Gospel: Matthew 12: 46-50
Ancestry and our origin stories continue to fascinate human beings to this very day. With genetic technology of today we can trace our roots with great accuracy going back centuries. We want to know if we are related to someone famous, or we want to know what medical conditions exist in our lineage. Ancestry gives us identity and meaning. In ancient times it identified one as belonging to divine ancestry or patronage. And Jesus finds it all unimportant.
The common way of reading the tradition of Israel was this very way of ancestry to show that one belongs to God's people. This rendering saw membership in this genetic game of chance as all important. It was used to treat outsiders horribly. But Jesus reads the tradition differently. If our origins in Eden mean anything at all it is that we all belong to one common family - one family of humanity, one family with God as our Father. .
It is precisely this reading of the tradition that Jesus uses in announcing the kingdom of God. The kingdom is not the ancient exclusivist kingdom of Israel. It is a kingdom where all are allowed to belong. The mission of this kingdom is not domination over others but rather it is a mission of mercy and service to other people. It is an invitation extended to all to the Lord's table, the table of encounter and transformation.
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