Us and Them

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Good morning, friends. Let's take a moment and pray. Holy and gracious God, give us a spirit of wisdom and revelation. So that with our hearts enlightened we may know the hope to which Christ has called us. The riches of his glorious inheritance among us, and the greatness of his power for those who believe. Amen. Our reading today is from the Gospel of Luke. Chapter four, verses 14 to 30. You'll find it on page 835 of your pew Bible. Let's hear from God. Then Jesus, filled with the power of the spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding country. He began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by everyone. When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written. The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to say to them, today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They said, is not this Joseph's son? He said to them, doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, doctor, cure yourself. And you will say, do hear also in your hometown the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum. And he said to them, truly, I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophets hometown. But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah. When the heaven was shut up for three years and six months. And there was a severe famine over all the land. Yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Zidon. There were also many lepers in Israel in the time the prophet Elisha. And none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian. When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. They got up, drove him out of the town. And led him to the bow of the hill on which their town was built so that they might hurl him off the cliff. But he passed through them in the midst of them and went on his way. This has been the word of the Lord. [00:03:00] Speaker B: Well, good morning, everyone. It's always good to be with you and to share what I witness at last week's general assembly, the national gathering of the Presbyterian Church USA. Please take a moment as we pray together, holy God, as we hear your word, your word of encouragement and comfort, but also of challenge, may we know that as you are hope for us, we may be hope for others. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. So I don't know how many of you know about the general assembly. We meet every two years, and it is the decision making body for the entire denomination. And this general assembly was the first time that representatives of the whole church were able to meet together in person since 2018, due to Covid. And in those six years since we met in person, many things have changed. We now live in a much more tech savvy and tech connected world. So, for instance, we now save about $3 million for every GA by having the committees meet by Zoom. And then we only meet in person for one week for the whole plenary, the whole assembly. The commissioners and advisory delegates were very active on social media throughout the GA. Those of us who are social media laggers did not realize that there had been running jokes throughout the week that we didn't know about. Also, in these last six years, the church has really focused on inclusivity, and many kinds of inclusivity were demonstrated at this general assembly. For instance, they elected a new stated clerk, which is kind of the most visible person in our denomination, and that stated clerk is the first woman of color to be elected such, and her name is Jihun oh. You all actually met Jihun oh because it was just over a year ago that she preached here at Knox. So you already know the leader of our denomination. Other forms of inclusivity were the tentative attempts to. To raise disagreements in a more respectful and mutually considerate way. This denomination has had its share of conflict and disagreement, and then there was some resolution, but the resolution just resulted in some folks feeling like they were silenced. And this ga was probably the first time when there were some voices from different perspectives and they were heard of, but it was a very careful, cautious way and an attempt to hear each other's perspectives and to show some care for them. One of the conflicts, or actually the main conflict or the most recent one, had to do with whether the presbyterian church would be a place of welcome and even love, especially for LGBTQ people. And that became quite evident in the life of the general in the time of the general assembly, for instance. Another way that's changed. When folks registered for the ga, they were asked, among other things, what pronouns they should use. So whenever there were always big screens, because it's a big assembly, whenever the commissioners or the delegates spoke, their name would be followed with she, her, or he his, or sometimes she, they, or they there. And then people would get kind of creative. For instance, one of the leaders in the church is Eliana Maxim, and she is Latina, and so she identified as she ea, which is she in Spanish. I confess that I'm not used to introducing myself with a hi. My name is Wendy Tajima, and my pronouns are she her. But I do want to point out that long ago, in my second call as a pastor back in the last century, I became very aware of the ministry of pronouns. But for me, the pronouns that shaped our ministry were, and they continue to be us and them. My first pastor was in a japanese church, and I'm japanese american. And though they were in Hawaii, it was easy for me to fit in with them. But my second church was a small native hawaiian church in the rural town of Hanapepe Kauaide. And while they were a wonderful church, it was clear that it would take time for them to accept me as their pastor. In fact, it was a year before the lead elder announced that I would be called kahu, or pastor. This is a title, a hawaiian title, that is not to be claimed by the person, but is given by the people of the congregation as a sign of trust and affection. And it took about a year before I stopped calling the congregation them, and they stopped calling me you, and we started instead to talk about what we would be and do as a church together. Over time, I've noticed that pronouns often reflect who is in the in crowd and who is out. Many times I've heard Anglo Presbyterians refer to themselves as us while referring to Presbyterians of color as them. Last year, our justice, peacemaking, and mission committee was developing a survey about how our churches respond to homelessness, and the wording, original wording, made it clear that we church people were being asked to report on how we respond to the homeless people around us, the them. One of the committee members, Kevin Ha, who I think actually worships here sometimes. Kevin suggested that we may have some church members who have experienced housing or food insecurity, and so suggested that we change the wording a little bit from the we the church, helping those homeless people to asking how many of our members actually have experienced this challenge themselves. In fact, quite a few people responded in the affirmative. The identity of Presbyterians as wealthy, white, and well educated is becoming much more inclusive, much more complex. So it's not so easy to identify who is us versus them. But there is also always a desire to gather with folks who look or act like us or with