Adrift at Sea

Gospel: Matthew 14: 22-36

After feeding the large crowd, Jesus made the disciples get into a boat and go to the other side of the sea.  There, Jesus leaves the boat and goes up the mountain to be alone with God.  Meanwhile the disciples remain out on the sea between the crowd on one side and Jesus on the other.  The sea grew unsettled and the disciples grew nervous and on edge in the night.  Consider this as our condition and status all so often as ones claiming to be disciples of Jesus.

In the midst of the the darkness and turmoil, Jesus comes across the water to assure his disciples that all is well.  Instead, they grow more afraid, seeing him as a ghost and not real.  Peter then gets the courage to accept Jesus' invitation and walk out on the sea toward him, and for a brief moment he succeeds.  But then a gust of wind comes, the slightest of distractions and discomforts, and he once again falters, sinking into the sea, focused more on it than the Lord.

We hear so much about the "crisis" in the Church and in the world.  It is the constant perseveration of rival camps who use the "crisis" to their political and financial advantage.  But, like this Gospel scene, the "crisis" is of our own making.  Had we joined the Lord on the mountain we would be at peace.  Had we focused on him at the boat all would be well.  But we do not because, in a perverse way, we prefer the "crisis", we prefer being adrift at sea.  Today, however, is a day for us to prefer the peace of the Lord.

All Are Served Here

Gospel:  Matthew 14: 13-21

The Gospels always present at least two possible paths to follow in every scenario.  There is the path of the disciples and others who continually look for reasons not to do something, not to help another.  In today's Gospel portion they tell Jesus that the crowd is just too large, that they cannot go to the village for food as it is too far, that they just do not have enough provisions to care for everyone.  Here, the modern disciples would create conditions of exclusion - the worthy poor, illegals - in order to limit care to others.

But then there is the path of Jesus, who always finds a way to help others without qualification or discrimination.  Here, he challenges the disciples - go to the village, feed them yourselves.  Each solution offered by the Lord is met with an objection.  Yet, Jesus provides for everyone.  No litmus tests, no checking for lawful status, no worthiness criteria.  He just feeds everyone simply because they are hungry, much like the invitation of the prophet in the first reading from Isaiah 55.  

Christians love to call themselves disciples of the Lord Jesus, as if that title is a positive thing, as if that is our goal in the spiritual life.  In the Gospels the path of the disciple is the one that leads away from the cross; it is not a positive connotation.  For the Gospels are not about being a disciple, but rather about being the Lord in all we do.  Today we are challenged to be the Lord Jesus in our service and care for others in the world.

Herod's Follies

Gospel:  Matthew 14: 1-12

Herod was a man who, like many in high positions of leadership, viewed the world from within the confines of his palace rooms.  Earlier in the Gospel he stayed within his fortress to muse on the birth of the Messiah.  Seeing that as a threat to him, he sought the death of the child and many others.  In today's Gospel portion and in a later episode, he seeks to understand Jesus not by going out to meet and observe Jesus, but in the abstractions of his mind within his regal environs.  

It is easy to see why powerful leaders who live only in their palace walls and minds arrive at false conclusions so often and inflict violence and death wherever they go.  Jesus, by contrast, left the environs of his heaven and came among the world to understand and love those he encountered wherever he went.  The approach of encounter leads to love and understanding, never to violence and hatred.  The fortress mentality and navel gazing leads to bad judgment, mistrust, and violence.  

John the Baptist and Jesus ministered to people out in the desert, in villages, hillsides, and homes of people in need.  They did not minister in palaces and fortresses of power.  Each was brought to these seats of power in order to be condemned and executed.  Those who choose the court of Herod have their reward - power, influence, wealth.  Those who choose the way of encounter, the way of John and Jesus, have the Beatitudes as their eternal reward.  

We Took Offense

Gospel: Matthew 13: 54-58

Whenever we imagine a homecoming, we think that people will greet us with open arms and a parade.  They will say how proud they are of our accomplishments and host a big dinner in our honor.  We might very well expect that for someone like Jesus should very well receive such a greeting from his hometown.  After all, he had accomplished great deeds in his care of others and has become somewhat famous.  The musings of our own homecomings are just the irrational daydreams of the mediocre.  

So, we are surprised in reading that the homecoming for Jesus did not go as we expected.  They took offense at him.  They did not want him around.  He was just too much for them.  Jesus is too much for us too.  Providing care for all people equally!  Eating at table with people I do not like!  Telling us we have to love our enemies, forgive others countless times, rejecting violence and revenge!  All of this is just too much for us, as it was for his hometown.  

