We are?

 

Matthew 5:13-20

 And the sermon goes on for Jesus’ Disciples.

 You are the salt of the earth.  Salt preserves and flavors.  Salt is in our bodies, in our blood, sweat and tears.  It is a part of it.  Without salt, there is no life. 

 Salt preserves life.  In a time of no refrigeration, such as the Roman empire, even by 200 BC, salt was used to preserve meats and fish.  If the meat is not preserved in the desert, it is no good for anyone.  To eat old meat without it being preserved by salt was a dangerous thing to do.  It could threaten lives.  As followers of Jesus, we are to be about the business of preserving lives.  It is not just about pie in the sky when we die.  It is about life here and now, in this part of God’s Kin-dom.  People are to have a sense of well-being in life, according to God’s Will, and the followers of Jesus are supposed to work toward the preservation of life and life abundant, not just life forever.  Without the salt of the earth, the lives of God’s children will be lost.  When disciples stop having the properties necessary to preserve lives now, then we are worthless.  Then we are replaced.  When the church stops being about preserving lives here and now, in this part of God’s Kin-dom, it is worthless and is replaced by God.

 Salt flavors the whole.  It is not the main course.  Salt is not meant to take the place of the main course, but rather to change its flavor.  Too much salt, and the main course is ruined.  Too little salt, and salt is useless, as it does not improve its flavor, especially if that flavor was in question because the meat was old in an age of no refrigeration.  As followers of Jesus, we are called to address society with the Good News of agaph, and not reflect it because our presence cannot be sensed.  As followers of Jesus, we are called to transform society by being different from it, and not take its place with the same kind of heavy-handed, coercive, intolerant, exclusive and selfish ways.  When the church stops addressing society and starts replacing the main body of it with our own corruptions, we are worthless to the Kin-dom and replaced. 

 Light exposes the things that lie in the darkness.  Light changes the environment to make it possible for God’s children to navigate the world without stumbling around in the darkness.  Light allows God’s children to change those dangerous, obscured forces lurking in the darkness because they are seen for what they are in this part of God’s Kin-dom, here and now.  If the light that the church reflects from God in the world is obscured, it does not do the work of God in the world. 

 Light illumines the way for God’s children.  Light shows us the right path as it exposes the pitfalls, so that we can understand our surroundings and thus navigate this life together in God’s Way.  If the light that God has put within us is hidden, we may find ourselves on paths that do not lead to faithfulness to God or help others to find it.  We must light up the world with Jesus’ love, so that others may see God’s Way for them.

 Jesus then cautioned His disciples against believing that there is no longer any law.  Jesus fulfills the Law and Prophets in agaph, His commandment.  It is not a suggestion or nice idea.  It is commanded.  This active commitment on behalf of others is to be followed for any who would be faithful to God.  Ours is not to be an appearance of faithfulness, but a real faithfulness built on committed action on behalf of God’s children, which is a real, tangible and transformative force in this part of God’s Kin-dom, here and now.  The commandments of Jesus call us to a higher standard than appearances, check lists, hierarchies of severity, abuses of power over the letter of the law or personal pieties toward personal salvation.  The commandments of Jesus in agaph re-order our hearts, lives and communities to be in alignment with God’s Will.  The commandments of Jesus are not warm, fuzzy feelings or general ideals to be considered, but serious business for those who would strive to be faithful to God.  As serious as God’s Kingdom come and God’s Will being done, as serious as calling out false teachers and as serious as sheep and goats.  The commandments of Jesus are not to be trivialized, for the importance of their impact is the preservation of lives, life abundant and life forever.

 This is the call to a different way of thinking and living.  It is the call to leave behind those things that keep the status quo of empire and engage in the force of agaph that transforms individual lives, communities and the world.  The followers of Jesus are being called out, to be ekklesia in the world and thus change it.  The current ways of empire are not sustainable for life, life abundant and life forever.  Our hope is in following the Way of Jesus in the living of agaph to repair the world from empire’s destruction and despair, and restore hope by restoring justice, equity, equality, generosity and kindness in a world that continues to choose otherwise.  We are the salt and the light needed in the world right now, that bring in God’s Kin-dom Way of love and life.

