The Reverend T. Richard Snyder, July 6th 2025

Dealing With Our Divisions

T. Richard Snyder

July 6, 2025

St. George’s Chapel

Your people shall be my people—beautiful and familiar words. How many weddings have used those words? The story of Ruth has been told over and over to portray the commitment of two people in love.

Naomi implores her two daughters-in law to remain in their home country of Moab with its familiarity and security while she returns to her homeland in Judah. Orpah agrees, but Ruth insists on going to Judah with Naomi. Forsaking all others, she cleaves to Ruth and utters these famous words. Where you go, I will go, where you lodge, I will lodge, your people shall be my people and your God my God.

Without taking away anything from the poetic significance of Ruth’s affirmation as a model for the marriage commitment, let me invite you deeper into the story.

Think about the risk Ruth faced in going to Judah—a country unknown to her. Not only was she a Moabite, she was a widow, living with another widow. Widows in those days were extremely vulnerable. Widows were poor since property reverted to male family members. They were without protection and often subject to abuse by men. Neither Ruth nor Naomi could predict what would happen to them upon going to Judah. Would they be lonely and forsaken? Would they suffer abuse? Would they die from poverty? Or would their choice lead to new, as yet unimagined, possibilities?

The story goes on to tell how Ruth seduces Boaz and he eventually marries her and they have a child named Obed, the grandfather of King David. Imagine, the offspring of a woman from Moab as Israel’s king because she dared to make Your People, My People.

This is what we need so desperately today. If we are to avoid total chaos in our world and nation, we will need to find a way to make “your people” “my people”.

I imagine that most of you are as stunned and upset as I about the incredible divisions in our world today. The recent events in Ukraine and the Middle East have shocked the world. Putin calls the Ukrainian leaders Nazis and terrorizes the citizenry.

Over in Israel and Palestine, the long enduring and seemingly intractable stand-off is ticking away like a time bomb. Despite years of diplomatic efforts and numerous accords and agreements, the situation remains explosive. The terror of Oct 7th has torn apart many Israeli families and the bombs and military of Netanyahu have killed more than 50,000 people, almost 20,00 of them children. Colonial settlements have turned Palestine into a land of fear for the Palestinians. Israelis live with the threat of annihilation.

At home, our two political parties have been locked in a stranglehold--confounding all of us and much of the rest of the world. Our president describes immigrants as killers and rapists and sends them to prisons in other lands so as to make this a white, Christian nation. As if that were not sufficient some religious leaders in each of the three Abrahamic faiths are stirring up hatred among their adherents.

What is going on? And how do we move forward when people are being killed? How do we move forward when civil discourse is scarce, at best?--when religious leaders of differing faiths characterize the others as demonic or infidels? What is the way ahead in a world in which people, nations and religions are at each other’s throats?

Is there any hope?

No surprise, this sermon is very political. But it is not about partisan politics. It’s about politics in the broader sense of a concern for the polis. It is about securing the common good. It is about how we move forward when we find ourselves at each other’s throats.

It is not sufficient to lament our sorry state or to denounce those we consider to be the culprits. We must move beyond recrimination and blame to look deep within our own souls.

I believe the way ahead is fundamentally rooted in our recognition that we are not mortal enemies locked in eternal combat but that we are at our core sisters and brothers. That, of course, is quite a leap from where things now stand. But it is absolutely critical that we move beyond our Manichean division of people into good and evil. Unless we do, there is no hope for our nation, or for our world.

We Christians have both a responsibility and an opportunity. Our very foundation is rooted in the soil of kinship. It is not just the example of Ruth that shows us the way. The creation narrative in Genesis tells us that we are created in the very image of God. It does not suggest that only certain people—only those who believe a certain way or who look a certain way or who come from a certain place or who vote a certain way—are our kin. The lapel button young black children in New York City and elsewhere used to wear, says it all: “God don’t make no junk”.

The words of Maqsood Jafri say the same, “the corner stone in Islam is the unity of God. Allah’s unity teaches us the message that we should not divide humans into sections and sects.” In his book, The Light of Islam, Dr. Mohammad Ali Al-khuli claims that “(Islam) is a religion to all humans regardless of color, race, and language. It is a religion that tolerates other religions and orders its followers to respect and protect all humans. No people or race is superior as all are from Adam and Eve. As a result, there is no room for racial superiority. No one is superior….except in piety and good deeds. “

It is important to lift up this fundamental claim of humankind’s unity made by some contemporary Muslims since Islam has become for many what Communism was during the Cold War. Many in our nation have simply substituted one “enemy”—the communists—for another, “the Muslims”.

There are, of course, some interpreters of the Koran who assert a fundamental division of the world into believers and infidels thereby providing the foundation for extremist acts. But did Christians not treat Native Americans similarly. We find the same claims of essential separation both in Christianity and Judaism with the concomitant extremism that has marked our history to this day.

