May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)
SEASON: Pentecost 5
PROPER: 8A
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: June 27, 1999
TEXT: Matthew 10:34-42 - "Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me . . . . and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me . . . . and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple - truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.
ISSUE: These Sunday readings from Matthew have been building on one another for the past several weeks. In today's passage there is the call to the abandonment of family, which in the time was a startling, earth shaking, and call to near death experience. It is also a call to reclaiming a spirit of hospitality to those who are of lower status. Jesus is calling for brotherhood in the family of God, not in stifled families of the world, and a call to genuine hospitality respecting the dignity of all people for who God comes in Christ.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Today's gospel reading comes as something of a shock! Jesus has not come to bring peace, and if you love your family more than him is not worthy of him and a place in God's kingdom or empire. Whoever does not give a cup of water to one of the disciples will lose their reward. (This last line does not shock us quite as much as the others, but it did in Jesus' time.) Over the past weeks we've been reading passages from Matthew's account of the Gospel that have had to do with Jesus selecting his disciples and training them. First we began with the shocker that he selects a tax collect as one of his own. Then he tells them to join with him in proclaiming the goodnews to the last, the least, and the lost. They are to join him in a healing ministry. And in this time of great secrecy and deception he dares them to honest and forthright and what they've learned from in the evenings they are to proclaim from the rooftops. Matthew's Gospel account is portraying a very very bold Jesus, and a very daring early church.
There were, of course, some indications that the coming of the Messiah to the Jewish community would usher in a time of peace. At the time of Matthew's writing there isn't much in the way of peace. Though Isaiah wrote that the Messiah would be called "Wonderful Counselor," "Mighty God," "Eternal Father," "Prince of Peace" (Isaiah 9:6) there is anything but peace. The temple had been destroyed, and the Jewish community in the holy land was in great turmoil and now the new movement of Jesus's followers was creating another kind of dissention. We know that Jesus was not crucified be cause he was a bring of peace and quiet. His ministry was bold, daring, and often quite shocking. Matthew saw that many families were in great turmoil. Jesus is saying that a person must love him and God more than him, if they are to be faithful followers. Men were set again their fathers, and daughters against daughters and mother-in-laws against daughter-in-laws. Disciples must take up the cross, lose life, before they can find real life.
In Jesus' time family was for most people everything. You born into and for your family. You were raised to never leave home. The prodigal son did, and you see where it got him, nearly dead in the pig pen. You were dependent upon family for education, food, a roof over your head. You got your work and job and from family. Your friends and business contacts came from your family. Who you were to marry was selected by family, and the person you married was your first cousin. You did not even marry out of the family. Your life literally depended upon your family. Family was your life. So Jesus is saying unless you lose your life, and give all that up and follow him. You do not have a real life. God, not family must come first. A relationship with Jesus Christ who leads to God is top priority.
Some churches today talk a great deal about family values. Keep in mind, however, that Jesus did not. Jesus had little to say, if anything, about family values. In another place Jesus says, "Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?" Then he pointed to his disciples and said, "Look! Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does what my Father in heaven wants him to do is my brother, my sister, and my mother." (Matt. 12:49)
Jesus was very obviously challenging an ingrown world that sought stability and security from the world and the world's institutions. For Jesus we were the children, the people of God, and were to do God's will, and see God as Father, as opposed to the world. Unless you break away from that which binds you and holds you down, that obsesses you ,you will not find real life, fullness of life. You have to die, accept the cross, in order to truly live as a child of God's in the new Empire, and Family of God. It is as if you find your purpose, meaning and work through God, not the world.
Another part of the culture of Jesus' time was the concept of hospitality. A person who was traveling from one place to another was to be welcomed and given appropriate safety and food provisions. Persons who extended hospitality were thought to be very gained honor and status in their communities. Traveling was extemely dangerous in ancient times, so the concept of hospitality was very important. Thus, in place of the family, Jesus provides and calls upon the concept of hospitality to replace it. People who are not blood related, not family, shall become brothers and sisters of one another, and give the safety and protection that is needed in the world. God will see to it that they shall not lose their reward, and that they will be honorable in his sight.
It should also be noted that in this time, people of differing social standing and honor would not eat together. Jesus is teaching that giving a cup of cold water to the least of his disciples - that is, the poor, the tax collectors, the fishermen, the outcasts who join him - will be held as the truly honorable in the eyes of God. Class distinction is being challenged and all are to be seen as the brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus.
All of these concepts boldly challenged the ways and the thinking of Jesus time. To follow Jesus so far as Matthew and the early church was concerned was to die, to give-up, to for go, the exclusiveness, and the traditions of the time, and to become alive again in inclusiveness, in seeing the worth and the dignity in all people. It was also a time for reclaiming God as truly one's Father, and to walk in his ways of justice and re-claiming all the outcasts, the disenfranchised, the marginalized for God.
Now as we consider a passage such as this one today, we need to consider how it relates to our own situation and world culture. Many people today still have great respect for the importance of the family, and that is as it should be. However, we function in our family life very differently from ancient times. Ancient peoples raised their children to stay at home fopr the good of and for safety and security of the clan or tribe. We raise our children today to leave home. We are very committed to individuality, and to self-reliance and self-dependence. People who stay at home are often somewhat suspect. We commit ourselves to the hope and expensive proposition of education so that children will grow up secure and with good incomes. We are economically oriented. Being successful in the world, healthy (which comes from a commitment to some healthful sport), self-reliant and independent with a good practical education are the values our culture cherishes. These values in our American culture can supercede our religious and spiritual values which take second place.
It might be well worth the effort to contemplate just what Jesus might say to his disciples and to the people of today along these lines. He might still say that we have to die to family, to education, to success, and good jobs if we are to truly follow him. We still have a cross to take up and way of life to abandon, to get back to the roots of our need and dependence upon God and what god would have us to be and do.
Another one of the values of life and certainly of the church today is tradition. We like keeping certain things the way they are. But change challenges us. It is what keeps us alive, and keeps the church from becoming a museum as opposed to a living mission of hope for the people of this land and community, and around the world. Do we really think Jesus is impressed with our being 300 years old, possessing Queen Anne Pewter, and having a beautiful old stone church with steps too difficult for a significantly large portion of the elderly population to negotiate.
Jesus called upon his disciple to be truly hospitable and to share a cup of cold water, or a meal with all people, and not just those of your own class and persuasions. We are often hospitable but maybe to people like ourselves and within our own class. Keeping to ourselves and within ourselves is comfortable, but the Gospel is bold and challenging, encompassing, and extremely generous. We must look for opportunities to expand our horizons, to know people different from ourselves. Hospitality in our culture is guarded. If we are too hospitable we might now have enough resources for ourselves. Hospitality may make us too vulnerable. Hospitality might at times to be a little too forgiving, if not frightening. Yet Jesus dared to proclaim hospitality and generosity.