Just the Beginning

 

Matthew 5:1-12

 Jesus, having started by proclaiming light in darkness, and God’s Kin-dom over empire, even having called fishers to follow Him, began His ministry with a sermon.

 Jesus on a mountain, like Moses on Sinai or like Mt. Zion, the place of God’s revelations and instruction, sat with His disciples, the posture of a teacher with student/followers.

 His first sermon discourse starts with makarioi - privileged recipients of God’s favor are, recipients of God’s fortune and happiness are, hailed ones by God are…

 And He offers the first four of eight beatitudes for those who are oppressed by empire, promising a reversal of fortune at the hands of God, whose presence is known by Jesus in the world. 

 The Poor in Spirit are going to be the favored recipients of God’s fortune because the inhumane conditions that have crushed their spirits by crushing their hope in life itself are to be reversed as they inherit the Kin-dom of heaven lived on earth.  No longer will their spirits be dragged down and put in despair by the exploitation, oppression and destruction of empire’s ways in the world.  The lack of resources that has put them in despair in their spirits will be reversed in their favor when Jesus’ Way is lived in the land, even in the known world.

 Those who mourn are going to be recipients of happiness in God because the destruction of lives and deaths that they mourn will be vindicated by the God who hears the blood of God’s beloved cry out.  They will no longer mourn, but will be comforted when God’s Kin-dom has come on earth and destroys the loss and death that is left in empire’s wake.  Jesus’ Way of compassion and empathy will console those who mourn by reversing the ways of destruction and death to ways of life abundant and sustainable in this part of God’s Kin-com, here and now.

 The meek are going to be hailed by God because their current lack of agency and power in the world at the hands of empire will be reversed, and their long wait in faithfulness will end with the inheritance that those who were brashly ruthless held them down, back and out from under empire’s rules.  God’s Kin-dom rule will restore the lands and fortunes of which they were deprived by those who in their arrogant hubris believed they had entitlement.  They will inherit it all in God’s great re-distribution under Jesus’ Good News Way.

 Those who hunger and thirst for justice are favored ones by God because they know what is right and just, and have a value for it.  They have been subjected to all manner of blatant injustice and unrighteousness by those who believed that they were above any code of conduct in the world, simply because they could force their will on others.  God’s Kin-dom will restore what is right and equitable so that all have Shalom (completeness, wholeness and well-being that lead to peace), which will mean a real peace and no false claim of peace like the Pax Romana which meant order maintained by coercive power for the sake of the elites who unjustly oppress God’s children.  They will be satisfied, finally, who value justice and equity in the world.

 The last four beatitudes lift up those who exhibit God’s Kin-dom values already, even under empire’s insidious, established as normative ways.  This exposes the ways of empire as ungodly, contrary to the influence peddled by adherents of the empire way in the world.  These are those who ACT in the world by living agaph in it, thus resisting empire and restoring God’s Way, the way of Jesus in this part of God’s Kin-dom, here and now.

 Considered weak or idealistic and therefore unrealistic to the devotees of empire, the Merciful are hailed by God because they provide those who have had their lives and hopes for life decimated with necessary resources for life, compassion and forgiveness when needed because of the extremes they have been forced to face under empire’s way.  The merciful do not believe that they are better than others, but empathically act on behalf of even “the least,” considering them equal as sisters and brothers.  They extend active love to the ones from who everything has been taken by those falsely believing themselves to be superior in the world.  They show God’s mercy by doing so, demonstrating that they have a value for God’s mercy by living it themselves.  These are merciful with the stranger, the enemy and those who have “sinned” according to empire’s punitive and controlling rules, just as Jesus does.

 The pure in heart receive God’s favor because they have not succumbed to the duplicitous, quid pro quo and guile-filled ways of societal hierarchical relationships under empire.  They have resisted the devious, ulterior motives and have not sunk to the ruthless lows of those who deal with others deceitfully for their own gain.  The pure in heart know what is right and just and they have acted accordingly, regardless of the societal pressure to get ahead of others or at their expense, by any means necessary.  They have chosen transparency instead of hidden agendas and consistency in word and action over the hypocrisy rampant and pervasive among those who value empire, much like Jesus who teaches us God’s Kin-dom way.

