This past summer some of you had a chance to meet my brother, Barry. He was in New York for the 4th of July holiday weekend, with his wife and his youngest child, my niece who had just graduated from high school. It was the first time my brother got to hear me preach and see me preside at the Eucharist. The gospel selection for that Sunday was from Mark chapter 6 when Jesus declares that prophets are not without honor except in their own hometowns and among their own kin. I couldn’t let this seemingly heaven-sent opportunity to rib my brother go by. My brother Barry is a Lieutenant Colonel in the National Guard and every bit the military man, and rock-ribbed republican -- and he is my kin. And my prophetic utterances, whether from the pulpit or elsewhere -- have often been at odds with my brother’s understanding of politics and theology. To say that as a prophet I am without honor among my kin is to put it a little strongly, but let’s say that as a prophet I often go unheeded by my kin.
If you were there that Sunday, you almost certainly got a chance to meet my brother, because that morning, he decided to take his place next to me in front of the church to greet folks as they left after the service. I told him that the greeting spot on the front walk was reserved for the priest and preacher, but he didn’t budge. He said that as sermon subject and example, he was entitled to an opportunity for rebuttal! Though we may be polar opposites politically and theologically, we are alike in one respect – we never miss a chance to rib one another, and we never let the other have the upper hand for long!
But we are alike in another ways as well. My father helped me come to this realization a few Christmases ago. My brother was at that point a mere major in the National Guard, and I had just begun seminary. As with every family visit, my brother and I spent a good deal of time ribbing each other about politics and our other favorite topics: whose has gained more weight in middle age and who has lost more hair… My father would occasionally give the color commentary announcing, “The Major and The Reverend are at it again!!!”
The Major and The Reverend… It struck me how, though we are quite different, my brother and I have both chosen vocational paths that encompass quite a bit more than does the average job. There’s special training required. Seminary is in more ways than one a kind of boot camp. And we both had to swear an oath and sign a declaration as part of what I’ll call for lack of a better term the hiring process. He swore to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States. I swore to conform to the doctrine, discipline and worship of The Episcopal Church. Both of our vocational worlds are ordered by documents, like the US Military Code of Conduct and the Book of Common Prayer and the canons of the church. We answer to those above us, Colonels and Generals, Rectors and Bishops. For all of our differences, we have found our life’s work to lie within organizations that are fairly structured and ordered, that are hierarchical and regulated by codes and canons. My father’s joking reference to us as “The Major and The Reverend” helped me realize that my brother I and have walked paths that have some striking resemblances.
And I think I know why… During my childhood, my family’s day-to-day life was fairly chaotic. As a family, we dealt with financial worries from time to time, there were heath problems that threatened our stability, and there was alcoholism and addiction, which, as you know, is very disruptive to family life. For children in alcoholic homes, the usual hierarchy gets upended, and parents behave irresponsibly, like children, in fact, and the children often have the role of parent foisted upon them.
Eventually, our family broke apart and there was a divorce. And after that divorce, came some more uncertain, difficult times. But eventually came healing and recovery and reconciliation. We’ve had hard times, it’s true. But after some time had passed and some work had been done, we have also had great times, like memorable Christmases filled with laughter. There is great love and affection for each other within my family, in spite of, and maybe in part because of, our struggles.
Each of us in my family made mistakes, and we all bear some scars. And we’ve been formed by our family life and have made certain life choices because of what we’ve endured. For my brother and me, my family’s disarray led us to seek structured, ordered vocational worlds where there is a clear chain of command, defined rights and responsibilities. I think it also planted within us an understanding of struggle and vulnerability, a desire to defend the weak, and the aspiration to serve others in need. My brother serves his country, and defends our freedoms, and as a National Guard member, he is often called on to help victims of disaster, as he did for many weeks in Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina. I seek to serve my God, and to care for God’s children, and to comfort those in need of God’s mercy, love and forgiveness. In addition to a preference for order, structure and hierarchy, our chaotic family life gave us an ability to recognize vulnerability in others; and it gave us caretaking skills that have come in quite handy in the work God has given both of us to do.