A significant part of the Middle Eastern Culture was that it was fond of exaggeration. Jesus got a lot of people's attention by calling for the abandonment of family. No doubt many of his own disciples ended up doing that very thing. But we must be aware of what was at the heart and meaning of what Jesus called for, and that was re-claiming the loveliness and the compassionate love of God to be first and foremost. It was important to Jesus that the world not be exclusive where people are physically and spiritually abandoned and separated. He called for a family of God where all people are brothers and sisters to one another, and who could work interdependently with one another to be the world's force for justice and goodness. He called for a genuine hospitality where all people could sit down to meal together, and to give a cup of cold water to all people without reservation. Jesus called for an expanded sense of generosity, for caring and concern for one another.
An article in the Baltimore Sun caught my attention this week. It was about a summer camp director, Kent Meyer, managing director of the YMCA Camp Chief Ouray in Colorado, who decided to drop riflery from the camp curriculum this year after 92 years. He had come to believe that kids weren't really ready for guns at a young age. That move and decision had to take a lot of guts, and maybe even a lot of courage. Among many it will not be popular. Sometimes old things have to give way to new thoughts, new decisions, new sensitivities, and awarenesses. Is this not what Jesus was attempting to say to an exclusive and inbred world?
We live in a world where we want to be liked. We don't want anyone to dislike us, and we're comfortable not rocking any boats. Racist jokes, American fondness for violence, unchallenged tradition in church and family become a part of our lives that we believe is either harmless or doesn't matter, or that there is little we could do about any of these things anyway. But Jesus would say hate those things that are not of God or that take God's place or become too obsessively important. Die to them. Take up the cross, and follow him into a generous and renewing dimension of life and servanthood. Dying to sin, exclusiveness, alienation, separation is for Jesus to rise to oneness with God, to genuine love, to participation in a new world, a new empire of God's making.
Sunday, June 27, 1999
Sunday, June 20, 1999
Pentecost 4
May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)
SEASON: Pentecost 4
PROPER: A
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: June 20, 1999
TEXT: Matthew 10:16-33 - What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the house-tops. Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
ISSUE: Here's another one of those very daring passages of Matthew's account of the Gospel of Jesus. It is a call to faithful commited endurance in the face of a hostile, cruel and deceptive world. It is a call to be a part of the surrogate Family of The Father, and it enhances the disciple's sense of worth, being so much more valuable than a sparrow. Disciples need not fear the world, and those who kill the body, but the loss of the soul, one's very being, to be without a purposeful servanthood life in the family of God is the greater loss.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Today's Gospel reading from the account of Matthew is another daring and courageous statements given to the early Christian community of Matthew. It is a charge to the disciples to carry on a faithful and enduring ministry in the face of the high probability of persecution. It is a continuation of last week's narrative.
Last week you Jesus charged the disciples to begin ministries in the surrounding communities. They were to proclaim the Goodnews to the poor, to all the expendable poor people that they were not expendable in the sight of God. That they were indeed loved and worthy of God's abounding grace. The disciples were also to have a ministry of healing, a ministry of to a world where people often died at a very young age, and who were afflicted with a large variety of diseases as a result of poor nutrition and sanitation. The sick who often became outcasts and untouchables, and who were ostracized from the community and temple as a result of their illness and physical handicaps were to be restored to community. This restoration was their healing for the most part. These disciples are to carry no excess baggage, but were very Franciscan in their approach to their new ministries as the disciples of Jesus. Where the disciples find hospitality, they are stay and do their work. Where they meet with inhospitality, they are to shake the dust off of their feet and move on.
Jesus continues to instruct these disciples in today's passage concerning how very difficult their work may be, "I am sending you out as sheep into the midst of wolves. So be wise as serpents and innocent as doves." What a paradox: wise as serpents, yet innocent as doves.! No doubt Jesus is well aware of the fact that what he sends them to do is not especially easy, anymore than it was easy for himself. Matthew who is writing well after Jesus's crucifixion knows well how difficult the servant ministry was for Jesus who became condemned and crucified.
When Matthew is writing this Gospel, it was in a very troubled time. Jerusalem and the Temple in Jerusalem had been destroyed. It was a time of great apprehension and uncertainty. In times like these people become very fixed and intensely devoted to their rules and their ways. There is a grasping for certainty and a kind of clinging and holding on to the old ways. But Jesus, and the fledgling organization of this early church, was forming a new kind of community and it was very threatening to people in these troubled times. Thus, there were sporadic persecutions of both Jews and Christians. Jesus is warning, as is Matthew, that it will be hard. It was during this same period that St. Paul was being brought before Roman governors, and persecuted by his own Jewish brothers. People who were followers of Jesus and left their families to follow him were becoming hated and held in great suspicion. Many poor people who had lost their land and were bewildered aimless wanderers would find great comfort and security in being a part of this new Christian community. It was all very risky to leave family behind which was your sole support in life to join with this new surrogate family. They are fully warned by Jesus how tough a road it will be. A slave is no better than his master and a student no better than his teacher. If they thought of Jesus himself as Beelzebul ('Dungface,' - i.e. Eugene Peterson, "The Message.") they will think the same of you.
But says Jesus I dare you to hold nothing back to have no secrets: "What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the house-tops" In this culture it was extraordinarily difficult to have any privacy. People who were private were held with great suspicion, and were considered as devious. Children were used as spies. You would send you children to spy on other families. As a result of having so little privacy in this kind of culture people lied a lot, and tried to keep family secrets so as to not lose honor and status in the community.
Notice that in the Bible, the expression "Truly, Truly, I say to you." is used. It was an expression that attempted to convey in a world where people lied a lot that this particular statement is really the truth. When the mothers send the children to Jesus to touch them and bless them, recall that the disciples try to stop them. Their action is not out of hardheartedness so much as children were spies, they told their parents secrets about other families and possibly about this movement. Jesus insists, "Let the children come to me, and do not stop them." The Kingdom of Empire of God belongs to them too, and there is nothing to hide and there is no deception like you find in the world. So in this passage today, Jesus tells his disciples to hold nothing back. There are no secrets and nothing to hide but proclaim the Empire of God boldly. Don't worry about who may persecute you or harm the body; worry about who can harm the soul. Here is a daring encouraging call to proclaim the Gospel Good News of hope for the the poor, the broken and sick, for thelast, the lost, the least with energy and vitality in the face of persecution. Let the age of secrecy and deception be done away with.
Realize your worth says Jesus to the calling of God's people and disciples. Sparrows were used by the poor for offering sacrifices. They were bought for 1/16th of a denarius, a very trivial amount. But how much more is your offering worth as my disciples in the eyes of God the Father. Jesus in this passage calls his disciple to a truthful awareness of it being a difficult time, but at the same time to be enduring, courageous, persevering, and to know their value and worth in that ministry.
