The Jesus Movement to Occupy Jerusalem

In the first chapter of Mark’s Gospel, John the Baptizer is arrested and Jesus comes on the scene. He stops by the Sea of Galilee and calls family fishermen to become fishers of men. Hence, we often have the sermon about the missionary call to save individual souls.

In Mark, Jesus’ call is much more than that. Mark’s Gospel begins by proclaiming the Good News—Gospel. Only the emperor could proclaim good news. Immediately, we see much more in what Mark is saying. Jesus is setting out to challenge the existing imperial order. Jesus is initiating a campaign to restore justice, right order and right relationships. In today’s parlance, we could call it the Occupy Jerusalem Movement to restore right order to the people of Israel who are oppressed by Roman and priestly domination. Hence, Jesus’ call of disciples is much more than a plain vanilla challenge to save souls. It is a challenge to restore all that is right and good and beautiful in Israel. It is a challenge to initiate the Kin—dom of God. In St. Bonaventure concept of justice, it is a call to restore people to beauty to that which is distorted. Continue reading

C’mon Down

Jesus does it again. His direct action campaign, as Ched Myers describes it, now focuses on the Pharisees and table fellowship. According to the puritanical Pharisees, table fellowship was restricted. As John Dominic Crossan teaches us commensality—all are welcome at the table— was a key plank in Jesus’ Gospel platform. The story of Levi illustrates that Jesus welcomed all to the table. He dined with outcasts, sinners, tax collectors, and prostitutes and was often condemned for so doing. He welcomes lepers and poor people who had lost their land to the rich and powerful.

Dining and eating is a social function that carries great significance in all societies. I was intrigued when I read that the development of table manners was a purposeful design to limit who could come to the table. I, for one, still do not know what to do with all the forks, knives, and spoons that accompany a formal banquet. Work from the outside in is advice that has helped me save social face on more than one occasion.

Who comes to the table? Who is welcome at the table? Jesus welcomed all but some of the churches that claim loyalty to Jesus do not practice open table fellowship. We might get a better idea if we ask, “Who is not welcome at the table?” In many fundamentalist churches, including the Roman Catholic Church, gays and lesbians are often not welcome. Pastors who have tried to follow Jesus’ example by welcoming them  have been disciplined and even removed from their posts. Divorced people are shunned. Politicians who support a woman’s right to choice are denied communion at the table. Some Catholic pastors are quick to remind non-Catholics at funerals that the church does not welcome all to the table. Continue reading

Debt Codes and Financial Exploitation

There is a strong contrast in today’s scripture readings. Again, relying on Ched Myers’ analysis, we can see that Jesus is repudiating the debt code of the hierarchical leaders in Israel. Forgiving the sins of the paralytic who was lowered through the roof is blasphemy to the religious leaders who want to continue the oppression of the debt code over the crowd (ochlos) that follows Jesus.

The “crowd” according to Myers and Korean theologian, Byung-mu, is the 99% of today. One characteristic of the crowd is that ‘[t]hey are alienated from the Jewish leadership, and thus largely supportive of Jesus in his struggle against that leadership.” Sound familiar? Continue reading

Banksters, Greedy Folks and the Gospel

A leper came to him and kneeling down begged him and said,
“If you wish [would dare], you can make me clean [declare me clean—a priestly Levitical function].”
Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand, touched the leper, and said to him, [by touching Jesus should have contracted “leprosy”; however, the man was made clean]
“I do will it. Be made clean.”
The leprosy left him immediately, and he was made clean. [Healing always means that the person is restored to his/her rightful place in society.]
Then, warning him sternly [snorting with indignation], he dismissed him at once.
Then he said to him, “See that you tell no one anything,
but go [go back], show yourself to the priest
and offer for your cleansing what Moses prescribed; [his offering is a witness against the priests and their purity code]
that will be proof for them.”
The man went away and began to publicize the whole matter.
He spread the report abroad
so that it was impossible for Jesus to enter a town openly.
He remained outside in deserted places, [Jesus, now unclean, has to hide out in the desert places]
and people kept coming to him from everywhere. (Mk 1:40-45) Continue reading

Are You Going to Leave Me in the Dump?

