Changing the Pattern

Gospel: Matthew 4: 18-22

On the surface of things, Jesus' decision to call together two groups of brothers as disciples looks headed for disaster.  Historically, brothers are not good components for building anything.  Not only do they not get along, but also they are downright hostile to one another, forming generational rivalries: Cain and Abel, Isaac and Ishmael, Jacob and Esau, the tribes of Israel.  There is no precedent in tradition to justify this move of Jesus.

But Jesus would succeed where the others failed, for Jesus calls together brothers into a community of love.  Here, the community has but one command - to love - and what is more they have a concrete example and model of love in the person of Jesus that will enable them to succeed as an enduring community on earth.  For in love all rivalries are set aside, all self-interest destroyed, all thoughts of personal gain and partisanship left behind.  

It is to this community that we also are called to belong.  It is true that we will find people within the community who do not live the command of love and are guided by self-interest and power, gain, and partisanship.  But love calls us to love them as well, to endure the sufferings they put upon us just as Jesus did in his life, for he alone is our model to follow in all all things.   

Don't Worry - Rejoice!

Gospel: Luke 21: 12-19

Throughout the Gospels Jesus repeatedly tells his disciples that they would be persecuted - expelled from assemblies, arrested, tortured, put on trial, and put to death.  In every instance he tells them not to worry; in fact, in the Beatitudes we are told to rejoice when these things happen to us.  Indeed, that was the posture of the early Christians for three centuries as they faced these many hardships.  The ancient accounts of the martyrs testify to this joy and serenity.

Today, however, Christians complain about everything.  The merest slight and inconvenience sets them over the edge.  From uncomfortable pews to holiday coffee cups to people saying Happy Holidays a slight is found everywhere.  The incessant moaning about religious liberty from those who would not respect such for others bespeaks a people accustomed to imperial privilege, a group more enamored of the imperial basilica than the humble cave churches of Cappadocia.  

If people are not attracted to the Gospel of the Lord Jesus it is because it is not lived among those who claim to follow it.  Jesus calls us to be a church that rejoices, not one that grumbles.  Throughout the Gospels the grumblers are those who keep people away from Jesus, but those who rejoice attract and bring others to the Lord.   So let us rejoice in all things! 

End Times Illusions

Gospel: Luke 21: 5-11

People come to Jesus marveling at the beauty of the Temple in Jerusalem - all its jewels and adornments.  Yet it will all be torn down, all of it an illusion and distraction from what really matters.  So it is with our constant perseveration over the end times - the endless predictions and false demigods of religion who make money off these things.  Note how Jesus describes these end times: not very specific.  It can and does describe every time and place.  Why? Because the topic is not important.

What is important? Jesus came to announce that God's kingdom is here, and that our task is to extend mercy to others in the same way that mercy has been extended to us.  That is our task, and that is what we constantly seek to avoid by focusing on all sorts of other questions that are fundamentally unimportant, such as the end times and Jesus' second coming.  

In our own day we are enamored of the beauty of church buildings, and we are ever fixated on end times conversations.  But each is torn down - churches close and are destroyed, and our endless procession of false ideas on end times are obliterated by the ongoing march of time.  There is still time to concern ourselves with the one thing necessary - being merciful to others as God has been merciful to us, the real work of God's kingdom. 

The Plight of a Widow

Gospel: Luke 21: 1-4

By the time the original audience of the Gospel reads this story, the Temple has been destroyed and will never be rebuilt.  All the wealth given to its upkeep is utterly in vain, and that is the point of the story.  The widow's mite is praised because that is the value of the Temple itself.  As a lifeless entity with no eternal destiny it is but a monument to human beings.  The true temple is the person created by God in his own image.  The true temple is the widow herself.

The care of widows, orphans, and the poor was a core component of Israel's law.  In this story we see that core utterly neglected and replaced with a false religion.  The wealthy men of Israel are supposed to be providing for the widow and her needs.  Instead, their money goes to support a lifeless temple of stone and the largesse of a class of wealthy religious leaders who have replaced the care of widows and the poor with temple religion. 