whom we have shared roots. For those of us who have been in the PCUSA for a while, especially for us cradle Presbyterians, GA is more than anything it's really just a family reunion, and we are prone to cheer with pride when one of our own is honored one way or the other. And sadly, we still have the tendency to minimize or dismiss those who are new or different or represent the minority opinion on a hot topic. But there is nothing new under the sun. So today's gospel story reflects much of that human weakness. Jesus entry into ministry is met with immediate success. And so when he comes to his hometown of Nazareth, the folks are impressed and proud. As he spoke, they nodded with approval and they said to each other, isn't that Joseph's boy? And of course expected that because he was one of them that he would give special favor to his own. The only problem is Jesus cut them off before they could claim something special. Jesus pointed out instead that God works through prophets to save a not only us, the people who consider themselves to be God's own. Instead, Jesus goes on to say that though many widows in Israel suffered in a three and a half year drought in the time of Elijah, God sent the prophet not to the israelite widows, but to a widow up in Phoenicia. In one kings 1712, she makes it clear through a pronoun that she is not israelite. In talking with Elijah, she calls the God of Israel the Lord your God. Jesus also recounts, though there were many people struggling with leprosy in Israel, the prophet Elisha did not heal any of them, only Naaman the Syrian. This reversal of who God favors and who God seems to ignore infuriated the locals. You can imagine one of their own coming and speaking this way. They were so mad they wanted to push Jesus off a cliff. I've seen how many time some folks are especially vicious when they think that one of their own has betrayed them. Well, you've got to admit, Jesus wasn't exactly playing the hometown golden boy. Jesus had a much larger view of who's part of God's in crowd. Though it seems that Jesus himself first thought his ministry was more restrictive, he in his ministry connected with Samaritans, tax collectors, prostitutes, and often he condemned the church leaders of his time he knew that if the people of Israel would not recognize gods saving will in Jesus Christ, then God had no problem blessing outsiders who appreciate gods grace, be theydeze foreign widows or military commanders, people with disabilities condemned as sinners, people on the street, even wealthy folks struggling to let go of their material possessions or social status. Jesus recognized that God's family is much larger than the people of Israel and thank God for us. A couple of weeks ago, the legendary Willie Mays died, the great baseball player. And he died just two days before he was to be honored at a baseball game at Rickwood Field in Burlingham, Birmingham, Alabama. I don't know if you saw that or more importantly, if you saw the commentary. As they were commemorating this game and another great baseball player, Reggie Jackson, was doing the commentary and he was asked to reminisce about his days playing for the Birmingham A's, a minor league team that played at Rookwood Field. Reggie Jackson surprised his fellow commentators because he actually was not nostalgic in a pleasant or positive way. Instead, he described the racism that he faced there in 1967. And he said, and I'm going to try to recount this, or to quote this, I walked into restaurants and they would point at me and say, the n can't eat here. I would go to a hotel and they'd say, the n can't stay here. We, the team went to team owner Charlie Finley's country club for a welcome home dinner and they pointed me out with the n word. He can't come in here. Finley marched the whole team out. He said, we're going to the diner and eat hamburgers. We'll go where we're wanted. If I couldn't eaten the place, nobody would eat. We'd get food to travel. If I could stay in a hotel, they'd drive to the next hotel and find a place where I could stay. Had it not been for my white friends, had it not been for a white manager, I would never have made it. It was Harlan Redmond, who is the organizing pastor of interwoven here in San Gabriel Presbytery. He was the one who noticed that Charlie Finley didn't point out Reggie Jackson as being mistreated. It wasn't he isn't wanted, but it was we'll go where we're wanted. The pronoun at play was not he. But we can we as Christ Church see all of God's children as part of us, even if they seem very different. Can we Presbyterians always willing to argue for what we believe is right, even if we can't agree on what that is. Can we see strangers, foreigners, even folks who would otherwise make us nervous to be around as part of Christ's loving we? This year's general assembly is overdeveloped, but what keeps coming back to my mind is the spirit of love and acceptance that permeated the body. This was helped by stories told by folks who had been branded as sinners, or worse, by the church because they are gay or lesbian or non binary or transgender. One pastor spoke of a trans woman who came off the street to take communion for the first time in over 20 years. For 20 years, she did not feel like she could come to the table of our lord for 20 years. It took that long to find a church that felt safe and welcoming enough that she could come inside. It seems that the presbytery of Utah, you can imagine they're kind of like the minority voice in that state. State. A very small minority voice in that state. But they have a really strong sense of calling, and their sense of call is to be a place of love and welcome and hope in a state that is dominated by a religious tradition that still has a very traditional view of family. A young transgender member of First Presbyterian Church in Salt Lake City spoke of the risks faced by queer folk in Utah. In 2022, 50% of LGBTQ youth in Utah seriously considered suicide, and 17% of LGBTQ youth actually attempted suicide in that year. At the same time, only 6% of LGBTQ youth in Utah reported being accepted by their community, 17% attempted suicide, and only 6% felt like they were accepted. This young Presbyterian happily shared that he is part of the 6% by his family and by his church. This young man spoke winsomely of the love and support he has received from his church. As nervous as he was, the one time that he smiled was when he shared how his church accepted him after he came out, not through any major dramatic display of political correctness. Instead, he said that after he came out, the same old ladies who would ask me questions about school and give me candy and cake at church parties still do that. This queer kid suggested and said, our faith in Christ calls us to love one another. So that's what we need to do. Love big, love, proud, and love in the name of the God who did whatever it took to make sure we knew that we are all the beloved children of God. So as we come to Christ's table today, may we celebrate all who are part of God's family here at Knox Presbyterian church and welcome all who God sends to us. May we know that God's us may become an even more vibrant reflection of God's loving family. The theme for the General assembly this year was live into hope, and we can be, we are called to be the hope that Christ offers to all who long for freedom, for healing, for acceptance, for grace, for love. Amen.