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To focus only on the school shootings would be a mistake. On the front page of Friday's paper we read, along with the stories from Littleton, about an Irish couple in fear of their lives because she is Protestant and he is Catholic. We also see the systematic murder and rape of people in Kosovo and Rwanda, and we wonder what is it that makes people do what they do. Darrell Laurant suggested in a recent article that we Americans have a hard time understanding hatred because we are such a young country in comparison to others; we do not have the history of long standing grudges. He may have a point. But the killers in Littleton hardly lived themselves, how could they come to such hatred so quickly? So the answer must lie elsewhere. I think that what we are seeing today is nothing new. It has been ingrained in us in the history of humankind. It may be in a different form, but it is the same old question, Who's in, who's out, who matters?

Ever since human life appeared on the earth people have defined themselves using various categories. Early in history, the human race was separated into two distinct types of people: the hunters and the shepherds. Those who killed for their food and those who learned the skill of farming and raising livestock. The hunters had to be strong, burly type people in order to throw their spears well enough to kill the largest of animals. The shepherds had time to think and ponder their earthly life. They became more introverted and philosophical often spending long periods of time alone. And almost from the moment these two groups were formed there was tension between them; they came to distrust and dislike each other. A good example is Jacob and Esau in Genesis. Esau was the hunter, his complexion was red and he was impatient. He had to satisfy his hunger. He had no time to think, he either killed game or did not eat for the day. Jacob, on the other hand, was the shepherd who stayed at home and had plenty of time to conspire with his mother on how to steal his brother's birthright. What Jacob lacked in strength he made up for in introspection. And what Esau lacked in introspection, he made up for in physical strength. As the two groups solidified so did their mistrust of each other. Instead of seeing the strengths of each group and how they could work together, they came to believe that their group was the best, and the world would be a better place without the other. As history progressed people found many other ways to distinguish themselves from others such as nationality, race, gender, sexual orientation, age, religion, color of hair and eyes, height and many others. There is nothing wrong with understanding and appreciating our heritage. It helps us to feel a part of the world, to feel we have a place in it. It helps us to feel that we belong. But too often these separations have been used to justify our prejudices. You can't trust those blacks, those northerners, those Southerners, those Catholics, those Moslems, those Jews, those Presbyterians. They're not like us, they don't have our values or our history. They are less than human and so we can kill and rape them because we are superior. Who's in, who's out, who matters?

The Mayor of Salt Lake City, Utah was interviewed the night of the killings. She said, in part that Council of Mayors of cities in the United States in their study of school violence found that one of the causes for such violence is clothing. She said, school uniforms work. There is too much separation of people into false categories by the type of clothes they wear, and often children and youth will have or not have friends because they wear a certain brand of clothing. It allows these young people to exclude others and to see others as less desirable, as outcasts. In my ministry, I have had a number of parents talk to me about the difficulty in dressing their children for school. Their kids had to have a certain kind of jeans, shirts, or dresses. And always these clothes are far more expensive than lesser name brands. But the parents bought them even if they could not afford it because their kids told them the other kids would laugh and make fun of them and they would not have any friends. And then you wonder where kids get ideas like this. How do they learn to exclude others at such a young age? Could it be that they learn it from their own parents who have just as many problems with their own issues of social standing? That if we don't drive the latest model car or take a particular type of vacation, that we feel less worthy than others? I think so. But we also learn it through history. The idea of having to keep up with the Joneses is nothing new. It has been with us since humans first roamed the earth. We even find it in the Bible.

After Jacob cheated his brother out of his birthright, his mother told Jacob to go to live with his uncle Laban. Jacob comes upon Laban's house and he sees a beautiful young girl. He immediately falls in love with her and wants to marry her. But there is a problem, she is the younger daughter and by Hebrew custom the older daughter must be married first. But the older daughter, Leah, was not pretty. She was the Cinderella of the family. Well, Laban tells Jacob he must work for him for seven years if he wants to marry Rachel. When the marriage takes place and the veil is lifted, Jacob sees he has been betrayed by his uncle, because the woman in front of him is Leah. Jacob protests to Laban, and Laban tells him if he want Rachel he must work another seven years which he does. But it is Leah that bears Jacob sons while the womb of Rachel remains barren. It is not until late in life that Rachel finally gives Jacob a son, Joseph, and because he is the first born of his beloved Rachel, Joseph becomes Jacob's favorite son.