In early Christianity the offering collection was taken up to care entirely for the poor in the community.  As time went on the money now goes to maintain buildings and the salaries of the professional religious class.  Yes, we still care for the poor but it is no longer our primary mission.  The care of widows, orphans, and the poor can again be our primary mission of authentic religion, the reason why we gather each week as a community around the common table of the Lord.

The Final Exam

 

Gospel: Matthew 25: 31-46

 

Judgment day is upon us, but we have good news: we have been given the questions in advance.  It is not a surprise test; its contents are not arcane or obscure.  And what is more, the content is relevant to every human being of all times and all places, for it is of a set of skills we can always use for the good of all.  They are fairly simple: did we, or did we not feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, shelter the homeless, care for the sick, visit the imprisoned, and welcome the stranger. 

 

It is instructive to note what the final exam is not about.  There are no questions about theology, none on the catechism.  There is nothing about your membership in a particular church or group or popular movement.  It is not at all about your attendance or lack thereof at church services, your allegiance to a particular liturgical form, or your voting record.  In short, the final exam is not about any of the things we commonly hear regarding judgment or what we consider to be religion in our time. 

 

No, the final exam ends our story where it began with the giving of the Beatitudes.  They form a set of bookends by which we are to understand the entire path of discipleship.  As Jesus was going about living the Beatitudes and doing all these deeds of mercy which are the questions of final judgment, what was our reaction? Were we discouraging him from healing that person, or grumbling and complaining when he ate with sinners, or were we jealous when he invited all and not just my own? Or are we eager to join the Lord Jesus in this work of mercy to all, the work of the kingdom of God?

Being Faithful to Each Other

Gospel: Luke 20: 27-40

Today's reading shows how unimportant questions can lead to very important lessons being taught to us about the real purpose of religion.  The Sadducees think their question is important but it is not.  What does it really matter who is considered this woman's husband after death? Every brother cared for her as he ought and are rewarded for this care.

But the real lesson Jesus teaches through this encounter is the vast difference between the kingdom of God and our kingdoms here on earth.  Here on earth the woman needed to marry all these times because she was not regarded as a citizen in her own right but only through connection by law to a man.  She was a vulnerable person because human law made her so.  But in God's kingdom everyone is a citizen in their own right, everyone protected, cared for, and loved.  In God's kingdom no injustice or inequality exist.  

We might think that the contrast Jesus provides between God's kingdom and our own would lead us to create a world more like God's kingdom.  A brief scan about the world shows we still are plagued with the unimportant questions of religion - the denominational wars, the liturgy wars - to the neglect of the more important questions of caring for others, for living lives of love and mercy.  May today be the day we set aside the unimportant for the sake of the important, today is the day we care for others always. 

Cleansing the Temple

Gospel: Luke 19: 45-48

It is easy to use this story as a way to avoid ourselves by seeing Jesus' actions as some political-economic act or some rejection against Judaism.  But God did not create the temple of Jerusalem or any other building made of stones and wood.  God made the human being as a temple wherein God dwells, where God is to be worshipped in spirit and in truth, where contemplation of God takes places night and day. 

Like the temple buildings we human beings create, we have defiled the temple God created within us: we use it to advance our egos and self-interest.  We contemplate ways of gaining advantage over others for our own personal gain, for riches and power.  We spend so little time thinking of God and being a place of mercy and love.  Our temples desperately need cleansing.

And like the devotees of the ancient temple we chafe at Jesus cleansing our temple and we rebel against it.  We will prefer our idols of self, the merchants and money-changers, and we will prefer Barabbas over Jesus.  But we always have the option to submit to Jesus' cleansing, to contemplate God within so that we might be a place of love and mercy open to all.   

The Thanksgiving of a Leper

Gospel: Luke 17: 11-19

In this story we find a group of lepers from rival ethnic communities - some were Jewish, some Samaritan.  If these men were not lepers they would be regarding each other as unclean and as enemies.  Yet the fact that they are all lepers and regarded as unclean by all makes them live together as a community, supporting each other and living in harmony.  For they all share the same condition of being unclean in the sight of all.  