Relating scriptural passages to our world in this time in American history is somewhat difficult, or we don't quite appreciate such a passage. It is hard to translate into the modern era because right now in this country we don't really see the church as under any significant or specific persecution. So passages to stand firm in the face of persecution are for us somewhat hollow. There have, however, been some recent severe religious persecutions in other parts of the world, but hese have been in Africa and South America. Here at home we seem relatively safe from persecution. Yet, the demand remains to proclaim the Gospel from the roof tops, and this is perhaps the more difficult part for American Christians in a time where we cherish our privacy and exclusiveness. Our faith is for most of us a "private" matter. There are very definite needs to be evangelistic if we are to be really people of God.
At the Columbine High School there was the young girl whose name was Cassy, who faced a very violent young man, and confessed that indeed she did believe in God, and was presumably shot for saying so.
We do in fact belong to a community of faith that is committed to reconciliation and serving the world with a message of compassion, caring, and love. Prior to and during World War II, many Jewish people, homosexuals, gypsies, trade unionists in one of the most religious countries in the world were executed for their beliefs, while fellow countrymen and the rest of the world looked on with indifference.
In the recent events in Yugoslavia we've witnessed once again the persecution and the vicious cruelty of one race and religion impossed upon another. This kind of violence persists even today in our world. Few proclaim from the housetops, or in the appropriate forums that this conduct is evil and ungodly behavior. It is not appropriate for Christians to condemn another people of God with hatred.
In our present world and country we Americans live in the midst of significant affluence in the face of a world that knows considerable poverty and oppression of the poor. We ignore the Franciscan like aspects of our faith in giving up generously, and living modestly so that others may just live.
Some of our popular TV shows today perpetuate the humiliation of the poor. Jerry Springer's show, Jenny Jones, and Sally Jessie Raphael all seem to humiliate poor and young people with their sensationalistic shows of sleezy topics while a large part of the country watches and laughs.
The real good news in this passage today is that Jesus saw in his disciples great potential and worth. He believed that they could join him in a significant mission of healing, hope, compassion, and reconciliation. He knew full well the potential of these people to face criticism and persecution with dignity. Without accepting the call our lives remain somehwo meaningless, purposeless, without dignity and worth.
There is a saying or aphorism that goes something like this: "If you were ever convicted of being a Christian, Would there be enough evidence to convict you?" Fac t of the matter is that sometimes the Christian world today is in fact so harmless that it is not much of an impact, not much of a disturbing influence to the world that creates and urges people to check and evaluate their consciences in terms of whether or not they do what God demands.
In the Book of the Acts of the Apostles, there is the story of the apostles getting arrested for teaching about and in the name of Jesus. In the night they were, according to the story, released by and angel. They next day they were re-arrested because they had gone right back to the Temple to continue persistently teaching and proclaiming the Good News of God in Christ. They considered being disgraced for the sake of Jesus as a great honor. (Acts. 5:17-42) In the reading today from the prophet Jeremiah, he says that "If I will not mention him (God) or speak any more in this name, then within me there is something like a burning fire shut up in my bones; I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot." To ponder such allegiance and loyalty of the prophets, the apostles, the early Christians is indeed awesome. To see our selves divorced from this allegiance and loyalty is to step into the meaninglessness and hopelessness of the world.
SEASON: Pentecost 4
PROPER: A
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: June 20, 1999
TEXT: Matthew 10:16-33 - What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the house-tops. Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
ISSUE: Here's another one of those very daring passages of Matthew's account of the Gospel of Jesus. It is a call to faithful commited endurance in the face of a hostile, cruel and deceptive world. It is a call to be a part of the surrogate Family of The Father, and it enhances the disciple's sense of worth, being so much more valuable than a sparrow. Disciples need not fear the world, and those who kill the body, but the loss of the soul, one's very being, to be without a purposeful servanthood life in the family of God is the greater loss.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Today's Gospel reading from the account of Matthew is another daring and courageous statements given to the early Christian community of Matthew. It is a charge to the disciples to carry on a faithful and enduring ministry in the face of the high probability of persecution. It is a continuation of last week's narrative.
Last week you Jesus charged the disciples to begin ministries in the surrounding communities. They were to proclaim the Goodnews to the poor, to all the expendable poor people that they were not expendable in the sight of God. That they were indeed loved and worthy of God's abounding grace. The disciples were also to have a ministry of healing, a ministry of to a world where people often died at a very young age, and who were afflicted with a large variety of diseases as a result of poor nutrition and sanitation. The sick who often became outcasts and untouchables, and who were ostracized from the community and temple as a result of their illness and physical handicaps were to be restored to community. This restoration was their healing for the most part. These disciples are to carry no excess baggage, but were very Franciscan in their approach to their new ministries as the disciples of Jesus. Where the disciples find hospitality, they are stay and do their work. Where they meet with inhospitality, they are to shake the dust off of their feet and move on.
Jesus continues to instruct these disciples in today's passage concerning how very difficult their work may be, "I am sending you out as sheep into the midst of wolves. So be wise as serpents and innocent as doves." What a paradox: wise as serpents, yet innocent as doves.! No doubt Jesus is well aware of the fact that what he sends them to do is not especially easy, anymore than it was easy for himself. Matthew who is writing well after Jesus's crucifixion knows well how difficult the servant ministry was for Jesus who became condemned and crucified.
When Matthew is writing this Gospel, it was in a very troubled time. Jerusalem and the Temple in Jerusalem had been destroyed. It was a time of great apprehension and uncertainty. In times like these people become very fixed and intensely devoted to their rules and their ways. There is a grasping for certainty and a kind of clinging and holding on to the old ways. But Jesus, and the fledgling organization of this early church, was forming a new kind of community and it was very threatening to people in these troubled times. Thus, there were sporadic persecutions of both Jews and Christians. Jesus is warning, as is Matthew, that it will be hard. It was during this same period that St. Paul was being brought before Roman governors, and persecuted by his own Jewish brothers. People who were followers of Jesus and left their families to follow him were becoming hated and held in great suspicion. Many poor people who had lost their land and were bewildered aimless wanderers would find great comfort and security in being a part of this new Christian community. It was all very risky to leave family behind which was your sole support in life to join with this new surrogate family. They are fully warned by Jesus how tough a road it will be. A slave is no better than his master and a student no better than his teacher. If they thought of Jesus himself as Beelzebul ('Dungface,' - i.e. Eugene Peterson, "The Message.") they will think the same of you.
But says Jesus I dare you to hold nothing back to have no secrets: "What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the house-tops" In this culture it was extraordinarily difficult to have any privacy. People who were private were held with great suspicion, and were considered as devious. Children were used as spies. You would send you children to spy on other families. As a result of having so little privacy in this kind of culture people lied a lot, and tried to keep family secrets so as to not lose honor and status in the community.
