Butter Side Up; Butter Side Down (Scripture reading: Ephesians 2:11-22)
There is a children’s book, a Dr. Seuss book, that was written in the early 1980s. The reason it was written was to show how the inability for two sides to agree to disagree on ideological differences can lead to mistrust, geographical isolation, demonization of the other side, and most importantly… the threat of mutual annihilation.
The author simplified the argument to a minor difference between those who liked their toast with the butter side up and those who preferred their toast with the butter side down. He was criticized for trivializing the differences between the two global sides to which he was alluding… the democratic free west and the communist superpowers of the USSR and China.
The book describes how each side simultaneously begins to build bigger and more lethal weapons while also speaking in increasingly exaggerated derision of the other side. As many of you remember, there was a term for the separation between capitalistic west and communist east; it was called the Iron Curtain. It was most significantly manifest and symbolized in the Berlin Wall; a wall that was built down the middle of a German city to separate the democratic side from the communist side. Can you imagine if a wall was built separating the northern part of Louisville from the southern part of Louisville?
The wall between eastern and western Europe has fallen, the emotionally charged video marks the beautiful event. I still remember where I was when I saw those revolutionary Germans jump up on top of that wall and go at it with hammers and picks… whatever they had that could help tear it down. For those of you who were there… close your eyes for a second and remember that emotion… there’s something in us that loves to see a wall come down, that loves to see a parent forgive their child, that loves to hear the story of reconciled friends.
But there’s also something in us that holds to the old adage, “Good walls make good neighbors.” The same people who pointed out the great evil of the East Germans who built the wall in Berlin to keep people from fleeing to the free west are now demanding new walls be built between Israel and Palestine, between the US and Mexico. Political purists celebrate their red statedness or their blue statedness. Neighborhoods, though legally free of restrictions, are still segregated to a great extent on racial and especially socio-economic bases. Many neighborhoods in Louisville have actual walls or gates separating them from others. There is something in us that loves to see a wall go up.
Physical walls go up but even before the mortar is mixed or the bricks are bought, a wall has been erected. We create walls in our minds to separate those who believe and act and live as we do from those who don’t. We create walls between those who worship as we do from those who don’t. Why shouldn’t we? We can see justification for walls in certain readings of the Hebrew scriptures, can’t we?
Yes, in certain readings of the Hebrew Scriptures, there are clear divisions between God’s chosen people and… us…meaning Gentiles, non-Jews, the Other, the Stranger, the alien, the goy. However, a closer look reveals that though there were many calls to be separate, there were many more and much stronger calls to honor, respect, and even love those who were foreign to us, those who had different backgrounds, traditions, religions, and ways of living. Is this how we respond to people of other denominations (Baptists, Catholics, Pentecostals, those who attend what some have called “Six Flags Over Jesus”)?
Is this how we view and interact with Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, and… especially these days, Muslims? Is this how we move through the world as the heart rate increases or the purse is clutched tighter or the hand slides into the bag to find the can of mace… when someone from a different part of town approaches from the other direction as we walk down the street. Even by Hebrew Scripture standards, I think we all could find evidence of walls in our past and sometimes present behavior.
There is something in us that loves a wall and by the time that Christ walked the streets of Jerusalem, there were actual dividing walls between different levels of the temple based upon ethnic background, religious perspective, personal holiness, and finally upon rank within the system of religious hierarchy. It is to this division that the author of Ephesians writes about in our scripture today.
The letter is addressed to gentiles. The author reminds them of the way that the chosen people of God referred to them… the uncircumcised, the unclean by reason of birth. They (we) were not born into the covenant relationship that God had with the people of Israel. It’s true, God had chosen a covenant people, a people called to be a royal priesthood, a people who had access to God and God’s promises. A people from which Priests arose who had direct access to God in the inner chambers of the temple. Remember, remember, that you were once outsiders. You were once the other. And if you tread on temple grounds, you were once the illegal immigrant in God’s chosen land.
It seems from the scripture reading, that there had been some real and active hostility between Jews and Gentiles. We know that there was a great debate about whether or not Gentiles must first become Jews to become followers of Christ. Remember that until about 70AD, there was no Christianity separate from Judaism. Followers of Jesus were a sect within Judaism.
