INSIDERS AND OUTSIDERS
Rev. Dr. Joyce Antila Phipps
Texts: Joshua 24: 14-22; John 4: 7-15
A few years ago in a local municipal court while walking to the front of the line waiting to see the prosecutor, I heard one man commenting to another, “She must be a real insider. The prosecutor’s talking to her first.” Part of me bristled; part of me was amused. Of all the things I’ve been called as an attorney, insider was a new one. The man’s comment made me think: what exactly is an insider? Who defines one? Is it totally situational?
There are, of course, many ways that we as a society or as a church we have of defining insiders and outsiders. You who are sitting here: think about what you have that makes you an insider -- or outsider. Consider the kinds of identification that label us one way or another. Some are tangible items like a driver’s license, a library card, or an ATM card; some are more intangible such as faith or heritage. But every single one of us has something that defines us in one way or another.
The appeal of being in a gated community -- what a wonderful oxymoron that is! As if gates make the community. Well, think about that. Those who live inside become the insiders, the special persons. All others become the outsiders. They don’t belong.
Hebrew tradition tells us that just before dying, Joshua called the tribes that had been wandering about the desert and now were coalescing into “Israel” after throwing out the people who lived in the country, who were the old insiders, and taking over the land, to give them a final message.
The people are enjoined to serve only the Lord and as the text says, The people answered: Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord…..For the Lord has driven out all the peoples of the land…. The original insiders became the outsiders. The new insiders were later thrown out as well and others remained in the land. And, of course, that struggle continues for the land, the land called holy.
Jesus the Jew had a different take on the issue. In addressing the Samaritan woman, Jesus crossed the insider-outsider line. John’s Gospel here embraces an inclusivity not often seen at other times in his Gospel. The real point of this story goes beyond Jesus’ ability to know that the woman’s previous marital history and her current living arrangements; that may have been the only way to make this particular lesson palatable. It goes to an outsider’s confession of faith that no longer makes her an outsider. The boundaries have been eliminated.
Churches are no different. We set boundaries, lines of demarcation that divide. Most churches have creeds or statements of faith that divide us from each other. By a creed, I mean something beyond the ancient traditional creeds, such as the Apostles or Nicene Creed, even beyond Paul’s succinct confession of faith found in Romans 1.3-6. Each church, each denomination now has its own “creed” or statement of faith defining the outsider and the insider. Rather than asking how we should define outsiders and insiders, perhaps we should ask should we create these boundaries of denomination, church, belief, or faith.
We may ask what happens to our identity if we do not make these demarcations whether arbitrary or not. How we define ourselves as Christians sets us apart from others. Sometimes that is good, sometimes not so good. Our Christian history is replete with examples of what one group defining itself as insiders do to those defined as outsiders.
The earliest example probably dates from the time of Jesus himself when the disciples argue about who will sit at the right hand -- southpaws, take note! In those stories, Jesus is appalled at the arguments about the struggle for position; that’s what it’s about, of course: having the inside position.
Paul had the same problems with people who were finding ways to exclude others from the inner circle. In Galatians, Paul states that baptism in the lordship of Jesus Christ is the defining boundary, not particular rites like circumcision. God does not divide Jew from Gentile nor are we separated by race, gender, or any of those other characteristics that we as humans establish to separate one from another. As the church became more powerful and institutionalized, it defined who was in and who was out.
The ancient statement of one faith, one Lord, one baptism was supplanted by technical and complicated creeds and arguments about baptism, such as when it was to be done and how it was to be done.
So the question becomes how do we as Christians define ourselves in the world of many faiths with different beliefs and practices? What is our Christian uniqueness and what does it mean? Paul Knitter, a professor at Union Theological Seminary, suggests that our Christian uniqueness lies in something other than simply stating that Christians hold the keys to the kingdom and all others are consigned to some form of eternal perdition.
The God of our salvation, argue Knitter as well as others, is a God who is open to a variety of ways we experience the divine. Thus, there are no insiders and outsiders. We are offered God, as Paul says, through our faith in Christ who offers us a new vision of God. We are offered a new way of relating to God, one that does not divide us from one another but unites us. We need to decide whether we will take that new way.
Let us pray: O God, unifier of all people, help us to learn how to join together and to act as your children in one family of faith. Amen.