The Likely Coming

Gospel: Matthew 24: 37-44

Our daily routines dominate our lives.  They provide our lives with structure, order, and a sense of having things over which we have some control in a world that often feels chaotic.  Much of this routine is a good thing for those reasons.  However, the routine can often blind us to other realities that are vitally important for us to consider.  Often, the routine presents us with the illusion of normal, that this daily pattern will go on indefinitely for us.  

But then, we are faced with our mortality.  We receive a devastating medical diagnosis.  Or we are caring for a loved one facing their end.  Worse still, we find our end comes suddenly and unexpectedly in an accident or medical trauma.  We now have no time at all and death is before us.  We have not pondered its reality at all in our lives; we were too busy with the daily routine.  Even though we know death is inevitable, we seek to avoid it both in thought and reality until it stares us square in the face.  

Advent is about preparing for Jesus' coming, and we are often encouraged to consider this in terms of Jesus' second coming at the end of time.  However, we are more likely to encounter that coming at our own death, and we are more likely to encounter Jesus coming to us in our daily lives in the person of other people who bear his presence within them.  So, let us consider these two things this Advent: our own mortality and encounter with the Lord in death, and our encounter with the Lord in the people we meet each day. 

Free from Anxiety

Gospel: Luke 21: 34-36

The anxieties of daily life are things we all have.  But are they things we need not have at all?  Jesus tells us these anxieties can weigh us down and cause us to love sight of what is truly important.  If we take stock of what we are anxious about, we will find it is all about our material possessions.  We have houses full of stuff, so much so we need storage units for the stuff we cannot fit in our houses.  We have security and alarm systems, guns, cameras, and the like to protect out stuff. 

We toil at a career and jobs in order to pay for our stuff and the stuff that protects our stuff.  But what if we didn't have all this stuff? What if we lived a simple life and divested ourselves of all this stuff, keeping only what we really needed?  Perhaps we might not be so anxious.  Going further, what if we put our stuff to good use by giving it to others who do not have stuff and need stuff.  What if we were conscious of this dynamic continually, using our surplus to help others instead of adding to our stuff?

Such talk is heresy in a capitalist world that demands and requires us to be consumerists.  We moderns have even coined a pet phrase for all this consumerism - hoarding.  The ancients called it sin.  To hoard possessions when others are in dire need is simply sin.  It is this sin that causes our anxiety.  But if we live simply and share our surplus with others we will not be anxious, and we will be doing what we should be doing as followers of Jesus, ready for the day of his coming.  

Does It Matter?

Gospel: Luke 21: 29-33

While in seminary, St. Aloysius Gonzaga was playing billiards with other seminarians during recreation.  The topic arose: what would you do if it was announced that the second coming of Jesus would take place in two hours?  Some seminarians stated they would rush to the chapel and pray fervently.  Others said they would seek out a priest and go to confession.  When the others asked Aloysius what he would do, he replied, "I'd keep playing pool."

This endless nonsense of the end times reveals a great deal about our insecurities in our own faith lives as Christians.  The above story indicates that we are not really living the Christian life as we ought most of the time, and we in fact have shallow, weak faith.  If we were so confident in our faith lives, we would be going about doing what Jesus did while on earth, extending love and mercy in concrete actions wherever we go without a worry at all about topics like the end times or even our own individual death.  

Aloysius had the serenity of faith to not worry about such questions of end times or his own death.  He died young, before ever being ordained.  He contracted the plague while caring for the sick in local hospitals.  He was doing what we are all called to do - caring for others, providing healing, liberation, and nourishment for others.  If we do likewise, we can set aside the useless anxiety about the end times and our impending mortality, for all shall we well with us. 

A Day of Thanks

Gospel: Luke 17: 11-19

For the Christian, whenever their nation celebrates their Thanksgiving Day, it is a day of profound irony.  On the one hand it is a right and good thing to set aside a day of thanks, for gratitude is a great virtue that produces abundant graces.  At the same time the Christian realizes that every day is a day of thanks for her, for she knows that thanksgiving is foundational to the Christian life.  The word Eucharist means thanksgiving, and is the very center of our lives as followers of Jesus.

The origin of many Thanksgiving celebrations in nations is often about the end of a war or the conquest of a land or some other event that brought harm to other people.  However, in the Christian life we celebrate the Eucharist and give thanks for the person of Jesus, for his conquering sin and death in our lives, and in making it possible for us to find the way to the kingdom of God both in this life and in the one to come.  It is something we can be thankful for for ourselves and for all people.  

