Church of the Holy City

The Many Colors of Charity

The Many Colors of Charity
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
August 8, 2010

Exodus 12:30-38 John 4:3-15, 20-26 Psalm 22

Religion can be summed up in Jesus’ two great commandments: love the Lord with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind, and love the neighbor as yourself. Thus we find religion as a force uniting everyone as neighbors in God’s care and love. But too often, we find religion separating people, and differing beliefs become a source of division between neighbors. And we also find other external things that cause division between people such as race, nationality, and socio-economic standing. But love for the neighbor means that we must put aside the things that divide. To be true Christians, we must look beyond the external things that cause us to look askance at our brothers and sisters. Our Bible readings this morning talk about inclusiveness between people, and argue against division. They treat of union between people of differing backgrounds, races, and nationalities.
Israel first takes on an identity as a people with the Exodus. We heard about the Exodus this morning. And as Israel becomes a nation united under Yahweh, they are an inclusive group. The Bible tells us that, “A mixed multitude went up with them” (Ex. 12:38). This means that all the many peoples in Egypt who were escaping oppression from the Egyptian power structure joined with the Israelites in their flight. The presence of foreigners in the Israelite population continues throughout the history of Israel. There are laws that recur repeatedly against oppressing foreigners with the reminder that the Israelites were foreigners in Egypt. It is only later in Israelite history that ethnic purity is called for, and even then there are voices that oppose it.
Jesus also shows openness toward those of differing ethnicity than the Jews. We heard about this in the story of the woman at the well. She is a Samaritan, and she is surprised that Jesus is talking with her. She says, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” The editor then adds, “For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.” The Jews looked down on the Samaritans in Jesus’ day. The Samaritans were originally brought to Israel from Assyria, so their bloodline was not Jewish. Their religious practice and texts differed from that of Judaism, so the Jews saw them as not orthodox, in fact, heretics. We see something of this in the woman’s words. She says, “Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem” (John 4:20). This is a reference to Mount Gerizim, where the Samaritans had their own temple. There was outright hostility between the Jews and the Samaritans at various times in their history. And yet we find Jesus talking with a Samaritan woman and offering her the gift of eternal life. The feud between Samaria and Judea is also alluded to in the famous parable about the good Samaritan. This parable is so well known that we can forget the ethnicity of the Samaritan man who shows compassion. Jesus uses the despised Samaritan man as an example of love to the neighbor, while the ritually pure Levite and priest are the ones who do not show love. Jesus was also open to other marginalized and despised people–tax collectors, prostitutes, thieves, and even Pharisees.
We find the theme of inclusiveness in the Psalm we read this morning. There we find, “All the ends of the earth will remember the LORD, and all the families of the nations will bow before Him.” The Nations refers to those countries outside Israel, and we see that they and the whole earth will worship the Lord.
These scriptures need to be taken to heart. Christ’s openness to all peoples calls us into a like openness. Our Christian charity needs to extend to the whole world. We need to open our arms to all peoples and races–black, Native, Chinese, Middle-Eastern, East Indian, and people of all callings and socio-economic standing. If we see differences instead of likeness, we throw up a barrier between us and them. Our society is making great strides toward inclusiveness, and I consider these strides a part of God’s New Church coming down to earth. I can remember the day when there were no African-American actors on TV. Now in Hollywood Will Smith, Morgan Freeman, Samuel L. Jackson, Lawrence Fishburn, Denzel Washington, and others are starring in role after role. And the remarkable thing is that they are not seen as African-American actors–they are seen as actors. I can remember Jessica Savitch, who was the first female anchor woman on a new program. Now women broadcast on every channel. In the US there are woman chief justices on the Supreme Court and in Congress. England had a female Prime Minister. I am still learning about Canadian politics, but I assume the trend is the same here. I just got back from Almont, one of our church camps, and I was delight to see the children playing together without regard to race. We had Chinese, African-Americans and whites at this camp and the children didn’t see any difference, but all played together. That is, when they weren’t fighting and hitting each other, as children also do.
And we need to open our arms to people of all faiths–Hindu, Moslem, Buddhist, Taoist, and the various denominations of Christianity. Our church has no monopoly on God. Our openness also needs to extend to those who profess no faith. We do not know what lies in their hearts. Swedenborg has a beautiful passage about this:
In the Christian world the doctrinals are what distinguish the churches; and from them people call themselves Roman Catholics, Lutherans, and Calvinists, or the Reformed and the Evangelical, and by other names also. It is from what is doctrinal alone that they are so called; which would not be at all, if they would only make love to the Lord and charity to the neighbor the principal things of faith. The doctrinals would then be only varieties of opinion respecting the mysteries of faith, which truly Christian people would leave to everyone according to his or her conscience, and would say in their heart that one is truly a Christian when he or she lives as a Christian, or as the Lord teaches. Thus from all the differing churches there would be one Church; and all the dissensions which exist from doctrine alone would vanish; yes, the hatreds against one another would be dissipated in a moment, and the Lord’s kingdom would come upon the earth (AC 1799).
This is one beautiful teaching of our church. In the faith which we say every morning, we find this teaching. We say, “As the God-Man who lives with us, He is present to save all people, everywhere, whose lives affirm the best they know.” We can affirm this while practicing Christianity as we know it. And this, too, is in our faith. In it, we find the words, “For us, this best is to love the Lord, and to love one another as He has loved us.” Being accepting of other faiths does not mean that we need to relinquish what we find beautiful in our own faith.
The beliefs and delights of the human race are as various as are our faces and dispositions. Swedenborg writes, “When I only thought of two being just alike, or equal, angels expressed horror, saying that every one thing is formed from the harmonious concurrence of many things” (HH 405). Society and the church are perfected by a harmonious blend of various personalities, beliefs, and delights. Paul alludes to this in 1 Corinthians 12:
12The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. 13For we were all baptized by[c] one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. 14Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. 15If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. 16And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. 17If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? 18But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. 19If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20As it is, there are many parts, but one body.
Swedenborg sees the source of all beauty in a harmony of varieties.
Heaven also is a one from various parts disposed into a most perfect form; for the heavenly form is the most perfect of all forms. That such is the source of all perfection is manifest from all the beauty, charm, and delight that affect both the senses and the mind; for they exist and flow from no other source than from the consent and harmony of many concordant and agreeing particulars . . . Hence it is said that there is delight in variety, and it is known that the delight is according to the variety (HH 56).
Love for the neighbor means being “color blind” as some say. Multiculturalism is a religious issue. Christ reached out to everyone in His day–tax collectors, prostitutes, and Samaritans. And as Christians, we are called to be like Christ in His own acceptance of variety. Early Israel was open to the foreigners who were seeking liberating and a God of liberation. And like the early Israelites, we are called to be open to people who may look foreign to us. This will ultimately benefit us. There is perfection in variety. And our joy will multiply as we include the whole human race as our brothers and sisters.