Beyond Barriers: Upstairs/Downstairs

Galatians 3:23-28

Rev. Monte Marshall

 

We are in a new season of the church year.  It’s Lent.  It began on Ash Wednesday this past week, and lasts for 40 days, excluding Sundays.  In fact, there are six Sundays during the season with today being the first Sunday of Lent. 

Lent is a season of preparation for Easter.  It’s a period for disciplined attentiveness to God.  It’s a time for confronting barriers to our discipleship, and moving beyond those barriers to the experience of transformation.  

Appropriately enough, our theme for Lent this year is Beyond Barriers.  On each of the Sundays of Lent we’ll look to the scriptures to identify the transformative possibilities that await us beyond the barriers.  We’re also using various word pairings to provide a framework for the process—pairings like Conformity/Transformation; Upstairs/Downstairs; Inside/Outside; Self/Community; and so on.    By the way, Upstairs/Downstairs is our focus this morning.

Now to make the most of this season, I invite us to consider participating in the Lenten Experiments in Transformation that are outlined in this morning’s bulletin insert.  I have signed-on to practice the Core Commitments, share in the Weekly Reflection/Action Experiments and keep the Daily Appointments with the Scriptures.  It would be nice to have some company.

So with all of that said, let’s pray.  PRAYER.

As some of you may remember, the first sermon I preached as the senior pastor of this congregation was on this morning’s text from Galatians.  I shared with you that one of the reasons I was excited to be at Travis Park United Methodist Church was the diversity of the people here.  I thanked God that diversity is welcomed here.  I even read the statement that was in our bulletin and on our church’s website:  We come from all walks of life:  “rich and poor, housed and homeless, gay and straight, black and brown and white, secular and sacred, PhD and GED.”

I closed the sermon by saying:  “In a world and a culture where diversity often results in division, polarization and paralysis…this congregation is a demonstration plot for the reign of God.”  I then said:  “I know it’s hard work, but it’s God’s work, born of God’s dream for us—a dream for the whole creation—of all people coming together in uniqueness—in individuality—in diversity—to experience not division, but unity, justice and peace.

Well, that was over 2 ½ years ago, and I’m still celebrating the diversity of our people.  This is, by far, the most diverse congregation I have ever served and I thank God for that!

But I also know that there are still barriers to overcome and I want to focus on one of those barriers this morning.  It’s a barrier suggested by the word pairing Upstairs/Downstairs.

I’ve actually heard these two words being used by folks here at TPUMC as a metaphorical short-hand to refer to a particular barrier that exists within our congregation.  And I’m not talking about a physical barrier that’s the result of the architectural design of this building.  I’m talking about an emotional barrier built of various components that include suspicion, fear, mistrust and prejudice.  The barrier reflects the differences that exist among us—differences that are cultural, social, economic, racial and ethnic. 

The fact of the matter is that most of the folks who gather downstairs on Sunday mornings and during the week are our poor and homeless neighbors who participate in various aspects of Corazon Ministries including the Sunday morning breakfast, free medical clinic, showers, and clothes closet; the Wednesday evening Prayer Picnic and Recovery Circle; and the Bible studies over lunch on Thursdays and Fridays.

By the way, the number of our poor and homeless neighbors participating in all of these ministries has been on the increase over the past several years.  In fact, on most Sunday mornings, there are more folks downstairs than there are anywhere else in the building.

Meanwhile, most of the people who gather upstairs on Sunday mornings and during the week are more affluent.  They are people more likely to have higher levels of education, with higher paying jobs, and more expensive housing.  They’re folks more likely to drive to church than to walk or ride the bus.  And I think it’s accurate to say that the “upstairs” folks have a higher percentage of white, Anglo-Saxons in the racial and ethnic mix, than the “downstairs” folks.

These differences exist among us.  We are, after all, a diverse church.  We welcome this diversity.  And thankfully, there is flow between the two floors on Sunday mornings.  This is a very good thing.

