(Sunday School) Prepping For Thanksgiving: A Guide to Navigating Hard Political Conversations

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Hey. Thanks for being here this morning. You may think I'm a little crazy, doing a class on politics. I heard last week when I wasn't here, we were dropping off a kid at college and helping my mom move, but I heard there was a lot of laughter around the fact that we're doing this class. As Paul said, we're approaching the subject in this direction, calling it Prepping for Thanksgiving. What I have in view in that is the tables around which you will be gathered, presumably, in November with people who are related to you by blood, but may have vastly different perspectives than you politically. Navigating those conversations—whether that's somebody on the far left or the far right of you—trying to figure out how you build bridges and not build walls.

This has been really challenging. This has been very personal for many people. I know from personal conversations with people in the congregation about the challenges that you've had. I will tell you I'm taking my own medicine, though. Friday night we were at dinner with some family in Tennessee and one of my brothers in law has just successfully won a seat as county commissioner for Knox County. He explained the tack he was taking and his political platform, and then he said, "Jeff, I just have you to thank for running for office." It was a vastly different orientation than I would take. We disagree a lot on a lot of things. He puts a lot of crazy out there on the Internet too. So I'm taking my own medicine. This is not theoretical for me.

I want to start with a little quiz. Emily Anne, would you guys hand these out? I need everybody to take one of these. You can just stick extras on the end tables as people come in. I want to do a little assessment to talk about and think about your relationships, whether this is family or friends. I want you to think about people who have been a significant part of your life and who are no longer—particularly for political reasons—no longer a significant part of your life, or at least your regular engagement. So would you take a moment to do this exercise together?

I'd be curious: after taking that assessment, how many of you—just raise your hands—had family members particularly that were on your list? Was it a lot of family? Friends? A couple? Okay. And then feelings that were not listed here. We have a bunch here: anger, sadness, numbness, affection, guilt, curiosity, revulsion, insecurity, etcetera. Any feelings that you want to describe that weren't on my list?

Confused? Yeah. I do engage in a conversation that's kind of contentious. I just want to share what facts have you seen, what facts share evidence and talk a really hard conversation I'd like to have. Thank you, Bert. Misunderstood? Do you have more you want to say about that? Assumptions—right. Just the assumptions that people might see. Good. Bill?

Disappointment? Okay. You've known somebody, and then a political conversation comes up. Yeah. And all of a sudden you're no longer the person that they like and are friendly with; you are something else. That transition is on something that's really an opinion rather than an essential element of who you are as a person. Good. Becky?

Dehumanizing? Explain that. You can feel like you're speaking separate languages. That's good. Thank you for your input on that.

You know, I think one of the things that's a term that's been used to describe what's happened in the last few years in American society is "the big sort." There's been a shuffling. We see this in churches. We see this in relationships. A sorting of people according to political ideology in a way that we haven't experienced with this kind of heat in many, many generations in America.

Now, one of the things I want us to think about first this morning is the way that we approach how we determine what our politics, our political choices, our political leanings are—how they're formed. This is how we would say we do this: I'm a follower of Jesus. Therefore, my faith shapes my values, which shapes my ideology, which helps me choose a political party. I trust that political party on particular policies or platforms. That's what I'm looking to—how that works.

I want to take a step back and think about first century Israel political ideology. If you want to flip your paper over, I'm going to do some teaching, and we're going to do some group time as well around the first century.

The first three of these classes are around church history. So this one's on the first century. Israel's ideology was very much shaped politically by the Roman oppressors. And so there's all these groups, and I've written out the group names here. You can take notes if you want to fill anything, but they all had a particular stance regarding the way that they viewed Roman occupation and Roman rule.

Hellenized Assimilated Jews. Hellenization means Greek. So these are people who spoke the Greek language in their homes, kind of more secular Jews. They welcomed the Romans' presence. They profited by it in many cases. They were angry with other Jews who lived in Judea at the time who resisted Roman domination.

Herodians. You'll recognize the name Herod in there. The Herodian dynasty was a puppet kingdom—a Jewish monarch who was not really in the line of David at all, set up by the Romans. Both Herod Agrippa, Herod Antipas, all the Herods, Herod the Great, they all had a certain amount of rule and authority, but they did so under Rome. They were friendly with Rome. They were put in place by Rome.

