at Central Methodist Church Chippenham on Sunday 25th January. Holocaust Memorial Sunday. It draws on material found at the Holocaust Memorial Trust web site http://hmd.org.uk/ and also material produced by the Churches Together in Britain and Ireland.

Zoop, zoop, zoop, clean - there's something in the water

Over the last few weeks Radio 2 have been playing a song called “Something in the water” by American Country artist Carrie Underwood. As is often the way with a new song I hear it in the background and don’t pay much attention. But after a few times of hearing it I realised that this is clearly a Christian song. And I don’t mean a song which has theological lyrics. This is a Christian song.

Now for my American friends who read this blog I need to explain. Unlike in the USA we don’t have Christian music charts in the UK and there is only really one Christian music radio station. Radio 2 is a BBC national station playing (mainly) older hits with some new music that appeals to its core audience (those of us who are middle aged!) So for Radio 2 to play a song like this is very unusual. Radio 2 does play a smattering of country music (and in fact there is a weekly country music show) but for a country song to get wide airplay is unusual and for a country Christian song to get wide airplay is virtually unknown.
I’ve no idea why this song is getting the airplay it is but it is.

Anyway, back to the song. I think the words that first made me realise that this wasn’t just another country song were these:

And now I'm singing along to amazing grace
Can't nobody wipe this smile off my face

“Amazing grace” was clearly a reference to John Newton’s hymn of the same name (which incidentally became a hit for Judy Collins in the 1970s).

Having pricked up my ears I made a point of listening to the lyrics carefully the next time the track was played. And I was surprised to hear a song about someone who had been having a difficult time being encouraged to change their life and give it to Christ.

Then somebody said what I'm saying to you
Open my eyes and told me truth
He said: just a little faith and it'll all get better
So I followed that preacher man down to the river and now I'm changed
And now I'm stronger

Then having mulled it over for a few days the central character of the song realises that she needs to be saved

Then it hit me like a lightning late one night
I was all out of hoping, all out of fight
Couldn't fight back my tears so I fell on my knees
Saying God if you're there come and rescue me
Felt love pouring down from above
Got washed in the water, washed in the blood and now I'm changed

And it is this verse that interests me as there is a great mix of what is going on in baptism.

In one of the intriguing passages of scripture about Jesus we have the account of Jesus’ baptism. All four gospels have an account – though the accounts in Matthew and Mark’s Gospels are the fullest. In Matthew and Mark we are told how Jesus’ cousin John the Baptist had been

“ … preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5 The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.”

And when we read this passage Carrie Underwood’s song comes together. The character in the song recognises the need for forgiveness, is saved and then is baptised

Got washed in the water, washed in the blood and now I'm changed

A few years ago, our German friends were staying with us. They came to church on Sunday morning and it so happened that I had a Christening.

They aren’t regular church goers but they did attend Lutheran church when they were younger. So were interested to see if a Methodist Christening would be different to a Lutheran. And after the service Peter talked to me about the Christening.

“It’s very similar to that in the Lutheran church. Father, Son and Holy Spirit. 3 lots of water. Zoop, zoop, zoop clean!”

But John the Baptist states there is more. Although he helps people to repent and, in baptising them helps them to symbolically be washed clean of their sin, John says

7 And this was his message: “After me comes the one more powerful than I, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. 8 I baptize you with[e] water, but he will baptize you with[f] the Holy Spirit.”

The Holy Spirit is the presence of God in our lives; a presence that empowers and instructs, a presence that comforts and corrects. Like baptism, Christ did not need the Holy Spirit to come upon him. He was always filled with the Spirit. But we need the Holy Spirit. It is that Spirit that helps us be what God wants us to be.

We need to be baptized by water but we also need to be baptized by the Holy Spirit.

And that’s where I think the song is clever as although there is talk about being washed clean the title “Something in the water” alludes to there being more. “Felt love pouring down from above” is the something more. It’s God’s love, God’s grace flowing through the Holy Spirit to make the character feel stronger and free from what has been holding her down up to now.

And now I'm singing along to amazing grace
Can't nobody wipe this smile off my face
Got joy in my heart, angels on my side
Thank God All Mighty I saw the light
Going to look ahead, no turning back, live everyday, give it all that I have
Trusted someone bigger than me
Ever since the day that I believed I am changed

Some sound theology in a pop song. In fact I think there are some hints of Wesleyan theology

All people need to be saved.
All people can be saved.
All people can know they are saved.
All people can be saved to the uttermost

There really is something in the water!

