On whose side are we?

 

Matthew 10:40-42

 Welcoming is the Kingdom of God.  God’s people are commanded to take care of resident aliens in their land, remembering their time wandering and their time in slavery before that.  The Law of Moses was very clear about welcoming them into their communities and taking care of their needs. 

 Jesus represents God and humanity.  To welcome Jesus is to welcome God.  Jesus’ disciples are an extension of their Rabbi.  Jesus sent them out and they represented Jesus, who represented God.  As with the prophets and the righteous before, welcoming them was expected, because those who bore their names represented them. 

 Jesus, as always, took it a step further – anyone who gave a cup of cold water to a child in the name of a disciple, is doing so as a representative of Jesus and a representative of God.  To do so is likened to faithfulness.

Last week’s lesson, as Jesus was sending them out, clarified that His disciples represented Him and that those who received them or did not receive them were welcoming Him or rejecting Him.  Jesus takes this very personally in Matthew.

 But isn’t that how loving works?  Are we not natural advocates for those we love?  If you have a loved one who is being hurt because of their race, ethnicity, class, sexuality, country of origin or gender, do you not take that personally because you love them?  Jesus takes it personally, too.  Jesus, who loves them, takes it as an attack on one of His own.  This is the Jesus of the Gospel of Matthew, who just verses before in this teaching mentioned Sodom in the context of punishing those who were inhospitable to His disciples when they came to them, as the people were inhospitable to the angels who visited Sodom.  This is the Jesus who shares His vision of the judgment with the sole criterion of how we treat “the least of these,” His sisters and brothers.  Jesus takes this very personally.

 On the other hand, if you are kind and provide someone with something they need, are you not also doing so for others who love them?  And, if you are kind and actively commit to the well-being of anyone in need, are you not representing the Lord of agaph?  Jesus takes that personally, too.  This is Matthew’s Jesus who did not let His disciples off the hook for feeding the five thousand, but commanded, “You give them something to eat,” because He had compassion on the crowd.  It is about committed action on behalf of the other.  It is about agaph.

 This committed action on behalf of the other does not require good feelings.  It is not about feelings.  It is intended for even stranger and enemy, and especially the most vulnerable among us.  This Love is intended to provide all with completeness, wholeness, well-being that bring peace (Shalom, eirhnh).  If that is done for all people, then all people will live well.  That is God’s will, that no longer would hatred, injustice, corruption and selfishness create pain in the lives of God’s children.  It is God’s Will that we should treat one another as we would like to be treated, according to this Gospel.  It is God’s Will that we should care for “the least of these,” according to this Gospel.

 Why?  Because our living of this Love means that we are in alignment with God’s Will, so that God’s Will shall be done, “on earth as in heaven.”  It means that all of God’s beloved shall have Shalom.  Until now, that has never been the case.  There are many who God loves who do not have Shalom in their lives.  God loves them.  Other people are doing what they do to hurt these people who are loved by God.  Systems have been set up to hurt these people who are loved by God.  So, when we treat them shamefully, we are treating Jesus shamefully and the Father who sent Jesus.  When we treat them shamefully, we are at enmity with God who loves them.  This is also our own salvation, in that we do not harm another of God’s children, according to Jesus in Matthew.  When we help them in this part of God’s Kingdom, here and now, we are doing that for Jesus, according to this Gospel, both here and later in Jesus’ vision of His judgement of the world.

 Whose side are we on?  What do our principles, philosophies, politics, economics ideologies, words and behaviors say about us and whether we are in alignment with Jesus’ Kingdom values or not?  Are we on the side of those who set up systems to hold some of God’s beloved children down, back and out?  Are we on the side of those who judge others who are different from them?  Are we on the side of those who refuse help to those in need or exploit others for all we can get out of them, at their expense?  Or, are we on the side of Jesus, God’s Grace and agaph, building communities on equality, the equitable treatment of all and kindness?

Jesus says, “truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.”

 

If we knew what we were getting into, would we do it?

 

Matthew 10:24-39

 Jesus was sending them out and had to make some things clear.  The disciples were not Him.  They were like Him and that was good enough.  He sent them out warning them that some would say that they are of the devil because they said He was of the devil.  He sent them out instructing them to keep real power and value in front of them, and not to fear those who did not have real life or death power over them.  Jesus reassured them that they are precious to God, though I have always thought that being told one is worth many sparrows may not be a compliment.  They are beloved children of the creation and God loves God’s creation.