 The peacemakers receive God’s inheritance as heirs because they have not given in to the abuses of power wielded by the ruthless who want to rule over and control the lives of God’s children.  They are lifted up as God’s offspring because they actively employ the things that make for peace in the world – the equity, equal value of others, respect, honor and generosity that assure the Shalom of everyone in the world.  Their peace is a real peace, unlike the Pax Romana-style oppressive, controlling, coercive, brutal and unjust order maintained by a police state, because their peace is made through shared power out of equal value for all of God’s children.  It is the active resistance to bullying which is God’s Kin-dom Way, which is Jesus’ Way.

 The persecuted are recipients of joyful happiness, rewarded with the fortune of God’s Kin-dom because they live truth and light in love, regardless of the way that the world of empire punishes them for it.  They face the resistance and ridicule, the ostracizing and even discrimination that others dish out who serve empire with great devotion.  The truly persecuted pay the price for following Jesus’ Way because empire desperately needs to show others that Jesus’ Way is wrong, thus justifying their horrible injustices perpetrated out of greed, lust for power over others and desire for status above others.  The persecuted expose the evils of empire’s “normative” ways of being in the world as the dominant culture, so they must suffer for it under empire, just as did Jesus.  Matthew’s Jesus personalizes this with His student/followers by saying that YOU can rejoice and be glad when you are persecuted for teaching and living the agaph of Jesus’ Way, because you are in the company of the prophets of old and the saints who dwell in God’s light.

 Wow!  What a sermon!  Actually, this is just the prologue!  Amen.

Called Out

 

Matthew 4:12-23

 Galilea was historically the place of Gentiles after the Assyrian exile, though in Jesus’ time it was mostly Jewish.  This quote from Isaiah 9 conjures up that memory and, no doubt, the current situation under Rome’s occupation.  Jesus invokes this history in a current context of occupation and oppression.  Jesus then calls for repentance (metanoia) to change one’s mind so that one’s direction will follow.  For one empire had conquered and exiled God’s children in this Northern part of the Kingdom, and now it was occupied by new oppressors.  The people should change their thinking regarding empire itself, and resist its evils. 

 Empire means that the few benefit at the expense of the many, and because they have military control they can exploit and abuse whomever they choose.  The people were taxed heavily.  It is a peasant economy, and the people at the bottom who struggle to survive under it are powerless to change their plight.  The darkness in which the people sit has been the norm for a long time.  They are stuck in it.  Whatever living they used to make has been taken away to feed empire, its wealthy elites and its soldiers who brutally enforce order to maintain the status quo.

 Capernaum was by the sea.  It was also occupied territory in that it was a center for imperial political control.  Jesus locates Himself with the poor and exploited and dwells with them, and with the words of Isaiah challenges the status quo of empire.  His Good News is the light to the darkness of empire.  He calls for the people to repent and focus their lives on the tenets of God’s empire, rather than Rome’s.  The Kingdom has come near in Him, and God’s activity to save the people is being seen already.

So, when Jesus calls the fishermen, He calls men who have little to lose to follow Him in a new direction and vision for humanity.  The taxes imposed on them for empire’s revenue forced them to try to work as a fishing cooperative in which they shared resources in order to cut costs and bring in enough for their families, but it was no longer viable.  Fishing was on the low end of economic security to begin with, and now it was just not sustainable for a living wage.  Perhaps their leaving would mean fewer mouths to feed for the sake of their families.  Jesus calls them to leave the livelihoods that they have known all their lives and at which they can no longer make a decent living, to change the world and its values so that all can have enough and well-being.  He calls them to abandon the futility of trying to survive under empire’s unjust and exploitative system and build a new system based on the agaph of Jesus.  He calls them out, to be ekklesia (those called out from the world) to engage in Kin-dom of God work and life. 

