Lethal Injustice

Gospel: Matthew 14: 1-12

The story of the death of John the Baptist is inserted into the Gospel narrative to provide a foreshadowing and an analogy to the death of Jesus.  John is imprisoned for threatening the power of Herodias, who would be dispossessed of her wealth and power as Herod's wife if John's message is heeded.  Herodias uses her daughter as a pawn in order to have John executed unjustly.  

In a similar way, Jesus is arrested by the religious authorities for threatening their power.  If people followed the message of Jesus, the entire Temple system and Law would be upended, and the religious leaders would lose their power and wealth.  They will use the power of the Roman Empire to execute Jesus, though Pilate uses Jesus as a pawn himself in order to secure a loyalty pledge from the religious leaders to the Roman Empire.  

In every age and place the death penalty system has been an unjust and arbitrary system used primarily to keep civil and religious leaders secure in their power.  It is bitterly ironic that Christians would continue to support such an unjust system to the present day.  It is one thing to be a victim of such a system as a martyr of faith; it is entirely another to be its driving engine in unjustly executing others. 

Destroyers of Faith

Gospel: Matthew 13: 54-59

Today's Gospel portion notes that Jesus was unable to perform many miracles in his home town because of their lack of faith.  Familiarity often breeds contempt, or indifference.  We often take for granted things in our life that we have ready access to, and only when they are gone do we come to appreciate the special gift, the miracle that had been in our presence all along.  That phenomenon is part of today's lesson.

But there is more.  The people of Nazareth state that they know Jesus, in which case - what need have they of faith? And if faith be not needed, then there is no room for the miraculous.  For knowledge produces certitude, leaving no room for doubt.  Yet, faith exists only when doubt is both possible and present.  It is the presence of doubt itself that makes faith possible.  

For too long we have promoted an apologetics that seeks absolute certitude, attempting to remove all doubts about all known subjects.  In the process we have destroyed faith, making it an impossibility by the very criteria we have erected.  If we seek a cause for atheism and secularism in our world, we might find our very selves as the primary cause in more ways than one.

Treasures from the Sea

Gospel: Matthew 13: 47-53

One of the great discoveries of human ingenuity and creativity has been our ability to find value and worth in things we once thought to be useless and trash.  We pull things out of the sea - an old tire, plastics, and all sorts of things.  We make tree swings out of old tires and recycle old tires to make new ones.  We do the same with plastics and even burn garbage to create electricity.  We have discovered that everything has value and use.

We say that we believe in the intrinsic worth and dignity of the human person. We say every person has value and great potential, and yet our actions do not correspond to these stated beliefs.  We continue to execute people, malign and marginalize refugees, immigrants, the mentally ill, and the poor.  We perpetuate two-tiered education systems to maintain power and wealth among the privileged. We write off many people as beyond hope.  

If we are looking for a reason for lack of belief in God in religion and for the rise of nones, it is found in this massive gap in what we claim to believe and how we actually treat other people.  We have found ways to recycle and find value in all sorts of inanimate objects.  We can do so with human beings as well.  Restorative and transformative justice has shown us this fact. We need only do so and be true to what we claim to believe.