So, we invent other versions of Jesus that are more palatable to our biases and animosities against others.  When we are finished with our editing of Jesus to suit our tastes, we discover that we have chosen Barabbas - a thief and purveyor of violence for nationalism.  We then create an entire system of apologetic and theology to defend this caricature so we can justify the body counts and other atrocities the real Jesus would find repellent.  Changing images of Jesus is easier than changing ourselves to become like him.

Both New and Old

Gospel: Matthew 13: 47-53

Jesus tells us that those who are truly instructed in the kingdom of heaven take out from their storerooms things both old and new.  He asks us if we understand these things, if we understand what his parables truly say to us.  Naturally, the disciples say that in fact they do understand.  We, of course, make the same bold assertion.  Jesus knows better.  He knows that neither his disciples of that time, nor us, really understand the realities of the kingdom.

Take, for example, what he says about the old and the new here.  Traditionalists despise all things new.  They have created an artificial date where all things that come after that date are suspect and rejected.  Similarly, progressives have created a similar criterion where all things that came before their created date of validity are rejected as expired and stale.  If one were to compare the dates of these rival camps, one would discover the one thing these groups have in agreement - their own artificial constructs.

If we tilt to one of these extremes, we have an incomplete storeroom.  We find ourselves impoverished rather than enriched.  We deprive others of great treasures or great discoveries, and what we have in our storeroom is not the kingdom of heaven but a kingdom of our own making, a world of make-believe of one sort or the other.  Today is the day for the progressive to rediscover the treasures of the old, and for the traditionalist to realize the value of the new.   

The Model of Hospitality

Gospel: Luke 10: 38-42

Martha and Mary are often seen as representatives of the active and contemplative life in religion, a later interpolation of their story to be sure.  The original context of their presence in the Gospel stories is their model of hospitality that was the core of ancient religion and ethics, a foundation nearly erased in modern religion.   For it is much easier to muse on the abstractions of action and contemplation, much more difficult to apply the practice of hospitality to others.  

Martha is about the important business of providing food and drink to Jesus and his disciples who are those for whom she is offering hospitality.  The food and drink is important; the table is where hospitality is provided.  Yet, more important than the food and drink is our presence and attention to those for whom we offer hospitality.  To provide a listening ear and a friendly disposition to those at our table is the most fundamental element of the practice of hospitality.

In the mind and practice of Jesus, this hospitality is extended to all at table - friend and stranger, ally and enemy, native and foreigner.  For to be present to the guest is to become aware of the presence of Jesus among us, the presence of Jesus in the person at table with us.  Today's feast reminds us of these truths that we might practice them in our homes, our churches, and communities throughout the world.  That these ideas may seem alien to us today shows us how far we have strayed from the origins of our faith.

The Frustrated Gardener

Gospel: Matthew 13: 36-43

Anyone who has done farming or gardening understands the frustration of the parable in today's Gospel portion.  The farmer goes to great lengths in order to purchase and sow good seed.  She has prepared the soil assiduously, fertilizing it and removing any weeds or other harmful things from the planting beds.  In theory everything should produce nothing but good wheat.  And yet, the farmer wakes one day to find weeds growing up amid the wheat.  How could this have happened?

It is a great mystery of the spiritual life.  We have done the hard work for our souls, clearing away the soil within to create a good place for God.  We know that what God provides is also good, and yet we find within ourselves the presence of sin.  Like the weeds and wheat, we initially see no difference between them.  It is only when they grow longer that each manifests itself as what they are: good fruit on one side, and our sin on the other.  

Every life contains this mysterious paradox.  All that can be done is to begin the process anew over and over again.  Our life is a constant cycle of crop raisings.  We cultivate, plant, and observe the growth until harvest time where we sort out our good and bad.  Then the process begins anew and ends only at our death.  Only through sustained perseverance will we achieve some wisdom and success in the cultivation of our souls.

Process, Not Empire

Gospel: Matthew 13: 31-35

The kingdoms of the world exist to occupy space and dominate others.  They seek to acquire more and more land and subjugate more and more people.  Many see the kingdom of God in similar terms.  Church statistics are all about how many members there are - the number of baptisms and marriages.  They report on number of buildings, number of clergy and those in formation, and most importantly of all the financial portfolio of the parish, diocese, or global church.  

Yet, the images of today's Gospel suggest a very different image of the kingdom of God.  Here, Jesus says that the kingdom is small things that grow over time with cultivation and care.  The kingdom is a tiny mustard seed that, when planted, fed, and cared for, will become a large tree for the birds to inhabit.  The kingdom is like tiny yeast particles that when put in flour and kneaded over and over, leads to the rising of bread in the oven so that others might be nourished.  