The Samaritan returned to give thanks to Jesus for healing and restoring him.  He could not show himself to the priests who would reject him as a hated foreigner.  He could not return to his homeland and tell them a Jewish rabbi healed him.  He went to the only place he could to offer thanks - to the One who healed him.  We too go today and each day to the One who has healed us, to the One who has healed and restored all people with his love and mercy.  

The Illusion of Modern Christianity

Gospel: Luke 21: 12-19

The modern Christian oddly sees the normal operating procedure of Christianity to be one of extreme comfort: weekly worship in large, comfortable, and well adorned spaces; ample housing for our ministers; privilege in being part of the ruling class that lords it over others.  Our main source of contention is what color the new carpeting for the narthex will be.  Our idea of persecution is the coffee shop using cups that say "Happy Holidays."  

Jesus spent his life on earth with no place permanent to lay his head.  He went from town to town healing people of their illnesses, liberating them from their demons, and nourishing them at table.  For all this he was arrested, tortured, and executed.  Jesus then tells his disciples that this is our vocation, and this is our lot in life on earth.  We are to go about healing, liberating, and nourishing, thinking little of our own needs and comfort, and we should expect abuse from others.

There are many disconnects between Jesus in the Gospels and the modern Christian.  The illusions of what we imagine Christianity to be built up over time have clouded over so much of the Gospels.  The modern Christian has become the persecutor rather than the one persecuted.  He thinks it Christian behavior to demean refugees whom he has created and arrest those who would care for them, all while claiming persecution status for holding such views if contradicted.  Woe to us...

Adorning Temples

Gospel: Luke 21: 5-11

The context of Jesus speaking about wars and natural disasters is the fact that people are fawning over the beauty of the Temple building.  It was a beautiful structure, as were many other places made by human hands that are no more.  But these places are non-living structures, and they do not compare to the temple God made - the human person who is a living being and who has an eternal destiny, neither of which these buildings possess.  The building will be destroyed and be no more; the human person will live on.  

Yet we spend so much of our time enamored of our buildings and their adornments, often at the expense of human beings, the temples of God.  We marvel at the Temple, forgetting it was built through human slavery and degradation of other human beings.  We are aghast at any impropriety in temple buildings, but we think so little of abasing other human beings and exploiting them for our benefit.  We are fully immersed in the idolatry of false temples to the neglect of the true ones.  

Jesus spent his entire ministry healing, liberating, and nourishing the temples of God he encountered each day - people.  He was utterly indifferent to buildings and structures like the Temple.  He preferred the work and worship of the Good Samaritan to that of the priest and Levite.  If we claim to be followers of the Lord Jesus, if we claim to care about idolatry, then let us follow his example and care more for the temples God has created with eternal destinies and less to those we have made that do not.

 

Of Widows and the Rich

Gospel: Luke 21: 1-4

Jesus provides this story to teach us a lesson that authentic charity costs something to the one who gives.  It must affect our need as well as our wants.  In the case of the rich it is never the case that their donations affect them much at all.  They have all they will ever need and few, if any, of their wants are affected by the donations they provide.  Moreover, the rich will likely take a tax deduction that will enable them to receive a later refund on this "gift."  They will also publicize their largesse in order to monetize their apparent charity.

On the other hand, those of lesser means often give up most of their wants and some of their needs in order to help others.  It is a hardship for them to help another, but they do so because they themselves know what it is to be in need of help from another.  They themselves may be in need even now, but also realize that another's need is greater than their own.  So, those of lesser means readily come to the aid of those even less fortunate than themselves, as this widow does.

This poor widow stands as an indictment to both the rich and the temple itself.  The rich do not even see her as they parade their wealth to the temple.  Her need is utterly unseen by them.  Moreover, the temple that stands as a symbol for an entire religious institution founded to help widows and the poor will receive the donations of many, but use it not to help the widow but for its own aggrandizement.  The true temple of God - the one in real need - is the widow herself.   

Kings and Things

Gospel: Luke 23: 35-43

At the very beginning of the Gospel, Jesus goes into the desert to be tempted by Satan, who three times says that if he is the Son of God to do various things - turn stones to bread, hurl himself off the Temple mount, accept worldly power.  All are self-interested and self-serving temptations, all of which Jesus rejects.  Now, on the cross he faces the same taunts: if you are God's son, save yourself, and us too!  Self-interest at its maximum!  

