With Jesus, there are no more us and them

(I preached this sermon yesterday in response to Acts 8:26–40. You can find the recording of the service including the sermon on the church website — www.ststephenlc.org.)

Time Magazine published an opinion piece on Jan 15 of this year — nine days after the events at the Capital in DC — penned by Madeleine Albright, the former Secretary of State from about two decades ago, who is now in her mid-80’s, and well removed from the partisan political environment of today.

This is how she started her piece — “At this moment of shock, sadness, and hope, it might be wise to reflect on the two most dangerous words in the human vocabulary: ‘us’ and ‘them.’”

At the core of her reflection she offered this — “In today’s not-so-United States, we must acknowledge that our divisions extend far beyond matters of political affiliation to include religion, race, gender, education, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and urban vs. rural. Confronted by this reality, many citizens are tempted either to retreat more deeply into their respective group identities or to insist piously that such categories are irrelevant and should not matter. Neither approach works. Exacerbating our differences is one road to disaster; denying them is another.”

I think that’s a pretty good summary of the divisions we face as a nation. But let’s not kid ourselves — This isn’t new. It’s been building for decades. And I don’t know about you, but all too often in recent years it feels as though the divisions of our…