The kingdom of God is not about occupying space and dominating others.  The kingdom of God is a process of nurturing tiny things into larger things so that others might find shelter and nourishment.  Church reports do not track such processes and outcomes very often.  What might Church be if these processes were our concern?  What might the world look like if this model of Jesus were our actual model of ministry?  

One Man's Trash...

Gospel: Matthew 13: 44-52

Consider the net being dragged across the sea.  It picks up all sorts of things in its wake, and when hauled into the boat a sorting must take place regarding what is of value and kept versus what is not of value and discarded.  If the net were a fisherman's, then the fish has value while the rest is trash.  If, however, the net belonged to a treasure hunter, the fish may be unimportant to them while the objects made by humans would be of great value.

But what of other things?  What of this old tire, or these plastic bottles?  Surely these are trash.  The tire may be recycled, or made into a tree swing or outdoor planter.  The plastic bottles can be recycled and made into new plastics.  Even the driftwood will be of use.  It will be dried and yes it will be burned.  Yet, its fire can be used to cook food and provide warmth on a cold night.  Those who are quick to condemn something as trash and of no worth are so often wrong in their judgment.

How often do we apply this label of trash to human beings.  Yet, Jesus went about eating at table with many considered trash in his day - tax collectors and prostitutes, Pharisees and scribes.  He healed a great many people who were literally treated like rubbish - lepers, cripples, slaves and women in need of healing.  Every person has intrinsic worth and value.  Every person was seen as a person by the Lord Jesus.  Those who claim to be his followers should regard no person as trash, and see all as loved of God. 

The Religion of Power

Gospel: Matthew 20: 20-28

Religion has often had a split personality.  Like most human beings we have a drive to the good and the true, while also having a dark side seeking power, influence, and wealth.  In today's Gospel we see in a microcosm what we now see in the macro in religion: the constant desire for position, influence,  and power.  Two men desire seats of influence, each claiming to be worthy of it, while ten other men are indignant and jealous of their jockeying for position and influence.  We see it everyday in religion.  

Apologists for religion will argue that this happens in every institution.  Why is religion being singled out for critique? Well, for one, Jesus here and in many other places provides a standard for religion to follow.  Religion is not about position, power, status, and wealth. It is about the works of mercy and reconciliation.  It is about healing, liberating, nourishing.  It is to clothe the naked, feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, shelter the homeless, care of the sick and imprisoned, welcome the stranger and alien.

Religion cannot offer the apologetic that it is better than everything else, and when its sins are revealed then argue that such sins exist everywhere.  Rather than apologetic, religion should apologize and then set about to its calling in the work of the Lord Jesus.  The world of apologetics is the world of status, power, influence, and ego.  The world of apology for sin is the world of the Lord Jesus, an encounter with mercy, and an invitation to be an instrument of mercy in the world. 

Hear the Parable Anew

Gospel: Matthew 13: 18-23

Jesus had told the Parable of the Sower.  Now he invites us to hear it again - to see it as a measuring stick and a frame of discernment for our lives.  Rather than seeing it deterministically as we are prone to do, we are invited to see the story more dynamically.  Our fatalistic reading of the story has us throw up our hands at the end and say:  Well, there's nothing I can do about my lot.  I was made this way and my end is already predestined.  

In ancient times such fatalism was widespread.  One was born into a certain station in life and there one stayed.  You were predetermined to be in such a profession, married to a person decided for you, living int the same place where you were born.  But Jesus invites us to see life more dynamically, to see this parable not as fatalism but as a constant source of reflection throughout one's life that enables us to make progress in our lives to a new station.

So, if we perceive our soul as rocky ground that is shallow, we work on breaking up the rock to enable our seeds to grow roots in good soil.  If we sense our spiritual life being choked off by the thorns of worldly concern, then we pull out those thorns and weeds to allow our spirits to thrive and flourish.  And if we find good soil in the garden of our spirit, then we work to keep that ground continually fertile and productive.  Hear the parable not as a fortune cookie, but as an invitation to growth and change.   

The Problem of Knowledge

Gospel: Matthew 13: 10-17

Why does Jesus teach in parables?  Today's Gospel portion offers an answer that sounds very Gnostic at first.  Jesus is made to say here that those with the special insight and knowledge, who have access to the mysteries, will know what the parables say.  Those who lack this secret power will be unable to penetrate the mysteries.  As in the explanation of the parable of the sower, this answer appears predetermining in terms of one's status before God now and at judgment.   