Jesus comes along and heals them of their uncleanness; only one came back to give thanks.  Is this not the story of humanity in miniature? We are all lepers, all unclean before God.  This ought to make us live together in harmony, but it does not, for some of us do not think they are unclean at all.  Or rather, we invent some other difference - race, ethnicity, religion - to pretend that we are better than some other group of people and oppress them.  In point of fact, however, we are not.

In spite of all this Jesus has made us all clean.  Today is a day for us to be that one healed leper and return to give thanks for being healed.  As we have all shared in the condition of uncleanness, so we all share in the condition of being made clean.  Let this be our thanksgiving: that we commit to living in harmony with one another, recognizing these common bonds and putting aside all other human inventions that separate us and tear us apart through illusory differences. 

A Parable for Our Times

Gospel: Luke 19: 11-28

The Gospel writer is intentional about the setting and context of Jesus telling the parable of the talents: they are heading to Jerusalem where everyone is expecting Jesus to re-establish the kingdom of Israel, the kingdom of God.  They are expecting the new kingdom to overthrow foreign occupation, restore the purity of the Temple, and live again the glory days of Israel of old.  

If this were the case, then Jesus would have done exactly as the parable of the talents suggests.  He would slay his enemies who did not want him to be king.  He would give rewards in the measure in which we used our talents in a worldly sense.  But he did none of these things.  Instead, Jesus would be the one to die, and he would forgive those who put him to death.  We have completely misinterpreted the kingdom and the Messianic expectations, and Jesus is setting us straight.

The kingdom of God is not about occupying space, erecting buildings, and conquering armies.  The kingdom of God is about mercy and love extended to everyone.  It is about living and dying for the sake of others, in carrying out the concrete acts of mercy to the world.  These are the talents we are to cultivate and by which we are measured.   

A Story Within a Story

 

Gospel: Luke 19: 1-10

The story of Zacchaeus is the story of the Incarnation of Jesus in miniature.  Jesus, the word made flesh, came to dwell among us – to pitch his tent among us.  There was no precondition on our part for him to do so.  No action of ours was required for this event to take place.  It was entirely of God’s initiative, and it was designed to evoke our response of love and mercy in return.  But our response is entirely that -a response to divine initiative, not aa action of ours that causes God to act.

The same takes place in the story of Zacchaeus.  Jesus come to him and says: I intend to dine at your house today.  And so they go to Zacchaeus’ house for this meal and encounter, this communion of two people.  In response to that initiative of Jesus, Zacchaeus comes to an awareness of his sin.  He repents of his sin and offers to repay what he has stolen and to give even more to help the poor, to live a life of mercy for others.  This is not a precondition for Jesus coming to dine with him; it is his response to that initiative of Jesus.

In the story of Zacchaeus everyone – everyone – murmurs and complains that Jesus ate with a sinner.  If the complainers had their way this event would not have happened.  They would have set preconditions and requirements, or they would have regarded Zacchaeus as so sinful that any meeting would be not possible.  Those complainers are still with us today; we may be one of them.  To whom would you deny such an opportunity for encounter with the Lord? Why do you think yourself worthy but not others? Every one of us – everyone – must face this reckoning.  

Attract or Repel

Gospel: Luke 18: 35-43

If the crowd and the disciples had their way this blind man in today's Gospel would not have had his sight restored, would not have become a follower of Jesus and seen the works of redemption.  But as is the case with every other encounter like this one, Jesus rejects the narrow thinking of the crowd and his disciples.  He comes to meet this blind man, and he provides for his needs both physical and spiritual.  

How often is it the case that the crowd and the disciples of today seek to prevent others from experiencing the healing of Jesus in their lives! Consider the many barriers and requirements we establish that deter people from having a relationship with Jesus.  But notice in the Gospels how easy it is to meet Jesus; he goes out of his way to meet others and talk with them.  It does not matter who you are or what condition you are in or even if others try to prevent him from meeting you.  Jesus finds a way each and every time.

Those in religion bristle at those who identify as "spiritual but not religious."  But consider the fact that this may be the way Jesus is seeking them out and meeting them because we who are "religious" have sought to block his way to them and deter them from meeting him at all.  Jesus enjoins us to make straight the path to God, not be a roadblock.   

