Sylvester McMonkey McBean. Does that name mean anything to you? The character was created over 67 years ago by the beloved author Dr. Suess. Of course, McBean is the resourceful salesman who added and removed stars from the bellies of sneetches. Sneetches are those yellow birdlike creatures who lived on beaches. As you remember the popular star belly sneetches did not care for or associate with plain belly sneetches, with no stars upon thars. When McBean arrives the plain belly sneetches are outcast and sad because the star belly sneetches will have nothing to do with them. So McBean fashions a machine to put stars on thars.
Levers and knobs and in they go.
Solving the problem, all are equal. Not so.
The star belly sneetches are up in arms because they can’t separate themselves into us and them, the cool and the nerds, the best and the worst. So McBean offers another solution, by removing the stars on their bellies. Taking away what had forever been their source of pride, just so they could be different from the others. So the new stared bellied sneetches get their stars removed and the others add the stars back. This quickly devolves into a race for identity, a search for place by adding and removing stars over and over again. Of course, McBean is making a profit at every turn. When he packs up to go he says, “You can’t teach a sneetch.” But he was wrong. On that day, the sneetches got smart and learned that sneetches are sneetches and forgot about stars and whether one had one on thars.
We love this story because it so expresses the human condition. Our fickle nature, our need to belong, our sense of security when we identify with a group. It also shows our under bellies, the hurtful and hateful parts of us. How we try to make ourselves feel better by making someone else feel worse. Our desire, our evolutionary need, to form groups. We think that those who look like us are more likely to share our DNA and to be altruistic to us. But we fear those we see as other. Our struggles with immigrants, the border wall, the Muslim ban, nationalistic tariffs represent this “us and them” mentality. But this is not new.
During Jesus’ time the dividing wall was not about stars on bellies, but about circumcision. The Jews saw themselves as the chosen ones, the people Jesus came to save, who were marked by circumcision. The Gentiles were everyone else; the people who were not Jew, could be Roman or from any other nation. The Gentiles were the ones with no stars, no circumcision. I am glad that McBean did not come to town trying to change these stars, I think that would be very painful.
Acts tells of a transformative moment when the dividing walls came down. Not because the people were enlightened, but because the Holy Spirit caused a change of heart.
“Ours is a world full of boundaries.
No-trespassing signs warn the uninvited to stay out.
A floating rope separates the shallow and deep sections of a swimming pool.
Lines painted on a gym floor delineate the playing area from ‘out of bounds.’
Railroad tracks divide one part of town from ‘the other side of the tracks.’
Mighty rivers, mountain ranges, or even carefully negotiated invisible borders partition the land into nations. From fenced yards to fenced borders, our boundaries seek to keep the insiders in and the outsiders out.” (Feasting on the Word, B2, pg. 478).
We even have a history of dividing the most holy of holies, by setting up barriers to God’s communion. This practice was called fencing the table. During the Reformation John Calvin sought to fence people called the Libertines who practiced adultery as part of their Christian freedom. This was all part of the larger indulgences, bad behaviors, that had corrupted the church which Calvin sought reform. Centuries later, church leaders would hand out tokens to those who were deemed worthy to come to the table. Another form of fencing the table. Imagine needing a token before being able to come to communion. The scriptural basis for this follows the words of institution found in 1 Corinthians, “Whoever, therefore, eats the bread and drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. So examine yourself…”
Self-examination is what we are called to do before coming to the Lord’s table.
Ask yourself, do I have issues that need to be addressed, forgiveness that I need to offer prior to partaking. We share communion the first Sunday of every month. You would do well to spend some time in prayer, amending ways and getting right with your fellows. We no longer fence the table, but we are still responsible to come to the Lord’s table having contemplated what has divided us from God and making it right. Prayerfully laying our burdens at Christ’s feet before we share in the cup of blessing. Examine yourselves as well when it comes to the boundaries and segregation in our lives.
Boundaries come in all shapes and sizes, stars on thars, tokens at table, piety, and privilege, even discrimination. Yet both our passages today are addressing the fact that all of these separating factors can be overcome through faith. 1 John declares “God conquers the world through… faith.” Hatred and fear, huddling together in groups, false security all keep us from God’s true intention. God wants us to live united in our humanity, hopeful in possibilities, not fearful of the unknown. That is why we are joined together as a family of faith, born of God having believed Jesus is the Christ. That makes each person who believes your sibling and God your heavenly parent.
The person in the grocery store who smells, your sister.
The person who hurts our environment for profit, your brother.
The person who irritates you at your book club or service group, your sibling.
Think how different the world would be if everyone became your sister or brother in Christ. If we like the sneetches could say – humanity is humanity riding ourselves of divisions. But you say how does that happen? Let’s consider two points.
First Jesus came by water and blood. This week Dee St. Clair and Janet Maack and I went to the Prayer Breakfast for Santa Cruz County. It was a rich time of ecumenism in faith with community leaders. We heard about NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, and Stewardship of our community through the Watershed district. The speaker reminded us that water is embedded in every world religion. Living Water and baptismal waters came to mind. But scripture reminds us that it is water and the blood that unites us with Christ.
By water you and I are joined with Jesus in baptism, we share in his life and his mercy.
Then by his blood, his death on the cross, not part of any other religion, we have the promise of eternal life because he died for our sins.
Our identity no longer needs to be about stars on thars or keeping up with the Jones,
our identity is in Christ. We no longer need to divide into “us and them” because we are united in the Spirit of God.
Secondly, even when we put limits and divisions in our world, God breaks through human limits. God has victory over the final limit – the limit of our mortal life. Every other limit pales in comparison. So through Christ you are free from the fear of death. Moreover, God pours out God’s Spirit without limits. The young church Peter is addressing clung to the boundaries of circumcision, believing only the Jews had access to God and God’s Spirit. But much like we will soon hear on Pentecost, God had other plans.
God tears down those walls by pouring out God’s Spirit on both Jew and Gentle.
God’s abundant love washed away the dividing walls, changing forever who received God’s grace. God’s Spirit is still pouring out. God shows no partiality, it is we who do the limiting, the dividing. Can we be taught; can we see our humanity above all else? Peter’s question still pertains today, “Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit?” Think of the people you struggle to accept, who you fear or hate. Then imagine them bathed in God’s Spirit and love and see if you can be an agent of change. Amen.