Notice that in the Bible, the expression "Truly, Truly, I say to you." is used. It was an expression that attempted to convey in a world where people lied a lot that this particular statement is really the truth. When the mothers send the children to Jesus to touch them and bless them, recall that the disciples try to stop them. Their action is not out of hardheartedness so much as children were spies, they told their parents secrets about other families and possibly about this movement. Jesus insists, "Let the children come to me, and do not stop them." The Kingdom of Empire of God belongs to them too, and there is nothing to hide and there is no deception like you find in the world. So in this passage today, Jesus tells his disciples to hold nothing back. There are no secrets and nothing to hide but proclaim the Empire of God boldly. Don't worry about who may persecute you or harm the body; worry about who can harm the soul. Here is a daring encouraging call to proclaim the Gospel Good News of hope for the the poor, the broken and sick, for thelast, the lost, the least with energy and vitality in the face of persecution. Let the age of secrecy and deception be done away with.
Realize your worth says Jesus to the calling of God's people and disciples. Sparrows were used by the poor for offering sacrifices. They were bought for 1/16th of a denarius, a very trivial amount. But how much more is your offering worth as my disciples in the eyes of God the Father. Jesus in this passage calls his disciple to a truthful awareness of it being a difficult time, but at the same time to be enduring, courageous, persevering, and to know their value and worth in that ministry.
Relating scriptural passages to our world in this time in American history is somewhat difficult, or we don't quite appreciate such a passage. It is hard to translate into the modern era because right now in this country we don't really see the church as under any significant or specific persecution. So passages to stand firm in the face of persecution are for us somewhat hollow. There have, however, been some recent severe religious persecutions in other parts of the world, but hese have been in Africa and South America. Here at home we seem relatively safe from persecution. Yet, the demand remains to proclaim the Gospel from the roof tops, and this is perhaps the more difficult part for American Christians in a time where we cherish our privacy and exclusiveness. Our faith is for most of us a "private" matter. There are very definite needs to be evangelistic if we are to be really people of God.
At the Columbine High School there was the young girl whose name was Cassy, who faced a very violent young man, and confessed that indeed she did believe in God, and was presumably shot for saying so.
We do in fact belong to a community of faith that is committed to reconciliation and serving the world with a message of compassion, caring, and love. Prior to and during World War II, many Jewish people, homosexuals, gypsies, trade unionists in one of the most religious countries in the world were executed for their beliefs, while fellow countrymen and the rest of the world looked on with indifference.
In the recent events in Yugoslavia we've witnessed once again the persecution and the vicious cruelty of one race and religion impossed upon another. This kind of violence persists even today in our world. Few proclaim from the housetops, or in the appropriate forums that this conduct is evil and ungodly behavior. It is not appropriate for Christians to condemn another people of God with hatred.
In our present world and country we Americans live in the midst of significant affluence in the face of a world that knows considerable poverty and oppression of the poor. We ignore the Franciscan like aspects of our faith in giving up generously, and living modestly so that others may just live.
Some of our popular TV shows today perpetuate the humiliation of the poor. Jerry Springer's show, Jenny Jones, and Sally Jessie Raphael all seem to humiliate poor and young people with their sensationalistic shows of sleezy topics while a large part of the country watches and laughs.
The real good news in this passage today is that Jesus saw in his disciples great potential and worth. He believed that they could join him in a significant mission of healing, hope, compassion, and reconciliation. He knew full well the potential of these people to face criticism and persecution with dignity. Without accepting the call our lives remain somehwo meaningless, purposeless, without dignity and worth.
There is a saying or aphorism that goes something like this: "If you were ever convicted of being a Christian, Would there be enough evidence to convict you?" Fac t of the matter is that sometimes the Christian world today is in fact so harmless that it is not much of an impact, not much of a disturbing influence to the world that creates and urges people to check and evaluate their consciences in terms of whether or not they do what God demands.
In the Book of the Acts of the Apostles, there is the story of the apostles getting arrested for teaching about and in the name of Jesus. In the night they were, according to the story, released by and angel. They next day they were re-arrested because they had gone right back to the Temple to continue persistently teaching and proclaiming the Good News of God in Christ. They considered being disgraced for the sake of Jesus as a great honor. (Acts. 5:17-42) In the reading today from the prophet Jeremiah, he says that "If I will not mention him (God) or speak any more in this name, then within me there is something like a burning fire shut up in my bones; I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot." To ponder such allegiance and loyalty of the prophets, the apostles, the early Christians is indeed awesome. To see our selves divorced from this allegiance and loyalty is to step into the meaninglessness and hopelessness of the world.
Sunday, June 13, 1999
Pentecost 3
May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)
SEASON: Pentecost 3
PROPER: A
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: June 13,1999
TEXT: Matthew 9:35-10:15 - When he (Jesus) saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest." Then Jesus summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over the unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every sickness.
ISSUE: The passage from Matthew today gives us a real glimpse of the work of the very early community of Jesus, that becomes known as the church. What Jesus saw was so many people like sheep without a shepherd. This was a very large community of disenfranchised people, in a time of rampant disease and disability. Jesus calls together a community of people with compassion to join him in ministry. Our world may well be very different from Jesus', but there is as great a need for compassion and the gospel of love as ever.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Today's reading from Matthew gives us a good picture of what the very early Christian community was like, how it began its ministry, and what it's purpose and task was. The picture that we have of that early community is given to us through the eyes of Matthew who was writting some 50 years (@80A.D.) after the crucifixion of Jesus. Thus, Matthew was writing and may well have experienced the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalmen by the Romans. This fact would enhance his concern for the great distress of the Jewish people of the time, and influence his writing.
The passage today tells of Jesus going from town to town proclaiming the good news of the kingdom or Empire of God and healing diseases and sickness. Jesus saw that they were greatly harassed and were like sheep without a shepherd. Jesus then selects a band of disciples and forms a faction with a specific purpose. The disciples are listed by name, and there are twelve of them, although there is every indication that Jesus really had more than twelve, but that there were that close inner group. Twelve disciples had special meaning in that they were thought to be respresentative of the Twelve Tribes of Israel, and Matthew's gospel account is largely directed to a Jewish community. In any event these disciples were authorized to do what Jesus himself had been doing. They were to preach good news of the kingdom, and have a healing ministry. Remember that his band of followers is made up of common fishermen, poor people, and a tax collector thrown in, and you know what tax collectors were considered to be from last week.
One of the peculiar aspects of this reading is that the disciples were instructed to go only to "the lost sheep of the house of Israel." This phrase may be an indication that Jesus' early conception of his calling was to the Jewish community alone. It could be that through his own eventual association with Gentiles and Samaritans that he changed and expanded his ministry. It could also be that this early calling and commissioning of the disciples was a training period that was limited to Jewish territory. It's only a peculiarity that I am pointing out, but be clear that the work of the church greatly expanded as St. Paul himself saw himself as missionary or apostle to the Gentile.
The disciples who are sent out are to be totally dependent upon hospitality of the community they visit. In this time travelers were commonly taken in and hospitality extended to them. The disciples are really quite vulnerable as they go taking no money or excess clothing. One tunic was considered quite enough. Tunics incidentally were for carrying supplies of food in the upper pockets. They were protection against the elements and also served as a sleeping bag. But the disciples were largely dependent upon the hosptality of the villages they visited and were to do their work. They were to do their work or to give away the message and healing without pay, just as the message and the healing had been given to them without cost. It was an issue of grace. Grace was given to them by God, undeserved love and assurance of the Kingdom of God was freely given. They were in their ministries an extention of the graciousness of God.
