"My Brother, the Banana"

 

Photo by Shane Rounce on Unsplash

The First United Presbyterian Church of Loveland

“My Brother, the Banana”

Rev. Amy Morgan

October 3, 2021

Psalm 8

O LORD, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens.

 2 Out of the mouths of babes and infants you have founded a bulwark because of your foes, to silence the enemy and the avenger.

 3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established;

 4 what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?

 5 Yet you have made them a little lower than God, and crowned them with glory and honor.

 6 You have given them dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under their feet,

 7 all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field,

 8 the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas.

 9 O LORD, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth!

Hebrews 1:1-4, 2:5-12 

Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets,

 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also created the worlds.

 3 He is the reflection of God's glory and the exact imprint of God's very being, and he sustains all things by his powerful word. When he had made purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,

 4 having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.

5 Now God did not subject the coming world, about which we are speaking, to angels.

 6 But someone has testified somewhere, "What are human beings that you are mindful of them, or mortals, that you care for them?

 7 You have made them for a little while lower than the angels; you have crowned them with glory and honor,

 8 subjecting all things under their feet." Now in subjecting all things to them, God left nothing outside their control. As it is, we do not yet see everything in subjection to them,

 9 but we do see Jesus, who for a little while was made lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.

 10 It was fitting that God, for whom and through whom all things exist, in bringing many children to glory, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through sufferings.

 11 For the one who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one Father. For this reason Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters,

 12 saying, "I will proclaim your name to my brothers and sisters, in the midst of the congregation I will praise you."

These three kids could not be more different. One is shy and hates having her picture taken. Another is goofy and never stops talking. And one just wants everyone to like her all the time. These differences resulted in fights and rivalries, even name-calling and lines drawn down the middle of shared bedrooms. 

Yes, this is a photo of me and my older sister and younger brother. We are still very different, but as we’ve gotten older, we’ve also come to see how much we have in common. Even as children, we played make-believe games together, enjoyed swimming, and danced around backyard bonfires with gusto. We all love to laugh and are all kind of out-of-the-box thinkers, in our own ways. We love our family, and we are adventurous. We all have a little cleft in our chin and have blue eyes, like our parents. 

And it turns out that this is quite common among siblings - for there to be a lot of differences as well as many similarities. Those of you with siblings can probably name some strong distinctions as well as some common traits with your brothers and sisters. 

But it turns out that this is true, not just on the level of families, but throughout the whole human family. Across the globe, humans display an immense array of diversity. We have different physical traits like hair texture, eye color, skin color, height, hairiness. And we speak different languages, wear different clothes, like different food and music, practice different religions and have different social customs. 

But genetic discoveries have revealed that human beings share a whole lot in common. All humans, no matter our perceivable differences, share 99.9% of our DNA. In other words, we are 99.9% alike, at the most basic, essential level of our biological construction. 

Not only that, we are surprisingly similar to other parts of the creation. We share 96% of our DNA with our closest relative in the animal family, the chimpanzee. For you cat people, you might be happy to know that our DNA is 90% the same as our furry friends. That 10% accounts for all the people with cat allergies and aversions, I’m sure. The cat’s sworn enemy, the mouse, is 85% identical in DNA to humans. 

And these similarities extend even beyond the animal world to things in creation that look extremely different from humans. In fact, we share 60%, a majority, of our DNA with…a banana. 

Even things that aren’t living can share commonality. Quantum physics tells us that on a sub-atomic level, one particle can decay into two particles that are then “twinned” and will behave in a balanced way no matter how far apart they are. This connection is called quantum entanglement and allows two different particles to “hear” each other, respond, and behave in a connected way across light years in an instant. If you didn’t understand that any better than I do, that’s all right. Suffice it to say that really smart scientists have determined that the whole universe is connected in some pretty amazing ways. 

So we can recognize that in the midst of all the diversity in creation there is a lot of commonality and connection. But that’s the creation, things made out of atoms, stardust, particles, DNA. What about God?

Theologians have this term they use to describe how vastly different God is from humanity. They call it the ontological divide. It means that God is entirely “other” from the creation – in God’s very substance and being. 

And while there is certainly truth to that, testified to in scripture, there are also these scriptures that attest to God’s connection and commonality with the creation. In Genesis, it says that humans are made in God’s very image, that we bear the imprint of the divine, despite our difference from God. The Psalmist declares the greatness, sovereignty, and “otherness” of God, and then wonders, “what are human beings, that you are mindful of them?” Why would God even notice such insignificant and utterly different entities as humans?

“And yet” – the Psalmist says, “you have made them a little lower than God.” And God crowned them with the same glory and honor due to God. How wild is that? Even God is not so different from us.

The sermon from Hebrews begins with a remembrance of the ancestors, those with whom the hearers of this sermon share a lineage, a biological bond. And then it moves from that familiar bond to the cosmic distance of that ontological divide, talking about the Son of God, the reflection of God's glory and the exact imprint of God's very being, through whom the whole world was created and is sustained. 

But then it goes on to describe all the ways Jesus is similar to humans, what we share in common. We were both made, at least for a time, “a little lower than the angels.” The word found in Psalm 8 for “God” is Elohim, which can also mean angel in Hebrew. But either way, we’re talking about a connection between God and humanity that isn’t just about images and influence, glory and dominion. It is the very substance and being of God melding with humanity. Jesus suffered and died, just like all humans do. And it says that we all share one Father, and Jesus is not ashamed to call us brothers and sisters. That’s more than my siblings could say about me sometimes.  

So, if someone as far different from us as Jesus, who is God incarnate, is not ashamed to call us brothers and sisters, who on earth could we possibly exclude from our family?

When we come together to praise God, our common parent, in the congregation, it’s worth taking a long, loving look at who, or what, we think is too different to join us here. When we come to a table seeking to fill our basic, common, human need for both spiritual and physical nourishment, who would we not invite? 

The Communion table reminds us, especially on this World Communion Sunday, of just how enormous the family of God is. This table reconnects us to our ancestors, those saints in the faith who have come here seeking nourishment again and again. And it sends us out to invite those who have never tasted and seen that the Lord is good and that this is a place of refuge. In the elements of bread and juice, wheat and grape, we are connected to all of creation and reminded of our responsibility to care for those things that still share a majority of our DNA, even it they don’t have lungs or legs or eyeballs. 

In the words of institution that we recite over this table, we are reminded that Jesus gave his body, which bears the imprint of both God and humanity, and his blood, that is the same color as ours, for all of us: for those who are like us and those who are very different, for those we agree with and those with whom we disagree, for those who long for salvation and those who think they can save themselves. In Jesus, God is mindful of humans. The God who created the universe shows us how deeply valued we are, how precious and beloved.

If we truly realize that God, who is so different, so “other,” is also mindful of us, and has become like us, perhaps we would reconsider how we define family. Maybe it looks like this. [photo of intergenerational church group caroling] Or this. [adults dressed as barn animals] Or this [teens from the church] Or this. [Watoto Children’s Choir eating dinner]. Or maybe it could even look like this. [dog and cat snuggling]

This meal is not just a recognition or a reminder - it is a responsibility. It is a responsibility to treat one another like family. Sometimes this will involve sibling rivalries and disagreements or even fights. But in the end, and especially at this table, we are called to love one another, to recognize are common connections. We are invited to live in a way that honors one another's humanity, that honors the creation placed in our care. This includes the other humans who share this planet with us, but also the chimpanzees, the cats, the mice, and yes, the bananas.

To God be all glory forever and ever. Amen.