19th Sunday after Pentecost-Rev Melanie Lemburg

 

19th Sunday after Pentecost-Proper 23A

October 11, 2020

        Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been listening to an audiobook that is cleverly titled:  Mistakes Were Made (But Not By Me).  The book is written by two social psychologists, and it reflects on the concept of cognitive dissonance or why is it so hard for us to admit when we are wrong. 

        As I was driving home this week listening to the book, I was struck by a section where the authors talk about the social phenomenon of “us versus them.”  The authors write, “Us is the most fundamental social category in the brain’s organizing system, and the concept is hardwired.”  “As soon as people have created a category called us…they invariably perceive everybody who isn’t in it as not-us.  The specific content of us can change in a flash:  It’s us sensible Midwesterners against you flashy coastal types; it’s us Prius owners against you gas-guzzling SUV owners; it’s us Boston Red Sox fans against you Los Angeles Angels fans (to pick a random example that happens to describe your two authors during baseball season.)  ‘Us-ness’ can be manufactured in a minute in a laboratory, as [one scientist] and his colleagues demonstrated in a classic experiment with British schoolboys.”[i]

        In the experiment, the scientist showed the boys slides with varying numbers of dots on them.  He asked them to guess how many dots on each slide, and then he arbitrarily told the boys that some were over-estimators and others that others were under-estimators.  He then sent the boys off to work on another task where they were able to give points to other boys identified as over-estimators and under-estimators.  Although each boy worked alone in his cubicle, almost every single one assigned more points to the boys he thought were like him, an over-estimator or an under-estimator.  As the boys emerged from their cubicles, the other kids asked ‘Which one were you?’ and they would cheer for the ones like them and boo for those who were not.  The authors conclude by talking about the importance of belonging.  “Without feeling attached to groups that give our lives meaning, identity, and purpose, we would suffer the intolerable sensation that we were loose marbles rattling around in a random universe.  Therefore, we will do what it takes to preserve these attachments…When things are going well, most of us feel pretty tolerant of other cultures and religions…but when we are angry, anxious or threatened, our blind spots are automatically activated.  We have the human qualities of intelligence and deep emotions, but they are dumb, they are crybabies, they don’t know the meaning of love, shame, grief, or remorse.”

        Our readings are rife with these “us versus them” divisions today.  In the Philippians reading we see a conflict between two key women in the Christian community in Phillipi.  Paul asks his loyal companion to help Euodia and Sytyche to resolve their differences, and he asks the women to move beyond us versus them to “be of the same mind in the Lord.”

        The gospel reading for today shows us the third parable of three in Matthew’s gospel that Jesus tells after he has ridden triumphantly into Jerusalem, driven the money changers and those who are selling animals out of the temple, and is asked by the chief priests and the elders by what authority he is doing this.  Over two chapters in the Matthew’s gospel, we see the chief priests and elders digging in deeper and deeper to an us versus them mentality when it comes to the religious elite versus Jesus and his rag tag band of followers.  And it is after the conclusion of today’s parable that the chief priests and elders determine that Jesus has to die. 

        Also important is the context of the Matthean community.  Matthew is writing to a primarily Jewish audience after the Romans have besieged Jerusalem and destroyed the temple, further solidifying the us versus them of victims and their foreign oppressors. 

        I’ve preached at least 3 other sermons on this parable and in each one, I found a different way to deal with this violent, horrible story.  And I just don’t have it in me to try to make sense of it this year in the midst of all that we are living through.  But here is what I do know, what is at the heart of my faith, what I understand is the meaning of Jesus’s death and resurrection, why people flocked to hear his message and why his rag-tag followers became the Christian church and movement that would change the world.  Jesus’s life, his death, and his resurrection all show that it’s not about us versus them.  Jesus’s life, his death, and his resurrection all show that there is only us. 

        There is only us.

        No matter what the powers and principalities of this world may try to tempt us into believing.  No matter what our own biases and blind spots encourage us to think in order to preserve our egos or our sense of belonging.  No matter what.  There is only us.  It’s all us. 

        Those of us who are followers and disciples of Jesus are called to deal with our own stuff so that we can live more fully into this truth.  There is only us. 

        But how do we do this, especially now?  How do we live as if there is only us in a nation so deeply divided?  Paul suggests that we do three things—we rejoice and give thanks for what is good, we allow our natural gentleness to shine through, and we pray. 

        The authors of the book write about the “Shimon Peres solution” which has to do with examining two dissonant thoughts and keeping them separate rather than internalizing one over the other to further our bias.  Peres, Israel’s former prime minister, was angered by his friend Ronald Reagan’s visit to a cemetery in Bitburg, Germany, where members of the SS were buried.  When asked how he felt about Reagan’s decision to go there, Peres could have chosen to either throw out the friendship in anger, or he could have made excuses for his friend, but he did neither.  Instead he said, “When a friend makes a mistake, the friend remains a friend, and the mistake remains a mistake.”  “Peres’s message conveys the importance of staying with the dissonance, avoiding easy knee-jerk responses, and asking ourselves, Why am I believing this? Why am I behaving this way? Have I thought it through or am I simply taking a short cut, following the party line, or justifying the effort I put in to join the group?”[ii] 

        Your invitation this week is to pay attention to when you fall into us versus them thinking—whether it is about individuals, people you know or strangers, or about whole groups.  When you find yourself falling into this us versus them thinking, then I invite you to practice a prayer activity that I’ve been using during this past week.  It has helped me to remember that in and through Christ, it’s all us; there is only us.  My prayer has been when I’ve been angered or tempted to be alienated from a person or group, rather than allowing myself to stay with “Well, they’re just bad or stupid or wrong…” instead I pray:  “Jesus died for ______; Jesus rose for ______; Jesus loves ______.  There is only us.”

        It can work in a number of situations.  Jesus died for that guy who just cut me off in traffic; Jesus rose for that guy; Jesus loves that guy.  There is only us. You can use it regarding politics both individuals and entire parties:  Jesus died for that presidential candidate; Jesus rose for that presidential candidate; Jesus loves that presidential candidate; there is only us.  Jesus died for the Democrats; Jesus rose for the Republicans; Jesus loves the Republicans and the Democrats; there is only us. 

        If that doesn’t work for you, there is a prayer resource available on our website (with hard copies in the chapel) that has helped me because it gives me daily guidance over what to pray for, even when I don’t want to pray for certain people or things. 

        I’m going to close us with a prayer from that resource.  Let us pray.  Grant, O God, that your holy and life-giving Spirit may so move every human heart and especially the hearts of the people of this land, that barriers which divide us may crumble, suspicions disappear, and hatreds cease; that our divisions being healed, we may live in justice and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.


[i]Tervis, Carol and Elliot Arondson.  Mistakes were made (but not by me).   Pp 80-81, 82

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