The Dump

As I read the story about Eli teaching Samuel how to listen to the voice of the Living God, I could not help but think of a story that is playing out in our church community. A lady parishioner went to the Clay County, NC  dump for yet another seemingly common unloading of trash. At the dump, she noticed that someone had placed a framed needlepoint profile of Jesus in prayer on the side up against a retaining wall. The former owner, while no longer wanted the needlepoint with a well-worn frame, had placed it against a retaining wall probably hoping someone might want it. As our friend started to leave the dump, she heard, “Are you going to leave me in the dump?” A bit startled, she hesitated and then retrieved the picture and placed it in the back seat of her car. When she got home, she hung the picture in the bedroom. As she was leaving the bedroom, she heard the voice again, “Are you going to leave me hidden back here?” She hesitated, turned around, retrieved the picture and placed it in a prominent place in the living room. The pastor brought the picture to church and framed a Sunday sermon (just could not resist the pun!) around the events just described. The picture never got back to the home of the lady who found it in the dump. It is now making its way around our parish with an accompanying diary. It will go from house to house, from family to family, and be a symbol of Christ’s real presence to the faithful who welcome him into their families and homes. Is this not how Samuel welcomed the Living God after Eli taught him to listen for God’s voice? Continue reading

Borning Cry Beloved Sons and Daughters

Yesterday, with baptisms occurring during our Eucharistic liturgy, the pastor/celebrant  and a guitarist sang a Lutheran baptismal hymn, “I Was There to hear Your Borning Cry.” You can hear the hymn being sung on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6x9QhN5QnbI

The song begins with “I was there to hear your borning cry, I’ll be there when you are old.” Verse after verse reminds us of God’s encouraging presence as we make our pilgrimage through life. Continue reading

Thoughts on Peace: Jesus, John, John Dear, Gandhi, James Douglass and Joanna Macy

Jesus of Nazareth, our Risen Christ

“You’re familiar with the command to the ancients, ‘Do not murder.’ I’m telling you that anyone who is so much as angry with a brother or sister is guilty of murder. Carelessly call a brother ‘idiot!’ and you just might find yourself hauled into court. Thoughtlessly yell ‘stupid!’ at a sister and you are on the brink of hellfire. The simple moral fact is that words kill. (Mt 5:22, The Message)

“John”

Do not be amazed, then, brothers and sisters, if the world hates you.
We know that we have passed from death to life
because we love our brothers.
Whoever does not love remains in death.
Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer,
and you know that no murderer has eternal life remaining in him.
The way we came to know love
was that he laid down his life for us;
so we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.
If someone who has worldly means
sees a brother in need and refuses him compassion,
how can the love of God remain in him? (1 Jn 3) Continue reading

The Way, the Truth, the Life

The Light

[This is an expanded version of my soaking prayer meditation for Tuesday night, January 3.]

I recently saw the movie, The Way, staring Martin Sheen and directed by his son, Emilio Estavez. It is the story of Tom, an affluent dentist from California, whose son, Daniel, abandoned graduate school and set out to walk the 500 mile El Camino de Santiago across Northern Spain. The end point of the pilgrimage is the cathedral of St. James, the Apostle. Having gone to France to identify and claim the remains of his son, the father decides to walk El Camino and scatter his son’s ashes as he goes. For Sheen “It is also the tale of a literal journey that leads to a spiritual, personal transformation, and that is territory that Sheen — survivor of both addiction and heart disease, parent of a wayward son, devout Catholic — knows well.” He wants to go it alone; however, he attracts three erstwhile companions along the way. It is a story of pilgrimage that soon becomes, as do all pilgrimages, an interior journey into self. “Along the way to Santiago, [Tom] meets a trio of pilgrims — Sarah, an angry divorcee from Canada (Deborah Kara Unger); Jack, a frustrated writer from Ireland (James Nesbitt); and Joost, a hilarious gastronome from Holland (Yorick van Wageningen) — and comes to know himself, through them.” (http://www.aarp.org/entertainment/movies-for-grownups/info-10-2011/the-way-movie-review.html) Continue reading

Blessings to Start the New Year

The Blessing of creation--God's Primary Revelation

The LORD spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, Thus you shall bless the Israelites: You shall say to them,

The LORD bless you and keep you;

the LORD make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you;

the LORD lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace.

So they shall put my name on the Israelites, and I will bless them. (Numbers 6)

_____

May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind always be at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
and rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of His hand. Continue reading

Breath of the Living God

Let There Be Light

In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
He was in the beginning with God.
All things came to be through him,
and without him nothing came to be.
What came to be through him was life,
and this life was the light of the human race;
the light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness has not overcome it. (John 1)

Mark begins his Gospel with the baptism of Jesus. The opening sentence is high treason—this is the Good News of Jesus the Christ not the “good news” of the divine emperor Caesar. Matthew and Luke fabricate infancy narratives to show how the Christ fulfills the expectation of the Hebrew Scriptures. John goes back beyond the birth of the Christ to show that the Christ was preexistent with the Living One from before the dawn of creation. Continue reading