But here’s the deal:  When we look at the number of people who are upstairs, and the increasing number of people who are downstairs on a given Sunday morning, the flow between floors is more like a trickle.  And that’s because—for some of us—there is this barrier that divides us—a barrier that we speak about in terms of upstairs and downstairs.  This barrier separates us from one another.  It keeps most of the “downstairs” folks downstairs, and most of the “upstairs” folk upstairs. Apparently, many of us are uncomfortable with folks from the other floor, so we stay apart.  And when this happens, all of us are diminished. 

For you see, God has a different dream for us of transformation beyond the barriers.  Paul writes of this vision in this morning’s text.  He writes to a church struggling with diversity.  In the culture of his day, differences were acknowledged between Jews and Greeks, slaves and citizens, males and females.  And along with these differences came the barriers—the destructive divisions that fragmented the larger society, and hindered the unity of the church in Galatia and elsewhere.

Paul’s response to this circumstance is a bold proclamation of transformation beyond the barriers:  In Christ, he proclaims, there is no Jew or Greek—this religious and ethnic barrier has been shattered!  In Christ there is no slave or citizen—this socioeconomic barrier has been shattered!  In Christ there is no male or female—this gender barrier has been shattered!  In Christ, we are all one! 

Now Paul is not saying that all of our differences simply vanish in Christ.  Paul’s point, in the words of one commentator, is that “the hostility, the chauvinism, and sense of superiority and inferiority” that create barriers “are destroyed.”[1]  In other words, the diversity remains, but the divisions are overcome.

This allows for the creation a new community of people living in transformed relationships beyond the barriers.  And these relationships run far deeper than just a hand shake and passing words of greeting.  Paul envisions a new family being formed in which people are like brothers and sisters whose eyes have been opened to the reality that all of us are beloved children of God.  And as family, we need one another.  We need relationships with one another that are more intimate in which we share together, joys and sorrows, tears and laughter, failures and successes, defeats and victories. 

So Paul wants us to know that in Christ, we are family.  This is who we are!  This is the identity we receive in baptism.  Therefore, our task is to be who we are day in and day out as we trust Christ with our very lives!  And this is where the work comes in. 

Shane Claiborne points the way.  He writes:  “It is a beautiful thing when folks in poverty are no longer just a mission project but become genuine friends and family with whom we laugh, cry, dream and struggle.”[2]  In my estimation, this is a goal worth pursuing for the followers of Jesus during Lent or any other season of the year.

But make no mistake about it. Courage is required to move us beyond the barrier and toward transformation.  We need barrier-busters among us who will push the envelope, move beyond the comfort zone, and act to get beyond the barrier.  We need barrier-busters among our “downstairs” folks who will risk coming upstairs and engaging those who are different.  And we need barrier-busters among our “upstairs” folks who will risk going downstairs and engaging those who are different—and not to just to perform some kind service for them, but to show them hospitality, to respect their dignity, and to build relationships one person at a time that go beyond the one-sided giving and receiving of a “mission project.”

So this is the challenge.  I call upon each one of us today, to search our hearts during this Lenten season to lay bare the barriers that keep us divided between upstairs and downstairs.  And then consider this week’s Action/Reflection Experiment:  First, identify one challenging, barrier-breaking step you can take to break the barrier between upstairs and downstairs that involves engaging at least one person you have been avoiding because of differences in life circumstances.  Second, act to take this step.         

  And keep this story in mind.  It‘s the story of a rabbi recounted in the book The Strength of the Weak, by Dorothee Solle.  The rabbi once asked his students how one could recognize the time when night ends and day begins.

One student asked:  “Is it when, from a great distance, you can tell a dog from a sheep?”

“No,” said the rabbi.

“Is it when, from a great distance, you can tell a date palm from a fig tree?” asked another student.

“No,” said the rabbi.

“Then when is it?” the students asked.

“If is when you look into the face of any human creature and see your brother or your sister there.  Until then, night is still with us.”[3]

My brothers and sisters, I celebrate our diversity, but barriers remain.  Isn’t it time to move beyond the barrier of upstairs/downstairs and experience the joy and beauty of transformed relationships with those who are different from us, and yet, our brothers and sisters in Christ?  Is it scary to move beyond the barriers?  Yes!  Is it risky?  Yes!  But in taking this step, we know that the night is ending and a new day is about to dawn!  Thanks be to God!  Amen.