Chosen People

Gospel: Luke 4: 24-30

Human beings have an ego problem, individual and collective.  In the category of the latter, we imagine ourselves a privileged species in the whole of the universe, singularly made by God, singularly sentient - the only one in the cosmos.  Not content with that, we then imagine that a particular race or religion is the chosen people of God, the one true community of God's elect where salvation alone exists, whom God loves exclusively.  These ideas have done untold harm to humanity and the earth.

However, in today's Gospel Jesus goes to the synagogue in his home town to refute this idea.  He reminds them that God's gifts of mercy have extended to people outside the privileged race and religion of Israel.  He calls to mind the fact that all people are made in God's image and likeness, and thus all are loved by God.  God's mercy and love are not just for one people but for all.  That we find this message offensive reflects how far we are from the teaching and example of Jesus.

We all want to feel special and privileged, and in so doing we often demean and harm others in the process.  Not content with being loved by God as all people are, we create tiers of heaven and castes on earth that only seek to exclude others and giving us justification to harm other people.  In reminding people that everyone is loved of God and that all have received mercy, we face the same violence against ourselves as Jesus did.  That is the Lenten journey.

The Encounter

Gospel: John 4: 5-42

Jesus enters a Samaritan town and asks a woman for a cup of water.  The woman is shocked, for he is Jewish and what he asks for is forbidden and unclean.  She is a Samaritan, a bitter enemy and foreigner to the Jewish people.  Moreover, she is a public sinner.  The woman is at the well at noon because of this fact, and we discover in the conversation that she has had five husbands and now lives with a sixth man.  This entire scenario is utterly unbelievable to her.

And yet Jesus engages in conversation with her.  He does not condemn or castigate her.  He simply has a conversation.  Jesus has no set script, no agenda.  He simply talks to her, and in the course of the conversation she comes to a dramatic transformation.  Her understanding of Jesus grows - beginning first with a racial slur, then moving to "sir", then "prophet", then "Messiah".  By the end of two days both she and the entire town will declare Jesus to be "savior of the world."  All from a simple conversation.

What transformations could we effect in the world if we simply had conversations with other people, authentic encounters with no script, no agenda.  What realizations could be had in such engagements.  This is the way of Jesus, and this must be our way in our interactions with other people.  But how few of us wish to do this.  How many people are on our no-fly list - people we would not break bread with or talk with, even in our own families!  This Lent, let us imitate the Lord Jesus in this story. 

Welcoming the Estranged

Gospel: Luke 15: 1-3, 11-32

Today's Gospel portion begins with a consistent complaint of the Pharisees regarding Jesus, bewailing the fact that he eats with sinners and welcomes them.  In response, Jesus tells them the story of the Prodigal Son, a story about a young man who wanted his father dead in desiring his inheritance early.  He then goes on to spend the money in profligate living, eventually winding up tending swine, an unclean sinful profession in the Jewish world.  

Despite the depravity of this man's sinful life, his father goes out in search of him, eventually finding the son.  The father had already decided to bring his younger son home with him; he did not need his son's apology which the boy had not yet fully made as intended.  Much to the chagrin of the older son, this father brings home his wayward son and throws a lavish celebration party for him, eating at table with this sinner just as Jesus does time and again.

If this is the image of God Jesus presents to us, and if this is the example of God Jesus himself models for us in his own actions, then we too must welcome the stranger and the estranged, breaking bread with them as our regular course of action.  We must never ever refuse a person admittance to the table.  And we must have as our singular mission that of this father, going about seeking out the estranged and reminding them of their welcome and place in the family of God.