Acknowledgements

Gospel: Matthew 10: 24-33

What does it mean to "acknowledge Christ"?  We are told from the preachers that it means to assert faith in Christ, accepting him as our personal Lord and Savior.  The priests will tell us that to acknowledge Christ is to recite a creedal formula written and decreed by the approved theologians.  But the idea of such verbal assertions about an ethereal idea of a heavenly being or our abstractions about Jesus from the historical past seem hollow and unrealistic in the face of mounting body counts and victims of religion.

No.  To acknowledge Christ is not to participate in any of these stage performances.  Rather, to acknowledge Christ is to recognize the presence of Christ in another person, in all persons.  It is to regard others as another Christ and to treat them with dignity and respect, to extend mercy and care for them in feeding them, providing them drink, sheltering them, clothing them, visiting them in their sickness and imprisonment, and in welcoming them in all people.  

We can continue to engage in religion as playing house, i.e. in pretending to be real with our scripts, play acting, and fineries.  Or we can actually be in the house engaged in the real undertaking of the household.  The former is easy and requires little from us.  The latter is much more challenging, for it is the work of Jesus himself, who sat in the houses of others engaged in the needs people have - in healing them, liberating them from demons and fear, and nourishing body and soul.  This is to acknowledge Christ.

The Posture of a Christian

Gospel:  Matthew 10: 16-23

In today's Gospel portion we are provided with the blueprint for the Christian's demeanor in the world.  Jesus states that we are sheep in the midst of wolves.  Sheep are not aggressive or predatory animals.  They are the hunted, as is the Christian.  We are to flee from town to town in the face of persecution.  We are not to employ the angry or vindictive word.  When the time comes we will be given what to say before the teeth of the enemy.  

If one is confused by this image Jesus provides, that is understandable.  Notably absent is the appeal to weaponry and violence.  There is no quarter to be found in political parties or governments.  No use of the wiles of modern media and its propaganda.  All the things the modern Christian avails themselves are utterly rejected by the Lord Jesus.  Firmly rooted in the tradition from which he came, Jesus echoes the Psalmist - from where shall come my help?  My help is from the Lord.

The atheist is not the one who rejects God and does not attend church.  The atheist is the modern Christian who claims belief in God but does not live such.  Most Christians of modern times do not believe in God.  They believe in the strong man, the money and power, the propaganda machines of the media empires, the political power and influence they have cultivated like bitter grapes.  Today is a day for us to follow the example of Jesus, who lived his own teaching at his arrest, trial, and death.  Our help is from the Lord... 

Without Cost

Gospel: Matthew 10: 7-15

As you have received, so must you give.  We the sick who have been healed of our infirmities.  We the cripples who have been made to walk again.  We the lepers who have been made clean.  We who were possessed by demons and liberated from them.  Now it is our turn to go out into the world and provide healing to the ill and crippled and leprous, and to provide liberation for those held bound by the demons that oppress them.  

In doing so we proclaim that the kingdom of God is present in the world.  God's kingdom is not about domination and enslavement of others.  God's kingdom is about the liberation of others, the lifting up of those who have been poor, ill, and enslaved.  It brings with it the great jubilee - the forgiveness of all debts, a renewal of the land, and the restoration of our relationships with God and others that have been broken and frayed.  

These tasks are the work Jesus has entrusted to those who are his disciples, those who claim membership in the Church.  We have all received such healing and liberation ourselves.  God has given it to us freely.  Now we must do the same, offering mercy and reconciliation, healing and restoration to all freely.  Only in this way can renewal and restoration come to the earth, to individuals and communities everywhere.   This is the Good News of the kingdom of God.