The Sadducees. You'll begin to recognize some of these names from your New Testament. For the most part, these are wealthy Jews who were in power politically. They had ties to the priesthood. They were not theological conservatives. They were theologically more liberal. They denied the oral laws being from God. They dominated and corrupted the temple hierarchy. A lot of times, you'll see the priests and the Sadducees working together because the priesthood was very much controlled by the Romans and in bed with the Romans. Some people will say, remember Sadducees—they were sad because they didn't believe in the resurrection. Jesus talks about the resurrection. They were like, what resurrection? So they saw other Jewish factions as troublemakers.

The Pharisees. This would be what we would think of today as evangelical Christians. These were people who believed the Bible. They wanted to follow the dietary laws. They took seriously an orientation toward the scriptures, but they were also friendly and trying to make the best of Roman occupation. They disapproved of those who wanted military resistance. They disapproved of anybody who was promoting change or uprising.

The Zealots. Now there's a bunch of different groups that are kind of loosely called the zealots. One of them is called the Sicari—S-I-C-A-R-I. And that comes from the word for a short dagger that they would keep beneath their tunic, and they were political assassins. These were people promoting political uprising, overthrowing the government. The zealots were incensed at the Roman presence, angry with other Jews.

The Birayim. This is a criminal element that also was sort of infused with the zealots, but not so much because there was any kind of political or religious orientation. It's just this view toward the Roman government made sense to them in terms of being able to push out the Romans and put themselves back in power.

The Essenes. The Essenes had extreme views with regard to the Roman government and also the temple system. These were the fundamentalists of the day, and they withdrew from society. They created a community. The Essene community outside of Jerusalem is where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. If you're familiar with the Dead Sea Scrolls, they were one of our best preserved sources of the Old Testament scriptures in terms of what was found in those caves. But they were withdrawn from society.

Two Camps: Those Who Cooperated vs. Those Who Opposed Rome

So literally, you have two big groups, and I grouped them in the first half and the second half of this list. You have those who opposed or cooperated with Rome, and those who opposed Rome. So those who wanted to cooperate with the Romans were the Pharisees, the Hellenistic Jews, the Herodians, the Sadducees. And those who opposed Rome: the Sicari, Zealots, Essenes, and sometimes the Pharisees.

A generation before the birth of Christ, there was a man from Jesus' hometown, Galilee, named Judas the Galilean, who led a very successful revolt against the Roman tax system. He viewed tax collectors. He viewed those who were in league at all with Rome as his enemies, and he was eventually crucified. But you can bet that in the household that Jesus grew up in, in the community that he grew up in, this was a very well known figure. He's one of the few Jewish commoners that we have names of from that time period.

So the idea of political rebellion, of resisting or overthrowing or being in league with Rome—this was super, super in the water and in the air at the time.

Now why do we need to know this? Why am I telling you all this?

I think it's because we happen to live in a time where we feel like, often, we're the first generation who's ever had to navigate these waters. We're like, I've never heard of a time where people were so polarized and people had fake news and thought there's a deep state and all these theories that are crazy, and I think that I'm the only sane person in a world of crazy. Well, the first century was very much that way. The first century that Jesus was born into and ministered within had such an intense division, polarization, and splintering of people and relationships—even more than we experience today. This is the world into which Jesus came and ministered.

And so it makes me want to ask some questions about where we are. Because I think it could be helpful for us in asking: Is there another way? Is there another way to approach the moment that we're in? I want to look particularly with you briefly at the ministry of Jesus. None of this is going to be brand new probably if you've been around Sunday school and the Bible, but I want to remind you of a few things.

Who Did Jesus Eat With?

I want to think about whom Jesus ate with and shared table fellowship. So very briefly, I'm going to ask this table at the end here. If you want to look at Luke 19:10 and following. And this table right here, if you want to look at Luke 7:36 and following. You guys get Luke 14:1-14. You guys get Matthew 9:10-17. You guys get Matthew 11:19. So that table right there, David, Bill, Katie, you guys start with Luke 19. Then Ruth, your table, Luke 7. And you guys at the end, Luke 14.

In the first century, you shared table fellowship with people who were at the same level as you both in terms of finances and social class. Those are the people with whom you ate. You can also add to that political affiliation.

