“If you’re not for us…”
Monday of the Third Week of Lent
Luke 4:24-30
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/030926.cfm
During this last Olympics, I remember seeing articles about Olympians with dual citizenship deciding to perform for America and others who decided to compete for their other country. Some of the articles had judgments for those who chose their other nation. I live in the Saint Louis area, and I remember the overly negative reaction when Albert Pujols left the Saint Louis Cardinals to join the Angels baseball team. We like to have our heroes, as long as they are our heroes. When someone we’ve identified with is no longer affiliated with our group by what appears to be their own choosing, we take it as a deep-seated rejection.
In the case of people during Jesus’s time, they were looking for redemption for their captivity by the Romans. A prophet was to bring them hope and a means to that end. What good is prophet if they don’t give you what you want? If you are a prophet, you’ve been graced by God, you should serve those from where you originated or why else would God have chosen that birthplace for you? What good is a prophet if they don’t take care of their own, their people?
But, as Jesus points out, the prophets were not strictly limited to one group of people. Jonah, Elijah, and Elisha were three examples of prophets who were called beyond their group. The Jewish people saw themselves as the chosen people of God, but, as history progressed, their God showed them universality. It wasn’t about one god versus other gods, but one God for all. It was a shift in the evolution of their understanding of God. Their God was no longer picking favorites, or God maybe their God never had favorites at all.
We are all the chosen people of God. But, if we’re all chosen, what makes me and my group truly special? If there’s no winners and losers, everyone’s merely getting a participation trophy. If my beliefs, my actions, or my heritage don’t make me more significant than others, then what is the point? The evolution to a more inclusive way of thinking wasn’t easy for most people to support because when outsiders are elevated, it degrades what they’ve put their value in. We have a tendency of putting value in what separates us, not what unifies us.
Throughout history, we keep doing this. We do it by nation, religion, race, gender, income, etc. We humans have a plethora of ways of identifying who is the in-group and the out-group. We may move past one, just to create another. We may think we moved past one to have it come back again. When you are in the in-group, it is hard to see that others are experiencing it differently. When you’re on the top, you think everyone else is in the same situation or those not in your group are deserving of their situation. With God, including more is just that, more. It brings greater value to the whole, it does not lower one for the benefit of others. The arch of history is to make equality in God a reality for all. It’s not assimilation, but unification in our diversity. May we find a way to make God’s kingdom a reality.
