It seems that all four of today's readings stress the idea that following in God's way leads
to happiness, and that turning from God leads to sorrow both for us and for God. Jeremiah speaks of the bounty
that was offered- and rejected. Hebrews and Luke talk about the blessings that are available to us when we follow
a way of humility, hospitality, compassion, thankfulness, and faith.
It was Pascal who said, "Human beings are peculiar in that they pursue ends they know will bring them no satisfaction,
gorge themselves with food that cannot nourish and with pleasures that cannot please." So it is an amazing
thing about Jesus that he was immensely popular because he refused to please, disrupted the self-satisfied, and
offered a seemingly invisible source of nourishment that would sustain life forever to a somewhat exclusive group.
Luke's Gospel in particular advances what theologians call ''the preferential option for the poor.'' It begins
with Mary's Song in the first chapter: ''He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low
degree./He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich he hath sent empty away.'' As one Latin American
theologian put it, God takes sides in the struggle of haves and have-nots we call history. God sides with the least,
the lowest, and the left-out.
Later in Luke, Jesus uses the compassionate act of a Samaritan - the racial outcast of his day - to illustrate
what one must do to fulfill God's great commandment of love. He then tells his hearers to imitate the hated Samaritan,
to ''go and do likewise.''
At the same time, the kingdom Jesus described was radically inclusive. Jesus, as God's son who goes from the uttermost
to the guttermost, wants to expand the franchise to everyone, even those unlikely to buy in. Some of Jesus' stories
about the kingdom make precisely this point: a net capturing different kinds of fish, fields with different crop
yields, laborers with different pay scales.
Moral: In the kingdom, it takes all kinds. Even the Pharisees! Luke, more so than any other gospel writer, makes
a point of showing that Jesus refused to write off those arch-villains of Sunday School lore. He shares several
accounts of dinner invitations Jesus received from the Pharisees, and tells us that he accepted them all.
Each, however, ends in social disaster: Jesus never fails to offend his host.
In the 11th chapter of Luke, a Pharisee invites Jesus to a power lunch, which he attends without hesitation. As
the guests sit down, the Pharisee is outraged that Jesus has not washed his hands before dinner. In that time and
place hand washing was a matter of holiness, not hygiene: It was a ritual that signified the sanctity of the meal,
and was observed scrupulously by religious folk. So Jesus is caught in a faux pas.
Instead of offering an apology, Jesus launches a verbal attack. He berates his host for being obsessed with clean
exteriors while being filthy inside with greed. He goes on to say that clean hands come by the purifying act of
feeding the poor, that the Pharisees leave the hard work of justice undone. These insults were in earshot of other
guests whom the Bible calls ''scribes'' or ''doctors of the law,'' ancient Israel's equivalents of today's policy
wonks. Not the kind of impression most guests want to create.
The scribes are put off by Jesus' rudeness and tell him so. But he has a few choice words for them, too. He says
that their policy directives harm more than help, and that they polish the monuments of great leaders of the past
while betraying their principles. They use their insider knowledge to keep people locked out, and they use their
expertise - the buzzwords, jargon, and doublespeak - not to illumine but to confuse. By the time Jesus finished
his harangue the Pharisees and scribes were both steaming and planning revenge.
So the truly amazing thing is that by the time we get to chapter 14 Jesus has been invited back to yet another
Pharisee hosted meal!
The job of translating a biblical text is at best a difficult one, and the hardest task is finding the right analogy
so as to bring out the offensive judgment of God which alone saves and redeems. A hermeneutic or interpretation
rule that one can always with confidence fo1Iow is the one that stresses that whenever our reading of a biblical
passage makes us feel self-righteous we can be sure that we have misread it; and the concomitant rule is that whenever
our reading of a biblical passage brings home to us the poignant judgment and salvation of God's call for humility
we can be sure we have read it correctly.
It is equally true that we should always avail ourselves of as many pertinent non-biblical texts from the Bronze,
Iron, Persian, Early Jewish, Hellenistic, and Roman periods as will help to understand the text and to ask the
right questions which will unlock the meaning of the passage addressed. In the case of today's gospel lesson we
have from the so-called Dead Sea Scrolls just such a passage. It is from the Essene or Quinran Rule of the Congregation,
and it deals specifically with those who may be invited to the Essene fellowship and gives the seating arrangement
at the Essene messianic banquet ( I QSa II, 5-22).
