Wedding RSVPs

Gospel: Matthew 22: 1-14

The king invites people to a wedding.  Those invited are the rich and influential people of the kingdom, as is common in royal weddings.  Those invited refused to attend or respond to the invitation.  They even kill messengers sent to have them come. Why?  Table fellowship, particularly at a wedding celebration, binds people together and obligates them to service to one another.  If these rich folk accept this invitation, they must then do as the king bids.  

And that is the point of this story!  The king is God who invites us to a life of mercy and loving kindness.  The banquet binds us to forgive the debts of others, something the rich are unwilling to do.  After all, crippling debt on others is how they got rich, and keeping people in this debt trap is the way to retain power and wealth.  So, the king invites others - the poor and marginalized, those on the edges of society - and they come.  They are much more willing to accept this fellowship and obligation to one another.  

Each one of us has received  this invitation to the wedding banquet of the king.  It is now our opportunity to respond.  Will we be like the rich who refuse to the point of violence?  Will we be like the man who comes to enjoy the food but does not accept the terms of the king's fellowship?  Or will we be those who have accepted the invitation, partaken of the meal, and go out to provide mercy and loving kindness to those we encounter each day? 

Blessed Are You

Gospel: Luke 11: 27-28

Once again the emotion of the crowd creates a slogan that initially sounds pious: blessed is the woman who bore Jesus and brought him into the world.  It is a holy sentiment and not wrong.  Mary is indeed blessed for this role in salvation history.  Yet, Jesus rejects the sentiment.  To accept the sentiment is to privilege one person for something no one else had the opportunity to do in the biological function of being the mother of Jesus.

Jesus expands the notion of blessing, as well as who can be the bearer of Christ in the world.  Blessed are those who do God's will on earth.  For to do God's will is to bring forth Christ in the world.  It is to give birth to deeds of loving kindness and mercy - feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, clothing the naked, sheltering the homeless, caring for the sick and imprisoned, welcoming the stranger.  It is to do the very deeds Jesus did while on earth.  It is to be another Christ to others.

To be a Theotokos - a God bearer - is not the unique privilege of one person, though she did so exceedingly well.  It is the privilege of all people to bear the image and likeness of God, to be a temple of the Holy Spirit, to be another Christ in the world.  The task at hand is to accept that reality and to perform the deeds of loving mercy and kindness that will bring forth Christ in the world.  That is the role of being a God bearer in the world. 

Crowd Sourcing

Gospel: Luke 11: 15-26

Crowds are irrational groupings of people moved solely by emotion.  At any given time a crowd may randomly be right about an issue, but they would not know why and could not reliably be trusted to be so in the future.  Crowds believe all sorts of wild things, from the various slogans of political movements to unwarranted beliefs about sports teams.  Crowds are important to those who control such movements and franchises in wielding power and controlling the populace.

Today's crowd shouts that Jesus casts out demons by the power of Satan.  Such an assertion is irrational, as Jesus' response to them shows.  Jesus may convince a few people from the crowd to peel away and follow him, but overall the makeup of a crowd will remain largely the same.  The crowd will not listen to reason.  Their wild assertions become tenets of a creed built on emotion, in this case emotion against Jesus, and it will use whatever slogan, whatever allegation its handlers can create that will stick against Jesus.  

Occasionally we will see the disciples swayed by the crowds.  They have to decide whether to join the crowd or to follow Jesus.  The same holds true for us today.  We can allow ourselves to join the rabble and emotion of crowds, following all sorts of ideologies and positions.  Or we can remain fixed on the person of Jesus, imitating his way of life - the way of mercy, loving kindness, and service to others that brings healing, deliverance, and nourishment to all we encounter.