 They did not volunteer.  They were called out to live a very different way than the normative status quo of empire.  Instead of oppressing the poor and needy, they would now be about the business of collecting and gathering them to build a new community and a new social system based on the justice of God.  They were called to change their minds and their direction so that they would leave one way in life that was divisive, desperate, and destructive, to another Way, the Way of Jesus.  It was an immediate call and it would mean sacrifice for the sake of all others around them who also suffered under the oppression of empire.  To punctuate the wholeness, completeness, and well-being (Shalom) of life under this new, sustainable Way of Life in Jesus, people were healed.  Their lives were restored to them.  They had hope.  The people who sat in darkness had a great light.  Rabbi Jesus taught it in the synagogues, this Good News of God’s Empire come and God’s Will being done on earth as in heaven.  Jesus, son of God, brought the power of God to work in the lives of those who most needed it.

 This was done in Galilea, which had a history of oppression in the Northern Kingdom, in Capernaum which had a present oppressive presence.  Lives were being changed and a movement began to transform the world in Good News.  Light instead of Darkness.  Justice instead of Oppression.  Hope instead of despair.  Community instead of scattered individuals.  Enough instead of lack.  God’s Kin-dom instead of empire.

 In our own land, occupied by those who give their devotion to empire and its values, the Good News of Jesus still applies.  Across the world as in our own land, those who are held down, back and out from having Shalom need to have some Good News applied.  Those who are the ekklesia (called out- the church) are supposed to give our devotion, our effort and energy and our lives to the living of this Good News Way of Jesus in agaph. Many still sit in darkness and need this light.  We who are called out, are chosen to give it to them.  Instead of living status quo lives under empire or participating in it in the hope of being the few elites who benefit from it, we are called out of it to share Jesus’ Way as the alternative for sustainable life.  We are called to repent, to change our minds so that our direction will change, and follow Jesus’ Way to transform the systems of the world that oppose God’s Will.  We are called to leave them all behind and establish God’s Way for us to live as children of God in this part of God’s Kin-dom, here and now.

 It is about life and life abundant.  It is about life forever.  It is all about living the agaph of Jesus as faithfulness to God.  It is about leaving the exploitation, oppression, and division behind to gather and unite and lift up the lives of God’s children, our sisters and brothers.  That is Jesus’ Way.  We who are called out, are called out to follow Jesus in establishing and living it in God’s Kin-dom, here and now.

What are we looking for?

 

John 1:29-42

 John introduced Jesus, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the SIN of the WORLD.”  Not Messiah… not King… The Lamb of God

 It conjures up Powerful Images of the Passover for any Jewish folk. It speaks of Freedom from Oppression under Pharaoh. The Torah portion this week is Shemot “names” from Exodus 1:1-6:1. It describes the horrible treatment of the slaves under Egypt’s oppression. It covers Mose’ birth… his deliverance from Pharaoh… his flight… and his return to stand up to Pharaoh and deliver God’s people from bondage, oppression.

 John’s Gospel is written under Roman occupation and oppression in their own, land… the promised land to them. The Lamb of God takes on a whole new meaning. The promise to save them dramatically by separating the faithful from those not. The promise of an end to the oppression and deliverance into freedom through justice.  Because a Lamb was sacrificed, in the 10^th plague, It meant life for some, death for others… The Lamb’s body broken and blood poured out was used to save the people.  It was eaten to offer sustenance for the journey of freedom. This was God’s activity toward the deliverance of God’s people.

  So, Jesus takes away the cost of sin, the fruit of sin… gives salvation by His Grace as the Passover Lamb whose body is broken and blood poured out for the world.

  FOR THE WORLD, not just some – the world!

 But John says, Jesus IS the “Lamb of God who takes away the SIN of the WORLD!”  It doesn’t say the “cost of sin” or “fruit of sin”, death – Jesus takes away the SIN of the World!  Sin is action that hurts or harms others.  It damages lives and relationships.  It destroys Shalom in peoples’ lives.  Jesus’ Way of agaph addresses that and restores it.

