US and Them

by Rev. Emma Chattin
October 10,2013

Lighting the Chalice

Reading

The candle wick and the flame stand apart, each one from the other.
And yet together, they become something more,
burning together without burning up,
a thing of lasting illumination, and a cradle of warmth in the chalice.
May we, like the wick and flame, learn to unite our differences
into something much more than we could ever be apart.

First Reading Genesis 11: 1-9

Throughout the earth, people spoke the same language and used the same words. Now, as they moved eastward, they found a valley in the land of Shinar and settled there. They all said to one another, ‘Let us make bricks, and bake them in the fire.’ They used bricks as building stones, and bitumen for mortar. Then they said, ‘Let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top can reach to heaven. Let us make a name for ourselves, to keep us from being scattered over the face of the whole earth.’ YHWH came down to see the city and the tower these mortals had built. ‘They are a single people with a single language,’ YHWH said. ’And this is but the beginning of their undertakings! Now there will be nothing too hard for them to do. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so that they can no longer understand one another.’ So YHWH scattered them over the face of the earth, and they had to stop building the city. It was named Babel, because YHWH confused the language of all the earth. It was from there that YHWH scattered them over the whole earth.

Second Reading

~from Robert Lawrence Smith in A Quaker Book of Wisdom:

Life Lessons in Simplicity, Service, and Common Sense

Nonviolence has always been the most paradoxical, counterintuitive, and optimistic of Quaker ideals. Ever since Cain settled his conflict with Abel through premeditated murder, violence and the lust for dominance and revenge have been viewed as inevitable aspects of human relations. The ancient Greeks saw war as a natural state of affairs: “All things come into being and pass through strife,” Heraclitus wrote. And throughout time, nations, tribes, and individuals have readily turned to weaponry to exert control or settle differences- while their poets and balladeers celebrated war heroes and the glory of battle.

In the seventeenth century, the first generation of Quakers suffered the consequences of their pacifism when hundreds were routinely jailed for refusing to serve in the king’s militia. In the Revolutionary War, most Quakers refused to bear arms, but an estimated 500 were “read out” of their Meetings for joining up with the colonial forces. Abraham Lincoln, at the height of the Civil War, wrote to a prominent Friend, Eliza Gurney, “Your people, the Friends, have had, and are having a very great trial. On principal and faith, opposed to both war and oppression, they can only practically oppose oppression by war. In this hard dilemma, some have chosen one horn, and some have chosen the other.”

Reflection: US and Them

One of the many things this community offers me is the opportunity to explore my own theology, my own beliefs and my views on life in an uplifting and affirming environment. It’s an opportunity to be experimental, and like an experimental aircraft, it may not always fly well, or even really get very far off the ground. But no matter. I am able to roll down the runway, and feel the thrill of movement, and the movement of the spirit, and hear the rush of the wind in my ears. So I thank you for that.

Because I have a dilemma to share. Tomorrow Is Veteran’s day, and like many holidays, both religious and secular, I am of two minds about it. Maybe more. Life is complicated. As Walt Whitman said in “Song of Myself”:

“Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself.
I am large, I contain multitudes.”

And that’s ok. It’s a part of the human experience, I think. The ideology of absolutism is far more destructive. That is, that if you think this, then you must be that. And if you are that, then you can’t think this. And if you want to be one of us, then you can’t be one of them.

On the one hand, differentiation leads us to belongingness, which generally feels good to us. But the shadow of belongingness  all too often casts exclusion as it’s byproduct.

I celebrate our Veterans, those who have borne the burden of service for the defense of our nation. The United States. U.S. US

I am ashamed… Of the way our Veterans are sometimes treated. By the citizens whom they serve, by the society they have served, but most especially, by the very nation they have served. The U.S. US. Many don’t receive the treatment they need, or they must wait an obscenely long time, and sometimes, it comes too late and many don’t receive the support they need to resume civilian lives, or the support comes too late. I don’t think anyone should be homeless in this nation, and it is our shame that people are, but I certainly don’t think any veterans should be homeless. They have made a sacrifice, and I am ashamed of the politicians who have been quick to send them into harm’s way, and have been painfully slow or altogether absent when it comes to caring for the consequences of their actions.

So I honor our veterans, those who have served and are serving.

And yet, at the same time, honoring their service does not mean a celebration of the cause. I am not a fan of the system that creates  veterans. I abhor war. Weapons. Violence.

And yet… sometimes war seems inevitable. Sometimes we even call it Just. A just war. Just war. Especially when carried out underneath the banner of freeing the oppressed. But it’s not that simple. There are so many oppressed people in the world today. People that we are NOT seeking to liberate. And even when we do, that is not a simple matter. We liberate people from brutal dictators (sometimes ones of our own creation), ruthless dictators who have managed to hold their countries together through sheer brute force… and yet… without them… the countries all to often seem to dissolve into even bloodier civil war, religious schisms, and sectarian violence.

Perhaps the wars we call “just” are a part of our past, a past that seems much less complicated, and one that is set in the cement of history books.

We seem to celebrate and glorify war. Some regard it as a natural part of the human experience. And yet, we all too often censor and shame any celebration of the natural beauty of the human body. It makes no sense to me.

