Return
October 29, 2006
This Scripture passage again seems shaming, cruel and harsh. We believe in a God who has known us since we were born. We believe in a God who knows every hair on our head. How can we have this brutal passage which invokes Jesus and yet, Jesus response is, “I don't know you!” Return to the passage. When you read it again you might notice that the passage is two things…Saying followed by doing. This passage is actually the key message for the entire gospel of Matthew. Everything before this is coming here and everything coming after is about coming back to this. It doesn't matter what you say. It doesn't matter how much attention you bring to what you've said. If you aren't living it. It doesn't matter. Particularly if you consider yourself one of the leaders of this movement. It doesn't matter if you've got a miracle under your belt. It doesn't matter if you've been prophetic about something. What matters, in the end to our Creator and this leader of our movement, is if you've returned to the basics. How's your love? How are you treating the stranger? The least? The widows and the orphans? How is it you are with money?
Halloween, Nov. 1 and 2 encompass the Day of the Dead celebrations. It's a celebration that originates in Mexico and is now celebrated in many places beyond there including here in Tucson . It is a joyous celebration of the dead. The tradition says that beginning on Halloween the souls begin to return to the gravesites and families. It's an intentional feast, filling the cemeteries, cleaning, decorating, eating the foods the departed loved in honor of them. Remembering their living. How would people celebrate us? What would we be remembered for? The message today is…it wasn't what you said, it's how you lived out what you said…Will your ethics be remembered in your words? Will your ethics be reflected in the memory of your living? Matthew's gospel is calling us today, to return. What is this being?
The last funeral I attended, was a funeral for a migrant who died out in our desert trying to cross. We couldn't celebrate his life with joy. Humane Boarders did manage to find out his name. But, we couldn't celebrate his life, family, favorite foods…he was a stranger. He was a stranger who died in our desert, nearly nameless. What does it mean to us that Jesus repeatedly talked about an ethic of love, particularly for the stranger, the traveler, the foreigner. What does it mean, we are aware that strangers are in our desert. What does it mean that we are aware that they are being forced to sneak into our country. What does it mean that we all know they will find jobs, money, and work here doing all the things we all know, we won't do. And, they'll do it for an amount of money we won't even consider working for. What does it mean to be someone who considers themselves part of the Jesus movement living here in this day and age? It means we've got to return to the teaching.
Something changes within us, when we know something and yet choose to pretend we don't. It's a lie. We are trying to lie to ourselves about what we know. We are trying to anesthetize ourselves from what we know. These are not values Jesus' calls us to lying and anesthetic. In fact, it seems to me considering his entire ministry, he did everything in his power to make people feel, see and hear. He was shocking to heighten people's experience of embodying the teaching. What if we decided this moment to be shockingly honest about ourselves, the way in which we're living.
We live in a world that survives on the backs of others. This is not a Christian ethic, but it is an American must. We live in a world of excess at the expense of the rest of the globe. It is burying us in our own waste, fat, poisoned air. These are not Christian ethics but American musts. The Scripture passage today reminds, hey, you're either part of this or your not. It's not something you do half way. This is something that defines who you are and then what you are and how you are.
So, when Jesus was around he was modeling this teaching by hanging out with Samaritans. When Jesus was around he was modeling this teaching by hanging out with women, children and infants. Jesus was with the poor, lived below his family means, took on the troubles of the poor in his time. How do we do these things today?
First, I think we need to stop talking. I think the instruction doesn't ask for this. But, we've all talked a lot, way too much. This week I hope we just decide to get off the dime. And begin to be these things we come here to learn about each week. This week I hope we take the first step. We pray. We share. We name those we've considered invisible every time we step on them. Because perhaps in doing these small things, something really big might come. But, we must begin to stop, listen and do.
Let us pray.