I like to think of myself as pretty laid back, not easily excitable and not prone to drama and certainly not to panic.  That self-perception is being challenged and I’m beginning to believe there is a vast conspiracy designed to freak me out.  I find myself singing to myself the words of the familiar hymn: “This world is not my home, I’m just passing through.  …  The angels beckon me from Heaven’s open door and I don’t feel at home in this world anymore.”          

            What, you ask, could possibly be so discomforting such a reasonable person?  I read this online article on Thursday (talkingpointsmemo.com): 

“Appearing before the Republican Women of Bossier (Louisiana)… Rep. John Fleming (R-LA) cast the November elections as a choice between godlessness and Christianity. He also called bipartisanship impossible.  "We have two competing world views here and there is no way that we can reach across the aisle -- one is going to have to win," Fleming said. “We are either going to go down the socialist road and become like western Europe and create, I guess really a godless society, an atheist society. Or we're going to continue down the other pathway where we believe in freedom of speech, individual liberties and that we remain a Christian nation. So we're going to have to win that battle, we're going to have to solve that argument before we can once again reach across and work together on things.” 

It appears this battle for the soul of America will find Fleming facing Democrat David Melville, a Methodist pastor, in November.  Apparently the Crusades continue.

            There’s another reason I’m feeling a little anxious.  The Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Florida has announced an “International Burn the Qur’an (Koran) Day,” for September 11.  This congregation’s spokesperson writes in explanation on their website (http://www.doveworld.org/blog/ten-reasons-to-burn-a-koran):   “On 9/11/10 we are burning Korans to raise awareness and warn.  In a sense it is neither an act of love nor of hate.  We see … that Islam is a danger.  We are using this act to warn about the teaching and ideology of Islam, which we do hate as it is hateful.  We do not hate any people, however, we love, as God loves, all the people in the world and we want them to come to a knowledge of the truth.  To warn of danger and harm is a loving act.  God is love and truth.  If you know the truth it can set you free.  The world is in bondage to the massive grip of the lies of Islam. …”

Contrast this statement of response from the Protestant Churches of Egypt:

“The Protestant Churches of Egypt are saddened to receive the very unfortunate news concerning the Protestant minister in Florida who called to burn the Koran as a memorial to September 11 attack.  As the Church sincerely regrets this destructive thought and declares total rejection of any attack against others’ religions and beliefs, which is contrary to the teaching of Jesus Christ that are encouraging love and respect for others regardless their affiliation or religion, and every person of all mankind is seen as a brother.  The Protestant Church of Egypt, in cooperation with the counterparts in U.S. and the whole world, will be making efforts to undermine such extremist ideas, which only produce more tension and violence between people who are the creation of the one God whom we serve, all of us.  The Protestant Church confirms its love and respect for all Muslims in our country as well as in the whole world.” 

What a sharp and refreshing perspective from Christian sisters and brothers in another part of our global household. 

            While we are looking at holy war and the fear of Islam we cannot ignore the loudly proclaimed condemnation of the building of a Muslim Community Center in New York City near the site of the former World Trade Center.  Challenges to mosque construction also have broken out in Tennessee, California and Wisconsin. 

            The New York Times (August 7, 2010, Across Nation, Mosque Projects Meet Opposition) quotes a woman who opposes building of a Mosque in Temecula, California where a Muslim community has existed for about 12 years and has outgrown its current facilities: “As a mother and a grandmother, I worry.  I learned that in 20 years with the rate of the birth population, we will be overtaken by Islam, and their goal is to get people in Congress and the Supreme Court to see that Shariah is implemented.  My children and grandchildren will have to live under that.  I do believe everybody has a right to freedom of religion.  But Islam is not about a religion.  It’s a political government, and it’s 100 percent against our Constitution.” 

            This insightful commentary succeeds in combining a couple of sources of hysterical fear – Islam and immigration.  This California grandmother’s concern is underscored by United States Congressman Louie Gohmert (R-Texas).  He recently added his voice to warn us about “terror babies” or “anchor babies”.  What he fears and invites all of us to fear is that undocumented pregnant women will make their way into the United States to give birth and these babies, born in the U.S. become citizens.  Then their parents take them back to other countries to be raised as terrorists.  20 or so years later they will come back with their U.S. passports to undermine America. 

            Can you see why I’m getting scared? 

            Truth is, if you are inclined to deal in matters of fact and faith, there isn’t all that much to fear.  The flow of migrants without documents has decreased (for better or worse).  Border enforcement has been toughened in the past year and a half (for better or worse).  Researchers aren’t able to find a connection between immigrants and any crime wave. 

We hosted, here at Edgewood, Dr. Mohammad Ayoob, who delivered the Truman Morrison lecture last year.  He addressed the Image and Reality of Political Islam.  Professor Ayoob elaborated on his research-driven conclusions that:  “Three, often unstated, assumptions have inspired much of the discussion in the West regarding political Islam over the last decade and a half – especially since 9/11.  These are: one, that political Islam, like Islam itself, is monolithic; two, that political Islam is inherently violent; and, three, that the intermingling of religion and politics is unique to Islam.  These assumptions are false.”  He spelled out for us the history of theology and politics which finds political Islam to be a product of specific times and places. 

