IS GOD AMONG US?
Exodus 17:1-7   Matthew 21:23-32
A Sermon by the Reverend Odette Lockwood-Stewart

“Othering” is a tactic being used today in political campaigns.  Ads about candidates and propositions attempt to define our security and well-being – economic, environmental, marital, through the condemnation, discrimination, distancing, and dehumanization of... others.

In postcolonial studies, “Othering” defines and secures empire’s positive identity by attacking or marginalizing an "other."  
In our daily lives it implies threat between the “other” who is --homeless, who has HIV/AIDS, who is different in race, gender, religion, orientation, age, language, culture, the other who is a stranger, who is addicted, a threat from “them” to “us.”
Jacob ... a high school student, wrote, “...we ‘other’ because ... it feels good to be part of the group in power, and by putting others down, we gain confidence and belonging.”
In-groups need out-groups to define themselves.

I read a fascinating article that was published this year about “othering” in a completely different context.  It is titled “Empathy and Othering in Medical Students’ Education.” Johanna Shapiro of the School of Medicine at UC Irvine writes, “One of the major tasks of medical educators is to help maintain and increase (medical students’) empathy for patients.  Yet research suggests that during the course of medical training, empathy in medical students and residents decreases.”  (NIH essay)

I witnessed this personally when I served as campus minister to medical students at UCSF.  Despite communication workshops, simulation experiences, visits and research on the power of empathy in the healing relationship, students became less and less able to empathize with patients with every year. Dr. Shapiro writes, “Once the patient becomes the other, empathy is no longer necessary.”

It seems “othering” is not just a way for nations and groups to exclude, and control, or ignore.  “Othering” is a self-protective shield ... a way to distance ourselves from the experience of others.  In this case, it seemed to help medical students from being overwhelmed by their own fears, and the emotional weight of the pain of those they were treating.  Shapiro suggests that the place to start is with mentors, doctors, who “express vulnerability, share mistakes, incorporate not-knowing,...and most importantly, who acknowledge common bonds of humanity with their patients.”

I suggest to you today, that the place for us to start right here in the church is with mentors, Christians, who “express vulnerability, share mistakes, incorporate not-knowing,...and most importantly, who acknowledge common bonds of humanity with their brothers and sisters.”

Shapiro suggests that what is needed is the development of “a tolerance for imperfection in self and others; and acceptance of shared vulnerability and suffering while simultaneously honoring the existence of difference.”

The church’s great temptation is to expand and thrive by “othering”... whether between religious groups ... or between factions within the same religious group.  We currently describe the threat of religious violence of Islamic “Jihad” ... as though warlike religion were somehow a non-Christian phenomenon.  “Holy Wars” in the name of Jesus are part of our history and reality that we need to face and of which we need to repent.  Many years ago I saw a poster titled: “A Modest proposal for Peace.”  It said simply, “Let the Christians of the world resolve not to kill each other.”

The Israelites were in the wilderness for a long time.  Whole chapters of the Book of Exodus are filled with stories of the struggles, complaints and cries of the people in the wilderness. In this morning’s text from chapter 17, Moses tells God that the people are so angry they are ready to stone him to death!  

The people are afraid and angry for good reason – they have no water! For generations they had felt God’s sustaining and guiding presence ... but they are still in the wilderness with all its threat, promise and uncertainties.  And so they asked, “Is God among us or not?”

The Israelites’ story leads us to ask how ... and when ... are we driven to the same question.  What circumstances, or experiences, or relationships push us to feelings of abandonment ... or separation ... from others as well as from God?  Fears arising from known threats and unknown threats can lead us not only to feel abandoned by God... but to look for someone “other” to blame.

Fear arising from known threats and unknown threats can move us to to ask, “Is God among us or not?” ... But today, I suggest, that the first question to address is “Who is ‘us’?”

When we understand that “us” means “all,” our frame for each issue will deepen and broaden ... the places we seek divine activity, God at work in the world, grow exponentially.  When we understand that “us” means “all” we perceive that at any moment part of “us” will be joyful, and part of us will be in pain ... part of us will be in seasons of estrangement and part of us will be restored by the healing of reconciliation and justice.  Part of “us” will seem unfamiliar ... and part of “us” will be all to well known.

The parable from Matthew’s gospel is about two sons who respond to their father’s need.  One son says “yes” but then doesn’t do it.  The other says “no”, but then changes his mind and does it.  Jesus asks which one did what his father asked.  The answer was obvious ... not the one who said it, but rather the one who did it.  
Jesus tells the leaders of the temple that the “others,” the tax collectors and prostitutes, will live in the kindom of God before they will because the “others” did the will of God.
We are both sons.  We are invited to live  so that our lives are transparent ... so that our words match what we do ... and what we do reflects what we believe to be true.

The question “is God among us or not?” isn’t about what God is doing. In the wilderness or in worship, in suffering and celebration God is present.  It’s about what we are doing. Are we walking our talk?  Do we understand that “us” means “all?”  In a world that loves to “other”, do we love one another?

May we live and pray that it is so.  Amen.