If you were received into a community, and were given appropriate hospitality you did you work of proclamation and healing. I f you were not treated in a hospitable way, you simply shook the dust off of your feet and moved on. Shaking the dust off of your feet was a symbol to these people of having been in impure territory. You left judgment to God.
This passage is essentially about the great compassion of Jesus for a people who had no shepherd, no leader, no guide, no well being or direction. And Jesus forms a community to begin a ministry to go to the lost. It is a very peripapetic community. They walk everywhere and they live with the lost sheep of the house of Israel without much gear, money, and they reside with them and have an intimate relationship with them. All in all these very early disciples were at the mercy of God. They were people who had great trust that God would be with them, and be their guide.
What drives Jesus to such compassion that his life is given to this way. And he calls others to join him because the harvest of lost sheep of Israel is apparently quite significant.
In this period people did not live very long. At the age of 33 or so Jesus was really quite old, and his followers were probably mostly much younger than he. People died young. They suffered from diseases, and mostly from malnutrition. Diseases were caused by lack of sanitation and improper food preparation. Dental care was all but non-existent. Flies were a leading cause of blindness which was a serious problem. We can guess that limited pre-natal was the cause of many of the problems of children, which also may have contributed to deafness, blindness, and other diseases. Leprosy in the Bible is not the kind of Leprosy that we know of as Hansen's disease. Leprosy in the Bible was any kind of skin disorder and scaliness wherein there might be some leaking though of body fluid. Mental disorders, retardation, epilepsy, etc., were usually viewed a demon possession in these days. Illnesses and disease, physical handicaps must have been rampant, and they sometimes considered to be the result of punishment from God. They were dishonorable. Whether punishment or not they were viewed as shameful, polluting, and were a sign of impurity.
From a more social, political, and economic point of view. The large majority of people of the time were economically poor. Many had lost their land, or had it taken from them. Thus, the resorted to tax collection, prostitution, and other disreputable and impure vocations. Barely ten percent of the people could read or write. Life was very hard. The first of the Beatitudes of Jesus are blessed are the poor, because there were so many, and blessed are they that mourn. In this kind of society there was great loss and considerable mourning everywhere. These were a conquered people, and by the time Matthew is writing there is no leadership or direction for the lost sheep of Israel who are like sheep without a shepherd. The people of this kind of world had to be very depressed, very vulnerable to sickness and death, a people without much hope or meaning in their lives.
Thus out of great sensitivity and compassion, the ministry of Jesus takes shape to heal, to reclaim, to liberate these people who were in this lost, least, and last in this kind of predicament. The ministry begins with Jesus entering into that world with great compassion. He brings a reassurance that these people are God's people, and they belong to his Empire, which is very different from the conquering Roman Empire. In the Empire of God they are God's children and brothers and sisters. This Empire is not an Empire of shame. There are no impure people. They are no outcasts, nor marginalized, and no disenfranchised people. They are brothers and sisters of one another. There is no shaming or shunning. This is not the understanding that the world has of Empires. Jesus proclaims another Empire that does not come from this world; it is the Empire founded in the love of God.
To understand healing in Jesus' time it is important to understand that they did not know about viruses, germs, and bacteria. Healing was not a matter of cure as we understand it as it was restoration to community and sense of worth. To be forgiven, to be accepted into the community was what was important. In the Gospel of John 5:2, there is the story of the sick man at the healing pool, but the the sick man has no one to put him into the healing water. The sickness is not nearly the problem for the man as is the fact that he has no one. Being accepted and have people, friends who care, love, forgive, accept is the great healing of this time. To allow people to know that inspite of their sickness, they are loved and worthy was great healing power for this period.
In this passage there is surely considerable compassion for Jesus, and his called disciples to bring restoration, healing, comfort, love, forgiveness, to this mourning, hurting, painful, death ridden world. New dignity was brought to the human condition, and all were restored to dignity in the Empire of God. Healing, love, compassion, mercy, senstitivity, understanding, forgiveness: these were all the ingredients and the way of the Empire of God. For that reason it was good news. And there was on the part of Jesus and to those who responded to him great urgency to get going with the harvest where the laborers were few.
Today's world is somewhat different, although not completely in some ways. We have an understanding of health issues. And many people find cures for their ailments. We know about the importance of sanitation and cleanliness, and many of the childhood diseases that wiped out masses of children and people have been conquered. But still the ailments of loneliness, and alienation persist. The sad ailments of prejudice, assuming we or certain races and countries are better than others and not seeing all of us as brothers and sisters of God still persists. We sometimes find ourselves uncomfortable around the troubled and the upset. The church as a community of concerned disciples for the afflicted and disenfranchised has been somewhat replaced by individuals who look for a place of personal solace and escape from the world. Our sense of mission is often flimsy, short-sighted, scattered, and meagre at best. That early Christian urgency, vitality, and daring is not always what we see in Christian church of today.
This is not a peripatetic world; we drive everywhere, which is actually isolating. We move away from the bad neighborhoods into the suburbs, and isolate ourselves again. Yet around us is human need. Elderly and institutionalized people are often very alone. We find ourselves keeping our distance from the strange, the retarded, the not so emotionally stable. We all know those kinds of uncomfortableness, and our feelings of inadequacy.
Yet, Christ came with great compassion and sensitivity, and called a whole band of totally unskilled people who put their faith and confidence in God. I suppose they knew in their own hearts just how lonely they themselves sometimes felt, and how broken they were at times, and knew deep within thier own shortcomings, failures, pains. Yet through Christ Jesus they were touched, and they dared at his command to persevere. In fact who better can heal the sick, and tell the goodnews better than those who have themselves been sick and broken, and who know the healing love of God through the grace given to them by other caring people and through the message of Christ.
Drop the baggage of excuses and all the things we think we have to have and carry with us. We have received so much through the grace of God without payment. May we give in without payment.
SEASON: Pentecost 3
PROPER: A
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: June 13,1999
TEXT: Matthew 9:35-10:15 - When he (Jesus) saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest." Then Jesus summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over the unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every sickness.
ISSUE: The passage from Matthew today gives us a real glimpse of the work of the very early community of Jesus, that becomes known as the church. What Jesus saw was so many people like sheep without a shepherd. This was a very large community of disenfranchised people, in a time of rampant disease and disability. Jesus calls together a community of people with compassion to join him in ministry. Our world may well be very different from Jesus', but there is as great a need for compassion and the gospel of love as ever.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Today's reading from Matthew gives us a good picture of what the very early Christian community was like, how it began its ministry, and what it's purpose and task was. The picture that we have of that early community is given to us through the eyes of Matthew who was writting some 50 years (@80A.D.) after the crucifixion of Jesus. Thus, Matthew was writing and may well have experienced the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalmen by the Romans. This fact would enhance his concern for the great distress of the Jewish people of the time, and influence his writing.
