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Texts of Terror V:
“Insiders and Outsiders”
2 John 4-11
A Sermon preached by the Rev. Douglas M. Donley
LENT V
As we remember the comforting words that “Jesus loves
me this I know for the Bible tells me so”, we confront the shadow side of this
sentiment which says that God hates others for the Bible tells me so. Today’s scripture shows that even in those
days, there were insiders and outsiders.
People could be believers, but if they weren’t the right kind of
believers than they were not only suspect, they were
evil deceivers. Scriptures like these in
the wrong hands make it possible to demonize and write off a whole race of
people. It makes it possible to embrace
racism, cultural superiority and exclusion as God’s way.
On the face of it. It is not really a text of terror. The terror comes in the irresponsible
application of such a text.
Ten years
ago, an organization called Soulforce was
founded. Those of you who view the film
“For the Bible Tells Me So” here at UBC tomorrow night will see some of the
people who have been active in Soulforce. Mel White, who was Jerry Falwell’s
Ghost writer, came out of the closet and asked Jerry to stop his demonization of the LGBT community. Jerry didn’t respond to Mel’s letters, so Mel
upped the ante. He said, “Okay, we’ll
bring 5000 LGBTA activists trained in nonviolence to the doors of
Let’s
unpack the scripture for a moment. First
of all it’s one of the newest books in the Bible. It’s newer than John’s Gospel. It’s newer than Revelation. It comes from the time when the emerging
church was having opposition among its portions. People were beginning to define themselves
against other groups. They were saying
things like women should not speak in church.
This may have been an attack against another early Christian group that
had women in leadership positions. They
began to make sweeping generalizations against groups of people.
In English, the word Jew has just a
few meanings. But in ancient Israel,
there were plenty of Jewish groups around.
Just like we don’t lump all Christians together as believing the same
things, there were different Jews.
It’s simplistic to say “the Jews killed Jesus.” Following Second John, therefore, we need to have nothing to do with the Jews. Or worse, our only posture should be to encourage their conversion to Christianity.
But what
Jews ware they talking about?
There were
the Pharisaic Jews. These were people
who were devout and held to the Torah.
They also held to a group of doctrines outside the Torah which were seen
as authoritative, at least to them. They
were devout folk and served as the foil of many a Gospel writer as being too
rigid. But the Apostle Paul, after all, was
a Pharisee.
There were
the Sadducees who did not believe in the resurrection.
There were
the Zealots who were committed to the military overthrow of the Roman
occupation. Many of them took their last
refuge on the mountain of Masada after the fall of
the temple. They committed suicide
before they were captured by the Romans.
They were the first to follow “live free or die.”
There were
the Essenes who lived in the hill country outside of
Jericho along the Jordan River. They
were a small community who loved to use water as a part of their rituals. The ruins of their communities showed
elaborate aqueducts and baptismal pools.
Then there
were the Chief priests. They were the
ones who were the highest class and yet were probably the most compromised as
they tried to help their people survive in the midst of occupation. They likely had to make several accommodations
to the Roman authorities, like the handing over of Jesus to be crucified.
Then there
were the people who were taken by the message of Jesus. These people are often called Messianic
Jews. This group made up just one of the
early church movements. Remember there
were other people that were not Jews that were part of the early church. Deciding whether the emerging church could
accommodate non-Jews was a major stumbling block; let alone what it meant for
the acceptance of people who did not believe just as they did.
So it is
into this landscape that the writer of the Second Letter of John wrote. It’s a short letter, presumably because there
will be a visit in the near future. It’s
written by “the elder” who is probably the same one who penned the third letter
of John.
Although it shares some themes of
John’s Gospel, like the emphasis on Truth, it is likely a different writer than
the Gospel writer or the writer of the first letter of John. It’s addressed to the Lady of the
church. This likely is a title for the
church itself. It’s concerned about the
deceivers that are in the midst of the church or surrounding the church.
I get
letters from time to time telling me that I am a deceiver because I support
this or that interpretation of scripture.
It’s a blessing and a curse that all seven years of my sermons are on
the UBC web page.
There was a time a few years back
when one of the Sacred Harp singers started a row on e-mail about how we should
not sing in a church where the pastor is a deceiver. He lifted portions of a sermon I did on the
Illegitimacy of Jesus where I questioned whether Mary was actually a virgin as
we define that today; and the way that I lifted up Gandhi’s teachings one
Lent. People jumped to my and our
defense and have generally enjoyed the eclectic theology that welcomes and
affirms all in this church. And yet,
there are devout singers who will not sing at UBC because to have fellowship in
our house is to participate in our evil.
The issue
that the writer of Second John is concerned about is that there are people who
believe that Jesus did not come in the flesh.