   Jesus’ Way ends human’s inhumanity to humans, if it is lived as Jesus commanded. The New Covenant – commanding LOVE OF OTHER… agaph... restores Shalom. If humanity would follow Jesus and live in Jesus’ Way, the sin of the world would be gone. An End of Oppression, Exploitation, Discrimination is what Jesus stands for, because if we live Jesus’ Way, we will not hurt or harm others out of greed, lust for power, desire for status.  We will work toward the Shalom of ALL God’s children, our sisters and brothers, knowing that until ALL have Shalom, none of us have it. In fact, we will repair the world, Tikkun Olam, to be faithful in God’s Kin-dom to God.

If that is Jesus’ Way, should that not be the Way of any who claim to follow Jesus?  Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the SIN of the WORLD! How wonderful it could be, if we would only Behold Him, if we would only "come and see" what Jesus is all about.  Because, isn't THAT what we're looking for?  

Belonging and Inclusion

 

Matthew 3:13-17

 Son of God.  Jesus is different.  A quote from Isaiah 42:1 and Psalm 2:7, used to speak of the servant of the Lord and God’s adoption of a King, brought together to emphasize the fulfillment of God’s promise through Jesus in Matthew’s Gospel, this passage draws together expectations and hopes in God’s activity in the world.  Jesus insisted on John baptizing Him in order to fulfill God’s promise as well, as John represents clearly Elijah to Jesus’ Messiahship. 

John's baptism was one of repentance.  It was of the old covenant.  Jesus' baptism is the New Covenant.  The mantle had been passed from prophet to prophet, even Messiah, according to Matthew.  So, this New Covenant means something else - the salvation of a people from empire's oppressive systems based on Greed, abuses of power and unequal status.  It means that God calls for a turn-around in the world based on agape.

Jesus belongs to God.  Jesus also belongs to humanity.  John’s baptism of repentance was leading up to this event that changes the complexion of God’s covenant with humanity.  Jesus is baptized in order to embody God’s presence, power and love for humanity.  As Jesus is baptized and belongs, all those who will be baptized belong to God and to one another.  We belong to God together.  As Jesus is child of God, so are we children of God, which makes us sisters and brothers in Christ Jesus.

If we belong to God, then we belong to the Kin-dom of God, and we live within its values.  The turn-around comes through transformation of systems because of the transformation of lives.  We are called as children of God to live the values of God's Kin-dom in this part of it, here and now.  Unjust, inequitable systems that divide, bring despair and destroy lives must go under God's Will, so that we live in alignment with God's values of life, life sustainable and abundant, and life forever.

We either belong to empire and its values or we belong to God and God's values, as we have them through Jesus in the Good News.  We are baptized in Jesus' name because we are called to follow Jesus' Way of being the children of God.  We are baptized into Jesus' death and resurrection so that we may die to the ways of empire and be raised to new life in agape by God's Grace.  We are baptized in order to be the light of God in the darkness of the world of empire.  We are baptized as a sign that we belong to God and to one another in that agape, and that we are about being the light in the darkness.

We who bear Jesus' name belong to the body of Christ, which has the mission of shedding light in a dark world by living agape in it.  We are tasked with making disciples by our examples of loving, so that others may have their lives transformed by this love and work to repair the world through the living of it, transforming its systems to reflect and spread that love to all the creation.  This is that to which we belong.  We are included in the mission to transform the world through the living of agape in it.

It is about inclusion and belonging.  It is about God declaring it.  It is about a celebration of all the Kin-dom of God when we belong to one another and to God. 

Jesus, now declared child of God, must now go out and be tempted as His sisters and brothers, other children of God are tempted.  Jesus, Son of God, must live this life with all its struggles, threats and challenges, and die this death.  We who are baptized in His name must do the same, and love as Jesus loved.  For this whole thing is about humanity knowing that it belongs to God and with God and being a part of God's transformation of the world because of it.  Ask the Ethiopian Eunuch baptized by Phillip in the wilderness.  We who may even be excluded by the Law of Moses for one or another reason, are included under Jesus’ baptism.  We belong.  Inclusion and belonging are given by God through Jesus, beginning with His baptism to change the world.