However, as we saw earlier, that parable taken by itself is designed to serve as a measuring stick in terms of our progress in the spiritual life.  We may at times see ourselves as shallow and without roots, and so our understanding and growth is limited.  In the same way, we are to see today's passage in a similar way.  Initially our understanding is shallow and surface level, but with perseverance and meditation, our knowledge and insight grows into the depth and meaning of Jesus' teaching.  

So, if we find ourselves struggling to understand things, we should not despair, nor give into fatalistic thinking.  The task before us is to return again and again to the parables, to sit with them, and empty ourselves in order to receive their depth of wisdom.  At first Nicodemus did not understand Jesus, but he returned again and again to the Lord.  He who first came in darkness eventually finds his way to the light at the cross of Jesus.  Let Nicodemus be our inspiration in the spiritual journey.

The Great Apostle

Gospel: John 20: 1-2, 11-18

Today we will celebrate the feast of St. Mary Magdalene, a day on which men everywhere will heap praise upon her, recall the ancient title of "Apostle to the Apostles" regarding her, and then proceed to tell us why women cannot exercise ministry in the Church.  Mary Magdalene was chosen to be the first eyewitness to the Resurrection of Jesus, and called to be the first to proclaim the primary and fundamental message of Christianity to the others - Jesus is Risen.  

Consider how throughout the Gospels it is women who are first to receive such calls.  Mary and Elizabeth were the first to announce the coming of Jesus in the world.  The Samaritan woman was the first called to preach Jesus to others in his village.  Peter's mother-in-law was the first to exercise diaconal ministry and model discipleship.  All of this was done to directly challenge the ancient view that women could not be witnesses, could not be teachers.  The Gospels suggest otherwise.

This message was so controversial that not even Paul could accept it, deliberately omitting women as the first to experience and proclaim the risen Jesus.  It is that lack of acceptance that has somehow become Church "tradition" and not the actual message of the Gospel.  Mary Magdalene and the other women of the Gospels continue their mission, inspiring us with their faith and witness.  May we honor them in our lives by following their message, and allowing women of today to serve as they did. 

The Family of God

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.  

Demanding Signs

Gospel: Matthew 12: 38-42

In today's Gospel portion, the Scribes and Pharisees demand to see a sign from Jesus in order for them to find reason to believe in him.  We might well wonder what type of sign they seek, what would satisfy them.  For, up to this point they have seen Jesus heal sicknesses of all kinds, liberate people from demonic possession, raise people from the dead, and multiply bread and fish in order to feed multitudes of hungry people in a desolate area.  

These signs are all well and good if you want to help people, but that is not what interests them.  They are in search of a Messiah who will wield political and military power in order to drive out the Roman occupiers and restore the kingdom of Israel.  They want to see signs that demonstrate that kind of power.  They have read the meta-narrative of Israel's history and came to a certain conclusion about who the Messiah ought to be and what sort of signs should accompany his arrival in the world.

But Jesus invites us to read the narrative differently.  Recall one of his first miracles was the healing of a slave in the employ of a Roman centurion.  Jesus invites us to see that the family of God is not a particular race of people, but one that is open to all.  The signs of the kingdom of God, the signs of the coming Messiah - the healings, exorcisms, and providing of food for all people - invite us all to the same work and the same table.

Here, and To Come

Gospel: Matthew 13: 24-43

Jesus provides us with three parables that give us an important insight into the kingdom of God.  These are: the parable of the wheat and weeds. the parable of the mustard seed, and the parable of the yeast and leaven.  Each of the parables shows us that the kingdom of God is present among us and yet not fully realized.  The kingdom is small and humble among us.  It requires time and patience for the kingdom to grow.  It also requires our cooperation and effort in cultivating seeds and kneading yeast into dough.

At the same time our cooperation is limited to cultivation and nurturing efforts.  Jesus rejects the idea of violence in these parables.  The workers are not to go into the vineyard recklessly seeking to root out weeds.  The wheat and weeds are allowed to grow side by side, and in God's time the weeds will the dealt with.  This admonition is a rebuke to revolutionaries and proponents of violence in every age.  The kingdom is God's work, not our own.  

The kingdom is here among us.  It is within each person and by extension present in the larger world.  The kingdom requires our efforts of cultivation and nurturing, not our violence, in order to grow and flourish.  For while the kingdom is here, it is still yet to be fully realized within our souls and within the larger world.  The kingdom is God's, and the work for its growth and development is also God's.  Lord, may your kingdom come within us, and within the world.   