 Jesus then launched into a message about loyalty to the mission and His Way.  They needed to have their priorities straight and not back down when it got dicey.  They needed not to deny Him when it got hard for them with others.  It was a tough love message.

 Jesus then offered a hyperbolic message on how His Word and His Way would divide the world, even families.  They should not be surprised when His Way puts them at enmity with others who are close to them, because it confronts the hateful, greedy, power hungry and arrogant ways that had become normative under empire.  Jesus’ Way of Agape Love flew in the face of empire’s ways, and people who had come to adopt empire’s normative ways as their own would defend it, even against their own family members, thus ruining their family holidays.

 Jesus, again full of hyperbole in order to underscore how important steadfastness to His Way is, gave a strong and difficult teaching on how much love it will take for them, even to comparing the level of that love to the hatred of any other loves.  Jesus pointed out that it was about going to the cross.  It is about knowing the one we serve and keeping the priority of that service in front of us.  It is about self-denial for the sake of all of God’s children in a world that teaches predatory practices for the sake of individuals getting all they can at the expense of others.  It is about valuing, not great prosperity for some, but enough for all so that all may have Shalom.  It is about living a different life, in the face of empire, that resists and challenges empire and empire’s values in every aspect of life together.   

 Finally, Jesus told them that if they find a life apart from His Way, a self-serving life at the expense of others, they will lose their life with God, and if they lose the life that empire has offered, along with its values, for His sake they will find their life with God. 

 Jesus was preparing them for the conflicts in the real world between living God’s Kingdom Values and Empire’s values in the world.  They had to go knowing what was at stake, what was at risk and what they were likely to face.  They had to go knowing what faithfulness to Jesus is and being willing to count the cost and pay the price of following Him and His Way in the world.  They had to go and build a better world for God's children by living the Agape Love that Jesus commanded them to live.  A lot was hanging on this for the people of God.  His disciples needed to know just how important it was.

 We need to know how important it is today.  The world suffers under empire still, and we must understand that we are followers of the one whose way may repair the world.  We must understand that of which we should be afraid, and understand that we can face it.  We must understand what our loyalty to Jesus’ Way will mean if we persevere and persist in living it, and we must know at what cost that may happen.  If we gain the life apart from Jesus that gives us everything we want at the expense of other children of God, we will lose our life in Christ Jesus.  If we lose that way of life for Jesus’ sake and the sake of God’s children, then we will know real, sustainable life for all people.

 Just so you know what you’re getting into as a follower of Jesus.

Go, with God.

 

Matthew 9:35 – 10:23

 Under empire, the people were occupied and oppressed.  That is the context of the Gospels.  Rome was especially vicious and brutal in their tactics, relentless in taking all that people had for the sake of their elites and to further their military might and everything was based on one’s status over others.  Nothing was done for another without some quid pro quo arrangement.

 Jesus brought Good News into this dire situation that had already lasted for way too long (from 63 BCE), and would last for another three centuries (to 313 CE).  Under empire, the people were exploited, victimized and de-humanized.  Jesus’ Good News proclaimed their value in the Kingdom of God, called them to resist the ways of empire in how they lived and treated one another, and commanded them to live selfless agaph in order to restore lives that were being destroyed under empire. 

 That Good News of Jesus addresses empire still today.  The Greed, lust for Power over others and desire for Status above others that marked empires in the ancient world, still mark empire in the modern one.  The hatred that comes from dividing people economically, racially, educationally, socially and spiritually is the same. 

 Our own version started long ago, but was intentionally birthed with the Desolating Sacrilege of the Political right-wing getting in bed with the Religious right-wing in America.  In 1981, Reagan and Falwell intentionally launched a period of normalized empire values that have grown and flourished to bring us to a devastating place in our own land.  From that union, the level of political corruption perpetrated by those on the radical political “right” and the level of collusion and cooperation by those on the radical religious “right” have reversed any progress made as a nation toward a better Democracy, a healthier economy for all, a sustainable environment and the possibilities for well-being for large segments of our people, God’s people here.