The passage today tells of Jesus going from town to town proclaiming the good news of the kingdom or Empire of God and healing diseases and sickness. Jesus saw that they were greatly harassed and were like sheep without a shepherd. Jesus then selects a band of disciples and forms a faction with a specific purpose. The disciples are listed by name, and there are twelve of them, although there is every indication that Jesus really had more than twelve, but that there were that close inner group. Twelve disciples had special meaning in that they were thought to be respresentative of the Twelve Tribes of Israel, and Matthew's gospel account is largely directed to a Jewish community. In any event these disciples were authorized to do what Jesus himself had been doing. They were to preach good news of the kingdom, and have a healing ministry. Remember that his band of followers is made up of common fishermen, poor people, and a tax collector thrown in, and you know what tax collectors were considered to be from last week.
One of the peculiar aspects of this reading is that the disciples were instructed to go only to "the lost sheep of the house of Israel." This phrase may be an indication that Jesus' early conception of his calling was to the Jewish community alone. It could be that through his own eventual association with Gentiles and Samaritans that he changed and expanded his ministry. It could also be that this early calling and commissioning of the disciples was a training period that was limited to Jewish territory. It's only a peculiarity that I am pointing out, but be clear that the work of the church greatly expanded as St. Paul himself saw himself as missionary or apostle to the Gentile.
The disciples who are sent out are to be totally dependent upon hospitality of the community they visit. In this time travelers were commonly taken in and hospitality extended to them. The disciples are really quite vulnerable as they go taking no money or excess clothing. One tunic was considered quite enough. Tunics incidentally were for carrying supplies of food in the upper pockets. They were protection against the elements and also served as a sleeping bag. But the disciples were largely dependent upon the hosptality of the villages they visited and were to do their work. They were to do their work or to give away the message and healing without pay, just as the message and the healing had been given to them without cost. It was an issue of grace. Grace was given to them by God, undeserved love and assurance of the Kingdom of God was freely given. They were in their ministries an extention of the graciousness of God.
If you were received into a community, and were given appropriate hospitality you did you work of proclamation and healing. I f you were not treated in a hospitable way, you simply shook the dust off of your feet and moved on. Shaking the dust off of your feet was a symbol to these people of having been in impure territory. You left judgment to God.
This passage is essentially about the great compassion of Jesus for a people who had no shepherd, no leader, no guide, no well being or direction. And Jesus forms a community to begin a ministry to go to the lost. It is a very peripapetic community. They walk everywhere and they live with the lost sheep of the house of Israel without much gear, money, and they reside with them and have an intimate relationship with them. All in all these very early disciples were at the mercy of God. They were people who had great trust that God would be with them, and be their guide.
What drives Jesus to such compassion that his life is given to this way. And he calls others to join him because the harvest of lost sheep of Israel is apparently quite significant.
In this period people did not live very long. At the age of 33 or so Jesus was really quite old, and his followers were probably mostly much younger than he. People died young. They suffered from diseases, and mostly from malnutrition. Diseases were caused by lack of sanitation and improper food preparation. Dental care was all but non-existent. Flies were a leading cause of blindness which was a serious problem. We can guess that limited pre-natal was the cause of many of the problems of children, which also may have contributed to deafness, blindness, and other diseases. Leprosy in the Bible is not the kind of Leprosy that we know of as Hansen's disease. Leprosy in the Bible was any kind of skin disorder and scaliness wherein there might be some leaking though of body fluid. Mental disorders, retardation, epilepsy, etc., were usually viewed a demon possession in these days. Illnesses and disease, physical handicaps must have been rampant, and they sometimes considered to be the result of punishment from God. They were dishonorable. Whether punishment or not they were viewed as shameful, polluting, and were a sign of impurity.
From a more social, political, and economic point of view. The large majority of people of the time were economically poor. Many had lost their land, or had it taken from them. Thus, the resorted to tax collection, prostitution, and other disreputable and impure vocations. Barely ten percent of the people could read or write. Life was very hard. The first of the Beatitudes of Jesus are blessed are the poor, because there were so many, and blessed are they that mourn. In this kind of society there was great loss and considerable mourning everywhere. These were a conquered people, and by the time Matthew is writing there is no leadership or direction for the lost sheep of Israel who are like sheep without a shepherd. The people of this kind of world had to be very depressed, very vulnerable to sickness and death, a people without much hope or meaning in their lives.
Thus out of great sensitivity and compassion, the ministry of Jesus takes shape to heal, to reclaim, to liberate these people who were in this lost, least, and last in this kind of predicament. The ministry begins with Jesus entering into that world with great compassion. He brings a reassurance that these people are God's people, and they belong to his Empire, which is very different from the conquering Roman Empire. In the Empire of God they are God's children and brothers and sisters. This Empire is not an Empire of shame. There are no impure people. They are no outcasts, nor marginalized, and no disenfranchised people. They are brothers and sisters of one another. There is no shaming or shunning. This is not the understanding that the world has of Empires. Jesus proclaims another Empire that does not come from this world; it is the Empire founded in the love of God.
To understand healing in Jesus' time it is important to understand that they did not know about viruses, germs, and bacteria. Healing was not a matter of cure as we understand it as it was restoration to community and sense of worth. To be forgiven, to be accepted into the community was what was important. In the Gospel of John 5:2, there is the story of the sick man at the healing pool, but the the sick man has no one to put him into the healing water. The sickness is not nearly the problem for the man as is the fact that he has no one. Being accepted and have people, friends who care, love, forgive, accept is the great healing of this time. To allow people to know that inspite of their sickness, they are loved and worthy was great healing power for this period.
In this passage there is surely considerable compassion for Jesus, and his called disciples to bring restoration, healing, comfort, love, forgiveness, to this mourning, hurting, painful, death ridden world. New dignity was brought to the human condition, and all were restored to dignity in the Empire of God. Healing, love, compassion, mercy, senstitivity, understanding, forgiveness: these were all the ingredients and the way of the Empire of God. For that reason it was good news. And there was on the part of Jesus and to those who responded to him great urgency to get going with the harvest where the laborers were few.
Today's world is somewhat different, although not completely in some ways. We have an understanding of health issues. And many people find cures for their ailments. We know about the importance of sanitation and cleanliness, and many of the childhood diseases that wiped out masses of children and people have been conquered. But still the ailments of loneliness, and alienation persist. The sad ailments of prejudice, assuming we or certain races and countries are better than others and not seeing all of us as brothers and sisters of God still persists. We sometimes find ourselves uncomfortable around the troubled and the upset. The church as a community of concerned disciples for the afflicted and disenfranchised has been somewhat replaced by individuals who look for a place of personal solace and escape from the world. Our sense of mission is often flimsy, short-sighted, scattered, and meagre at best. That early Christian urgency, vitality, and daring is not always what we see in Christian church of today.
