The Lord Has Come

Gospel: Matthew 24: 42-51

The topic of the coming of the Lord is a paradoxical one, for we are simultaneously indifferent to it and obsessed with it.  Our indifference stems from the fact that in the common understanding the timing of the event cannot be known.  Like waiting for Godot, we have no idea when he will come or what the arrival will even look like, and we have waited so long for this event deemed ever imminent that every mention of it leads to an even greater indifference.

On the other hand our obsession is equally acute.  In the common understanding this event of the Lord's coming has been charged with such dread and impending doom that every bad event in the world is said to portend this coming day of judgment.  Such forecasting is undertaken by people across the spectrum where each pet cause is attached to the lore of the final coming such that each sibyl has created their own barometer for awaiting this day of darkness.

But the Lord has come.  The Lord comes each day in the person of our neighbor, and each encounter does come with its own judgment on whether we have treated our neighbor with mercy, love, and compassion, or whether we have treated them with malice and judgment.  We can dispense with the oracles of doom.  We can awake from our indifference.  The Lord comes to you and me today in other people as images of God, temples of the Holy Spirit, and Christ himself.   

Sham Religions

Gospel:  Matthew 23: 27-32

These passages of woe spiral back to the Sermon on the Mount and teachings Jesus provided therein, and the woes will culminate in the final judgment passage of the sheep and the goats.  Today's woe is related to the teaching of Jesus on the wearing of religious finery and garb.  The people of religion are found clad in religious attire of one variety or another to show to the world their affiliations and positions of power and authority within the world of religion.  

The costumes also mask and hide what lies underneath.  While giving the appearance of piety and devotion and attention to the work of religion, the garb whitewashes over a life lived in avoidance of the real and authentic work of religion, the works of mercy and care for others that punctuated the life and teaching of Jesus.  It is, after all, much easier to wear the religious costume than it is to encounter the stranger, the hungry and thirsty, the homeless and naked, the sick and imprisoned.  

In the life of religion we have an ever present choice.  We can continue cultivating shallow soil with the thin veneers of religious garb that flowers and fades quickly.  Or we can do the hard thing and cultivate rich, deep soil of mercy and love that produces long lasting yields.  We can have a religion of whitened tombs that hold dead bones, or we can rise from the tomb with the Lord Jesus and continue his work anew day in and day out.

Avoiding What Matters

Gospel: Matthew 23: 23-26

Take note of the cleric and layfolk who take great pains to wash the communion vessels, noting how important care for the body and blood of the Lord is in the tradition.  Note also their utter horror when a communion host falls to the ground.  The care and attention to the host and in purifying the area where it fell are again predicated on care for the Eucharistic species and the body of the Lord.  To be sure there are rules in the Church about such matters.

Now consider the utter neglect for and open hostility to the poor and marginalized; the migrant, immigrant, and refugee;  the imprisoned, foreigner, and people of other religions or none at all.  The very folk who have such attention and care for "the body of the Lord" in the Eucharistic species will create endless reams of apologetic on why it is perfectly acceptable to harbor and exhibit animus and indifference toward untold numbers of people in our world.

The real body of the Lord is our neighbor, all human beings who are made in God's image and likeness, who are temples of the Holy Spirit, bearing the person of Christ himself in their very being.  We will be judged on how we care for this body of Christ on earth - the hungry and thirsty, the sick and imprisoned, the naked and homeless, the stranger.  These are the weightier matters of the Law.  Would that we had as much concern for these as we do on the washing of cups and bowls.