And then they came for me

Just over a week ago two terrorists entered the offices of the Charlie Hebdo newspaper in Paris and murdered journalists and during their escape a police officer. Subsequently others were killed and, in an incident that was apparently related, another terroist murdered another police officer and people taken hostage in a Jewish supermarket.

The terrorists claimed to be Muslims and they claimed their attack on the newspaper was in response to the publication of a cartoon depicting the Prophet Mohammed.

And presumably the attack on the Jewish supermarket was because of the virulent anti semitic feelings of some Muslims towards Jews.

That certainly seems to be the understanding of many French Jews. News reports earlier this week for example this one on the BBC website http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-30790407 suggest that many French Jews feel threatened and are considering moving to Israel.

On 14th January The Independent newspaper carried a report saying that the majority of British Jews also feel threatened and that they have no future in this country. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/the-new-antisemitism-majority-of-british-jews-feel-they-have-no-future-in-uk-says-new-study-9976310.html

Against this background, on Tuesday evening I caught up with a television programme I had recorded on Sunday – Foyle’s War. If you have not followed the series over the years Foyle is a former policeman now working for MI5 in a post war Britain of hrash austerity. (in the early series set during World War 2 he investigated murders but the show was very much in the context of the war on the homefront.) It is the start of the Cold War so Communists feature in many plots but last Sunday’s episode was different.

There was a threat to the post war Jewish community and other refugees by a right wing party who want refugees to go “home” and the Jews to go to their new state of Israel. The local MP tries to stop the right wing party holding a rally but the local worthies feel that freedom of speech is too important.

I thought the show cleverly showed the tension that exists between having freedom to speak out and the need to police extremism. And a Sunday evening TV detective show got me thinking theologically – as we’ll see in a moment.

Inevitably, in the wake of the Paris shootings, our own government and security services have started to question whether such things could happen here. Were the Paris terrorists able to do what they did because surveillance had broken down? (The men were known to the French authorities apparently but had not been watched closely.) Apparently David Cameron the prime minister has pledged to introduce "more comprehensive powers" to monitor terror suspects in the UK. http://www.channel4.com/news/charlie-hebdo-paris-david-cameron-terrorism-response-france

With these events in my mind, and prompted by Foyle’s War, I recalled a famous quotation from Pastor Martin Niemöller:

First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak out for me.

Pastor Niemöller was a supporter of the Nazi party in the early days but after the Nazis took power he came to realise what they really stood for and he became critical of them. These words (written after the war) suggest though that he always felt he should do more for those who were oppressed by the Nazis.

Were Martin Niemöller alive today how would he react I wonder to the situation in France or in this country? I’m not suggesting for a moment that President Hollande or Prime Minister David Cameron is akin to Adolf Hitler! But certainly in this country there has been a tendency in recent years for much of the press and the government to stir up “dislike” (hatred MAY be too strong a word) for certain groups whether those on benefits, immigrants, trade unionists, public sector workers or Muslims.

2,000 years ago Jesus said words that come back to me time and again

18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.”[f]
Luke 4: 18 – 19.

For me, this is the foundation upon which those of us who are followers of Christ must live. To care for others, to love our neighbours, to stand up for the oppressed and marginalised and put ourselves beside them.

It is easy to choose not to get involved, to turn the blind eye, to think someone else will sort it out. But that is not what is expected of us by Christ.

Christ has many services to be done:
some are easy, others are difficult;
some bring honour, others bring reproach;
some are suitable to our natural inclinations and material interests,
others are contrary to both;
in some we may please Christ and please ourselves;
in others we cannot please Christ except by denying ourselves.
Yet the power to do all these things is given to us in Christ, who strengthens us.

Methodist Covenant Service

God chose the weak things of this world to put the powerful to shame.

It is Epiphany, 6th January. The ending of Christmas to all intents and purposes. Though for most people Christmas ended a couple of weeks ago. And for most people Christmas had no connection with the birth of Jesus.

We all know the passage from Luke’s Gospel telling of Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem. But because of its familiarity we lose sight of how shocking and revolutionary what happened on that first Christmas was.

When God planned the events of that first Christmas he knew what he was doing. He was turning the world upside down and showing the world that his kingdom has values that are very different to those of the world.