Worldly kings are all about their self-interest.  Sure, they may protect a group of people, but not out of concern for them, but so that they might retain power and esteem among the people.  Time and again the crowd would seek to make Jesus king, but he refused.  He simply went about healing people of their infirmities, delivering them from their demons, and feeding them at table.  His kingship is one of service.  His throne is the cross.  His orb a water basin.  His scepter a towel.  

Today's feast is not about instituting some Christian dynasty on earth.  Nor is it reducing the Gospel to some political program or following worldly leaders.  It is about following what our king did while on earth - healing others, liberating them from their demons, feeding them at table.  Our king is the one who reminded us his kingdom is not of this world.  It is a kingdom within us, and a kingdom beyond us, one we inhabit when we do what he did.   

What'll It Be Like?

Gospel: Luke 20: 27-40

We might not find the particularities of the question in today's Gospel to be very interesting or relevant.  The scenario is rather far fetched, and it reads like a nerdy thought experiment in a philosophy textbook.  In one sense that particular question is somewhat offensive, arguing over possession of a woman in the afterlife, but the context is a patriarchal society, and Jesus' answer is to our liking in that regard: there is no possession of anyone in God's kingdom.  That holds for this life and the next one.

But we are all curious about what the next life is all about.  As we get older we think more and more about it.  When we are close to death we begin to have dreams about our loved ones - spouses, parents, grandparents.  We see them as present in the room with us.  Those who have had these dreams and visions say it brings them great comfort and peace.  It is a glimpse for them of what lies ahead as death grows more imminent.  

Throughout November the Church has us think of the dead and our own impending passing.  How we live our life matters a great deal, not only to ourselves but to others.  Consider the memories we have of those who have gone before us, and know that others will have memories of us when we pass.  Have we been a positive influence on their lives? How will they see us when we pass?  Today is a day to light a candle for the dead, and one for our own memories and destiny. 

What If...

Gospel: Luke 19: 45-48

In our age of activism and zealotry, today's story of Jesus cleansing the Temple is a popular one, used to justify all sorts of behavior and postures by people hard pressed to come up with another Gospel text to know.  But what if this story isn't about what we think it is? This action of Jesus was a small one in a very large complex.  Its impact was more symbolic than substantive.  Moreover, the Temple had already been destroyed by the time this Gospel story was first heard.

Jesus had made it clear - in line with the larger biblical tradition - that the true temple of God is not a stone building, but rather the heart and soul of the human person.  Each person is a temple where God desires to dwell.  Seen in this light, this action of Jesus is really about the cleansing of our own temples and how we have made our own lives a den of thieves and an unjust marketplace.  This story challenges us to consider our own temple and what needs cleansing therein.

It is easy to love this story when it is about somebody else or about some institutional sin.  It is much less likeable when we have to apply it to ourselves and our own sin.  How often is that the case with scriptures in general!  Scripture is designed to invoke moral and spiritual reflection and change within ourselves.  It is not to be used as a weapon against others.  So today let us attend to the cleansing within God's temple - the heart and soul God created within us for divine indwelling and communion. 

If Only...

Gospel: Luke 19: 41-44

If only we knew what makes for peace...Jesus makes this lament as he enters Jerusalem for the final time in the lead up to his trial and execution.  He can see the decision that will be made.  The crowd will choose revolution and zealotry in the person of Barabbas over him.  They will choose at some point to revolt against the Roman Empire, which in turn will lead to their destruction and utter ruin.  They will make all these choices because they did not know the path of peace.  

This lament of Jesus is repeated in every generation, for time and again his so-called followers make the same choice.  They choose the way of the tyrant, the way of revolution and violence.  They put their trust in the strong man, the political party, the instruments of execution and war.  They choose the path of animus against the vulnerable whom they themselves create and exploit.  And they do all this in the ultimate act of blasphemy - in the name of Jesus himself.

No greater enemy of Jesus exists than his own followers who betray his person and teaching at every turn.  No greater source of irreligion and secularism exists than those who claim the name Christian and act in every way contrary to his own life.  The only path of peace is the path of Jesus - the path where we set about to heal, liberate, and feed all regardless of gender, class, ethnicity, race, or any other category or status.  If we wish to know peace, we must follow this way of Jesus, prince of peace.

Using the Talents

Gospel: Luke 19: 11-28

How are we to use the talents entrusted to us by the Lord? To what purposes should we use the treasure given to us? In the world, as in this parable, such wealth and talents are used to enrich the wealthy land owner and capitalist.  The sole purpose of labor in the worldly sense is to continue feeding the pyramid scheme that is the economy wherein wealth is matriculated upward to the elite while those who produce it are given as little as possible.  

