Who’s the Us and who’s the Them?
“We, though many, are one Body in Christ and individually parts of one another.”
By Steve Hall
From Cupid to Pan to Hades, from Zeus to Prometheus to Aphrodite, who could imagine what the gods would dream up next? This belief was largely true throughout the known Roman empire, except for one small segment of the population, most of whom lived in a small tributary state on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean. Their God was different.
Memorial of Saint Charles Borromeo, Bishop
Romans 12:5-16ab
Luke 14:15-24
It’s Us against Them! So, who’s the Us and who’s the Them?
Well, that depends on when you ask and who you ask. The answer to that question has never been constant. Throughout the Roman Empire in Paul’s day, the answer from most would have probably been that the Us is humanity and the Them is the gods. Sounds peculiar to us today, but there is little question that at the time, the gods were supposed to be individually in charge of all the apparently capricious elements affecting mankind. From Cupid to Pan to Hades, from Zeus to Prometheus to Aphrodite, who could imagine what the gods would dream up next? This belief was largely true throughout the Empire, except for one small segment of the population, most of whom lived in a small tributary state on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean. Their God was different.
Whereas the rest of the Empire diligently tried to keep the mercurial gods contained by their worship, the Israelite belief was that God was beyond restraint. Whereas the rest of the Empire attempted to placate the gods and thus keep them happy, those Israelites chose a directed life to keep their status as the Chosen of God. Whereas the rest of the Empire saw themselves as the ‘toys’ of the gods, the Israelites saw themselves as the Children of God. Whereas the rest of the Empire believed that it was Us against Them, the Israelites thought that it was God with Us.
Moreover, the very essence of Us was different for the two.
While being a citizen of Rome was a distinct character and honor for a few, all were citizens of the Empire. People may have been distinguished by the region, culture, or city from which they originated. However, they were still individuals living at odds with one another, and collective identity revealed itself primarily in their relationship with the Empire and to the gods. On the other hand, we have the Jewish people. While personal and tribal disputes were not unknown, the very fact that they retained their ancestral identity when others blended in is evidence of the personal and tribal identity that existed so strongly among them.
Given their relationship to God, we should expect nothing less. They were a people. They were a chosen people. They were the Chosen People of God. This was their inheritance, and they clung tightly to it.
And why not? It was promised long before that all the nations of the earth should be blessed by them.
The Jews/Hebrews/Israelites had their reasons for clinging to their communal character, but apparently God had his reasons too. We see it today in Paul’s letter to the Romans. What more can be said than Paul’s few words here?
“We, though many, are one Body in Christ and individually parts of one another.”
This is the very lesson the former slaves of Egypt had been taught time and again after they left the sands of Egypt. It was forcefully expressed at Mt Sinai with the very word of God: “You will be my people and I will be your God.” It was reinforced in incidents and miracles as they wandered through the desert, as they crossed the Jordan and defeated Jericho, as they struggled through the ambivalent years of the Judges, and so on. All was in preparation for greater things to come. All was a strengthening of the understanding and the forged bonds of unity which we hear described by Paul today.