"Holy Difference" | The Rev. Heidi Thorsen | June 9, 2024

Sermon Preached: June 9, 2024 at Trinity on the Green

Year B, Proper 5 (Track 2): Genesis 3:8-15 | Psalm 130 | 2 Corinthians 4:13-5:1 | Mark 3:20-35

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be pleasing to you, O God, Our Rock and Our Redeemer. Amen.

“A House divided against itself cannot stand.” For many people, their first association with these words is not the Bible, and the Gospel passage in which we read them today, but a speech made by Abraham Lincoln in 1858, in the years leading up to the Civil War. I’d like to begin by reading the opening lines of that speech. These are Lincoln’s words:

“If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could then better judge what to do, and how to do it. We are now far into the fifth year, since a policy was initiated, with the avowed object, and confident promise, of putting an end to slavery agitation. Under the operation of that policy, that agitation has not only, not ceased, but has constantly augmented. In my opinion, it will not cease, until a crisis shall have been reached, and passed. “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved—I do not expect the house to fall—but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, or all the other.” (Abraham Lincoln, “House Divided Speech,” delivered in Springfield, IL, June 16, 1858).

I’m not one to open my sermons with long quotes from political or historical documents, for the most part. And yet our Gospel passage today is one that is so deeply coded into our civic life, through Abraham Lincoln’s speech and subsequent references to it. Reading Lincoln’s speech today, I can’t help but think that there is still so much division in the world today. I think of the division that is causing war around the world: in Israel and Palestine; in Sudan; in Eastern Europe. I think of the division in our own political system, as this election year in the United States causes anxieties that we can’t help but name. Abraham Lincoln used scripture as guidance for seemingly insurmountable challenges in his day. How might we do the same? The church may not be a political entity, but we are an incarnational entity. Our faith coalesces around the belief that God became human— an act of becoming that we call the incarnation. And in doing so, God took on our human flesh. God took on our human reality. God made our human problems God’s own problems too.

One of the problems that we face, as human beings, is the problem of division. The problem of division in our country, in our communities, in our families, and sometimes in ourselves.

“A house divided against itself cannot stand.” Let’s imagine what this teaching means in our own lives— and what it means to live without division: as one flock, one body in Christ, one family of God.

Through reflecting and praying with this week’s Scriptures, there’s one observation that stands out above all others: that difference is not the same as division. While a house divided against itself cannot stand, there might be differences within that house that make it stronger. Difference is not the same as division.

Several of our scripture passages today speak to division. Division is front and center in the Gospel passage, where the scribes situate themselves over and against Jesus by claiming that Jesus’ teachings come from Beelzebul; from Satan. The scribes do not merely express a difference from Jesus. They literally demonize him– othering him to the fullest extent that they can. I believe this is why Jesus sounds so harsh, in his criticism of the scribes. They have not simply insulted Jesus. They have somehow fundamentally gone against the unity that is conveyed through the Holy Spirit’s presence in our lives.

Our Scripture from the Book of Genesis is also a story about division. This is the second creation story as told in the Book of Genesis; the story of how Adam and Eve were tricked into eating fruit from the tree of knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden of Eden– the one thing that God told them not to do. Through this act of disobedience, Adam and Eve are forever cast out of the Garden. We can already see the division that has taken place in the dialogue from today’s scripture passage. “Where are you?” God calls to Adam. Adam replies, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.” God’s next words seem full of grief, “Who told you that you were naked?” Adam and Eve have forever changed their relationship with God. They are no longer able to be vulnerable, either in a physical or an emotional sense. Now a wall separates them from God. Where once there was openness, now there is division.

Many Christians in our denomination, myself included, do not read the creation story as a literal narrative. Instead, these are stories that tell us something fundamental about human beings and our relationship to God. And while these stories may not be literal; they are, nevertheless true. True in a fundamental, spiritual, revelatory way.

The story of Adam and Eve is a story of division– a story of how human beings became separate from God. And yet this isn’t the only creation story that God has given us, through the gift of Holy Scripture. While the second story of Adam and Eve is well known, the first story in Chapter One of Genesis is just as well known, and it goes like this:

“When God began to create the heavens and the earth, the earth was complete chaos, and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good, and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.” (Genesis 1:1-5).

I won’t read through the rest of the story, though it will be familiar to many of you. Over six days God brings creation into being, and God does this through the act of separation, through the act of making difference. God separates the Day from the Night; God separates the earth from the sky; God separates the land from the sea– and from there, the earth is populated. In this story, difference is a Holy thing. Difference is the origin of all creation.

Division is not the same thing as difference, as these two creation stories show. Division is a kind of othering; it is a rift; it is a loss; it is a catastrophe. But difference is the source of life. Difference is the way all of creation was intended to be.

Returning to our Gospel passage for today, we can see how the scribes made a critical error by sowing division between themselves and Jesus– by othering his teaching, to the point of identifying him with demons. It’s important to note that Jesus doesn’t turn around and make the same accusation at them. Instead Jesus teaches them, and he offers these words to the scribes and to us: “How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand.”

All too often we react to difference and division as if they are the same thing. Perhaps we try to ignore our differences or pretend they don’t exist, in order to keep the peace. Or perhaps we give up that project entirely, and only gravitate towards people who share our similar beliefs, similar identities, similar hopes for the future. But in doing so we cut ourselves off from a part of humanity– and we do an injustice to the spirit of God’s love that flows through us all.

Our Gospel passage today is a reminder for us to hang in there, and to honor the spirit of God that unites each and every one of us. It is a reminder to call people into the love of God, instead of calling them out for the parts of them that are still in progress. It is hard to be differing individuals, and to still recognize that we are part of something bigger than ourselves– to recognize that we are part of the human family; part of all creation. If you are looking for a point of inspiration, look no further than our own Trinity Choirs, which we will honor during our worship service today. A choir is a beautiful example of what it looks like to honor difference, and still sing as one. A choir is a beautiful example of what it looks like to commit to being one, instead of disintegrating into division. Now I don’t sing in the choir, but I’m sure that it isn’t easy; and I’m sure there isn’t perfect synchronicity all the time. Nevertheless, unity in difference is a goal that we aspire to. And the reason we aspire to it is Jesus. Jesus, the Great Shepherd of the Sheep, who taught us that although we are different, we are a part of one flock. One human family. One blessed creation threaded through with the spirit of God.

May God bless our differences, and heal our divisions. And may we be a part of that work. In the name of God, who separated day from night; who separated earth from air; who separated land from sea; who made us diverse and different— and called it Good. Amen.

Works Cited:

Lincoln, Abraham. “House Divided Speech.” Delivered in Springfield, IL, June 16, 1858. “House Divided Speech,” Abraham Lincoln Online. Accessed 7 Jun 2024. www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/speeches/house.htm.