After specifying that anyone afflicted in his flesh, "crippled of feet or hands, lame or blind or deaf or
dumb ... of poor eyesight or senility" is not to be admitted to the congregation of the men of renown, the
Essene Rule proceeds to give the seating arrangement of the men of renown who are invited to the great banquet
when the Messiah comes. It is carefully laid down that the high priest is to sit at the head of the banquet table,
then the elders of the priests, then the heads of the divisions of Israel, then the heads of the elders of the
congregation and the scribes. In each category the phrase "each according to his status" is used. Then
when they have all been seated "each according to his status" to eat the bread and drink the wine of
the messianic banquet (on which our own Holy Communion is based) the high priest blesses the first bite of bread
and the cup of wine. After him the Messiah may take bread and then the assembled congregation. It is the most exclusive
kind of closed communion you are likely to find, and the reason given for excluding the poor and the lame and the
otherwise impaired, is that they might offend the holy angels and an overly sensitive God.
If this was the commonly held understanding of holiness, then one can better understand the offense caused by Jesus'
suggestions.
The retort to his comments that the guest list be radically changed is met with the words (not included in your
reading for today) "Blessed is he who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God!" We often read that with
the suspicion that at least one person in the crowd recognized the wisdom of his words, but in reality this group
steeped in the ancient traditions would more than likely be expressing their utter disgust that anyone less than
themselves should be thought to be worthy of inclusion; could be thought worthy of the title "blessed."
Now while other more social conscious guests might excuse themselves at that point, Jesus compounds the problem
by telling the parable of the great banquet to which many important guests were invited, but all made last minute
excuses as to why they could not come. In reality again this list of "excuses" is found in Deuteronomy
chapter 20 as being totally acceptable reasons to stay home from a battle, even the final battle of the righteous.
These are the same exemptions listed in Mishnah Sotah ( M. Sotah VIII) in the Talmud and in the Dead Sea War Scroll
( 1 QM X, 5) from Qumran.
In other words, Jesus has just challenged everything they held sacred!
It has been my experience that God does not come into our reality to take sides - God comes to take over. If one
thinks they can "hold out" some portion of their being they deceive themselves.
The word tzedakah, the Hebrew counterpart for "charity," which literally means "justice," is
a way of life, and Jesus understood tzedakah very well. So well, that whatever he does, wherever he is, that moment
and place become saturated with tzedakah, that rare character trait, virtue, and value that somehow combines the
totality of charity and justice -- what Jesus on other occasions calls shalom or peace.
There is a wonderful book of sermons entitled "Bread of Angels" by Barbara Brown Taylor which speaks
very eloquently of this kind of "charity". The book suggests one spend time with God by spending time
with children - where there are no paybacks, no status, no influences, no income. "It is what you do when
you think no one is looking, with someone who does not count, for no reward, that ushers you into the presence
of God.... If you want to enter this kingdom [of God] there is a way; go find a "nobody" to put your
arms around them and say hello to God."
Clearly this is at the heart of the Igniting Ministries movement; increased sensitivity to that and those we might
otherwise regard as unimportant. A humbling of self in an attempt to reach others for Christ.
According to the author of our epistle lesson for today from the book of Hebrews, there are 3 sacrifices that please
God.
1. the sacrifice of praise
2. the sacrifice of doing good
3. the sacrifice of sharing
We may not think of praise and doing good as being sacrifices, but in fact they are and they are sacrifices in
which we gain greater life. Sacrifice is an action that takes thinking which produces a decision and then follows
through. It is action that is doing something for someone else.
Whether it is choosing a parking space further away from your destination to leave those closer for another who
may need it more, or giving up the "big chair" for the less comfortable one, or no longer participating
in the whole concept of "pushing and shoving" to be first in anything…these are steps in the pathway
to humility.
Seattle, Washington made headlines this week when a distraught woman tied up traffic for several hours as police
and rescue workers tried to talk her out of jumping from the canal bridge. She did finally jump, spurred on by
the endless stream of angry motorists who shouted obscenities at her because of their inconvenience.
Overwhelmed with our own sense of importance to the point that we can no longer see the needs of others? Then it's
time to find our "proper place." May God help us all to do so.
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