But in the kingdom of God it is the exact reverse.  Whenever wealth and talents are discussed it is done so in the context of helping others - those who are sick, hungry, and marginalized.  The rich man was condemned to hell for failing to use his talents to help poor Lazarus.  The priest and Levite did not use their talents to help the man dying in the ditch, while the Samaritan who does so becomes the model for the one who keeps the greatest commandment, the one who will inherit the kingdom of God.

Everyday we have the means and opportunities at our disposal to use our talents and treasures to help others.  We can heal other people with our presence and interaction.  We can lift people out of poverty with the wealth we have.  We can welcome the outcast and marginalized, making their lives warm and safe once again.  There are so many opportunities at our disposal to use our talents and treasures for the kingdom of God in the ways Jesus himself did in his life on earth. 

Ignoring "Everyone"

Gospel: Luke 19: 1-10

Again we find a large group - everyone, as the narrator states - who is seeking to prevent a person from having access to Jesus.  Initially, they prevent Zacchaeus from seeing Jesus in a passive way.  They are so self-absorbed with their own seeing of Jesus that they are unconcerned with the needs of anyone else who have the same desire.  They are like any crowd star gazing.  Each person cannot imagine anyone else but them is that important to see Jesus.  

But Zacchaeus is resourceful and he finds his own way to see Jesus.  This initiative leads Jesus to announce that he intends to stay at Zacchaeus' house, whereupon everyone's passive prevention of Zacchaeus seeing Jesus now becomes an active protest.  How could Jesus possibly break bread and enter the house of one who is so sinful and harmful to other people? Heaven forbid that such an atrocity should take place in our city!

When "everyone" tells you to ignore the needs of the immigrant, the migrant, the refugee, the poor, and the marginalized of any kind because they are not worthy, do what Jesus did.  Ignore "everyone" and provide love and compassion to them.  When "everyone" is seeking to block access to someone seeking to see the Lord, that's a good indicator that we should ignore them and provide the welcome that Jesus provided each and every time others sought to block access to him.

 

Those in the Lead

Gospel: Luke 18: 35-43

Today's Gospel portion makes note of a particular phenomenon all too familiar in religion.  It notes that those in the lead actively sought to drown out the voice and needs of the man in need.  They actively sought to prevent an encounter between this blind man seeking healing and the Lord Jesus.  We find this dynamic happening repeatedly in Gospel stories where people aggressively seek to prevent people from having a salvific encounter with Jesus.

We find this to be the case in the life of religion on a regular basis.  Those who would put themselves in the lead - the self-proclaimed "faithful" Catholics - time and again actively seek to prevent people from having a saving encounter with the Lord.  Whether it's their worthiness machine at the communion procession or even to receive a simple priestly blessing, those who put themselves out there as leaders and faithful repeatedly block access to the Lord Jesus.

We could get angry at such people and rant and rave about such behavior.  Or, we could do what Jesus did time and again in the Gospels.  We can simply ignore them and go about the work of Jesus, seeking to heal, liberate, and feed those who are ill, possessed, and hungry.  Certainly one will face the wrath of the self-proclaimed faithful ones, as Jesus did, but the important thing is that the ill person received healing, the possessed person liberated from their demons, the hungry person fed.  

Waiting for God(ot)

Gospel: Luke 21: 5-19

Christians often look as foolish waiting for the coming of Jesus as Linus in his pumpkin patch expecting the arrival of the Great Pumpkin.  So much time and energy is invested in this enterprise from the writing of the New Testament to today.  People look for clues and arcana in order to discover the date of Jesus' return to earth.  A set time is announced.  Books are published.  The Christian media circuit is traversed.  A man goes home wealthy from it all, and no coming of Jesus. 

Today the scriptures tell us all sorts of calamities will presage the second coming: wars, insurrections, natural disasters.  A few days ago, however, the same scriptures talked about how people would be just going about their ordinary days and suddenly it comes.  Which is it?  Wars, insurrections, and natural disasters are not uncommon occurrences.  They are as every day as our routines.  All of this forecasting is a complete waste of time.

We might well ask what is gained in our Christian life with all this perseveration on the end times.  Has it made us better Christians, better human beings?  Does it change the fact that our duty as Christians is to bring loving kindness and mercy to the world?  No to both questions.  What does make us better is our constant effort to live as Jesus did, to love and care for all we encounter in our daily lives.  If we do that, what do the end times really matter?  

