Sometimes we think that the world does not have enough in it, or that God’s love is not big enough for everyone. At least, that’s how humans act—have always.
Evil enters our lives as an alternative to seeing the world as God sees it. It seeps into our lives like a crafty serpent feeding us a narrative that we are above the rest, that it is we, not God, who are the definers of what is good and bad. Grabbing the apple, eating the fruit of the tree of Knowing Good and Bad, instead of the Tree of Life, is humans deciding for themselves what has value and what does not. In so doing, even in world full of good, we humans can bend even that good toward our own purposes and miss the mark of God’s beautiful design. At the beginning of the Bible God takes this formless, void expanse—this big huge glob of homogeneity, of sameness (like when you look out over the ocean…at night)—and creates a world where there is every kind of thing imaginable. Myriad fish and birds, plants and animals, trees of every kind, “every tree that is pleasant to look at, every tree that is good for food, and the tree of life…” Beautiful, abundant diversity is sang into existence by God whose spirit hovers over the face of the deep and whose very words create reality. God created a world in which God delighted, even enjoying an evening stroll with a certain critter with whom God enjoyed a particular partnership-- Made in the image of God and tasked as the custodian of the wonderful, diverse, world which God sang into life., humans were created. Beautiful, and diverse they, we, manifest God’s image: all of us, from the spectrum of male to female, God made the human, and God placed them to live and partner in furthering creation in this holy little spot, in a land called Eden. God made a garden on a hill and placed the human there to help take care of it. Diversity, harmony, partnership and respect, everyone in the image of God. A beautiful creation. Then (what happened?) The next pages of the Bible are filled with story after story after story of how one human betrayed another. The leadup to today’s story reads of a child pointing fingers at a sibling at the site of a broken window or heirloom: “She told me to”, “it tricked me into it”, “it’s not my fault!” I got in trouble and had to pass the buck; the next story: it seemed as though a brother’s gift was more appreciated and so the odds must be evened—blood is spilled to settle the score, and the firstborn remains the top dog; Skip a few stories and we get to in Exodus: the Hebrew people are gaining numbers and must be suppressed/oppressed lest they rise up or join the enemy. On and on it goes, on large scales and small. In short, the story goes like this… Humans want to get to decide what is good and bad, right and wrong, by our own standards. Humans want everything to be fair—so just to be sure, we secure ourselves just a bit more power than the other Humans. Also, we’ll even group together to form strategic alliances with others to help ensure the security—always at the expense of someone else. When it comes to safety, power, wealth, or comfort…humans are pretty easy to convince of a narrative that puts themselves above anyone else. You’ll see that a lot in the Bible, that’s what I love about how it keeps the sketchy history intact, and a lot in the world—if you are sure to listen to the neglected stories. It’s an easy sell to have humans believe the story the serpent tells, and to take the fruit where we get to do make up our own rules and definitions. Jesus comes into the story as one who rejects the narrative of the serpent, who will not eat the fruit from the Tree of Knowing Good and Bad, but instead only from the Tree of Life. And he is the one who comes offers the goodness of that Tree of Life to us, by building a kingdom among us defined by GOD’s reign, not ours. When we define things, especially others by OUR standards, not God’s, people always get hurt. In our society alone, LGBTQIA+, BIPOC, and hosts of others get labeled inferior or somehow threatening. The ones who can, develop laws and systems to keep comfort or power or wealth weighted a good direction. Measures are taken to keep everyone on the “right side of fair” as the biblical story always. In the gospel, Jesus has just been at work casting out demons, and sending his disciples out to do the same. Apparently bringing these “demon possessed” people back into the society has riled up the authorities of religion. Things are so crazy that Jesus, in rescuing other humans, is accused of doing the devil’s work in his casting out demons. He responds with words that cut hard at the religious leaders saying this of him, “God is merciful and forgives all kinds of blasphemies, “but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit can never have forgiveness.” (Owch! Withholding forgiveness is not something we see in Jesus—he’s really serious about something here.) And here is what he is serious about:, the people are doing what they’ve always done, keeping some at the fringes for the perceived comfort and safety of the normal crowd. They are causing death on others, for their own gain. And doing so in the name of religion, in the name of God. When they describe Jesus’ work of including those outside accepted norms, (here portrayed in the act of bringing those labeled “demon possessed” into forgiveness and acceptance in society), they take their firm stand of exclusion—dividing their world into factions of insiders and outsiders, ignoring the interconnectedness and unity of the world God first sung into being. A house undivided is one that displays the kingdom Jesus teaches about and brings through himself. That kingdom values and rejoices in the giftedness of every human and their unique identity and perspective. Divisions and definitions of some as wrong or bad only cause the human house to fall in the same old story of giving in to the serpents’ story. Jesus’ kingdom would unify that house and keep the world inclusive, diverse, abundant for everyone, and beautiful. Finally, Jesus calls in radical inclusion “whoever does the will of God” his family. “they are my brother, and my sister, and my mother,” he says. There’s a phrase I saw going circulating in a few articulations that brought a new light to this part of the text for me. It was something like “If your parents aren’t accepting of your identity, I’m your mom now.” I think of the people Jesus was talking to, the one’s who were just brought back from being tossed out on account of their “unclean spirits”, how they would hear this as they’re now following Jesus and doing God’s will. Each one who was disowned and cast aside, Jesus says, has not just a welcome in the kingdom, but a vital place as family—sibling, mother. It’s not just about being welcomed, but about intentional inclusion. It’s always wondered how his biological family would have heard this being in earshot of his statement. And that very thing stays exactly in line with the whole biblical story unfolding—does the inclusion of one, with abundance, or favor, or place in the family, take away anything from those already included? Not at all. Jesus’ love is huge. God’s world is plenteous. There’s more than enough for all. Claim yours, and proclaim your neighbor’s. All-powerful God, in Jesus Christ you turned death into life and defeat into victory. Increase our faith and trust in him, that we may triumph over all evil in the strength of the same Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. Amen. |
AuthorRev. Chris Sesvold is currently the pastor at Halfway Creek Lutheran Church (ELCA) in Holmen, WI. Archives
October 2021
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