Fear Kills Growth

Gospel: Matthew 25: 14-30

The one who received talents but did not invest them did so out of fear.  Fear kills growth within a person: we always freeze up when fear grips us and it stunts our growth psychologically and spiritually.  What is more, fear does not lead to growth of the kingdom of God either.  Fear buries talents leaving them unexplored and untapped.  Fear leads to people being disinterested in the kingdom and its work entirely.

Yet, fear seems to be the dominant tool used in religion to instill conformity.  Its practitioners seem convinced that its use will lead to growth despite all evidence to the contrary.  So, we see the continued threats of hellfire and damnation, the refusal of communion and sacraments to people, and the excommunication of others.  Has all this led to growth in faith? Not at all, but the cult of the smaller, purer church is undeterred.  

The authentic life of faith does not live in fear.  It risks everything for the sake of the kingdom and its growth.  It goes into the highways and byways meeting all people, extending mercy and deeds of loving-kindness to all.  This is how talents are multiplied.  This is how the kingdom grows - within ourselves and within others.   

A Widow and a Judge

Gospel: Luke 18: 1-8

Jesus gives us a lesson on prayer, and the image he provides to us is a remarkable one.  Consider the context: here we have a widow coming before a wicked judge asking him to defend her rights.  Widows were utterly helpless and powerless in ancient society.  As women they had no rights at all; they were utterly dependent upon men for the possession of rights as women and utterly dependent upon men for their basic needs as poor widows.  It is the perfect image of prayer!

Consider our own status before God - we are in every way like the widow before the judge.  Before God we are utterly helpless and powerless; we are without status, and we possess no rights whatsoever.  Whatever we are and whatever we have come entirely from God.  We rely completely upon God's mercy and beneficence for our rights and for our needs.  This is to be our posture of prayer before God at all times.  

We have a greater confidence in this matter than the widow does in hers.  She is dependent upon human beings, men who are wicked and uncaring toward women and toward the poor.  She wins her case by perseverance.  Our judge is an all loving and merciful God who is not cold and indifferent to us as human beings are.  If we place ourselves before God with this awareness of our status and dependence on God, all will be well.  And if we imitate God's mercy extended to others, how much the greater! 

Games People Play

Gospel: Luke 17: 26-37

Human beings continue to play a cosmic casino game that has never paid out and no one has ever won: forecasting and predicting the end of the world.  Despite its zero success rate, the game grows in popularity.  Christians popularized it and now even non-religious people play versions of the game: we have the doomsday clock and an array of scientific predictions of our collective demise on this planet.  

Our own individual deaths are far more certain bets on the cosmic roulette wheel, and yet we place no bets on that square.  In fact, we do all in our power to avoid thinking about it and attempt in various and sundry ways to prevent our own deaths.  The day of our own individual demise is as certain as the collapse of a Buffalo Bills season.  We ought not be surprised when people die or when our own end comes.  

Over the centuries, the spiritual masters have found great wisdom and profit from meditating on the four last things - death, judgment, heaven, and hell.  Death and judgment are certain; heaven and hell are contingent.  A continual remembrance of our own mortality can lead to great growth in how we live: it can make us more loving, more merciful, more selfless - not because we face judgment and a vengeful God but because death reminds us that we are all frail, all in need of love and mercy in our lives.  Death reminds us of our radical equality before God and one another.  We have a common, universal destiny.   

Finding the Kingdom

Gospel: Luke 17: 20-25

"The reign of God is already in your midst."  It has been here the entire time.  Why have we not seen it? We have been too occupied with our illusory kingdoms.  We begin with those we imagine existed in some idyllic past - ancient Israel, the early church, Medieval times, the 1950's, the 1960's - but these are all illusions and false gods.  The kingdom did exist there and in all other times, but not in the way we imagine.

Then we move to building the kingdom of God on earth.  We have one project undertaken by the pro-life culture warrior group with their construction project.  On the other hand we have the project of social justice warriors building a kingdom as well.  Both are false gods and illusions as well, for they too imagine a political Messiah that Jesus decidedly was not and is not.  

The kingdom of God exists in the heart and being of every person, for every person is a temple of God, an image and likeness of God.  Once we understand and appropriate this fact, then our entire reality changes and we see the kingdom all around us.  We come to live in an entirely new way, a way of mercy and love, bringing these to every person no matter where they are or who they are.  The kingdom is not a place or set of buildings; it is a way of living and being.