Who did Jesus eat with? Zacchaeus, who is a tax collector. Pharisees. Tax collectors and sinners. Jesus enjoyed table fellowship over and over, and this is scandalizing to the society around him. You hear these remarks: How dare he do this? Why is he doing this? He continually eats with people who are in different parties. He goes into Samaria and the disciples are like, what are you doing with the Samaritan woman? Jesus keeps crossing lines. And not only in terms of who he ate with, but who he ministered with.

The Twelve Disciples

If you look at the next section, the 12 disciples are listed there, and I'm particularly looking at Matthew's version because Matthew highlights this. These are the names of the 12 apostles:

First, Simon, who's called Peter. Andrew, his brother. James, son of Zebedee. John, his brother. Philip and Bartholomew. Thomas and Matthew, the tax collector. James, the son of Alpheus and Thaddeus, Simon, the zealot, and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed him. — Matthew 10

I want you to get out your pen, and I'm going to go back through this and tell you the history of what kind of orientation they had toward culture. So G is Gentile, and A is Aramaic or Hebrew, because it tells you something about the families that these men came from. Were they from more traditional families, Aramaic speaking at home, probably Torah observing conservatives? Or were they Greek, Hellenized, more secular?

The Greek names on this list are Matthew, Thaddeus, Andrew, and Philip. The Aramaic or Hebrew names are Simon, James (also known as Jacob), John, Nathaniel, and Judas. One name on the list, Bartholomew, also called Nathaniel, is a fusion of Greek and Hebrew words.

Why am I making this point? Because Jesus also selects within his group that he ministers with not only a zealot—Simon the zealot, who may be a member of the Sakari, a political unrest, fight-the-Romans group—and a tax collector who cooperates with the Romans group. But he also selects people who are of different orientations family-wise toward secular society. More secularized or Gentile Greek-speaking people with Greek names, or more conservative Aramaic or Hebrew names. And he combines that in a group.

Jesus could have easily picked 12 people who are from the same background.

He could have picked 12 people with Greek names, 12 people who would cooperate with the Romans, 12 people who were opposed to Romans, 12 people with more Hebrew, Aramaic names. But instead, he combines these together. Now that's all happy and everything, right? We're like, "Yay, Jesus crossing the lines." But I want to think about this in another way. I want to think about a shift.

We've gone through a season that people are calling "the big sort." I want to think about the big shift in how we think of politics and the way that Christians formulate political ideology. We'll talk lots more about this next week, according to who would Jesus vote for? What candidates or policies most reflect Scripture? And that's where most of our conversations are around. And that's why you get into conversations where everybody seems to get into conversations about who's right and who's wrong, who's in and who's out, who reflects Jesus, who's against the philosophy of the Bible. And I think that by doing so, we are creating and continuing to exist in ways where we don't know how to talk to other people.

Moving from What to How

I want to move us from what to how. This is a little harder because it means that we are going to emphasize relationships over party and practices over policy. Now I don't want to downplay how hard it is to have relationships with people with whom you have vastly different political orientations. But I want us to think about how we shift away from issues and approach people.

One of the things I appreciate—Becky shared this morning—was dehumanizing. There's a way in which all these conversations remove any human element from a conversation. It's no longer, "you know me. We've had a relationship forever." It's suddenly like, "You are this ideology. I am this ideology, and they can't mix."

Now I want you to notice how often the New Testament, and particularly the ministry of Jesus, does not go into the "us versus them" categories. The "us versus them" was what you read when we talked about who Jesus ate with. Jesus is eating with the tax collectors and sinners. Jesus is eating with the other. Instead, listen to how Jesus teaches. This is from Matthew chapter six. He says this:

"Then Jesus told them, watch out and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees."

Now leaven is yeast, right? It's used to make dough rise. Our introductory speaker this morning, Paul, was a sourdough specialist. And you have to have what for a good loaf of sourdough? A starter, right? And it's got yeast in it, and it's growing. But notice what Jesus doesn't say. He doesn't say, "Watch out for the Herodians. Watch out for the Pharisees." He says, "Watch out for the yeast, the leaven of the Herodians and Pharisees." He's not making them the other. They're not the problem. There's something deeper that he's mining out here.

You could see this in the way that the disciples were struggling to understand what it meant to follow Jesus because of how confusing and difficult some of his teaching was around this. Peter says, "Jesus, I don't know where else we're going to go besides you, but what you're calling us to is something much harder. It is really, really difficult to love people with whom you disagree."