 American Civil Religion, in which an exclusive love for nation is claimed not only by Christian nationalists, but projected also onto Jesus, was born.  The equation of love for God and THIS country has warped the minds and hearts of many Christians in America.  False Theologies around Prosperity, Church Growth, Personal Salvation and extensions of false beliefs stemming from the Doctrine of Discovery and Manifest Destiny have fueled divisions and the exploitation, abuse and de-humanization of many in our nation and across the world.  Racism, Homophobia and Religious bigotry are expressions natural to that descent into false teachings. 

 In more recent years, the rise in White Christian Nationalism has been an extension of this as well, fueled by the emboldened fascist bigots who have had their false victimization narrative legitimized by politicians on the “right.”  Because of this, civil rights laws, the acceptance of equal rights for minority peoples of color, sexuality, religion and ideology have been wiped out and replaced with intolerant behaviors, words, actions and laws across the country and around the world.

 In order for this to happen, some people have had to re-create Jesus in their own hateful, ignorant image.  The Jesus of the Gospels is hardly recognizable.  Churches and pastors have twisted the Gospel or ignored it all together in order to create this cult of true believers in the idolatry of America.  Much of the Christian church has been assimilated into this idolatry.  They had “itching ears” to hear what they wanted to hear, that their greed, lust for power over others, desire for status above others and hatreds are justified.  They have been “blown about by every wind of doctrine,” except the Good News of Jesus, landing on what has promoted their destruction of others’ lives.  There are some who are faithful to the Way of Jesus, but many who have not been indoctrinated into America’s idolatry have left the church altogether because of the ignorant, hateful things they see and hear coming out of it. 

These are the ones to whom Jesus referred as “sheep without a shepherd.”  Jesus had compassion on them in His time of life under empire, and we who follow Jesus must have compassion on them now.  They are still “harassed and helpless.”   The harvest is plentiful because so many have either wandered to their false gods or have walked away from the real Jesus and His Way for the world.  The laborers are few because people are struggling to even see the real Good News of agaph apart from empire, and when they do, they are harassed and beaten down by the idolators around them for following Jesus’ Way.

 It is this environment that, again like in the First Century CE, we are sent out “as sheep among wolves.”  We who follow the Way of Jesus in the world and resist the ways of empire, are sent to address empire with Jesus’ Good News and restore the lives of those who have been demoralized by empire.  We are called to call out the false teachings and teachers with their embedded theologies of personal salvation, prosperity and church growth and/or American Civil Religion/White Christian Nationalism.  We are called to speak truth to the powers and principalities that again have taken control over God’s children and have destroyed their lives.  We are called out (ekklesia) to live differently from empire, the Way of Jesus’ agaph, and thus transform the world by transforming lives, communities and the church.

 In order to do that, we must “be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.”  We must understand the dynamics of empire and how it works, resist it in very wise and impactful ways.  We also must make our motives pure, so that we do not do what we do in order to be the ones on top in a system that is corrupt, oppressive and unsustainable for the world, but rather to change the whole system – politically, economically, socially and spiritually in order to be in alignment with God’s Kingdom values as we have those in the Good News of agaph in Jesus.  We must live selflessly, generously, equally with others and create the beloved community in which all are treated with equity and value in love. 

 We will be persecuted, betrayed and hated, but we must persist.  We must endure to the end.  This must be our Way of life, the Way of Jesus.  We must put it out there in the world, in the face of the purveyors of empire and in the lives of those who have suffered under it.  We must be diligent in our resistance to it and continue to live the Good News of agaph until the Son of Humanity comes.

 If we do not do this, then we are among the “sheep without a shepherd,” because we have refused to follow Jesus.  Go, with God.

What does God desire of us?

 Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26

 Jesus included a Tax Collector, someone hated by the people because the tax collectors were most often Israelites who worked for the Romans, and who routinely charged more than due and took the difference for themselves.

 Jesus sat and ate with people who were known to be “sinners.”  This defined by the Pharisees of Jesus’ time could have meant any number of folks who committed real or imaginary sins and were looked upon with disdain by the public.

 When the Pharisees criticized Jesus for associating with these marginalized folk, Jesus addressed them with a quote from Hosea 6:6, the context of which was God’s desire for covenantal loyalty, but willingness only to temporarily punish the people because of God’s HESED (steadfast love).  “I desire mercy (eleos here substituted for Hesed – steadfast love) and not qusian (sin offering or sacrifice).