This is not a peripatetic world; we drive everywhere, which is actually isolating. We move away from the bad neighborhoods into the suburbs, and isolate ourselves again. Yet around us is human need. Elderly and institutionalized people are often very alone. We find ourselves keeping our distance from the strange, the retarded, the not so emotionally stable. We all know those kinds of uncomfortableness, and our feelings of inadequacy.
Yet, Christ came with great compassion and sensitivity, and called a whole band of totally unskilled people who put their faith and confidence in God. I suppose they knew in their own hearts just how lonely they themselves sometimes felt, and how broken they were at times, and knew deep within thier own shortcomings, failures, pains. Yet through Christ Jesus they were touched, and they dared at his command to persevere. In fact who better can heal the sick, and tell the goodnews better than those who have themselves been sick and broken, and who know the healing love of God through the grace given to them by other caring people and through the message of Christ.
Drop the baggage of excuses and all the things we think we have to have and carry with us. We have received so much through the grace of God without payment. May we give in without payment.
Sunday, June 6, 1999
Pentecost 2
May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)
SEASON: Pentecost 2
PROPER: A
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: June 6,1999
TEXT: Matthew 9:9-13 - "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?"
ISSUE: Who do church members and Americans shun and condemn? How does Jesus respond in his culture and ours?
The theme of this Sunday seems based on how God demands mercy and compassion with not so much concern for proper righteous liturgical law abiding citizens and church members. Jesus' association with the tax collectors and sinners, his emphasis on healing the sick and out casts, and his association with them may be as shocking for us as it was for his own time.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
"Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?" Why does he indeed? In Jesus's time that was a very significant question. I would suggest that it is as important for the modern church to be able to answer that as it was for the pharisees.
Matthew tells us that Jesus was in the area of Capernaum, a town which was now his own, a kind of home base. He is reported (4:13) to have moved there after John Baptists martrydom, leaving Nazareth behind as Jesus began his own ministry. Capernaum was a fairly busy town, and probably one of the larger towns on the Sea of Galilee. There was apparently a fair amount of tradesmen there and certainly fishermen.
Jesus had called several fishermen from this area, and now he calls Matthew, a tax collector to follow him, and to be one of his disciples. It is interesting to me that Jesus does not say, "If you are going to be good, follow me." or "Repent, and follow me." or "If you believe what I believe you can follow me." He just says, "Follow me." - at least according to this account. Since Capernaum was a busy seaside town it is likely that Jesus who had fishermen disciples would call a tax collector, because a part of the job was to sell rights to fishermen to fish in Lake Galilee and then to collect taxes on their catch. Fishermen had, of course, no elite status, and were taxed so highly that they were most always poor economically, as well as poor in terms of the status in the community.
A tax collector was even worse off. Tax collectors really got a very bad rap. The taxes they collected went to the Romans, so they were seen to be something of traitors to their own people. Tax collectors were the male equivalent of whores. ("The God of Jesus," Stephen J. Patterson, p.67) The Roman government demanded an exhorbitant amount of taxation. Their were taxes on about everything, including tolls at bridges, ports, border crossings. But the economic and political situation being what it was a man sometimes had to do work that was available and could not always find work that was reputable and that gave him standing in the community. You had to eat in order to live, so some did what they had to do, and were victims of what life had dealt them.
Tax collectors also had a reputation for being dishonest. It was thought that they would over charge in order to become rich. The system worked this way: first a tax collector paid the government up front for the job of collecting taxes on imports and exports, or for giving out fishing rights. It was then up to them to recupe what they had put out to get the tax collecting job. So they were reputed for being dishonest and extortionists. Some may have done been, but historical records indicate that very very few tax collectors ever got rich. And they never gained status in the community. They remained shunned and excluded. Some are reported to have never regained what they put out in the first place to get the job. It was a gamble. Their shamed reputation must have been the result of the very small percentage of the elite and wealthy, because the poor had little or nothing to tax. Sometimes, maybe, the affluent are the biggest complainers.
Tax collectors were also considered impure because they dealt with materials in caravans that was considered unclean, and the they touched and dealt with Gentiles. So the job was not only considered traitorous, it was also ritually unclean.
Jesus does the strangest thing, he selects and invites a shamed and dishonorable tax collector to become one of his disciples. I wonder why he does that? Of course another question might be, why does Matthew the tax collector follow this itinerant preacher anyway. Traveling around was also considered deviant behavior at the time, and it was very dangerous. You carried a walking stick to help beat off wild animals, wild dogs, and bandits. In certain seasons it was extraordinarily hot to travel by day, and dangerous at night. but Matthew leaves the custom house to follow Jesus. Why?
We are given the impression that Matthew now follows Jesus home for dinner. And gathered around the supper table are more tax collectors and sinners. Supper time, and invitations to banquets in this period was very special in the middle eastern culture of the first century. You only ate with people who were of your own rank, or higher if you could manage it. Who you were seen with and who you associated with was most important to the maintaining of your own honor and status in community. Men never ate with women, or vice-versa. Meals were political, ritualisitic, ceremonial, and to eat with poor sinners was to risk becoming yourself unclean. It just wasn't done, but Jesus did it. Why did he do that?
Now who were these sinners? Sinners were the expendable people in the world of that time: tax collectors, the mentally ill, drunks, the prostitutes, beggars, blind, deaf and mute, paralytics, people who held no land, lepers (skin diseased), artisans (carpenters, tanners, shepherds, the landless, and those who couldn't keep all the laws by virtue of their status in life.) These were the people thought to have no self-worth.Sinners and the expendable people were the people that Jesus had his supper with. Why did he do that? "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners? the Pharisees asked. Which may well mean to say, Why does the teacher eat with the sickies, the lost, the least, the least, the forlorn? What's the good of that?
Jesus takes a stab at answering the challenge to his honor and replies with a challenge: Those who are well have no need for a physician, but those who are sick." . . . . the lost, the least, the disenfranchised, the condemned and judged. "Go and learn what this means: "I desire mercy, not sacrifice," For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners. Jesus is not the slightest bit concerned with religion and the cultural protocol of his time. He is not concerned with their sacrificial system. He is concerned with justice, and mercy, and compassion. He does not run around being pious and religious and giving handouts. He lives with and associates with, and loves the very people who are the expendable outcasts, and the people whom the society condemned and excluded. There was the belief at the time that the Messiah would provide a great Messianic Banquet. Well, here it is, and look whose there. It's really quite startling.
In Jesus' time, physicians may have studied illness and disease but they rarely attempted to heal anybody. If they did and the person died they were themselves liable and could have been put to death. Furthermore, healing was not so much curing as it was restoration of meaning and purpose to life. It was restoration to the community. Jesus does what the physicians of the time would not do. He associates with the sick, the judged, the condemned, the alienated. He touches and befriends them with mercy and compassion. He gave them a new sense of belonging and self-esteem which was not based upon cultural standards. He invites them out of the world into the Kingdom of God that Jesus felt himself to be a part of. Anybody can spare a dime for the poor and the disenfranchised but Jesus moves in with them and invites them into his community of mercy, meaning, and compassion.
