Readings for the Third Sunday after Pentecost (Year B – Track 1 – Proper 5)
This sermon was preached at Christ Episcopal Church in Eureka CA on Sunday June 9, 2024.
One of my favorite poets is the Lebanese Christian Kahlil Gibran, author of the spiritual classic titled The Prophet. Gibran said, “The universe is my country and the human family is my tribe.”[1] Several years ago when another Lebanese Christian named Alexander John Shaia zoomed all the way here from Spain to guest preach, I asked him if Gibran played a role in his spiritual formation as a fellow Lebanese Christian because Alexander wrote something in one of his books that reminded me of Gibran. He wrote, “Christianity broke the ancient tribal pattern…The gospel shouted out the affirmation of this joyous summons: ‘All are one; no one is excluded; join us!”[2] The human family is my tribe.
When I asked Alexander about Gibran’s influence, he prefaced his answer by saying, “Don’t tell my parents,” and then proceeded to explain that Kahlil Gibran had been excommunicated from the Maronite Church, the Eastern Catholic church in full communion with Rome. Gibran was excommunicated because he wrote a book about the corruption and hypocrisy of the Maronite bishops who were demanding poor families to give money to the church when they barely had enough money to feed their children. So, when Alexander was a kid, Kahlil Gibran’s books were banned for Maronite Christians, especially for young formative ones like Alexander. But Alexander said, “I don’t know what other people kept under the mattress in their bedroom—it might have been other sorts of things—but for me, it was Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet.” “Truly,” he continued, “he infuses my life. I would love to think I have some shared biology with him, but he’s definitely a brother.”
In these two brothers who share a common tribe, I see a mutual understanding that although we may take pride in our biological and cultural heritage, our true family is humanity, and that Christ calls us out of insular tribalism and into pan-tribalism. We are all one tribe, one family. It is this insight that helps me unlock the meaning of today’s Gospel in which “the Prophet” of Israel, Jesus Christ, gets into his own trouble with the religious leaders of his day while also breaking free from the restraints of his biological family.
One of the great dangers of tribalism is the tendency to demonize and scapegoat outsiders. Many tribes swell with pride by putting others down; and many leaders rise to power in a tribe or in a nation by harnessing the people’s resentment and hatred and directing it all towards a scapegoat, who must bear the blame for everything. Politicians and religious leaders do this all the time, both on the left and the right. And this is why God was not thrilled with the idea of giving the people of Israel a king because kings so often maintain their political power through this violent tribalism, through scapegoating anyone whom they don’t like or even those whom they do like but who must be thrown under the bus in order for the king’s power to be protected. And this is exactly what the first king of Israel, King Saul, did. He blamed his own soldiers for his own disobedience of God’s command.[3] And the Prophet Samuel called him out on this and said, “You have rejected the word of the Lord.” And then the chapter ends with the narrator saying, “The Lord regretted making Saul king over Israel” (1 Samuel 15:35).
And this same dynamic is at work in the Gospel as the religious leaders demonize Jesus for extending his love and compassion to the outsiders. Jesus’s prophetic ministry involves standing up for the poor, the oppressed, and the marginalized, empowered by the Holy Spirit whom Jesus calls the “Advocate” because the Spirit advocates on behalf of the outsiders, the falsely accused, and the victims of violent tribalism. So, when the religious leaders demonize the work of the Holy Spirit, they are committing blasphemy indeed, blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. This is an eternal and even unforgivable sin because those who are caught up in it actually believe that they are on God’s side and therefore never realize their error and never think to ask for forgiveness. This is the grave danger of violent tribalism.
And this is why Jesus speaks so powerfully against it, even rudely dismissing the request of his mother and brothers, who were previously trying to restrain him and contain him within the confines of family and tribe. This is why the gift of pan-tribalism is so radical and transformative. By transforming the human race into the human family, Jesus binds the power of violent tribalism and scapegoating like a thief tying up a strong man to plunder his home. Jesus the Prophet uses graphic poetic language to get our attention. In his life and death and resurrection, Jesus “broke the ancient tribal pattern…[and] shouted out the affirmation of this joyous summons: ‘All are one; no one is excluded; join us!” In this way, the Jewish Prophet Jesus said with Kahlil Gibran “The universe is my country and the human family is my tribe.”[4] May we learn to break free from the restraints of tribalism and join Kahlil Gibran and Jesus and the Holy Spirit (the Advocate) in transforming the human race into the family.
[1] http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/khalil_gibran/poems/2373
[2] Alexander John Shaia, Heart and Mind: The Four-Gospel Journey from Radical Transformation (Mosaic Press: Australia, 2013), 178.
[3] When the prophet Samuel asks Saul why the sheep and cattle of the Amalekites were not dedicated to the Lord as the Lord commanded, Saul said, “The soldiers brought them” 1 Samuel 15:14 – 15.
[4] http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/khalil_gibran/poems/2373
DANIEL DeFOREST LONDON 