The Core of Religion

Gospel: Luke 17: 11-19

The story of the ten lepers provides us with a lesson in what is at the core of authentic religion - gratitude.  To be grateful is to recognize the fact that we are creatures and God is the creator, that all we have and are come from God as a gift.  We have done nothing to deserve anything we have and are.  Thus, our fundamental posture to God and the world is gratitude for all things.  

We say that the Eucharist - a word that means thanksgiving - is the source and substance of our lives.  To celebrate the Eucharist is to give thanks.  But is this really our source and substance? Do we really live the idea of gratitude as the core of our faith life? We who think we are the only worthy ones before God, we who consider ourselves to be the "faithful Christians" before God and others - is that the posture of gratitude we bring to the world and to God's table?

Ten lepers were healed by Jesus; only one returned to give thanks.  Many of us go to church regularly, but not all come to give thanks.  The one leper of today's story reminds us what the core of our faith is: to be grateful that God has created us, God has healed and restored us, God is present to us always.  May his example guide our lives of faith in the world. 

Role Reversals

Gospel: Luke 17: 7-10

Consider the irony of today's question from Jesus: do we expect a servant to come in from the fields and sit at time to dine and be served by his master? In the human realm this is unthinkable, but here is the irony:  this is exactly what happens in a relationship with Jesus.  He does this for us as he did so for his original disciples.  He prepares a Passover meal for them, then goes about washing everyone's feet, much to the shock of everyone at table.

Now, after being fed and washed, Jesus tells us that we must do as he has done for them.  The entire notion of being a servant is flipped on its head.  In the human world it is subjugation and being humiliated by another person, class, and race of people.  In the divine realm service is transformed into a life of providing dignity to other people.  For now it is our task to prepare a table for others so that we might see that all others are fed and washed.  

This commission has both a very ordinary application - literally feed and wash others! - and it has a sacramental application as well.  But the sacramental is a symbol of and a preparation for us all to feed and wash others in the ordinary of our day, to show mercy to others and provide for the basic needs of all human beings no matter who they are.  No one is to be excluded.   

Increase our Faith

Gospel: Luke 17: 1-6

In today's Gospel reading the disciples offer a noble and sincere prayer: increase our faith.  Notice the context in which they make this request.  Jesus has encouraged them to forgive others every single time, no matter how many times forgiveness is needed.  This is not an easy thing, and the disciples know that.  They realize they're going to need God's help in order to accomplish this feat, and so do we.  They also realize in this moment that this is the core of being a follower of Jesus: to live a life of mercy.  Everything else is secondary.

We come to this same realization.  We need God's help to be merciful.  We have taken part in backbiting, slander, keeping grudges, reveling in violence, perpetuating and justifying wars, excommunicating and denying sacraments to others, and excluding others from church and society.  We realize we are a long way from what Jesus calls us to be.  We need to increase our faith.  We don't need books on faith or courses on faith or workshops or anything else on the topic.  We need faith, faith to be merciful to others.  

If we see a loss of faith in our world it may be due to the fact that we have misplaced what faith we want increased.  We have made faith about theological propositions, adherence to a particular group, following voting suggestions of clerics - and not at all about what the disciples today request.  Perhaps if we ask for an increase of that faith within us we might see it grow in our world once again. 

The Bridegroom Delayed

 

Gospel: Matthew 25: 1-13

The first generation of Christians were convinced that the Lord Jesus would be returning imminently at any day for his second coming and judgment of the world.  The entire New Testament speaks to this strong belief.  As this first generation began to pass away and Jesus had not come, this led to a great crisis of faith.  They had been convinced of this reality, and yet it was not happening.  What is more, Jerusalem and the Temple had been destroyed, Christians were being expelled from synagogues, and now subject to Roman persecution. 

In this context today’s story of the ten virgins makes sense.  The bridegroom was delayed in his return.  Some of them no longer had any oil for their lamps.  Jesus would not be returning; there is no point any longer to keep watch.  But suddenly he does appear and now they are without lighted lamp to meet him.  They have lost the light and warmth of charity for others, and now the Lord is here.  Is there time to run to the merchant and acquire some? Perhaps not. 

