The Sacred and the Profane

As we spend time this Christmas season with the women of Jesus’s family tree, it becomes clear so quickly:

All of the women in Jesus’ geneaology are rebels and a threat to the status quo. Go and do likewise, women! [And, our small addition, all God’s people.] - Karen J. Gonzalez, author of Beyond Welcome: Centering Immigrants in Our Christian Response to Immigration

As I (Brenna) confessed on Sunday, it’s enough to make me wish I could use a word I don’t usually use on Sunday mornings to describe them! Instead, I’ve resigned myself for now to calling them Jesus’s “fierce” grandmothers.

A conversation around cussing, what it means when and to whom… It’s actually part of a larger conversation about a particular dualism that so easily creeps into religiosity (perhaps is what defines it) - the split between the sacred and the profane. We do this with parts of our lives - there are good religious things we do on Sundays, and then there’s Monday through Saturdays. There are words we say in our heads and in particular settings, but perhaps not others where we’re supposed to be more “holy.”

And even more sadly, sometimes we do this with people. There are good people, righteous people, and then there are the others. And we know which side we want to be on or at least be perceived as on… Rahab “the prostitute” was one of the others, while “the spies” who used her services seem to have (hypocritically) been cast as the good guys. These sacred-profane splits we create in our lives and our communities - this is not the shalom wholeness Jesus invites us into.

Look at how Jesus messes with our rigid boxes in Matt. 5:

43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46 If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47 And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? 48 Be perfect [WHOLE], therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

This morning, what have you heard it said? Who have you been told/taught to hate and fear? Is Jesus whispering, love them too? Learn from them. What parts of yourself are you reluctant to greet? Is Jesus inviting you to acknowledge them, listen to them and become whole?

We’ll take a few minutes to sit with these thoughts and Jesus.