Actually, it’s all about a choice. A choice as to what we most value, what we most cherish and desire. It is also a choice about the Bible itself--which trajectory of Scripture we give most weight to. It’s true one can find stories and admonitions for separation, division and rejection—even killing-- of others in the Bible. But it also true that throughout the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures, the motif of a kinship that crosses all barriers is lifted up again and again. Those who were considered “other”, those who were outcasts or infidels or enemies become one. Joseph, who was sold into slavery in Egypt, became a trusted member of the Pharaoh’s court despite having been “other”. Rahab, who harbored two Hebrews spies in Jericho as they plotted its overthrow was “other” in two important ways. First, she was a Canaanite, the enemy. Second, she was a prostitute. But her solidarity with the Hebrews was rewarded with safety for her and her family. Jesus reached across the forbidden barrier between Jews and Samaritans to speak intimately with the woman at the well. In the book of Acts Phillip engaged with a man from Ethiopia—someone from another culture and race and—most probably--gay. (The word eunuch often was a word for referring to gay men in those times.) And, in the beautiful story of Ruth we are told of the power of love to overcome the boundaries of ethnicity and nation.

Paul said that the dividing walls of hostility are torn down and those once considered “other” are now understood to be kin--that there is neither Jew nor Greek, male nor female, slave nor free--all one body, with each of the members needing the other. All of the divisions were understood to be false. I choose to live my life in this spirit of kinship

Of course differences remain. Ending the divisions does not mean eliminating differences. There are still male and female, still Jews and Greeks, still slaves and free, still Republicans and Democrats, still Christians and Muslims. The challenge is to refuse to allow the differences to be cause for division--cause for dealing with someone as “other”. It is a matter of choice. Will we treat our differences as a cause for division or a cause for celebration.

What would it mean for us to view the world in these terms--to understand that no dividing walls should be erected or allowed to stand between any people based on ethnicity, race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, abilities, parties, or economic conditions?

What would it mean for Congress—for our relations with Muslims—for our response to immigrants—for our treatment of people’s whose gender identity is different from ours.?

Let’s be realistic. Getting to that point will be extremely difficult, for each of us as individuals, for political parties, for governments and for organized religion.

There are some substantial impediments to overcoming the divisions. Internationally, part of the difficulty lies in the spread of Globalization. It promises to bring an end to our divisions, to bring the world together. But too often it has functioned to cover up the differences. What it offers is conformity and sameness. No matter where you travel in the world today you find a Gap, a McDonald’s, a Starbucks, Coca Cola, and a Walt Disney. For me, Globalization is the spirit of corporate capitalism seeking to create a giant worldwide Mall in which everything seems the same.

Nationally, the current state of affairs in our government could easily lead us to despair. The lack of civility, unwillingness to hear the other, assumption of the worst motivation on the part of those who differ, and refusal to consider compromise have led us to a point of no return. If we cannot even reach across the aisle, how can we reach out to other nations, religions and cultures?

Organized religions too often have been more devoted to securing and maintaining power and privilege than in pursuing justice and unity. Today Christian Nationalism seeks to make this a white nation.

And personally, each of us has been indoctrinated with prejudices born of our childhood and constantly reinforced by the media. As children, how often did we need to see the Indians portrayed as savages and enemies before we started rooting for the cowboys. How often do we hear or see Muslims portrayed as terrorists before we view every Muslim with suspicion? It is difficult not to succumb to the stereotypes, even when we wish not to. I am reminded of Paul’s lament—the good that I would do I do not and that which I would not, I do.

But we dare not go that route. We dare not rest with despair. We dare not succumb to our stereotypes. We have a choice. We have a responsibility personally, nationally, and globally to work to break down the barriers that divide, to reach across the aisles that have become chasms, to take the risk of being vulnerable just as Ruth did when she left Moab and went to Judah with Naomi.

And as we take our halting steps toward overcoming the divisions in our world, we need to acknowledge how difficult it is to make this choice. What if our desire for unity is taken as weakness and we are taken advantage of? What if we are not trusted by those to whom we reach out? What if we are viewed as naïve or even worse, as traitors by those who considered us to be one of them? How do we stand for what we believe while being open to respecting and learning from others whose beliefs are different? How can we overcome our discomfort with those who are different? How do we prevent our life-long prejudices from sneaking up on us unexpectedly? It certainly will not be easy.

So, what are we to do? In closing, let me make two suggestions.

First, let us choose to celebrate our differences. Unfortunately, much of what passes for the search for unity is based on toleration rather than celebration. It is not sufficient to simply tolerate differences—they are to be celebrated as the gifts of creation that enrich our collective lives. Our differences make us a great nation. Our differences make us interesting. We need each other and that is to be celebrated. As Paul said, each member is needed for the sake of the body and each member is to be honored.

Second, let us choose depth rather than shallowness. We must move beyond trivial forays into the ideas, cultures and beliefs of those who are different from us. We will need to try to walk in their shoes. We need to do everything we can to listen respectfully and to understand those who differ from us. In a time when criticism of Israel is equated with anti-Semitism, when being a Christian is equated with being white, when being an immigrant is equated with being illegal, we must stand up for truth. To live in division is to live with lies.

If we stand in solidarity with Muslims or immigrants or blacks or GLBTQ or Trans or any who are considered “other” we may be misunderstood, ostracized, called unpatriotic, or un-Christian. So be it. I believe it is a choice worthy of our faith.