The question of Jesus’ second coming by now should no longer be an item of perseveration for us, and yet it is.  We will face our own individual deaths and meet the Lord more surely, and regardless we should always have the light and warmth of charity present within us because it has been lit within us by God.  We need only keep it fueled with prayer, sacramental life, and good deeds of love and mercy. 

A Trustworthy Heart

Gospel: Luke 16: 9-15

To be trustworthy is an important value indeed, but there is a world of difference between human loyalties and that of which Jesus speaks in today's Gospel.  For us human beings we equate loyalty to personal or institutional loyalty - not betraying another person or snitching on anyone.  And this is fine as long as the person or institution to whom we are loyal is blameless. But when we absolutize such loyalty without consideration of any other values we get sex abuse, financial improprieties, and cover ups...

To what, then, does Jesus ask us to be trustworthy and loyal? These are clearly measured in deeds, deeds of loving-kindness and mercy toward others, deeds rooted in the command to love God and love neighbor.  We show this loyalty first by small acts of love and mercy, then to greater and greater deeds.  In giving food and drink to the hungry and thirsty, in visiting the sick and imprisoned, in providing clothing to the naked and shelter for the homeless we demonstrate our fidelity to God.

In calling us to be the church, Jesus did not instruct us to establish an institution and corporation or a vast bureaucracy.  He called us to come together to do the deeds of mercy and love that he did.  We are to be faithful to him and to his example alone in seeking to live as disciples committed to love and mercy.  

   

Enterprising Minds

Gospel: Luke 16: 1-8

The man of the world who finds himself out of favor with the powers that be finds an enterprising way to gain favor with others.  He shows mercy to them by reducing their burden and cancelling their debts.  By doing so they show gratitude to him and provide him with means to a livelihood.  Jesus notes this act of mercy from people who have no consideration for God's kingdom.

Now consider those who claim to be not of this world.  It is our singular task from God to show mercy to other people because mercy has been showed to us by God.  And yet Jesus finds few of us about that one task given to us.  Instead, he sees us claiming privilege, lording it over others, excluding others from accessing God.  But does he find us about the business of showing mercy?

Even the threat of divine punishment does not lead us to show mercy.  Instead, we will create vicarious acts of piety and devotion to substitute for what we truly must do, anything to avoid showing mercy to other people.  But we always have the opportunity and the invitation from Jesus to do as he did - to show mercy to others and create deep gratitude in the world as a result. 

God's Holy Temple

Gospel: Luke 19: 1-10

Today we celebrate the dedication of a church building, and by this feast we are supposed to see in the world the true temple where God dwells: in the heart and soul of every human being.  That we care more about the desecration of a building than we do to the many ways we human beings have developed to violate the dignity of other human beings suggests our feast is not accomplishing its intended outcome.  Today's Gospel reading may provide us a clue as to why that is the case.

Jesus comes to the house of Zacchaeus.  After doing so, Zacchaeus is changed entirely by the encounter that Jesus initiated.  Zacchaeus repents of his misdeeds, gives to the poor, and resolves to live a better life.  But notice the order of events: Jesus first comes to him (in spite of the fact that others do not want him to do so!), and then Zacchaeus is changed and transformed.  This encounter is the entire drama of the Incarnation in miniature: God came to an undeserving world and changed us.

And yet what we do in our church practice is the entire opposite of what Jesu does here. We insist others pass through our purity tests and integrity machines before encountering God. We create a Pelagian structure of our action determining God's action, our worth dependent on our deed and not God's.  We, in short, are the disciples and the crowd who would rather Jesus not visit Zacchaeus, are scandalized by such an encounter at all and Jesus' initiative.  When we follow the pattern of the Gospel we will see in all people God's dwelling place and respect their dignity and worth. 

Renouncing All

Gospel: Luke 14: 25-33

No other Gospel text evokes more pushback than this one: Jesus tells us we must renounce everything if we are to be one of his followers.  Our materialist age, our culture of property rights and self-interest, and our attachments to buildings, wealth, and influence all rebel against the words of Jesus.  And so we will hear many a sermon that will explain away what Jesus meant: you can still keep your stuff, keep doing what you're doing - that's not what Jesus meant.  