Prayer, Mercy, and Justice

Gospel: Luke 18: 1-8

The story of the poor widow and the unjust judge makes clear that the task and aim of prayer is about justice and mercy.  The woman has no status in society lacking any connection to a male citizen.  In the eyes of human law she has no rightful claims.  Yet, Jesus refers to the judge as unjust, for in the eyes of God's kingdom the woman does indeed have status.  She has valid claims that cry for justice and redress before all of humanity.

In the eyes of the unjust judge, the woman's pleas are for mercy, not justice due to her status.  He only grants her the claim because he cannot stand being nagged incessantly.  Jesus uses this analogy for us in prayer.  Before God we have no valid claims.  We have sinned and have lost our status in Eden.  Our appeal for forgiveness is not a claim of justice, but one of mercy, which God grants us freely, willingly, and eagerly, unlike the unjust judge.  God gives us all status in the kingdom of heaven.

If we have received such mercy and status before God, then we must not only extend mercy to others in our world.  We must also establish justice for them as well.  The widow represents all poor and marginalized in our world who lack status because men are unjust.  We must pray for justice for them and also provide it for them as well.  Prayer is not about wants and whims.  Prayer is about mercy and justice, and extending both to all in our world. 

Finale Forecasting

Gospel: Luke 17: 26-37

We have all met end times forecasters.  They scan the scriptures looking for clues to the end of the world, and then announce that that day will occur on a specific date.  These folk have been around for 2000 years, and - if you're keeping score at home - their accuracy rate is exactly 0%.  Yet, we continue to buy their books, give them prominent space in Christian media, and find our way down this rabbit hole again and again.  We are informed by the story of the boy who cried wolf: it's not true today, but someday it might be...

But all of this is predicated on a fear that Jesus does not condone or foster.  In today's Gospel portion he notes how in the end life will be as it always is, and then it will come.  The difference between the person of faith and the one without faith is in our disposition.  The person of faith is open to the possibility of death and loss, and their faith is not affected by it in any way.  Their life is animated by trust and in the mission of being a person of mercy and loving kindness each and every day.  

Whether the end of the world occurs tomorrow or some other day has no effect on what we are called to do or be each and every day.  A disciples is to be a person of mercy and care for others each day.  Nothing changes or alters that fact.  No calamity or bit of news can affect that reality for the person of authentic faith.  If one is perseverating over the end times, it is perhaps because one's faith is not oriented rightly to loving kindness and mercy.  Once it is, then all shall be peace, all shall be well.

An Elusive City

Gospel: Luke 17: 20-25

In Jesus' day people wanted to know when and where the kingdom of God would come.  In our own time many claim to know the exact specifications as to how it should be built.  Both ages are convinced it consists of a powerful ruler, a set of laws and institutions that undertake specific projects.  They all claim it to be an earthly city - Jerusalem, Israel, Christendom, the Church - and once fully constructed all our problems will be over.  

But all of this is an illusion.  Jesus clearly states that the kingdom of God cannot be observed.  He notes that people will incessantly claim it to be here or there, but it is not, for it cannot be contained in human constructs.  The kingdom of God always lies beyond our reach and grasp, for it is not earthly, not material, not something we can erect with human efforts and plans.  It cannot be reduced to a set of laws, nor be realized in institutions.  

The kingdom of God is not a place; it is a process.  It is not a location but rather a way of living.  The kingdom of God is the kingdom of love and mercy that we are to bring to every person we encounter.  It is a way of walking in the world that embraces the beatitudes, owning little and sharing all.  This process and way of life does have an end and destination, but it is that blessed place of full communion with God and with one another at the heavenly banquet.   

Where to Turn

Gospel: Luke 17: 11-19

Imagine being this Samaritan leper who has just been cured.  Overjoyed he immediately does as he is told and rushes to show himself to the priests.  But a thought occurs to him.  The priests are Jewish, and I am a Samaritan.  Even though I am healed of my leprosy, I will still not be declared clean by them because I am a foreigner from a hated ethnicity.  I will forever be seen as unclean.  Moreover, I cannot return to Samaria and tell them I have been healed by a Jewish rabbi.  They will mock me and cast me out as well.

So, the Samaritan faces a dilemma.  He has been healed by Jesus and by right he should be restored to societal acceptance.  Yet, he faces animus no matter where he turns, for neither Jerusalem nor Mt. Gerazim will accept him.  He thus turns to the only place he can - to the one who healed him.  Jesus accepts him and restores him, welcoming him into his community and encouraging his disciples to accept him as one of their own.  

