Rejoice in Good

Gospel: Luke 11: 14-23

It is customary that when something good happens to a person that we rejoice and celebrate the good with that person, and if a good happens to us we invite others to celebrate with us.  However, in today's Gospel portion we get the opposite.  A man is freed from his demon at the hand of Jesus, but rather than rejoice people bewail the event, and they make irrational assertions against Jesus.  The poor man has a good thing happen to him, and no one to rejoice with him.

We might find this scene unusual were it not for the fact that this is the norm in the world of religion.  Rather than rejoice in the good work each one is doing and experiencing, instead we find the armies of competing apologists attack one another with endless fury.  Instead of focusing on the fundamental work of Jesus in healing, liberating, and nourishing people, instead the focus of religion is on attacking one another in the endless attempt at selling timeshares in pews, in keeping the collection plate full.  

Today we are reminded of what is important in the world of religion - to care for others and to rejoice with others when they experience healing, freedom from their demons, nourishment at table.  Today is a day to walk away from the pugilism of the apologists, ignoring their invective, and look to the good of the works of mercy to which we are called to undertake in walking authentically with the Lord Jesus on our journey through life. 

Fulfilling the Law

Gospel: Matthew 5: 17-19

Jesus comes to fulfill the Law of Israel.  He does so by providing laser focus on what the purpose and end of the law is, and that is to love others.  The law does not exist to exclude or to condemn.  It exists solely to have human beings love one another.  That is the entire teaching of Jesus, one that he exhibited as he went from place to place doing good to others - by healing those were sick, liberating those enslaved by their demons, and nourishing those hungry in body and spirit.  

Jesus then invites other people to this work, and gives us a framework of how to show love and mercy to others.  We are to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, give shelter to the homeless, visit those sick and imprisoned, and provide welcome to the immigrant, refugee, and migrant.  All of these activities can be found in various places in the law of Israel, and they now become the central focus of the law of love.  

Church campuses exist in great numbers, but are these above deeds of love the central focus of their existence? Imagine if they were.  Imagine if church operations were about these things and not selling time shares in pews for an our per week.  Imagine if every Christian were engaged in these works of love and mercy.  It would certainly be a different Christianity than the one that exists now, and perhaps a different world too.  

Showing Mercy

Gospel: Matthew 18: 21-35

The modern Christian revels in the idea that God has forgiven them of all their sins, that the blood of Jesus has washed them all away.  Leaving aside the fact that such is true for every human being, the idea throughout the Gospel is that if God has shown mercy to us in forgiving us of our sins that we must show mercy to other people.  In short, the mercy of God is not so much a gift to us as much as it is an obligation on our part to be merciful to others.

How are we doing in showing mercy to others? The modern Christian is the apologist of every act of war and violence on other nations, defenders of unjust death penalty and incarceration systems, advocates for cruel and barbaric mass deportation policies and violence against immigrants, migrants, and refugees whom they created with the above unjust wars.  Moreover, any suggestion of forgiveness of medical and student debt is derided by the modern Christian.  

This parable suggests that the mercy shown to all may be withdrawn if we ourselves do not show mercy to other people.  This idea should give us pause and lead us to reconsider our actions and attitudes above.  In Lent we fast not for ascetic purposes but to identify with the poor of the world, to see the world through their experience so that we might show mercy and generosity to them as we are charged to do by the teaching and example of the Lord Jesus.