Have you ever stopped for a moment to consider just how strange the way we construct our view of the world we live in actually is? If you’re not sure what I mean by that, just think about how we describe the world and it’s peoples; the way we divide the world and its peoples into categories. For example, we talk about the world in terms of East and West don’t we. But, in reality, East and West depend on your point of view. We talk about the USA and Europe as the ‘West’ and Russia and China as the ‘East’, for example. From China though, Russia is the West, the USA is East, and Europe could be either. So to divide the world into East and West is really rather ridiculous.
It’s the same when it comes to people. As wrong as it is, and it is wrong; both morally wrong and deeply un-Christian, one of the most common ways people are categorised is by the colour of their skin. We say they’re black, or white, or yellow. But have you ever seen anyone who’s skin actually is black, white or yellow? The only truly black people I’ve ever seen are in photographs of coal miners who’ve just come up from a shift at the coal face. The only truly white people I’ve ever seen are in paintings of people from bygone ages when women, in particular, painted their faces white because that was the fashionable thing to do at the time. And the only people I’ve ever seen who are truly yellow, are people who’ve been ill with some kind of liver disease. But nevertheless, we do categorise people according to the colour of their skin, even though it’s wrong and their skin isn’t any of the colours we say it is.
I’m sure we can all think of many other ways that we construct our view of the world by categorising things and people which, in reality, are actually quite meaningless in any objective sense. High and low in the Church, left and right in politics, Old World, New World, Third World and so the list goes on. If we thought about all these categories objectively, I’m sure we’d find them to be so ridiculous as to be laughable if it wasn’t for the fact that dividing the world and its peoples up in this way is such a serious problem. And it is a serious problem because when we construct our view of the world in this way what we’re really doing is sowing the seeds of division and conflict.
When we hold a view of the world that’s based on categories of things and people, what we’re doing in effect, is dividing the world and its peoples up and separating them into opposing camps; ‘us’ and people like us on the one hand, and ‘them’, people who are not like us, on the other hand. And to make matters worse, we have people who are willing to exploit those feelings, to stir up mistrust and fear of those who aren’t like us in order to achieve power. People who then use mistrust and fear of those who aren’t like us to get others to follow them. People who instil their own personal prejudices and bigotry and hatred into the minds of others so that others will make those things their own.
A prime example of someone who did these things was Adolf Hitler. And he did these things so successfully that he became regarded as a saviour, a Messiah, to those he led, and his book Mein Kampf, My Struggle, a book filled with prejudice, bigotry and hatred based on racial and geo-political categories, became tantamount to scripture to his adoring followers, though we could even call them his worshippers. We know what following this false Messiah led to; a war of unparalleled suffering and devastation that engulfed the whole world and claimed the lives of somewhere between 70 and 85 million people.
And, of course, today, Remembrance Sunday is the day we set aside to remember those who died defending our own country in that war and in so many other wars that have taken the lives of our armed forces over the years.
History tells us that building a view of the world along a subjective ‘us’ and ‘them’ mentality always leads to division and conflict. Can any of us actually think of any war in history that hasn’t had it’s roots in this way of thinking? But, as with so many other things, the danger of thinking in this way is spelt out to us very clearly by Jesus.
In this morning’s Gospel, we find the disciples admiring the temple. The temple itself is no longer there so we can’t be certain of what it was really like, but it’s thought to have been the biggest of the three temples that the Jews built in Jerusalem, so it was, no doubt, a sight to behold. As a symbol of their faith and identity as God’s people it was also no doubt a building the Jews were very proud of. That certainly comes across in the disciples’ admiration of the temple we read about this morning. But Jesus tells them that, as great as the temple buildings are, they’ll all be destroyed, that not one stone will be left standing on another.
In St Matthew’s Gospel, this story comes immediately after Jesus had lamented over Jerusalem’s failure to accept him and turn to God. And because of that, he says her house, perhaps the temple, perhaps the city, perhaps the Jewish state itself, would be left desolate, broken and empty. And indeed that is what happened. In the great Jewish uprising of 66-73AD, a war that set Jews against Romans, and even Jew against Jew as various Jewish factions waged a civil war at the same time, Jerusalem was sacked, looted and burned to the ground, and the temple was destroyed.
Jesus also warns in this morning’s Gospel about being led astray by false Messiahs; those who come in his name and say, “I am he.” We know that there were two more major wars between the Jews and the Romans in the century after Jesus’ Resurrection. Wars that led to widespread slaughter across the whole of the Eastern Roman Empire. Eventually, large parts of Judea, the Roman province that includes modern day Israel, was emptied of Jews because they’d either been killed or expelled, and they were banned from even visiting Jerusalem except for one day each year. At least one of the leaders of these revolts, Simon bar Kokhba, was acclaimed as the Messiah. But perhaps Jesus’ warning is more general one of not following anyone other than him for fear of being led astray from God’s ways.
And if we really do want to have a view of the world and its peoples that isn’t going to divide and cause conflict, if we want to build a world and a way of life that won’t ultimately be destroyed by conflict and war, then it is God’s ways that we have to follow.
Jesus said the greatest commandment, the most important of God’s ways, was that we should love God. If we do love God, then we’ll keep his commandments and one of those is not to covet what our neighbour has. But how much conflict in the world is caused because people do covet what their neighbour has? How many wars have been caused because people have seen what others have, want it for themselves, and are prepared to fight and even to kill their neighbour to take it?
Jesus said the second commandment was that we should love our neighbour as ourselves. If we did love our neighbour as ourselves, we wouldn’t argue with our neighbour or fight them, let alone kill them, would we? Because we wouldn’t want anyone to do those things to us.
But how many wars have been caused because people have loved themselves far more than they’ve loved their neighbour? How many wars have been caused because, far from loving their neighbour, people have actually hated their neighbour?
We call God our Father. If God is our Father, we are his children, all of us, and that makes us all brothers and sisters. But do we regard our brothers and sisters as ‘them’? Don’t we rather regard our brothers and sisters as one of ‘us’, or perhaps even as part of ‘us’? So, if we really do follow God’s way, the way that Jesus taught us, how can we view other people in terms of ‘us’ and ‘them’? Shouldn’t we rather see other people, whoever and whatever they are, as our brothers and sisters and as part of an all embracing ‘we’? And if we can see other people in that way, if we can stop dividing them into separate categories, won’t a lot of the reasons and causes of dispute and conflict be gone from our lives?
Of course, for disputes and conflict and especially for war to end, most, if not all people would have to think in these terms and that’s something people seem to find very difficult to do. And Jesus himself suggests that it’s something that is not going to happen before his return because he warns his disciples to expect wars and kingdoms to rise against kingdoms. But, while we might not be able to stop war, we can at least try to find peace in our own lives by keep God’s ways in our lives. We can try to see the world is less divisive terms and we can try to see other people as our brothers and sisters and treat them accordingly.
So today, let’s remember those who’ve died in time of war defending this country from those who wished or still wish us harm. Let’s give thanks for
the great sacrifice they made for us. Let’s pray that they now rest in the peace that war took from them in life. And in our lives, let’s try to be more like the children of God we are, and let’s pray that one day, the world will find that God’s way is a better way, a more peaceful way, and follow it too.
Amen.
The Propers for the 33rd Sunday of Ordinary Time (2 before Advent) can be viewed here.
Parish Church of St Mark Chadderton 