Our Scripture readings today are about rank and hierarchy as well. Our psalm for this morning poses the question what are we humans that God should take such notice of us. We have been made but little lower than the angels. (Ps 8:5-6) But little lower than the angels in the hierarchy of creation, just below the very messengers of God… Our reading from Hebrews quotes these lines from the psalm (Heb 2:6-9) and goes on to point out that Jesus himself was, for a time, made little lower than the angels as well. And in humility, Jesus forsook his exalted place at the right hand of God and took on all that mere humanity entails, even unto suffering and death.
In Genesis this morning, we hear how God out of love for us sought to populate our world with creatures to be our companions. Those of us with animal companions know just how successful God was in his initial attempts. Later this afternoon, we’ll bless the animals that we have come to love and that for many of us are a sign of God’s love in our lives.
But God did more than give us pets to love and nurture. God gave us one another. God gave us brothers and sisters and husbands and wives, friends and neighbors, cousins, co-workers, even generals and bishops. And God gave us one another for a reason. The point of the creation of a second human being was for that human being to be in relationship with the first human being. At the beginning of creation, from our earliest understanding of why God created us, we find relationship, partnership, companionship, love. We were created to be in relationship.
That’s the point, I think of today’s readings. If God has so regarded us as to rank us but little lower than the angels, and to create for us a paradise to call our home, to create for us one another so that we might be partners and helpers and companions… If such a God has such love for us so as to take on our human form to suffer and die as one of us… Then how is that we can allow ourselves to be hard-hearted to one another? How is it that we can treat each other with anything less than respect and understanding, to bestow on one another anything less than all honor? How can we fail to see in each other a reflection of God’s glory?
Well, friends… brothers and sisters… Like it or not, that is what we do. We do treat each other with disrespect; we do fail to honor each other. We get greedy, we become selfish. We act out of fear. We do it on a global scale, we do it in our families, and tragically, we do it in our most intimate relationships. We who were created to love one another are often quite unloving to one another.
The message of our gospel today is that when we do that, when we are unloving to one another, when we fail to regard every human being on this earth as someone to love and honor and respect, we do wrong.
That’s the bad news. The good news is that our God is a forgiving God, a God of plenteous grace and unbounded mercy and forgiveness. And that’s not all. Our God is a God of redemption. Surely if even death can be redeemed and can become itself a birth into eternal life, then there is no human wrong that is exempt from a similar redemption.
The final verse of our reading from Hebrews this morning says, “Because (Jesus) himself was tested by what he suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested.” (Heb 2:18) I think that’s true for my brother and me as well. Though our family life was far from ideal, and was at times a true test, our suffering has been redeemed and we have both, in our different ways, come to serve others, to care for others from out of that suffering.
We human beings will do wrong from time to time, and we will have wrongs done to us. But the Christian life is the ‘long game’; we’re talking about eternity here, folks. And in God’s time, our sins are forgiven, and our sufferings redeemed. Through God’s mercy we are forgiven, and with the help of the angels, who we sometimes entertain unawares in the form of therapists and counselors and sponsors and others, our hurts can become our strengths.
“Those whom God has joined together…” (Mark 10:9) Friends, that’s all of us. We have been created in the image of God, made in a form so glorious we are but little lower than the angels. We have been joined to God in the Incarnation of Jesus, who for our sake, became little lower than the angels himself for a while, and through his incarnation, crucifixion and resurrection, we have been redeemed, and have been united to Jesus as brothers and sisters, and united to one another as well. God has joined us together in the body of Christ. And what God has joined together, no one can separate – ever. Remember, this is the long game. It lasts forever. Seek God’s forgiveness and mercy for the wrongs you’ve done. And seek God’s redemption for the wrongs done you. And be at peace with one another and with your God -- for there is much forgiveness, much redemption, much mercy, much healing, and more hope in the boundless love of God our savior. +Amen.
© The Rev. Mark R. Collins
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