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By John Fisk There was a
song written nearly forty years ago by Lennon and McCartney called, “Do You Want To
Know A Secret?” “Listen. Do you want to know a secret? Do you promise not
to tell? Come closer, let me whisper in your
ear. These are words you’ll long to
hear: I’m in love with you.” Those
were the days teenagers kept secret about how they felt.
Do they still have these secret crushes? The apostle
Paul in the wonderful passage in Ephesians 3:1-10 tells us about the secret of God’s
love for all humankind, but he is shouting it from the rooftops not whispering it in
peoples’ ears. And certainly it is not a
secret to be kept quiet. It is a secret,
which is no longer a secret. What is this
secret? He explains in v.4 that the
secret is that the Gentiles are part of God’s family as well as the Jews. Or in the words of Lennon and McCartney:
“I’m in love with you”, says God to everyone in the world. This is the promise of the Good News of Jesus
Christ – that God intends to bring the whole world to be united in Christ. This idea was
a considerable stumbling block to Jews in Paul’s day.
After all when you’ve been an insider for a thousand years or more, when you
been part of Israel, God’s chosen people, it’s difficult to accept that now just
anyone can belong to the family. That goes
against a strong tradition. The Jews
weren’t any different in that regard – they were typical of all human beings. Any nation would have been the same, unwilling to
accept outsiders. But remarkably there were
enough Jews who became followers of Jesus to form the nucleus of a new religion, which
majored in welcoming outsiders. The Magi in
the birth story in Matthew’s Gospel were Gentiles – astrologers, from the
Eastern pagan lands. In Matthew’s
account it was only non-Jews who came to worship the Messiah born in Bethlehem. The Magi are celebrated on Epiphany in the church
calendar because Epiphany means a revealing of something, which had been secret. God’s secret was unveiled that everyone, no
matter race, nation, religion, nor social status, everyone is invited into God’s
family. As I said, the
message of God’s all-inclusive love was a stumbling block to many in Paul’s own
day. Likewise it is a stumbling block to many
people today. We may give intellectual assent
to the inclusive power of love, but in practice we may deny that love by our actions. How open are we to people who are different from
us? That’s the key question! The world is
certainly getting smaller – we are a global village.
This is a great triumph of technologies like telecommunications and the Internet. I have a hunch that God is using the Internet to
bring the world much closer together. Of
course there’s a downside to technological advance because it can be used for evil
purposes too. The world of communication is
now a battleground between growing respect and growing intolerance. Intolerance
grows when people retreat into the security of their own group and shun those who are
different. Many people, including Christians,
react to the storm of changes in life by withdrawing behind barricades of doctrinal
purity, rigid interpretations of the Bible, racial prejudice and sexual stereotypes. Where a group conforms to these prejudices there
is a certain superficial level of comfort and security.
The evil ones are kept outside the walls, whether these evil ones are described as
liberals, gays, Jews, feminists, people of color, people on welfare, foreigners, etc. Archie Bunker comes to mind as the archetypal
representative of American prejudices. But
even Archie could learn and Edith was his guardian angel! The great and
wonderful epiphany is that Christ is the universal Savior and Lord. Christ is for all people, no matter their sex or
sexual orientation, no matter their race, religion or no religion, no matter their
socio-economic background, their politics, nationality, or whatever. Some folks
object that they cannot tolerate beliefs, which undermine their cherished Christian
beliefs. But in the process they end up
intolerant of the persons who hold different beliefs and that is wrong. Even if his teachings were not acceptable to
people, Jesus remained open and loving towards them on a personal level. Can we maintain a similar balance of respect,
tolerance and openness towards those different from us, while at the same time holding our
own beliefs with conviction? The good news of
Jesus Christ should lead us to loving engagement with those whom we dislike or with whom
we disagree. Paul Tillich,
the great theologian, wrote these words: “distrust every claim for truth where you do
not see truth united with love; and be certain that you are of the truth and that the
truth has taken hold of you, only when love has taken hold of you.” First Baptist
Church, Attleboro has people from very different backgrounds and people from similar
backgrounds. My sense is that we are doing a
good job at loving one another, despite differences.
I am proud of you. But the challenge
is ever before us, not to be an inward-looking group but forever to be welcoming and
reaching folks from the outside. This is the
heart of the Good News of Christ: if it were not for someone introducing us to Christ, we
would be on the outside even now. Do you want to know a secret? God is in love with you and all those people you don’t like. |
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