But this is the same Jesus who with his cousin John went into the desert to be alone with God, Jesus who left family to follow the call of God.  Consider the example of the desert fathers and mothers.  They fled into the desert to live in caves, to live a subsistence lifestyle in order to be with God alone.  Why would they do this, especially when the persecutions were over and the Church was favored with imperial privilege? That was precisely what they were fleeing - the imperial privilege, the compromise and corruption that has accompanied it, the slavish attachment to property, wealth, influence.  

Many lament the closing of churches, monasteries, seminaries, and other church properties as if these were God's presence itself.  They are not.  Perhaps they need to close in order to remind us of this fact, that we have too often equated God with these things and have not known God at all.  Perhaps the loss of these things will get us closer to what Jesus intended for us - intimate union with God alone.

Invited Guests

Gospel: Luke 14: 15-24

This dinner party of the Pharisees continues with another parable from Jesus that is about the great banquet in the kingdom of God.  The king invites guests who refuse the invitation - take note as to who refuses the invitation: a wealthy landowner, a prosperous farmer, a worldly married man.  The invitation to the king's banquet is unimportant to them; they are self-sufficient men and would only attend the banquet if they could see a way of benefiting themselves as in the earlier parable about sitting in prominent spots.

So, the king has his servants invite the poor and lame, beggars and outcasts - and they come to fill the hall.  Why do they come?  They are hungry for food and have need of the meal.  They are lonely and have need of companionship.  They have never been invited previously; kingdoms both civil and religious were always exclusive clubs for the wealthy and influential.  But here in God's kingdom there is an equal place for them.

Our communion tables are supposed to reflect this banquet hall of God, but do they? Are they places of refuge for those who have long been excluded and outcast by society and religion? Is our own attitude about the banquet merely transactional and self-serving, or do we want to encounter God in the guise of other people different from me? This dinner party at a Pharisee's house has given us much to consider... 

The Invitation List

Gospel: Luke 14: 12-14

The invitation to our dinner parties are exactly like those described by Jesus.  We invite our relatives and those we wish to impress.  We use the occasion to promote ourselves and advance in social position.  The meal is not really an occasion to come to know another person but rather one of our own self-interest.  This is often the case when it comes to whom we invite and allow in church as well.  We seek out the big donor and those who can be of advantage to the church's bottom line.

But how different are the values of Jesus! He instructs us to invite the poor and lonely and lame - those who truly need the meal and human companionship.  Jesus invites us to use the meal as it is intended to be: a place of hospitality, an opportunity for encounter with another person, an occasion for meeting God in the soul of another person.  The meal is not to be an occasion for self-promotion and self-interest; it is an opportunity for self-giving and encounter with God.

Our entire culture is about self-interest and self-promotion.  Our education and professional worlds preach this without end.  Modern religion is largely about egocentric spiritualities as well.  But the message of Jesus is the exact opposite of this worldly message.  It is the path of self-renunciation and self-denial for the sake of others.  It is a path of encountering the other person and in so doing encountering God as well. 

False Loyalties

Gospel: Matthew 23: 1-12

The readings today are harsh condemnations heaped upon religious leaders for their continual betrayals of the people and the hypocrisy they offer.  The outward show of ornate distinctive garb hides the crimes and sins of the institution that betrays the trust of its own people.  That we continue to enable such to occur is indicative of the fact that we get the clerics we deserve in our lives.  

But Jesus has a remedy: stop the cults of personality and false loyalties to institutions.  We have one Father in heaven, and we have only one authentic model of our faith and life in the Lord Jesus.  Jesus alone is the perfect embodiment in deed of all that he taught in word.  He preached mercy and love, and he extended mercy and love to all people without exception.  

So we are to continue to find nourishment at the table of the Lord where the example of Jesus is continually re-enacted and remembered.  Let that be our constant focus and guide for our lives for it will never disappoint us.  Cults of personality and institution will always disappoint, but the life and example of Jesus alone bring us life and inspiration. 

