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.