He tells us:  “In Western perceptions, political Islam is unique not because it uses religion for political purposes in order to create national identity or transform society.  It is seen as uniquely threatening because it can also be used as an instrument to challenge, sometimes by violent means, the West’s continued global dominance.  It is this dimension of political Islam that makes it appear threatening to the dominant powers in the international system.  This Western perception does not, however, negate the fact that political Islam is a multifaceted phenomenon and is in almost all instances context specific, circumscribed by the borders of individual states.  The overwhelming majority of Islamist political activity is conducted through peaceful means within constitutional limits, even where governments are unsympathetic to the Islamists’ cause.  Transnational extremist activities, including acts of terrorism, are the exception, not the rule, when it comes to political action undertaken in the name of Islam.”  (Mohammed Ayoob.  World Policy Journal.  New York: fall 2004. Vol. 21, Iss.3, P. 1-14)

Others – in the name of and the language of various Christian religion - try to increase my anxiety by asserting that when two men or two women are allowed to marry then God’s command and my marriage both are threatened.  This argument has been so successful that voters in the State of California – among others, including Michigan – banned gay marriage.

 Earlier this month U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker concluded that “Proposition 8 fails to advance any rational basis in singling out gay men and lesbians for denial of a marriage license.  Indeed, the evidence shows Proposition 8 does nothing more than enshrine in the California Constitution the notion that opposite sex couples are superior to same-sex couples. …Because Proposition 8 prevents California from fulfilling its constitutional obligation to provide marriages on an equal basis, the court concludes that Proposition 8 is unconstitutional” 

After examining the arguments in the case, Judge Walker added, “The evidence shows conclusively that moral and religious views form the only basis for a belief that same-sex couples are different from opposite sex couples.  These interests do not provide a rational basis for supporting Proposition 8.” 

Walker spends several pages in his ruling that invalidates the California same-sex marriage ban, identifying religion as a prime source of anti-gay animus, citing examples from the Vatican and the Southern Baptist Convention, and noting that 84 percent of weekly churchgoers voted in favor of Proposition 8 (citing a CNN exit poll). 

Judge Walker’s ruling supports the UCC’s 25th  General Synod resolution in 2005 that “affirms equal marriage rights for couples regardless of gender and declares that the government should not interfere with couples regardless of gender who choose to marry and share fully and equally in the rights, responsibilities and commitment of legally recognized marriage.” 

I’m energized by this morning’s scriptural call for Christians to practice radical hospitality. 

I have long been a fan of the concept of the Christian mission to advance and nurture the “Kingdom of God” in the world.  In a recent sermon a pastor friend of mine suggested that the “household of God” might, in some instances, be an equally attractive concept.  Hearing Dorothy read to us in the Hebrews passage this morning I get excited about the admonition, “Let mutual love continue.  Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.”  

There is an on point admonition in Leviticus (19:33-34) which advises us: “When an alien resides with you in your land, you shall not oppress the alien.  The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.” 

This makes love a real adventure.  Frances Taylor Grench, a Professor of New Testament at Union Seminary, tells us that “love, in the New Testament, is not something you feel; it is something you do … Love seeks the well-being of others and is embodied in concrete efforts in their behalf.”  (Hebrews, Westminster Bible Companion)  I suggest that this hospitable kind of love is foreign to fear.  

In Ephesians we are told that Christ breaks down barriers, tears down fences, eliminates the concept of “strangers and aliens.”  The Kingdom of God, the Household of God, the Community of God – however we articulate it and describe it and pursue it – recognizes that people have different characteristics but showing hospitality to strangers is far more faithful than showing hostility to strangers.  The theologian Henri Nouwen tells us that life is a property to be shared, not a property fenced in and defended.  This is a helpfully suggestive concept that challenges traditional understanding of hospitality.  This kind of hospitality does not assume the house to which we are welcoming others is our house/our possession and we are being charitably generous with ourresources.  On the contrary, our house, our home, is built and supplied with resources of folks from throughout the world.  In many cases with cheap and exploited labor and resources from throughout the world.  Indeed our house – the household of God - is their house and this radical hospitality recognizes this. 

When confronted by those who solicit our support for fencing ourselves in and fencing strangers out: for burning sacred documents, for blocking community centers, for building walls across the southern border of the United States, for banning the marriage of lovers what does it mean to practice hospitality?  It means that the house we inhabit is not our fence-protected/barrier-protected house.  It is the community, the kingdom, the household of God.  As hosts we practice hospitality.  The door is open, come in.  New Testament theologian Lewis R. Donelson (Austin Seminary) comments on this morning’s Hebrews passage: “To love is to let another person, an unreliable other person, inside your safe walls. …To let a stranger into your house is always a risk.  These strangers might be “angels,” but they might not.  This call to hospitality is a call to ongoing vulnerability to the unknown other.” (The Lectionary Commentary). 

That’s not frightening.  That’s exciting!