Pride and Place

Gospel: Luke 14: 7-11

We are still at the dinner party with the Pharisees.  Jesus healed a man on the sabbath, causing scandal to the legalists.  Now it is Jesus’ turn to observe the dinner party: he sees people jockeying for position, using the occasion to advance their social standing, looking for opportunities to advance by where they sit and with whom they associate.  Jesus uses the occasion to tell a parable and teach a lesson to everyone.

Each human being is an image of God, a temple of the Holy Spirit.  An encounter with another person – any person – is a divine encounter.  To share a meal with another person – any person – is a moment of divine intimacy.  To seek association with some and exclude others is to miss God’s presence entirely.  To jockey for position and status is not at all the point of a meal; it is to encounter God through other people. 

How often do we attend church for similar reasons: to be seen by others, to advance our position, associate with particular people who are advantageous to us and avoid those who are not.  In so doing we miss God’s presence in the people around us – all the people, and in the very meal itself.  If we are to have a revival of the Eucharist we must also have a revival of awareness of all people as God’s image, all people as living temples of the Holy Spirit, and the sacred meal as an intimate encounter with God in this shared feast with others. 

Table Manners

Gospel: Luke 14: 1-6

It is an odd dinner party that invites a guest to dine with them and then proceeds to spend the entire meal looking for things to criticize about their guest.  And yet that is often the case for Jesus at parties hosted by the Pharisees.  Today he is criticized for healing a man at the meal, which happened to be on the sabbath.  In the view of the Pharisees this violated the ban on working, though it is unclear how the meal was prepared without any work...

How often do we undertake the work of the liturgy which is an invitation to Jesus to be among us in the Eucharist, and how often do we seek opportunities to criticize - finding fault with the presider, choir, servers, or the liturgy itself.  How often are those who seek healing at this meal prevented from doing so because we find them unworthy of such.  And how many walk away because they tire of these attitudes, tire of the religious wars, tire of the arguments over who is worthy and who is not to approach the table.

But when we have finally crafted that perfect church in our own image and likeness we will find it a small one indeed among a vast rubble of our own making.  We will, of course, blame others for all this, not ourselves.  Or, we could attend the other meal, the one Jesus has with sinners, where everyone is welcome, everyone grateful to be present with the Lord and with one another.   

Seeing Christ in Others

Gospel: John 6: 37-40

What does it mean to acknowledge Christ before others, to look upon Christ on earth?  It does not consist in the profession of confessional statements or creeds, nor does it consist in belonging to a particular group or attendance at a particular liturgical form.  Still less is it about adherence to some political ideology or loyalty to some leader - all the things we claim it is about.  

To acknowledge Christ in the world and to see him on earth is to recognize the divine spark present in every human being.  It is to respect and defend the intrinsic dignity of every human person, to see Christ present in others and to show love and mercy to them.  To acknowledge Christ is not to mouth some words but to perform deeds of loving kindness and mercy to others.  

To do so is to acknowledge and see Christ on earth; to do so is to love God and neighbor, thereby finding eternal life; to do so is to see the reality of today's feast day - that our life of faith is about the care of all souls, that all souls carry within them the presence of Christ in the world.   

Essentials of Holiness

Gospel: Matthew 5: 1-12

With the ever-present fascination with the ten commandments one would think they are the sine qua non of becoming a saint.  And yet in no place does Jesus ever use them in such a sense.  Instead, he proposes to us eight essential qualities of being a saint here on earth: poverty of spirit, sorrowing, lowliness, hungering for justice, mercy, peacemaking, long-suffering, being persecuted.  That so few Christians can even name these eight beatitudes is a conviction against us.

Yet Jesus not only proposes these values as essential, but he also lived them and showed us how to embody them in our lives.  For these are qualities of a faith that lives to serve others and not merely avoid sin in the world; it is by serving others that we overcome sin in our lives, for to serve others is to destroy pride and self-interest which is the root of all sin.  

What if, instead of erecting monuments to the ten commandments we erected monuments to the eight beatitudes? Better yet, what if we actually embodies and lived these eight essential values as individuals and communities of faith? That the Church has this Gospel for this feast day is a powerful message to the Christian community of where our emphasis in the Christian life should be.