Who is our Brother?

Karen Sloan 25/06/2023

Readings - Matthew 10:34-39

Not Peace, but a Sword

‘Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.
For I have come to set a man against his father,
and a daughter against her mother,
and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household.
Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.

 Out Beyond Ideas

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
there is a field. I’ll meet you there.

When the soul lies down in that grass,
the world is too full to talk about.
Ideas, language, even the phrase ‘each other’
doesn’t make any sense.

Wow, such powerful readings, particularly the one from Matthew.  But what to reflect on?

I’ve actually been doing a bit of reflecting myself lately.  It’s been 10 years since I started to write a blog with Nev, mainly to get Nev’s stuff out into the public domain.  What has happened though is that after a few years, Nev’s contribution dropped away and I continued, and lo and behold 10 years has gone past.

I now have this crazy idea that I will write a book, by putting together the best ones, (a subjective thing I know) and self-publish them for a wider audience, well at least more than 50.

So I’ve been going through some and one which came up recently was entitled “who is my brother”.  It spoke to me deeply, even though I wrote it, and so my internal debate was settled.  Let’s today reflect on going beyond our family, our friends, maybe into a field where the phrase, each other, doesn’t make any sense.  Jesus says it rather more starkly in the reading from Matthew but it’s clear what he’s on about, because he ends the passage with the famous line, “Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.”  He is setting out the way to life, fullness of life for all , not some half-baked notion of it, and not just for a few. 

In fact, what Jesus is talking about is the idea of the common good, not so popular these days.  A notion where all people are able to live in freedom, that each and every person has dignity, and that a good society is one which allows the thriving of all persons, especially the weak and vulnerable.

As an early church father once wrote “this is the rule of most perfect Christianity, its most exact definition, its highest point, namely, the seeking of the common good, for nothing can so make a person an imitator of Christ as caring for his neighbours.”

These days we seem to have become a very individualistic society and world, operating as single entities, unrelated to one another and therefore independent. Yet this idea is total rubbish.  Both biologically and spiritually we are deeply connected to one another.

Jesus could see it in the 1st century, yet we have trouble in the 21st. So he stepped up the rhetoric just a bit. 

But in the 21st century, we are lucky and  science play a big part in showing us how connected we really are. So let me remind you albeit briefly, I promise. I am helped by a beautiful little book by Judy Cannato.

Of course it starts with the universe.

Our new creation story describes the big bang, almost 14 billion years ago as the starting point. It includes the formulation of matter and planets and stars and galaxies, and it relates the evolutionary path from single cell organisms to a species that walks upright, and thinks abstractly. It is a story that is not all about us, but about the creation of the universe, of which we are just a very small, and rather late part.

As Ilia Delio says, p13…

I love that, life out of seeming catastrophe.

What about human evolution, what does that tell us.

The fact is, all life belongs to one huge family tree. This is not just about humans but about all living things, animals, plants, insects and even bacteria. We share genes with all other living creatures, not just one or two genes, but thousands of them. When we look at humans, we are even closer, belonging to the same species, and all containing the same DNA. The idea of race and nationality as separate entities is therefore completely false.

But it gets even more profound. The size, shape and colour of animals and plants in a species are not cast in stone but change through time and space. This change is the product of natural selection, whereby those organisms that are better adapted to their environment, note, not necessarily stronger, have a greater likelihood of surviving to adulthood and passing their characteristics on to their offspring.  And this change has direction.

One  in which species becomes more complex and advanced, and communal  as natural selection continues.

Ken Wilber p25….

What we see then is a biological view of unity. An undeniable road to cooperation and connection if we follow, giving a message of inclusiveness and a profound kinship with all of life

And where is God in this story. Everywhere and in everything.

Many current physicists and biologists, excluding Richard Dawkins,  would also say that life in our universe is more than just the particles that make it up. That it involves the relationship between the parts rather than the parts themselves, with an unseen order that is required for that life. For me and many other God botherers, the divine is revealed as the other, the extra, the energy, which gives the order we see in evolution, a sacred presence that is intimately involved in creation at every level, drawing us together. There is a progression forward, from the smallest amount of stardust to conscious beings, which is astounding and ultimately mysterious.

So this story God is not  a magical figure intervening at regular intervals in order that humans can somehow have it easy. Rather in the process of evolution our organic links to one another, in which the divine is manifest in the process, is revealed.   A deep, universal and everlasting reality which is pretty amazing!

Okay, enough of that! Let’s return to where we started.

The idea of the common good is therefore not some nebulous ideal, or one that only Jesus spoke of and lived. It is a call for us all to live and love for others. It is to challenge the idea that we can survive as individuals and still develop and grow. Rather fullness of life can only be achieved through a unity, seen biologically and spiritually, which seeks to support, nurture and connect with one another. As Jesus commanded, those who love God must also love their brothers and sisters.  And this does not just mean our families. For us that includes family, community, secular and religious institutions and the wider body of humanity. It also means care for the whole created order.

And if we do this, what is the reward? The reward is a world where all people, including ourselves, are loved and live full and complete lives, . A world where people have meaning and purpose and direction which expands not only their own horizon but all those around them. A world where freedom and liberation is found for the weak and vulnerable. A world where the earth from which we arose is cherished rather than used and abused. A world where those fleeing persecution are welcomed rather than turned away or locked up. A world of peace and hope.

A world we would all like to see.

The problem is, as we look around our society and the world, we don’t seem to be getting the message.

Maybe Jesus went overboard in his call to arms, a bit strong in his assessment of our mothers and fathers, but it certainly made people take notice.  Those who heard him in the 1st century,  and us today.  Perhaps we just have to keep banging on about it, for the reward is great, not somewhere else, but right here and right now.

Just a thought.

 Amen