The Sermon on the Mount as a Field Guide

I want to point you back to the beginning of the sermon on the mount. If you could find Matthew chapter five, Matthew five, the beginning of the sermon on the mount. If you want a field guide for how to reenter conversations, Matthew five is maybe the best starting point.

Would somebody read Matthew five seven for us real loud?

"Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy." — Matthew 5:7

Great. Matthew chapter five verse nine:

"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God." — Matthew 5:9

Verses 21 through 22:

"You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not murder,' and whoever murders will be liable to judgment. But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment. Whoever insults his brother will be liable to the counsel. And whoever says, 'You fool,' will be liable to the hell of fire." — Matthew 5:21-22

Verses 43 to 47:

"You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others?" — Matthew 5:43-47

Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Verse 41. And whoever shall force you to go one mile, go with them two.

These are really challenging words, and I don't want to make this sound simple. Just go do these things. It'll be fine. I mean, if you notice, there is nothing in this that says you should always speak. There's nothing in this that says you should always be silent. There's so much about applying Jesus' teaching here that requires wisdom. Wisdom is a category of biblical teaching that we don't really operate in very often. We think of truths. Wisdom is applied truth, knowing the right time to speak, the right time to be silent.

Building Bridges Across Difference

So what we're talking about entering into in terms of negotiating relationships, whether that's around the thanksgiving table in November with your family members or even just around our communion table. Our church has always been filled with people who are all over the place in the political spectrum. I always get questions from people in our church. Isn't everybody a blank? And I'm like, no. Clearly, you don't know our congregation very well. This is a very diverse group of people. It's been an intention of our elders from the very beginning to create a space where people on all parts of the political spectrum can be in church together. And we think that's really healthy.

So whether this is for the thanksgiving table or the communion table, we've got some work to do. This is hard. So I want to give you a preview of where we're going, and then I'm gonna lead us in a time of prayer.

Series Overview

Here's where we're going. Three weeks on perspective. This week is on the first century and thinking about the world in which Jesus ministered and the group of people he gathered around him and why that worked. Next week, we're gonna talk about the passage render unto Caesar, and I'm gonna take you through seven different positions with regard to political ideology. What's the relationship between my faith and the state? And over church history, there have been a wide spectrum of that. And I want to encourage you that we're not as far apart as we think we are and feel we are. Church history helps us have perspective.

The next week, I want to talk about liberty of conscience. And we're gonna talk about the Westminster Confession of Faith, everybody's favorite subject. And we're gonna talk through why did the reformers talk about liberty of conscience and how the church relates to its members around political ideology.

Then we're gonna do three weeks on movement. And I'm gonna try to help you take some steps from entrenchment to humility, from a place of cynicism to hope, and from a place of exhaustion to engagement. And I find that most people, when I talk to people in our church, the problem is exhaustion. So that's where I'm aiming us for, and I hope to give you a field guide the last day on how do you have conversations.

That's what we're building toward as we go through this class together. This is what I'm aiming for: us being people who have some judo moves and you feeling more equipped to enter into conversations, whether it's the office or thanksgiving or even in our church.

Prayer

Let me close this in prayer. Would you bow your heads with me?

Lord, we're grieved. Our families and our churches, small groups, friend groups, a nation are bitterly divided, and we know suspicion and fear and cynicism and discomfort over differences have driven us far away from people that formerly we would have said are close to us. And, Lord, we come, therefore, needing to hear from you and experiencing more of you. We mourn the wounds in relationships. We pray now for healing. We pray for the thanksgiving table and the communion table and relationships at our offices.

We pray many of us have past regrets for things we've said or things we didn't say and should have said. Lord, we pray that you who can heal all things would restore broken relationships. Lord, we pray that you would help us to remember that we are always invited guests into your family and to eventually the eternal feast. And, Lord, we pray that we would be agents of reconciliation and hope.

Lord, teach us, equip us how to reenter into relationships. Help us to be those who build bridges and don't just give up our own convictions, but love well. Teach us how to enter in with those with whom we disagree, even on things which matter greatly to us. Lord, help us to be those who rehumanize conversations and relationships. And, Lord, we pray all these things in Jesus' name.

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