Perhaps the leprosy that needs cleansing is not that of Hanson's Disease.  Perhaps it is the leprosy of our hatred of others, our exclusions and separations we so desire that leave people as outcasts in the first place.  Today is a day for us to seek that healing of our moral leprosy, the self-righteous attitudes and behaviors that create poverty and marginalization, war and violence.  Today is a day for us to welcome all into the family of God and care for their needs. 

Self-Promotion

Gospel:  Luke 17: 7-10

In an age of self-promotion, today's Gospel portion is not well received.  In our world we are constantly told to promote ourselves.  Build up the resume.  Strive to acquire the various honors and promotions our jobs and world can offer us.  Keep honing your social media brand, making sure everyone knows of your accomplishments and dinner choices.  Seek for those ever elusive media mentions.  This is what our world preaches to us.  

However, this is the exact opposite of what Jesus states in today's reading.  In the kingdom of God, we are merely servants doing what is expected of us.  If we perform acts of justice and charity, that is no great feat.  That is what we are supposed to be doing as followers of Jesus.  If we are looking for accolades and press coverage for such things, we are not doing these things for the right reasons.  We might delude ourselves by saying it advances the Gospel, but in reality we are only advancing ourselves.

The pursuit of attention and promotion is really a pursuit of the things Jesus rejected in the desert - power, influence, and wealth.  Jesus repeatedly hid himself from the crowds when they wanted to make him king.  He rejected titles of status offered to him.  He simply went from town to town doing good: healing the sick, liberating people from their demons, feeding people at table.  The disciple imitates the Master in all he does.  We must go about doing good, seeking no glory or recognition. 

Incessant Scandal

Gospel: Luke 17: 1-6

Jesus does say that scandal is inevitable, and those are the only words we hear.  We no longer hear the woe and the warning to avoid scandal.  It has become second nature to have scandal as part of church life.  Not a day goes by that we do not hear of some scandal - financial, sexual, or otherwise.  We have grown accustomed to the church lusting for political power, influence, and riches.  It is merely one more institution of power on Main Street next to the bank and titans of industry.  

In spite of all this scandal that is the sole cause of secularization and the loss of faith in our world, there are people who continue to seek to imitate the life of the Lord Jesus.  They seek to extend mercy and loving kindness to others in the ways that Jesus did - through healing, freeing others from their demons, and feeding them at table, reaching out to all people, especially the poor, marginalized, and outcasts in our society.  They do this in spite of the institution, and in spite of the scandals it creates and defends.  

Jesus fled into the desert to face the temptations of the world.  He rejected them all - the power, the influence, the riches.  If we are to be like Jesus, we too must go to the desert and face these trials, making the same choice Jesus did.  It is in the desert that we will also find the cleansing waters of baptism and the bread Jesus multiplies for our benefit.  The desert is the place to repent of scandal and to avoid any and all future scandals. 

House Visit

Gospel: Luke 19: 1-10

Jesus makes a shocking announcement before a large crowd at Jericho.  He announces that he intends to visit the house of Zacchaeus, a notorious tax collector who has cheated many people.  What is noteworthy is that the intended visit is in no way preconditioned.  Jesus does not ask Zacchaeus to do anything.  Jesus makes this invitation prior to Zacchaeus' own announcement that he intends to repent and make restitution for the many crimes he has committed against others.  

Some would have us believe that Jesus eating with sinners comes with qualifications and preconditions, but is never the case in the scriptures.  He eats at the homes of tax collectors and Pharisees alike, both sinners in their own way.  The meals are not agenda driven.  They are opportunities for encounter with God and with one another, opportunities for beginning and developing an ongoing relationship with God and with others.  

Today's feast and this reading invite us to ask why it is that we construct church buildings and celebrate the Eucharist at all.  Are these agenda driven endeavors of our own making, or are these opportunities for us and others to encounter God and each other, opportunities for transformation through the encounter, opportunities for relationships to begin and grow over time with God and with others?  One model is manipulative, the other is authentic discipleship.  

Dishonest Wealth

Gospel: Luke 16: 9-15

When we hear the term "dishonest wealth" we moderns think of dirty money, money that was acquired in an underhanded way through organized crime or the like.  But by the phrase "dishonest wealth" Jesus simply means money in general.  Today's Gospel text is rather clear in that regard, and Jesus' general indifference toward money in other passages of the Gospels makes it clear that money is something not to be trusted.

