Uncommon Christian Community -- FPC sermon excerpt

Americans like to live in diverse communities. At least, that’s what they say.

But the truth is very different. In fact, it is much more common for people to cluster together among those who are just like themselves. Especially those who share their political affiliation.

According to The Washington Post (January 19, 2009), the clustering of Democrats in Democratic areas and Republicans in Republican areas has been a growing trend for at least 30 years. And one consequence of this polarization is that large numbers of Americans no longer have much contact with people belonging to the other party. Many feel the views of their political opponents are not just wrong … they are incomprehensible.

This trend toward a fractured and polarized community is the exact opposite of the vision that the prophet Isaiah has in chapter 56. God challenges us through Isaiah to be an Uncommon Community — “a house of prayer for all peoples.” God does not want us to be a Common Community, one in which Republicans worship with Republicans, Democrats pray with Democrats, liberals go to Bible study with liberals, and conservatives go on mission trips with other conservatives.

We are not supposed to be a Common Community, a house of prayer for people just like us. There are plenty of comfortable congregations like that, all around us. Instead, God challenges us to be Uncommon.

Even though it might make us uncomfortable.

So where does this unusual vision come from? In the time of Isaiah, the people of Israel were considered to be God’s chosen people, and the purity code of Deuteronomy excluded two particular categories of people: eunuchs and foreigners. Deuteronomy says that “no one whose testicles are crushed or whose penis is cut off shall be admitted to the assembly of the LORD.” And “no Ammonite or Moabite shall be admitted to the assembly of the LORD” (23:1, 3). Only certain foreigners, such as the Edomites, would be admitted, because they were considered to be relatives of the Israelites.

So the Common Community that existed in Israel was made up of like-minded Israelites. It was a comfortable congregation of people who shared the same idea of what was pure and what was not.

But then God comes along with a new vision of community, one in which everyone who honors God in their actions is to be included. Speaking through Isaiah, God says, “To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, who choose the things that please me and hold fast my covenant … I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off” (56:5).

The tragedy of the eunuch was that he was cut off, literally. No chance of having children to carry on his name. But God says that if you are faithful, eunuch, I will give you an everlasting name … that shall not be cut off.

“And the foreigners who join themselves to the LORD,” says Isaiah, “to minister to him, to love the name of the LORD, and to be his servants, all who keep the Sabbath, and do not profane it, and hold fast my covenant — these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer” (vv. 6-7).

What a radical shift this is. Suddenly, the community of faith is not limited to people of the same nationality or political party. Being admitted to the assembly of the LORD does not require being a man or woman in a traditional family, with 2.5 Israelite children.

God says, “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples” (v. 7). We are called not to be a Common Christian Community, one that is made up of like-minded people. But a truly Uncommon Christian Community, a house of prayer for all peoples.