On the liturgical calendar, the Sunday immediately before MLK Day is designated as Human Relations Sunday. This special focus continually confronts us with our attitudes toward those who are not like us, calling into question how we treat them.
The gospel lesson for this particular Sunday is the story of Philip and Nathanael (John 1:43-51)—two of the lesser-known disciples of Jesus. Like Peter and Andrew, they were from the fishing town of Bethsaida (John 1:44).
The story begins with Jesus finding Philip and inviting him to be one of his disciples. “Follow me” (John 1:43). Philip, in turn, found Nathanael and told him “We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth” (John 1:45). Nathanael responded by asking, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” (John 1:45).
Nathanael’s response captures the theme of Human Relations Day. It reflects the challenge we all face—our attitude toward others, particularly those who are not like us. Our attitude, in turn, determines how we treat them.
“Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”
Nathanael was from Bethsaida, a fishing village on the northern shore of the sea of Galilee. It was an economically thriving community located on the trade route linking Egypt with Damascus and Syria (and, thereby, with the Tigris-Euphrates River Valley and its links to the Far East).
In contrast to Bethsaida, Nazareth was located in the western foothills of Mt. Tabor, on the eastern edge of the great Plain of Jezreel. It did not enjoy the economic prosperity or cosmopolitan influence associated with the international trade route as Bethsaida did. Nathanel’s question captured the attitude of much of the region toward the people of Nazareth. Nazareth was nothing more than an insignificant, out-of-the-way country village. In today’s language, its citizens would be considered “hicks” or “country bumpkins.” (Adding to this negative view of Nazareth was Sepphoris, the political center of lower Galilee. The Jewish historian Josephus described Sepphoris as “the ornament of all Galilee.” Sepphoris, located just five miles north of Nazareth, overshadowed it in every way. Some historians believe Jesus had Sepphoris in mind when he spoke of “a city built upon a hill” (Matthew 5:14).)
“Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”
Nathanael’s question reflects an attitude with which we all struggle. It is inherent to our human condition. We hold disdain for those who are not like us, looking down on them as inferior and “less than.”
Nathanael assumed Jesus could not be who Philip said he was—a person of spiritual, religious, political, and national significance—simply because he was from a place that was socially and economically different from his. Jesus was from Nazareth.
The “Nazareth” we use to justify our “they’re less than” attitude toward others is multifaceted. Most are reflected in our nation’s polarization: ethnicity, cultural region, political identity, political-social-moral issues, religion, theology, socioeconomic status, education, sexual orientation, etc.
Each of these identified issues are but the content we use to justify our attitude toward the other. We seldom look beyond them—that is, beyond the surface—to identify the underlying source of our attitude. In other words, our attitude toward the other is not fueled by the issue we use to attack them.
That which fuels our attitude toward another actually has nothing to do with them. The underlying issue is about us, not them. Remember Jesus’s teaching: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:39). His words tie how we view and treat our neighbor with how we view ourselves.
Our negative, discounting attitude toward those who are not like us is evidence that we carry a deep-seated, negative attitude about ourselves. We carry a shame-based identity. This shame-based identity is captured in the negative messages that haunt us: “You are no good. You are flawed. You’ll never measure up. You’ll never be good enough. No one will ever love you. You’ll never amount to anything. You are nothing but a loser.” All of these messages say “less than”—the very thing we say about the other.
Because of the pain this shame-based identity stirs, we push it outside of our awareness—into our unconscious mind, into what Jung called “the shadow.” We push it underground. It then surfaces in how we view and treat others.
Unfortunately, we cannot push the old messages out of our awareness. They haunt us, surfacing at unexpected times and in unexpected ways. The pain they stir is the pain of our shame-based identity.
To compensate for this shame-based identity, we manufacture an egocentric identity. This manufactured identity is based upon what the world told us we needed to be and do if we wanted to be accepted and valued. This conformity to the world’s standards is how we offset the old “less than” messages. It allows us to feel “better than” those who fail to measure up—those who are not like us. We prop up our fragile, egocentric identities by viewing and treating them as “less than.” We build ourselves up by tearing the other down. We feel good about ourselves at the other’s expense.
Philip did not challenge Nathanael’s view of Jesus, i.e., his attitude about Nazareth. Instead, he invited Nathanael, “Come and see” (John 1:46).
The only way to overcome our negative attitude toward others is through relationship—through an encounter that challenges our assumptions. We have to experience who they are as a beloved child of God.
Encounter and relationship require us to get outside of our self-affirming bubbles of those who think like us and look like us. Getting outside our bubble is the invitation embedded in Human Relations Sunday.
“Can
anything good come out of Nazareth?” Come and see.
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