Earlier this week I was well on my way to preaching a theological sermon about the work of Christ. The collect and the Gospel led me to reflect on how we really understand and describe what Christ actually did and what it means to us.
It’s a very important topic and one that deserves some serious reflection. Barth called the work of Christ the “center of all Christian knowledge.” Theologians also call it the doctrine of salvation. What does it really mean that Jesus offers us salvation?
But a funny thing happened on the way to writing that sermon. I am going to preach on one piece of the work of Christ, but the theological exploration of salvation get detoured when I went to Kewanee yesterday. As some of you know, Kewanee is west of here, a bit south of I-80 almost to the Quad Cities. It’s in the Diocese of Quincy.
I’ve mentioned before that I’m part of a conversation between what is often called the “continuing” Diocese of Quincy and the Diocese of Chicago. The “continuing” Diocese of Quincy are the people in the Diocese of Quincy who have remained within the Episcopal Church, despite their former Bishop’s efforts to take them out.
These meetings always affect me. This was our third one. Six or eight folks from the Diocese of Quincy and six of eight from the Diocese of Chicago. In these gatherings I see the people of the church at their best and at their worst.
At their best: These continuing Episcopalians have retained their faithfulness, their eager commitment to the Gospel and the mission of the church in very trying circumstances. And I also see in our group’s conversations care, compassion, faithfulness, and a desire for all Christians to have the chance to live into their callings.
And the people of the church at their worst: These meetings tell of past leaders in Quincy who have been deceitful, manipulative, and dominated powerfully by self-interest in their relationships and interactions with the people who were in their pastoral care. This has created, up to the present day a very stark climate of polarization and enmity between former Episcopalians and continuing Episcopalians. The clergy appear to be the worst. Talk sounds like the worst of a contentious, contested divorce. Neighbors, people who used to worship together no longer even call one another by name. The are “the other side.” “Our opponents.”
Which brought to mind a story that was in the news this week. I read it on NPR, via the Associated Press.
One of the leaders of Hungary's Jobbik Party, which the Anti-Defamation League says is one of the few political parties in Europe to overtly campaign with anti-Semitic materials, has discovered that he is himself a Jew.It’s a story about the divisions we human beings create among ourselves.
As the AP says, Csanad Szegedi had in the past railed about the "Jewishness" of the political class. According to the ADL, his party's presidential candidate referred to Israeli Jews as "lice-infested, dirty murderers."
For Szegedi all of this came to a screeching halt, when in 2010 a prisoner confronted him with evidence that he had Jewish roots. According to the AP, Szegedi tried to bribe the prisoner to keep him quiet, but rumors and innuendo reached a fever pitch by late last year and in June, Szegedi conceded that his mother was a Jew. According to Jewish law, that makes Szegedi Jewish, too.
Not only that, but Szegedi's grandmother survived Auschwitz and his grandfather survived labor camps.
It is also a story about the importance of blood relationships. Jewish identity is defined by blood.
I am not an anthropologist, but it seems that we human beings culturally, at least within the cultures I am aware of, look upon affiliation defined by blood as absolute and indissoluble. I don’t know why. But something inside of us leads us to ascribe great power and importance to relationships of affiliations that are defined by blood.
Mr. Szegedi cannot deny his Jewish identity. He just can’t… period. He may not care for Jews, but he has Jewish blood. He is a Jew. (How much he knew, when he knew it, and what all of this says about his psyche are not my points today). I just want to stress and remind us all how powerful and important blood relationships are.
As in the case of Mr. Szegedi, blood is used culturally to define “us” and “them.” It was used evilly and cruelly in the context of racial segregation and subjugation. One drop of colored blood defined those who were to be segregated and subjugated.
Some of you may have heard the recent case of Elizabeth Warren. She is running for the Senate in Massachusetts. In the past she self-identified herself as Cherokee. In the current political climate in this country, there has been considerable debate about why she did that. But the point is, you can’t self-identify as Cherokee. It isn’t a casual thing based on family stories or personal desire. Can’t be casual. It must be proved by blood. I’m not sure of the specific membership laws of the Cherokee nation. The Sioux, which I know a little bit more about, require—I think—at least three generations of lineal descent. You must have at least 1/16 Sioux blood.
You know the phrase “blood is thicker than water.” Usually, it is a positive statement on the richness and preeminence of family relationships in the midst of all of the other things that tug at our affiliation.
I say all of this just to bring into our awareness how important, powerful and indissoluble we think that blood relationships are. And then to say that our relationships in Christ are more powerful and more important.
From the Baptism rubrics in the Book of Common Prayer. “Holy Baptism is full initiation by water and the Holy Spirit into Christ’s Body the Church. The bond which God establishes in Baptism is indissoluble.”
The bond and relationship that Christ establishes with us through baptism is more powerful than any blood relationship. And not only are we united with Christ in baptism we are brought into the Body of Christ. The relationships that we share with one another within the Body of Christ are stronger and more important than any human blood relationship. And these relationships are renewed each time we participate in Holy Communion… each time we take into ourselves the Body and Blood of the living Christ. We share the divine, living blood of Christ…
This is very good news. It means, as St. Paul says, that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ, from Christ himself. Nothing we might do, nothing anyone else might do can sever us from Christ. And, ultimately, nothing can break the relationships that we share within the Body of Christ. As Christians, we are never alone.
Our relationship with Christ and our relationships through Christ with one another are more powerful, more significant than any other relationships or affiliations in our lives. We don’t act that way most of the time. We live as though we value almost all other relationships more, even casual relationships.
Think about it: Our relationship with Christ and our connections with one another through Christ are more powerful, more important that anything else. To be sisters and brothers in Christ trumps any other affiliation.
What would it be like to really live that way? Within the parish? Within other spheres of our lives? Within our church debates? Within our ecumenical conversations? We do not all need to agree, but to be sisters and brothers in Christ is an indissoluble bond.
Think about it this way. Blood may be thicker than water. But Jesus is thicker even than blood.