Rachel today would be the popular girl in school, she would be the homecoming queen and have lots of friends and several invitations to the prom. Leah would be the plain girl, the one without a figure, the one no one pays attention to. Yet what God is saying in this story is that I will not go according to you social standards. You as a society may place greater value on the beautiful Rachel, but I will love Leah and I will put her ahead of all others by making it so she is the first one to bear sons, and she will bear many before Rachel.

So what we see in all this is that the problem of social standing, social acceptance is one that not only plagues our present generation but has plagued the human race for a long time. I think we call it sin. I remember an incident with one of my own sons. He was joining an organization that emphasized working together and respect for others. He was a serious member wanting to learn as much as he could. But the other kids weren't interested in learning; they just wanted to fool around. They ridiculed him and told him they did not want him in the group, and what was even worse was the adult leaders stood there and let it happen. Now he didn't go out and shoot anyone, but he was deeply hurt. And that is what we are seeing with these young people who killed their fellow students. They felt they were outcasts, that they were not part of the in-group, that they did not belong. While that feeling does not excuse what they did, nevertheless, we might learn how desperate people could become when they feel excluded. Who's in, who's out, who matters?

But it is not just individuals that have this problem of whom to exclude and whom to include; societies have it as well. Frederick Lewis Allen in his book, Two Worlds of Childhood, which I believe was written in the 1930's, compared the way the then Soviet Union raised children with the way they were raised in the United States. In the Soviet Union, Allen said it appeared that the whole of society took upon themselves the responsibility for all children. If a parent took her child to the park she did not have to worry because she knew other adults would help take care of the child. If little Boris were picking on another child, an adult would step in and stop it. And if little Boris needed some physical attention for his misbehavior then the stranger could provide it. Or as Bill Cosby said, When I was growing up there was no such thing as child abuse, any old person could hit you. But then Frederick Lewis Allen noted an alarming trend that was taking place in the United States. He saw more of a movement to the emphasis on the individual and that it was only the parent who had the right to discipline a child or to stop a child from doing something harmful. If I remember correctly, he predicted that this attitude would cause more problems in the future.

The United States has always had a love for the rugged individualist. We are a culture that emphasizes the rights of individuals over the rights of the community. Do you remember my sermon, two weeks ago, when I said that the Old Testament knew nothing of self-improvement, of individuals becoming superior either intellectually or physically to other individuals, that it had no sense of individual improvement that, was not for the benefit for the entire community. In other words, if my skills and abilities increased it was not done to set me apart from others and make me superior to others, it was done so that the whole community could benefit. It was not for personal gain, but for the gain of all. In the New Testament, Paul changes the way the Corinthians were observing the Lord's Supper. At first, it was a meal, a potluck dinner, in which the congregation would gather and eat together. The point of the meal was that many of the members of the church were poor and did not have much food, and it was thought that at least one day a week they would have a good meal. But the wealthier people in Corinth began meeting ahead of the poorer people because they did not have to work. They ate the food and drank the wine and the Lord's Supper turned into a drunken party. Paul tells them they must discern the body of Christ. That is, they must see that the body of Christ is not just them but involves all the people. To eat without part of the community is against the will of God. The community is the object of God's love. For God so loved the world: not just you, not just me, not just blacks, whites, French or Germans, but the world. And the nations are supposed to respond to God's redeeming love, not just individuals. Let me put it another way, congress, the state legislatures, the President, the Governor, the Bar Association, the American Medical Association, General Motors and all other organizations and corporations are to respond to God and be faithful to God no less so than you or I. God demands that we give him and him alone our total, undivided attention and adherence to his word. We do not adhere to an individualistic faith that says as long as I am right with God I do not have to care what happens in the world. Who's in, who's out does matter.