Our sermon tomorrow will be about the Sneetches, which is Dr. Seuss’ classic story of beach dwelling creatures some of which had stars on their bellies and thought they were superior, others who thought they were inferior because they had no stars, and a shrewd businessman who figures out how to profit either way.
Our scripture will be Galatians where Saint Paul declares, “in Christ, there is neither neither Jew nor gentile, slave nor free, male nor female.” For Paul, being “in Christ” did not refer to being a member of the Christian church. I believe it was a universal mindset that saw human beings as beyond religious affiliation, beyond economic class and beyond gender roles.
The Sneetches was written as a parable about race, but it works for other class issues as well. The story might even suggest how issues of class are complicated under capitalism. Both Dr. Seuss’ story and St. Paul’s passage call us to a kind of revolutionary consciousness. Can we picture humanity beyond gender roles, beyond racial or economic class, and beyond even religious itself?