So there was still a dividing wall, a hostility between them. But the author writes that Christ came to break down that wall, to abolish the things that separated the Jew from the Gentile (and as we see in Galatians, also things that separated free from slave, man from woman). The result is not that Jews adopt Gentiles, nor that Gentiles superceed Jews. But rather, the result is that in Christ, one new humanity is created in place of the two, thus making peace. Not only between Jew and Gentile, but also the wall or separation between humanity and God is broken down.
In Christ, humanity is reconciled to God and becomes one body. The death on the cross was the death of all that separated us from God. Consider that for a second. The first division that was destroyed was the division between Jew and Greek, a division between humans. We must first reconcile to our sister, we must first make amends with our brother, we must first ask forgiveness of our mother, we must first forgive our father, before we approach the throne of grace to accept the forgiveness that has already been granted to us through Christ’s life, death, and resurrection. There is something in us that loves to see a wall come down, and that something (or someone) is Christ.
We, the body of Christ, are not immune to wall building, though… clearly. I was talking with a chef at work this past week. He’s no longer a Christian but has a very caring attitude toward people of different faiths, but likes to laugh a bit at the sad realities of those who claim to follow the Prince of Peace.
Two of his friends, from differing Christian backgrounds, I won’t say which, were discussing the question of Christ’s ascension on their facebook walls. Well, the discussion became a debate, the debate became an argument, and in full swing, verses were quoted by one to support the claim that Jesus ascended immediately after seeing Mary in the garden then returned to minister to his followers until his ultimate ascension 40 days after his resurrection. Verses were quoted on the other side to say that Christ only ascended after the 40 days and not immediately after resurrection.
One might guess how the argument started, a mention of the second coming, a response that Christ already came a second time so it will be the third coming… You can see the implications, it’s proof that Jesus’ words can be trusted when he tells his disciples that this generation will not pass before the son of Man returns. Back and forth they went, in full view of God and all their facebook friends. My chef friend was amused.
My heart grieved and I was reminded of the times that I have been in their place. His only question to me was, “How does any of this tell us how we should treat other people?” in other words, what does this have to do with how we live our lives? Does it matter?
It’s so easy to be drawn into theological arguments about things that are later labeled “non-essential” or adiaphora (indifferent things) or not related to our salvation. We want to know God. We want to be sure that we know God. We want to be right about what we know of God…because we love God.
However good it is to want to know God, it is never a good excuse to fight. Because in fighting, we simply reveal how little we know of God. “For he is our peace, in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us.”
Arguing about little things is futile. We are reminded by conventional wisdom to “not sweat the small stuff,” and to “choose your battles.” But either because we have a much deeper problem with our adversary or maybe it’s just that we are hungry, angry, lonely, or tired (HALT), we bicker about whether it’s best to eat our toast butter side up or butter side down.
The argument becomes emotionally charged (especially when it has to do with religion or politics), we begin to demonize the other person, bringing up stuff from their past that has nothing to do with the current issue. But the time and energy invested in this type of argument is downright sinful.
Why? Because we invest more and more emotion and value in this one little thing that we do damage (sometimes lifelong damage) to our relationships and we ignore the command we have to love one another. I don't deny the importance of debate. But when you are furious about whether it's best to use water rather than milk in your oatmeal preparation, then it is a futile argument over a little thing.
My goal... and I hope it might be yours as well, is to divest little things of emotion especially when such an investment blinds me to the harm I might be doing or the good that I ought to do. How much time we waste on things that don’t matter. How much time we waste when so much needs to be done about things that do matter.
For he is our peace. In Christ we are made into one. The dividing wall has been broken down. Let us not seek to build it back up. There is something in us that loves a wall… and that is love for and fear for ourselves and our safety. There is something in us that loves to see a wall brought down… and that is love for God and others and willingness to risk loss and trust in God’s power to unify us.
Let us strive to tear down walls, to bare our hearts to one another, to accept the differences of the other, to remember the good intentions of others despite possible disagreement on the means to the ends, to celebrate the diversity of God’s creation.
So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. Let us act like members of the household of God, brothers and sisters who may differ in opinion but can agree to disagree, and who hold the love of this family of humanity as a greater value than which side our bread is buttered on.
