Sometimes our differences are so tiny. I love the example given by Emo Phillips in a joke he wrote before 1985:
Once I saw this guy on a bridge about to jump. I said, “Don’t do it!” He said, “Nobody loves me.” I said, “God loves you. Do you believe in God?”
He said, “Yes.” I said, “Are you a Christian or a Jew?”
He said, “A Christian.” I said, “Me, too! Protestant or Catholic?”
He said, “Protestant.” I said, “Me, too! What franchise?”
He said, “Baptist.” I said, “Me, too! Northern Baptist or Southern Baptist?”
He said, “Northern Baptist.” I said, “Me, too! Northern Conservative Baptist or Northern Liberal Baptist?”
He said, “Northern Conservative Baptist.” I said, “Me, too! Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region, or Northern Conservative Baptist Eastern Region?”
He said, “Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region.” I said, “Me, too! Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1879, or Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912?”
He said, “Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912.”
I said, “Die, heretic!” And I pushed him over.
He was honored with “Best Religious Joke Ever” in 2005 by Ship of Fools website.
The word “heresy” is a Greek word that originally meant “change.” According to Wikipedia (use at your own risk), heresy “…referred to that process whereby a young person would examine various philosophies to determine how to live one’s life.” Sounds a bit like the Amish rumspringa. However, in the 4th Century the established Catholic Church (and anytime you see me say Church with an initial cap, I am generally referring to the Roman Catholic Church) gained secular power, blurring the lines between Church and State. This meant the Church was able to enforce its canons or “ideals of spiritual truth.” It wasn’t but a few years before the Church used that power to give death sentences to those deemed guilty of heresy. In early years it was but one or two people at a time, but eventually, as people came to rebel against the church, there was the occasional wholesale crusade against a heresy (see Waldensians and Cathars). Eventually, the Inquisition, torturing people to save their souls, became a power in Europe.
Speaking of which, how many people know the title of the leader of the Inquisition? In 1542 Pope Paul III permanently created the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Roman and Universal Inquisition. It was under the authority of this office that Galileo Galilei was tried. The Office was known by other names over history, and is currently known as Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. The head of the Inquisition is “Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.” Joseph Ratzinger was Prefect for 24 years before becoming the current Pope for the Roman Catholic Church, Benedict XVI.
But I digress.
The point is that small differences in belief shouldn’t separate us when our central belief, that Jesus Christ is the son of God by the power of the Holy Spirit, is the same.
“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ [Matthew 22:36-39, New International Version]
In another setting, when an expert in the law asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’
“Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”
The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”
Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.” [Luke 10:29-37, New International Version]
There’s no loophole, no exception, no caveat. Just love God and love your neighbor. Persecuting your neighbor, hating your neighbor, disrespecting your neighbor – none of these things fit his teaching. And folks, everyone is your neighbor.
For me, those greatest heroes are the people who save those of a faith other than theirs. Due to a Hallmark Special, I was introduced to one such hero. It seems a teacher in Kansas kept a basket of interesting news clippings so that when the students needed to write a paper or do a research project, they had something to rummage through for inspiration. The short clipping from a March 1994 issue of News and World Report said, “Irena Sendler saved many children and adults from the Warsaw Ghetto in 1942.” The teacher thought it might be a typo, since she’d never heard of the woman or the story. It turned out, not only was it not a typo, Ms. Sendler was still alive and living in Poland. Please read more about her and a project started in her honor here.
Here is one quote from the website:
They found that Irena Sendler, as a non-Jewish social worker, had gone into the Warsaw Ghetto with her network,and talked Jewish parents and grandparents out of their children, rightly saying that all were going to die in the Ghetto or in death camps, taking the children past the Nazi guards or using one of the many means of escape from the Ghetto – the old courthouse for example – and then adopting them into the homes of Polish families or hiding them in convents and orphanages. She and her network made lists of the children’s real names and put the lists in jars, then buried the jars in a garden, so that someday she could dig up the jars and find the children to tell them of their real identity. The Nazis captured her and she was beaten severely, but the Polish underground bribed a guard at Pawiak Prison to release her, and she entered into hiding.
The Hallmark Special which started me reading about this remarkable woman was The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler starring Anna Paquin. Ms. Sendler and her network saved 2500 children, finding them places to live outside the Ghetto until the war was over, writing their names, their parents names, and where the children on slips of paper saved in jars planted in the ground so that families could be reunited. One sorrow was that so few of the parents returned from the camps, but their children lived on. Christian or not, she definitely “loved her neighbor.”
Internal Jukebox: still flashing on last Sunday’s concert. It’s the first movement of the Poulenc Gloria.