I abhor war. Weapons. Violence. These things born of conflict. Conflict. The very thing that bubbles up in my own life from time to time. Conflict. Why can’t we live together?
We can’t we all just get along?
Why can’t we understand each other?
Why can’t we speak the same language?

Such are likely the thoughts and questions that led the ancient scribe to set down the story that we heard today of a time when all people were one. One tribe. One language.

A careful reading…. even a not so careful reading…  given the odd repetition of some phrases … creates the feel that this story in Genesis is the result of a few stories or versions rolled together. If it seems that way to you, you are in good company. Most modern theologians agree.

Some theologians even describe the story as “naïve”…. even silly…. in their commentaries… And yet… when set along-side the prequel… of Noah’s Ark… well… what can we think? The Tower of Babel is a good children’s story, and one perhaps many of us heard in Sunday school. And one some people may think is best left there.

But I don’t think it’s silly at all. I think it is a story rich in value, and like most stories, has much to teach us. And a story doesn’t need to have happened in order for it to be true.

Joseph Campbell said that “a myth is not something untrue.” In fact, he said, “it is the essence of truth… “ and it is “wrapped up in a story…to make it memorable.” A means of distributing the truth widely and down through the ages. And I think we miss the mark and the gift if we seek to fact-check some of our great stories.

So let’s step into this story for a moment. First off… whose side is God on here anyway?? This is a very different depiction of divinity from what many of us may have experienced.

With YHWH saying casually, “Let’s go see what these humans are up to.” Who is God even talking to?? And why does God need to check in on humanity? And why on earth does God want to confuse the communication of human beings?? (we are perfectly capable of doing that on our own, thank you very much!). Or is the implication that the human predisposition of confusing communications and misunderstandings is somehow Divine in origin?

[(I don’t know)]

Here are my take-aways from the story….

One of the first things they do is try to give themselves a name. An identity. A sense of belongingness. One Big Us. “Let US make a name for ourselves… to keep US from being scattered over the earth”.

The very thing they sought to avoid was brought about by the actions they took to avoid it.

That is a theme of some of the greatest mythology, and it is woven into the pattern of humanity’s history.

Next, the thing that they built to try to get closer to God becomes the very instrument of their division.

Wow. We are still doing that, people. Isn’t that the truth!

The things we construct to get us closer to heaven and Divinity often become the instruments of our division.

This happens all over the world, and in our own towns, cities, and individual churches.

Take care that the community you build does not become the instrument of your division.

Take care that your US does not become exclusionary, and that you do not inadvertently create a THEM in the process.

And finally, where I hear Divinity speak with the essence of truth… ”They are a single people with a single language. (And a single purpose!)Now there will be nothing too hard for them to do.”

Take care to speak the same language, and to be understood, for, if you do, then nothing shall be impossible for you.

For when people become united together, and speak the same language, there is no us and them among them, and all things are possible. Such a people could change the world.

And it would take just such a people to bring peace to this weary world. Because we DO make our enemies. Literally.

When we begin to “other” someone, when we begin to set them apart from our self, we create an enemy. We make them. We form them and fashion them. Not just with US, but with US and Them. Whether its someone across the ocean in a different nation. A different religion. Someone from a different political party. Someone from a different state….. Our next door neighbor. A family member. Someone in our church or spiritual community.

You see, before indicting my country, I have to acknowledge my own complicity in the complicated concept of conflict.

Peace begins within. It begins with the individual. And peace is slippery. Elusive. Is it the means to an end or the end of a means?
Is it a horizon to journey toward? An ideal? A tower to heaven?

All I know is that I struggle to hold to my own peace. And I only keep it when I value my peace more than I value having my way, more than I value being right, more than I value being first. My peace is something that I have to value.

But does that mean that I never experience conflict? No, it means that I, like all of US, must know at what point I sacrifice my peace on the altar of my convictions, on the altar my beliefs and my passions.

And it DOES mean that I constantly try to focus my energy on the concept that causes the division rather than individual… the THEM … THEM Selves. That is, I try hard not to create a “THEM”. Someone separate from my self.

I would like to close with an entry I came across from my journal, one that was written several years ago.

“I saw a group of several neighborhood women talking to one another on the sidewalk today, and I felt strong simultaneous sensations of exclusion and a yearning to belong. I believe it was Rod McKuen who once said that we now belong to clubs for the same reason that we once carried them. A feeling of belonging to one thing or another carries with it a sense of security.

However, the truth is that as soon as you experience the sense that you “belong” [belong to a group, belong in a space, belong in a society, belong in a clique, belong in a neighborhood], you also begin the subtle process of setting yourself apart from others. Eventually, you may even come to actively exclude some people in order to enhance your own experience of “belonging”.

Yet… it is better to live in this universe, to be a magnificent part of its unfathomable entirety, without belonging to anything less. If you belong to nothing, then you are a part of everything, You can embrace infinity. Belong to nothing larger than yourself, and you belong to nothing smaller than Divinity.”

Let us take care that the communities we build do not become the instrument of our division.

And in the process of making our US, let us take care not to inadvertently create a “Them”.

May it be so.