They\u2019re rioting in Africa. They\u2019re starving in Spain.
There\u2019s hurricanes in Florida and Texas needs rain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The whole world is festering with unhappy souls.
The French hate the Germans; the Germans hate the Poles.
Italians hate Yugoslavs; South Africans hate the Dutch,
And I don\u2019t like anybody very much.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But we can be tranquil and thankful and proud,
For man\u2019s been endowed with a mushroom shaped cloud.
And we know for certain that some lovely day
Someone will set the spark off and we will all be blown away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They\u2019re rioting in Africa. There\u2019s strife in Iran.
What nature doesn\u2019t do to us, will be done by our fellow man.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although the specifics of today\u2019s worldwide political climate are quite different from those portrayed in the 1960s Kingston Trio\u2019s \u201cMerry Minuet,\u201d the undying truth of humans\u2019 ability to divide themselves, one from another, remains the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It has always been so. Saint Paul lived in a world defined by class distinction and racism and tribalism and nationalism that tore at the fabric of societal unity. It was a world in which people prided themselves on their separation from others. In the portion of First Corinthians that forms today\u2019s Epistle, Paul referred to some classic distinctions of his day: Jew and Greek; slave and free; man and woman. Into what category a person fell made a great deal of difference, legally and socially.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In our day, we remain torn by separations of black, white, red, brown, and yellow; of rich nations and poor nations; of Muslim, Jew, and Christian; of Irish Catholics and Irish Protestants; of Hindus opposing Buddhists. In our own church, we have \u201crite oners\u201d and \u201crite twoers,\u201d traditionalists and modernists, supporters and opponents of the newly consecrated gay bishop Gene Robinson. There is no end to the tribalism that separates us in so many ways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We separate ourselves because of fear and ignorance and selfishness. Or maybe this is simply because others are different. Humans have always tended to dislike those who are different. Professor Higgins in \u201cMy Fair Lady\u201d gives us a humorous view of this intolerance:
Why can\u2019t a woman be more like a man?
Why does every one do what the others do?
Can\u2019t a woman learn to use her head?
Why do they do everything their mothers do?
Why don\u2019t they grow up like their fathers instead?
But for any of us who make such distinctions and who would build such walls of separation, St. Paul brings us to task. In today\u2019s Epistle, he tells us about the necessity of recognizing a central reality of God that is all too easy to escape from or ignore-the truth about human interdependence and unity. He illustrates this with a remarkably clear and precise description of what the church is. His analogy is a comparison of the church and its many parts with the human body and its many parts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If we can understand our bodies at the most elemental level, we can understand what God intends for the church. No part is more valuable than another. No part can say to the other, \u201cI have no need of you.\u201d If one organ suffers, they all suffer. If one organ prospers, they all prosper. And the whole of the parts is integrally connected to the head.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All this is true for the church. And if it is true for us, it is also God\u2019s sacrament to the world: making it true for every human community, from family to city to nation to the global village that is our world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We can only live into the reality of Paul\u2019s call for this kind of unity if Christ is our head. From our unity with Christ flows all our connected-ness with others. Because we respond with love to God\u2019s love for us, we can care for others and feel the sense of interdependency that Paul illustrates so clearly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Perhaps an old, yet ageless poem by John Donne will remind us why we must go home today renewed by the Holy Spirit to eschew intolerance and reach out in peace and love to all our brothers and sisters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
No man is an island, entire of itself.
Every man is a piece of the continent,
a part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Any man\u2019s death diminishes me,
because I am involved in mankind.
And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls,
it tolls for thee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This sermon was written by the Rev. Ken Kesselus<\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" They\u2019re rioting in Africa. They\u2019re starving in Spain.There\u2019s hurricanes in Florida and Texas needs rain. The whole world is festering with unhappy souls.The French hate the Germans; the Germans hate the Poles.Italians hate Yugoslavs; South Africans hate the Dutch,And I don\u2019t like anybody very much. But we can be tranquil and thankful and proud,For man\u2019s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":201212,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_tec_requires_first_save":true,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_tribe_blocks_recurrence_rules":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_description":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_exclusions":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[32,43,52,3],"tags":[253],"class_list":["post-511134","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-epiphany","category-sermons","category-sermons-that-work","category-worship-and-prayer-menu","tag-epiphany-3c"],"acf":[],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":32,"label":"Epiphany"},{"value":43,"label":"Sermons"},{"value":52,"label":"Sermons That Work"},{"value":3,"label":"worship_and_prayer_menu"}],"post_tag":[{"value":253,"label":"Epiphany 3C"}]},"featured_image_src_large":false,"author_info":[],"comment_info":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon\/511134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/sermon"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon\/511134\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3478473,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon\/511134\/revisions\/3478473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=511134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=511134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=511134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}