Mary and Joseph were peasants. Nazareth was a nowhere town anyway and they were nowhere town peasants. The depictions of Mary wearing pretty blue garments are wrong. Blue was for wealthy people. And she wasn’t wealthy and neither was her “husband” Joseph.

Yet God chose to use these peasants to be the earthly parents of his son. In God’s Kingdom the last come first and the first come last.

And let’s not get away from the fact of Mary’s pregnancy. To claim that the pregnancy was as result of God was hugely outrageous then. It’s beyond our comprehension now. And yet that is the story Mary stuck to. She would have been looked at with scorn and scepticism. Had she claimed for example that Joseph couldn’t wait until they were married or even that she had been raped by a Roman soldier, these things would have been accepted. But God, as the father of the child? Really? Crazy!

The fact that Mary and Joseph were peasants and the fact that Mary claimed God was the father of her child; these things would have immediately put the family on the edge of society.

But then we have to add in the flight to Egypt where they may well have lived in conditions far more squalid than in today’s refugee camps. Again outcasts.

Outcasts and yet God chose them to be the parents of his son.

Then let’s think of two other set of characters associated with the Christmas story – the “Magi” and the shepherds.
The Magi – Gentile astrologers from a foreign land – would have been despised by pious Jews. Yet they figure in Jesus’ nativity story.

And as for the shepherds. One of the debates learned rabbis at the time of Jesus had to consider was “When is a loaf not a loaf?” The reason being they needed to consider whether bread could be accepted as a tithe if the bread was inedible. At what point was bread so stale and mouldy that it didn’t have to be tithed? In the end these learned rabbis decided that in a tithe a baker would still have to tithe bread that even it was so stale and mouldy that only a shepherd would still eat it.

Shepherds then were pretty much on a par with animals in Jewish society. Shepherds were the lowest of the low.

These visitors to the Holy Family – the Magi and the Shepherds - are the equivalent of mega rich drug barons and homeless drug addicts turning up on our doorstep today. They too were outcasts from Jewish society.

In Luke’s account of the first Christmas the Shepherds are the main characters. And for the reasons I’ve just explained they are unlikely messengers – until we note Luke’s reminders that Joseph is a descent of the house of David, who was himself a shepherd. So with this in mind maybe the shepherds aren’t such outcasts after all? Who better to proclaim the birth of Jesus, a descent of David, than shepherds? Who better to proclaim the birth of the Good Shepherd than fellow shepherds?

These outcasts, these lowlife are the first to hear, the first to see and the first to tell of Jesus’ birth.

And this is God’s way. God’s way is very different to that of the world, as Paul reminds us:

1 Corinthians 1:26-29 Contemporary English Version (CEV)

26 My dear friends, remember what you were when God chose you. The people of this world didn’t think that many of you were wise. Only a few of you were in places of power, and not many of you came from important families. 27 But God chose the foolish things of this world to put the wise to shame. He chose the weak things of this world to put the powerful to shame.
28 What the world thinks is worthless, useless, and nothing at all is what God has used to destroy what the world considers important.

God uses the shepherds, God uses a peasant woman and her peasant husband, God uses despised foreign astrologers, God uses these and more to tell of his Kingdom and help bring the Kingdom in. And to reflect the light of the world out into the darkness.
From the outset God has chosen the things and the people that are considered worthless by this world to show us what his kingdom is like. From the outset God has chosen the things and the people that are considered worthless by this world to proclaim the Gospel and help bring his kingdom in.

The Christmas story is therefore so different from the values of our world which places great stock on the ways of the powerful, the wealthy, the young, the good looking and the influential. God shows his kingdom is not based on those values. Little wonder that the Church is growing where people are not powerful, wealthy or influential.

The American Christian writer Philip Yancey says:

“Yet as I read the birth stories about Jesus I cannot help but conclude that though the world may be tilted toward the rich and powerful, God is tilted toward the underdog.”

People don’t want anything to do with the Good News we’ve been given to proclaim because the Good News is uncomfortable. It challenges the values of our society. And yet we know it is also a message that gives hope.

It could be said that we are now outcasts from the society we live in. We are seen as irrelevant.

27 But God chose the foolish things of this world to put the wise to shame. He chose the weak things of this world to put the powerful to shame.
28 What the world thinks is worthless, useless, and nothing at all is what God has used to destroy what the world considers important.

This is an abridged version of a sermon preached on Christmas Eve 2014 at Central Methodist Church Chippenham