Fragmentation

It’s not news to anyone that our society is deeply fragmented.   While the US has never truly been a melting pot, it appears that we continue to add new ways in which to separate  from one another.  Race, religion and country of origin have a long history of dividing our country.  And while we would like to think that those who settled here from Europe left the aristocracy behind, there has always been a certain ostracism felt by those with little power and scant means.  And, of course, the cultural alienation between North and South, cemented by the Civil War, remains in some ways even today.

But new cracks in the body politic appear almost daily.  Pluribus is much more prominent than is Unum.  We have found novel issues around which to rally, drawing lines in ever smaller circles that determine who is “in” our group and who is “out.”  While I could propose a list of all the ways in which we decide with whom we will associate (and who is decidedly wrong in their viewpoints), I have no doubt you could come up with a better list.  We may have always been a tribal people, but I feel like it’s getting much worse.

I guess I could blame social media and the internet.  That has become a common diagnosis among those more expert than I.  There is some logic in this perspective.  Our digital age allows us to block out all views with which we disagree.  With so many options of sources for news and information, we can always seem to find someone willing to tell us what we want to hear.  Perhaps there was a time when only one or two sources of information and ideas came by with any regularity.  Now, we have almost unlimited choice as to which “truth” we prefer to hear.

At root, however, I don’t think things have changed all that much over the millennia.  Sure, we are daily confronted by more with which to agree or disagree.  And certainly, no matter how outlandish the viewpoint, we can generally find community with others sharing that view due to communication technology.  But deep down, the problem is the same.

We find ourselves alienated from others–fragmented and tribal– because alienation is part of our  most basic nature.  I’m not referring to the perfect image of God reflected in the early days of the Garden of Eden.  No.  But rather, I see our tendency to exclude as a very basic symptom of our primeval choice to exclude God from our lives and to set ourselves up as autocrats.

Genesis 3 shows the ripple effect of self-centered choice.  First, Adam hides from God, forcing God to hunt for him (vs. 9).  Second, Adam becomes aware that if he exposes the intimate parts of himself to God or others, he becomes vulnerable.  This results in fear (vs. 10).  Third, Adam tries to deflect truth and blame others because responsibility seems too great to bear.  He blames Eve for his own failure (vs. 12).  Fourth, enmity between people and the rest of creation enters the world, due to the blame game, resulting in  problems and hostility (vs. 14-15, 17-19).  Fifth, relationships within marriage and family breakdown causing these beautiful institutions to be sources of pain (vs. 16).  

Finally,  instead of life being eternally punctuated by long walks in a garden shared by creator and creature, it became intolerable.  Due to the disease of alienation that began in self-serving disobedience, the beautiful and “very good” creation began to fall apart and decay.  What started as God’s marvelous plan to pull order from chaos, life from sterility, and light from darkness, reversed course.  Decay, dissolution, fragmentation, hostility, and entropy ultimately resulted in the unmaking of humanity in death.  Creation was never meant to succumb to entropy, but such was the result.

But there is HOPE!  With the coming of the Messiah, and ultimately with his sacrificial death and triumphant resurrection, God’s wonderful created order was re-introduced.  The rule of the Creator King had been cruelly disrupted by the abuse of graciously given freedom of choice.  And through grace-empowered choice, we are once again invited into restoration of relationships.

The people who accept the offer of reconciliation still need to embrace their mission, however.  That mission is in plain sight in one of the most prominent passages of the Gospels – the so-called “Beatitudes.”  In Matthew 5:9, as Jesus describes those who are “children of God”, he says, “Blessed are the peacemakers.”

Our savior couldn’t have been clearer.  We who are his followers are called, not to contribute to the acrimony and fragmentation of our society, but to heal the divisions that plague us.  I believe we need to get busy figuring out how, in submission to the Spirit, we will fulfill this mission.