This does not mean, however, that we can live without it.  We, of course, need money to pay for the necessities of life - food, shelter, clothing.  But beyond that we must not trust ourselves to money.  If we acquire more money than what goes beyond our needs, we are faced with a great choice.  We can do what most people do and hoard it or use it for our own selfish ends.  Or we could use it to help others - to feed, clothe, and house those who lack what we have.  

To be entrusted with dishonest wealth is our ultimate test.  What will we do with such money?  The way of the world and most people is to use it to our perdition, to hoard it for ourselves.  The way that leads us to be entrusted with the honest wealth of God's kingdom is to use money to help others, to undertake the works of mercy so that others may have the necessities of life as well.  Jesus rejected the temptation of the desert to entrust himself to dishonest wealth.  What will be our choice? 

Have We No Shame?

Gospel: Luke 16: 1-8

We find a manager who has been found wanting by his employer and is to be dismissed.  This man has swindled his employer, is lazy, and now at an age where he is unable to find gainful employment.  So, before his dismissal, he sets about to forgive the debts of those, who owe money to the owner in the hopes that they will receive him into their help and provide for him when the day of destitution comes.  The manager shows mercy purely out of self-interest, not out of any altruistic motive.

Jesus provides this story to us in order to point out that such acts of help to others are fairly common in the world.  They are done out of selfish motives and not for any other reason.  Jesus notes that children of the light - those claiming belief in God and discipleship with Jesus, have many better motives for doing good - love, mercy, and the like - and yet we do not do so.  We are, in fact, worse than the worldly in our extension of mercy to others.  

Jesus attempts to shame us toward a life of love and mercy.  But the modern Christian proves difficult to shame.  When all the things offered to Jesus by Satan are readily embraced and then packaged as Christianity, one is utterly blind to all the words and deeds of Jesus that were all about love and mercy for others.  Yet maybe, just maybe, the Spirit can break through our hardened hearts and restore us once again to what we are called to be.

The Parables of Mercy

Gospel: Luke 15: 1-10

This chapter of Luke contains three parables on mercy: the shepherd who seeks out the lost sheep, the woman who seeks out the lost coin, and the father who seeks out the lost son.  Of the three stories, the only realistic one is the woman who seeks out the lost coin.  She would do so to avoid poverty herself, to feed her family.  A shepherd would not risk 99 sheep to seek for just one, and a father disowned by his son is not likely to go in search of him.

But God does, and that is the point of the three parables taken together.  The woman seeking for her coin - her realism makes the other two parables real and vital.  She needs the coin for herself and for her family, just as God needs us for himself and for the family of God.  God would and does seek out the lost sheep.  God goes out of his heaven to seek out the lost child because God has need of us, and God has need because God is love, and love has need of others to love.  

All of these parables are instructive for us in the Christian life.  Our desire to help the wayward should mirror that of the shepherd, the woman, the father.  Our care for prisoners, the poor, the marginalized, the immigrant, refugee, and migrant are all grounded in this care of God which has been had for us in our lives that we must now extend to others.  A Christian society is not a throw away culture.  It is one where everyone matters, everyone is loved, and everyone has a place at the table. 

Demonic Possession

Gospel: Luke 14: 25=33

A wealthy church with vast holdings of property and possessions will find creative interpretations of the teaching of Jesus in today's Gospel.  The wealthy Christian men who use those riches to acquire political influence and power will look askance at this message.  Even the average Christian with a household full of stuff - clothes, trinkets, vast arrays of recreational items - will find this Gospel passage difficult to hear and accept.  

We hear so much about demonic possession in the age of the celebrity exorcist.  But perhaps the greater demonic possession is the fact that we are all possessed by our possessions.  We have amassed so much stuff and we are so unwilling to part with it and share it with others that it leads to madness within us.  We would rather spend money on storage units and security systems and firearms to protect our mostly superfluous stuff than share it with those in need.  

Jesus addressed this teaching to the crowd, to us.  It is a direct challenge to our lifestyle and to our false Christianity of comfort and consumerism.  Before we speak of casting out demons from others, let us rid ourselves of our own demonic possessions of the stuff we have that is robbery against the poor, of the stuff we can use to help the poor in their need for food, clothing, and shelter.  Let us be rid of the demon of our possessions and be truly free in body and spirit.

