We Americans have a history of not getting along with people who are different from us. We have sections of town (Chinatown, Little Italy) – we have specific hospitals (in Cincinnati we had Methodist, Jewish, and others) – as a nation, we even had separate water fountains! I remember, though, learning about the Civil Rights movement, and how Jewish communities all over America supported Black communities in their struggle for equal rights. And while there were some White folks who stood at protests and got fire-hosed, most Anglo-Christians kept out of it. It was “too political”, they said – we can’t mix our purified religion with that kind of thing. I was taught that the reason Jews supported the movement was that they, too, had once been enslaved; they understood the fight for freedom. And yes, some White folks in America had also been treated badly, depending on their ethnicity, but some had also been the enslavers.
At one point in my childhood, I remember reading a book about how Norwegians helped save Jews from the Nazis. I don’t remember the title, but I remember a drawing of Norwegians smuggling Jewish families using sleds to get them down the mountains to the coast where boats waited to take them to freedom. When I lived in Cincinnati, I attended a lecture by a Holocaust expert about how many Italians hid Jewish families and found safe passage away from the fascist Mussolini regime. He told us that Jews had been part of Italian communities for centuries; why wouldn’t they help them escape? All of these experiences remind me that, while we don’t always get along with each other, that should never stop us from being there for each other.
Once again, we are faced with choices about how we need to be with one another. We can care about and protect and save those who are being abused, or we can point out where they are hiding. We can live in fear of what might happen to us, or we can be brave and speak out. We can be vigilant against any assault on democracy, or we can make excuses for ignoring the pleas of the oppressed. As a follower of Jesus, I have one king. I love my country and I love democracy, but if my elected leaders tell me to commit a crime, or to act in an immoral way, my faith tells me to do the opposite. If our neighbors are hungry, we should feed them, because Jesus didn’t check people’s immigration status. We have to be there for each other, because we might be entertaining angels (Hebrews 13). Or Jesus. Then, we will have to decide if we are a sheep or a goat (Mt. 25).
Prayer – God, thank You for inspiring us to do what is right, no matter who might disapprove. Your opinion matters more. Amen.
Today’s art a Byzantine stained-glass window called “Separation of the Sheep and Goats” from the 6th century, CE – it can be found in the New York Metropolitan Museum.