Remember this letter was written 70 years after Jesus’ death. There were in fact Gnostic groups that were
popular amongst some Christians that believed that Jesus was only Spirit and
never flesh and blood. Some Gnostics and
the Docetics believed that Jesus only appeared to be human.
For their
part, they believed that seeing Christ as only
a spirit helped them to imagine better knowledge of God, for they didn’t have
to worry about mundane matters such as his feelings, his suffering, his death,
his longing, his bodily functions. This gave them a more enlightened and
spiritual knowledge of God.
But the
writer isn’t just saying that he doesn’t like them or that they have incorrect
beliefs. He says that they are the
antichrist. They are evil deceivers and
even greeting them or offering hospitality is to be sucked in and
compromised.
Now fast
forward a few centuries. Second John was
in the cannon of scripture. The
distinction of the differing Jewish groups was being lost. Christianity was the religion of the
Fast forward another couple of
centuries and the Crusades sought to secure the Holy lands from the
antichrist. In this case it was Muslims
and Jews, both of whom did not regard Jesus as Christ, the Messiah. They were therefore antichrist and the
battlefields of the world are littered with the blood of people who dared to
have a differing belief system than those in power.
When we
enter into Holy Week, we do so against the popular Christian and Biblical
backdrop of anti-Semitism. We remember
how the chief priests and the elders trumped up charges against Jesus and did
him in. We remember how the crowds also
turned from praising him on Palm Sunday to vilifying him on Good Friday. And we remember the hope that comes from the
triumph of Jesus over death. We are
dealing with a great power that demands attention.
So how do
we embrace this wonderful story without going down the road of declaring all
people who don’t believe just like we do are the devil incarnate? Isn’t that what the antichrist means?
I think it
takes us being careful and respectful both of scripture and of the other people
of the book who believe just a bit differently than we do. It takes us finding ways to have our blinders
taken off and seeing what our exclusivism has
wrought.
We can see the destruction of the people deemed antichrist, perhaps inspired in part by the second letter of John led people to enter into the crusades, to join the Ku Klux Klan, to foment the Holocaust, and maybe even the Iraq and Afghan wars. We need to decide whether we will let that continue or not.
I saw the
University Minnesota’s production of Peace Crimes last week. After the show the actors and three of the
original
Several
years ago, the Southern Baptist Convention mad ea statement saying that
Christians should have fellowship with Jews and Muslims, but only with the hope
that they would convert them. The
Alliance of Baptists held its meeting in 1995 in Washington, DC. We went to the Holocaust museum and we were
the first Christain group to hold a service
there. We placed stones on the stage,
just as Jews do when they visit the graves of their loved ones. We did so and repented of our demonization of the Jews.
We lamented the words that others had made and even the words we had
made ourselves. We lamented our silence
in the midst of the demonization of the Jewish
people. We asked for forgiveness and
hope for a more just and healthy future with our Jewish sisters and brothers.
We are now
in the 21st century. In our
societal triumphalism, we assume that the populace
needs to bow down to Christian gods and put up with Christian symbolism. We stand idly by as history gets rewritten
and the US is called a Christian nation.
Questioning such a belief is to question empire and therefore being in
league with the so-called antichrist.
And we wonder why we can’t get along.
Do people hate our freedom or do they hate our arrogance?
We are to
hold to truth and love. The greatest
love we have known is the love we have seen in Jesus, where he laid down his
life for his friends.
Jesus came
to the insiders and the outsiders. He
came to show the way of God is one of compassion and love and justice and mercy
and peace. People who came after him
tried to make sense of his message. We
do that, too. But the message we need
most is the message that we can and shall overcome some day.
Jesus loves
me, this I know. For the Bible tells me
so. Jesus loves justice, Jesus loves
peace. Jesus loves mercy. And the Jesus I know weeps when people use
his name as a way to demonize another.
God deliver us from this kind of sin which clings so closely to us.
How can we redeem this story? I’m not sure we can, but I know we can work by our actions and our posture to represent a form of Christianity that welcomes all and is willing to be in dialogue and partnership with people beyond our faith tradition. That is a form of resurrection.
We don’t need to be resigned to the existence of terror, be it in our Biblical texts or our societal experience. We can and we must be transformed so that no one, NO ONE is an outsider in God’s mind. By our inclusion, we become insiders. By our compassion we become insiders. By our commitment to peace and justice we become insiders. By our witness and our work, we become insiders. And in that day and in that way, we move beyond terror and toward welcome. And God rejoices.
Post-script:
After meeting with Jerry Falwell back in 1999, we maintained the relationships
forged over those tense tables without food. Two by two or on groups we went
out to lunch. People laughed and
connected and spoke about how their lives were really similar. Dave from my