Unexpected Guests

Gospel: Luke 14: 15-24

In today's parable, a king invites people to a banquet, and the original invitation list is telling.  It consists of wealthy men - one buys a farm, another purchases oxen, while a third purchases a wife.  For these reasons all of them excuse themselves from the banquet.  They are too concerned with their own interests and affairs.  They have all the wealth and influence they need.  This banquet serves no self-interest of theirs in the least.  

So the king decides to invite the poor, the lame, the outcasts, marginalized, and foreigners - all of whom accept the invitation, and still there is room for more.  So the king orders a second dispatch to find even more people to attend his banquet.  These all come because they have need of the meal, they have need of the fellowship that the table provides.  They are hungry, lonely, and powerless.  This meal will relieve that burden in their lives somewhat.  

We spend all sorts of time courting the rich for their influence and money, both of which are fickle and self-interested.  It is always and everywhere destructive to the Gospel.  But if we invite the poor, sick, marginalized, outcast, and foreigner, they will come and be grateful, for they are hungry, lonely, and powerless.  They need the food and fellowship of our altar and table.  We need to fulfill the teaching and example of Jesus to have their care and protection our first priority.

The Invitation List

Gospel: Luke 14: 12-14

The doctrine of the preferential option for the poor is rooted in today's Gospel reading.  In all our dealings as a church we are instructed to invite first the poor and marginalized into our communities, both to the Eucharistic table and to our tables of fellowship.  Others are certainly welcome and invited to participate as well, but it is to the poor and marginalized that our primary efforts must be directed in these undertakings of our ours.

The wealthy and comfortable are not in need of food and fellowship; they have plenty of both.  The poor and marginalized, however, lack both food and companionship in their lives.  They need the meal, and they need our friendship.  It is an easy thing for us to invited our friends to church or to a meal, but how much more challenging is it for us to invite the poor! They may not even want to come given the lack of welcome they often face when entering a church.

A church that caters to the rich and powerful looks and acts a certain way.  It is exclusive, aloof, and indifferent to the needs of the poor and disenfranchised.  It is about the favors and privileges it seeks for itself.  A church that focuses on the poor and needy looks quite different.  It is humble.  It listens to its people.  It seeks the good of those who desperately need it.  It will be poor itself so that others might have what they need.  Jesus calls us to be such a church.

Remembering

All Souls

Remembering those who have gone before us is an important practice in our lives.  Each of us has relatives, friends, acquaintances, teachers, mentors, and inspiring figures who have preceded us in death, reminding us that one day we too will die.  For those in the medical professions, countless numbers of patients and their families for whom you provided care also have left indelible impressions upon our memories and our spirits.  

Each person has a history, a set of hopes and dreams - some fulfilled, others not.  Each life has a light to share with the world, each some love shared and received.  When we encounter those who are nearing death we are privileged to hear of these things.  When we are engaged in the lives of others we come to know these things about others.  Every soul has had these hopes and dreams, fears and loves.  Each has the same origin and the same destiny in God.  

In a world where the immigrant and foreigner, migrant and refugee, stranger and prisoner, poor and marginalized are maligned and maltreated we might well remember these things.  We might well try to actually encounter another person and hear their story, share bread with them, and come to know their hopes and dreams, loves and loved.  And perhaps we come to love them as God does, as we are called to do, to remember their origin and destiny is ours, for we are all one human family.  That is what All Souls is all about.

The Measures of Sanctity

Gospel: Matthew 5: 1-12

If one were to ask the average Christian in the pew what the requirements are for becoming a saint, we would hear talk of being holy, without explaining what that means.  We would hear about keeping the commandments, and performing two miracles after you die.  In short, we don't really have a good grasp of what it means to be a saint or to be holy.  Fortunately, each year we have this feast and this Gospel reading which reminds us of what it means to be a saint.

The Church gives us for this feast the Beatitudes, not the commandments, as the criteria for holiness in our lives.  The commandments are a minimum standard for basic ethical living.  The Beatitudes are what make us holy.  To be poor in spirit, empathetic, meek, hungering for justice, merciful, clean of heart, peacemakers, and patient in persecution - these are the criteria and measurements of sanctity.  These are the traits that embodied Jesus' life on earth.  

Today is a day for us to reflect on these eight virtues and how we might embody those in our daily living.  How can I be more detached from  things of the world? How can I be more empathetic and merciful toward others? How can I work for justice and peace in the world? How might I be more clean of heart and more patient in persecution?  These are not the values of the world.  They are not even the values of modern Christianity.  But they are the values of Jesus, the mark of the saints, and our aspiration today.