Keeping it Quiet

Gospel: Matthew 12: 14-21

Today's Gospel portion reminds us that with every healing miracle of Jesus comes with it the admonition to tell no one about it.  The kingdom of God is not about fanfare and bluster.  It has no need of public relations firms, advertising agencies, consulting firms, and media empires.  The work of the kingdom speaks for itself.  The works of mercy reflect the values of the Beatitudes: they are about mercy, meekness, purity of heart, justice and peace for others.  It is not about us.

Yet, we just can't help ourselves.  We have to have our "witnessing" and our "evangelizing", neither of which are about building the kingdom of God on earth.  These things are about building a kingdom for ourselves, a kingdom predicated on our own ego, on the accumulation of wealth, property, political power, and influence.  Jesus was about none of these things.  He rejected all of that in the desert of temptation, and after doing so gave us the Eight Beatitudes.  

As individual followers of Jesus and as communities of faith, we have a choice.  We can build our own kingdoms as we have been doing for centuries.  Or we can be about the kingdom of God where we go about healing others, liberating people from their demons, and nourishing people at table.  Asking for no credit, giving thanks to God alone in solitude, and moving on to the next place to carry out the ministry of Jesus - the ministry of mercy and reconciliation.

An Ethics for All

Gospel: Matthew 12: 1-8

In today's Gospel portion, a group of Pharisees berate Jesus' disciples for plucking grain and eating on the Sabbath, seeing this as a violation of the Sabbath work rule.  The response of Jesus is a telling one.  He gives examples of a king and group of priests who violate this same rule and yet are seen as heroic within the tradition.  This response of Jesus provides us with reflection on what law and ethics mean for the entire human race.

The subtle implication of Jesus' counterexamples is that law and ethics are often imposed rigidly on the poor and those with little power in society, while those in privileged classes and states of life live by an entirely different set of standards, if any at all.  But if law and ethics are to have any meaning at all, then they must apply equally to all people, regardless of position or class in society.  Having such double standards results in lawlessness and amorality.

In our own day we see the same double standard in our political leaders and clerics.  They preach and seek to enforce a rigid morality upon the commoners while doing whatever they please.  The political leaders who rail against "illegals" while committing all sorts of lawbreaking, and the cleric who wags his finger at his congregation for sexual errancies while excusing those of his priestly brethren are the real enemies of law and ethics in our world.  Today is a day for us to live with integrity the life Jesus calls us to follow.

The Yoke of Slavery

Gospel: Matthew 11: 28-30

In ancient Rome the slave was made to wear a wrap around metal collar that could only be removed by the slave master.  The collar was made to resemble in appearance the yoke of oxen used to pull wagons, plows, and other loads.  The message this collar conveyed both to the slave and everyone else that the existence of the slave is sub-human, that they exist on par with beasts of burden.  That this condition was imposed only on foreigners gives us the origins of our present day animus and treatment of the other.

Now, along comes Jesus in today's Gospel portion who tells us that his yoke is easy, and that our burden light if we accept to be servants in his kingdom.  For in the kingdom Jesus does not call us servants but friends, seeing us as images of God, images of himself, and temples of the Holy Spirit.  We are in fact not slaves but citizens of heaven, and the burden we carry is that of others in the work of mercy and loving kindness that is the task of the worker in the vineyard.

The fundamental option before us is whether we will accept the yoke of the world where the burden is onerous and the rewards are a mirage, or whether we will accept the yoke of the Lord Jesus where we ease the burden of each other as we work together to build the kingdom of God, a civilization of love that honors and respects the dignity of all human beings as images of God, images of Christ, temples of the Holy Spirit.   

The Learned and Clever

Gospel: Matthew 11: 25-27

Note carefully the encounters we have with the learned scholars in the Gospels.  More often than not, we find them in the employ of the ruling powers who seek the ruin of Jesus and others for their own power.  Scholars of the law advised Herod on the coming Messiah, taking part in his deeds of violence.  In their interactions with Jesus, the scholars of the law are either in the employ of the Sadducees and Herodians, or among those seeking to justify themselves.  

To be learned in itself is not bad, but how often is it used for nefarious purposes in support of the rich and powerful to the expense of the poor and marginalized.  For this reason Jesus continually encourages us to a life of the simplicity of a child.  A child has no power and continually open to learning and experiencing new things.  Children have an inner world of imagination and possibility adults have lost long ago.  The child is not a cynic or skeptic.  

In seeking to be like children we remember that learning is for the sake of seeking wisdom and not power.  Learning is a cultivation of the imagination, the openness to new experiences and possibility.  Learning is for the service and care of others, not for being apologists and tools for the powers of this world.  Today is a day for us to commit to this learning for wisdom, to remaining ever open to the voice of God within, and using our learning to serve and care for others.