Obviously our culture is considerable different from the time of Jesus, but it is not without its prejudices and its exclusiveness. Both as individuals and as members of the church, we might well ask ourselves who is it that we exclude, shun and condemn from our lives and from our community of faith? And I guess we might also ask, How would Jesus Christ respond in our world and who would be called to "Follow" and sit at the table with him today?
Why does the teacher, our Lord, eat with tax collectors and sinners? And would we be there at the table with them?
SEASON: Pentecost 2
PROPER: A
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: June 6,1999
TEXT: Matthew 9:9-13 - "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?"
ISSUE: Who do church members and Americans shun and condemn? How does Jesus respond in his culture and ours?
The theme of this Sunday seems based on how God demands mercy and compassion with not so much concern for proper righteous liturgical law abiding citizens and church members. Jesus' association with the tax collectors and sinners, his emphasis on healing the sick and out casts, and his association with them may be as shocking for us as it was for his own time.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
"Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?" Why does he indeed? In Jesus's time that was a very significant question. I would suggest that it is as important for the modern church to be able to answer that as it was for the pharisees.
Matthew tells us that Jesus was in the area of Capernaum, a town which was now his own, a kind of home base. He is reported (4:13) to have moved there after John Baptists martrydom, leaving Nazareth behind as Jesus began his own ministry. Capernaum was a fairly busy town, and probably one of the larger towns on the Sea of Galilee. There was apparently a fair amount of tradesmen there and certainly fishermen.
Jesus had called several fishermen from this area, and now he calls Matthew, a tax collector to follow him, and to be one of his disciples. It is interesting to me that Jesus does not say, "If you are going to be good, follow me." or "Repent, and follow me." or "If you believe what I believe you can follow me." He just says, "Follow me." - at least according to this account. Since Capernaum was a busy seaside town it is likely that Jesus who had fishermen disciples would call a tax collector, because a part of the job was to sell rights to fishermen to fish in Lake Galilee and then to collect taxes on their catch. Fishermen had, of course, no elite status, and were taxed so highly that they were most always poor economically, as well as poor in terms of the status in the community.
A tax collector was even worse off. Tax collectors really got a very bad rap. The taxes they collected went to the Romans, so they were seen to be something of traitors to their own people. Tax collectors were the male equivalent of whores. ("The God of Jesus," Stephen J. Patterson, p.67) The Roman government demanded an exhorbitant amount of taxation. Their were taxes on about everything, including tolls at bridges, ports, border crossings. But the economic and political situation being what it was a man sometimes had to do work that was available and could not always find work that was reputable and that gave him standing in the community. You had to eat in order to live, so some did what they had to do, and were victims of what life had dealt them.
Tax collectors also had a reputation for being dishonest. It was thought that they would over charge in order to become rich. The system worked this way: first a tax collector paid the government up front for the job of collecting taxes on imports and exports, or for giving out fishing rights. It was then up to them to recupe what they had put out to get the tax collecting job. So they were reputed for being dishonest and extortionists. Some may have done been, but historical records indicate that very very few tax collectors ever got rich. And they never gained status in the community. They remained shunned and excluded. Some are reported to have never regained what they put out in the first place to get the job. It was a gamble. Their shamed reputation must have been the result of the very small percentage of the elite and wealthy, because the poor had little or nothing to tax. Sometimes, maybe, the affluent are the biggest complainers.
Tax collectors were also considered impure because they dealt with materials in caravans that was considered unclean, and the they touched and dealt with Gentiles. So the job was not only considered traitorous, it was also ritually unclean.
Jesus does the strangest thing, he selects and invites a shamed and dishonorable tax collector to become one of his disciples. I wonder why he does that? Of course another question might be, why does Matthew the tax collector follow this itinerant preacher anyway. Traveling around was also considered deviant behavior at the time, and it was very dangerous. You carried a walking stick to help beat off wild animals, wild dogs, and bandits. In certain seasons it was extraordinarily hot to travel by day, and dangerous at night. but Matthew leaves the custom house to follow Jesus. Why?
We are given the impression that Matthew now follows Jesus home for dinner. And gathered around the supper table are more tax collectors and sinners. Supper time, and invitations to banquets in this period was very special in the middle eastern culture of the first century. You only ate with people who were of your own rank, or higher if you could manage it. Who you were seen with and who you associated with was most important to the maintaining of your own honor and status in community. Men never ate with women, or vice-versa. Meals were political, ritualisitic, ceremonial, and to eat with poor sinners was to risk becoming yourself unclean. It just wasn't done, but Jesus did it. Why did he do that?
Now who were these sinners? Sinners were the expendable people in the world of that time: tax collectors, the mentally ill, drunks, the prostitutes, beggars, blind, deaf and mute, paralytics, people who held no land, lepers (skin diseased), artisans (carpenters, tanners, shepherds, the landless, and those who couldn't keep all the laws by virtue of their status in life.) These were the people thought to have no self-worth.Sinners and the expendable people were the people that Jesus had his supper with. Why did he do that? "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners? the Pharisees asked. Which may well mean to say, Why does the teacher eat with the sickies, the lost, the least, the least, the forlorn? What's the good of that?
Jesus takes a stab at answering the challenge to his honor and replies with a challenge: Those who are well have no need for a physician, but those who are sick." . . . . the lost, the least, the disenfranchised, the condemned and judged. "Go and learn what this means: "I desire mercy, not sacrifice," For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners. Jesus is not the slightest bit concerned with religion and the cultural protocol of his time. He is not concerned with their sacrificial system. He is concerned with justice, and mercy, and compassion. He does not run around being pious and religious and giving handouts. He lives with and associates with, and loves the very people who are the expendable outcasts, and the people whom the society condemned and excluded. There was the belief at the time that the Messiah would provide a great Messianic Banquet. Well, here it is, and look whose there. It's really quite startling.
In Jesus' time, physicians may have studied illness and disease but they rarely attempted to heal anybody. If they did and the person died they were themselves liable and could have been put to death. Furthermore, healing was not so much curing as it was restoration of meaning and purpose to life. It was restoration to the community. Jesus does what the physicians of the time would not do. He associates with the sick, the judged, the condemned, the alienated. He touches and befriends them with mercy and compassion. He gave them a new sense of belonging and self-esteem which was not based upon cultural standards. He invites them out of the world into the Kingdom of God that Jesus felt himself to be a part of. Anybody can spare a dime for the poor and the disenfranchised but Jesus moves in with them and invites them into his community of mercy, meaning, and compassion.
Obviously our culture is considerable different from the time of Jesus, but it is not without its prejudices and its exclusiveness. Both as individuals and as members of the church, we might well ask ourselves who is it that we exclude, shun and condemn from our lives and from our community of faith? And I guess we might also ask, How would Jesus Christ respond in our world and who would be called to "Follow" and sit at the table with him today?
Why does the teacher, our Lord, eat with tax collectors and sinners? And would we be there at the table with them?
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