 Jesus then showed mercy to a synagogue leader by raising his daughter, and compassionate mercy on a woman considered unclean by the Law of Moses for many years.  Jesus included in His presence and in His agaph and Grace those who were often excluded by those who claimed to be faithful people of God.

 In this same Gospel (12:7), in the context of the Pharisees criticizing Jesus’ disciples for picking grain on the Sabbath because they were hungry and thus breaking Sabbath laws, Jesus utters the same quote as witnessed.  He referred to those accused by the Pharisees as “guiltless.”

 God desires less punitive treatment of people for every “sin,” and instead wants us to treat one another with mercy, compassion, clemency or even pity.  Why?  Because associating with the marginalized and getting food when hungry are not sins against God or against Neighbor.  No one is betrayed or hurt by this.  And there is another reason – God is merciful with us, abounding in Hesed.  We, as recipients of this Grace are commanded to share the same with one another and not pretend ourselves to be righteous so that we can foster a false sense of superiority in order to hurt others.  That is never justified behavior under the Law of Grace and agaph.

 We are either people of Grace, as both beneficiaries and benefactors of it, or we are not.  We cannot receive Grace, then refuse it to others and hope to be right with the God of Grace.  We are either people of agaph, as both recipients and actors of it, or we are not.  We cannot receive agaph, then refuse to live it with others and hope to be right with the God of agaph.

 The Pharisees believed themselves to be self-righteous and therefore above the need for Grace.  They had no value for it or the agaph Way of Jesus.  Jesus offered them lesson after lesson on how the Kingdom of God is centered on the living of agaph and Grace, but they could not develop a value for it, and certainly could not bring themselves to live it in the world.

 It is all about love.  It is all about valuing human beings equally.  It is all about putting the children of God above laws, pieties, protocols or judgment.  It is about putting our value for people above personal profit, power or prestige.

 Jesus, who found value in tax collectors and sinners, foreigners, non-Jews, women, eunuchs, Centurions and even corrupt religious leaders and rich people, gave Kingdom lessons, healing and inclusion to all of them.  This Jesus called out those who judged others out of a false sense of self-righteousness, but did it out of love for them so that they might repent (metanoia- change their thinking so that their behaviors, words and actions might change), and be right with God.

 We who follow Jesus might be more concerned about being faithful in love for God and Neighbor than we are about appearing to be holy, pure, or righteous.  We might be more concerned about Hesed, mercy, compassion, empathy and kindness, rather than punitive treatment of others to make ourselves feel and appear to be better than them.  The living of agaph and Grace with those who are no better or worse than ourselves is faithfulness to God.

 As God is steadfast in love for us, so we are commanded to be with one another.  As God includes those who are exploited, marginalized, excluded, disenfranchised and hated in the world, so are we commanded to include them out of agaph and Grace. 

Our Mission is Clear

 

Matthew 28:16-20

 “As you are going…”

    As they were out there living their lives under empire, their mission was going into the world in a different way.  They had learned about the Kingdom of God, God’s Will and how it was fulfilled in Jesus’ Way of agaph. Their lives were changed by it.  They changed the lives of others through healing and sharing Good News.  Now, Jesus was sending them out into the world of empire to continue to shed the light of the Kingdom of God on it, expose it for the evil it is and lead people to live differently in resistance to it. 

 “Disciple all nations…”

   As Jesus had called them, taught them, commanded them, guided them, lived with them and loved them, so they are to disciple all people.  As they followed Jesus, so others were to come to follow, not them, but Jesus.  As they were transformed by the Good News of agaph, so they were now given the imperative to bring other student followers who would learn the way of the Kingdom, Jesus’ Way, and transform the world through the living of that love. 

 “Baptizing…”

  Including.  It is about inclusion.  They were to include others, people of all nations, diverse peoples into the body of Christ.  They were not to discriminate or exclude.  Baptism is about inclusion and belonging, not just to Christ Jesus, but also to one another.  It is inclusion into a movement of agaph addressing the darkness of empire with its light, and about transforming the world to see that Jesus’ Way is God’s Way, a better and more sustainable way for all people to live, belonging to one another and thus, as a body to God.  There is no message about individualism here, personal salvation or “me and Jesus.”  It is about inclusion and belonging in the body of Christ together, regardless of differences.

 “Teaching…”

   By example.  They were taught by Jesus.  Jesus used teaching statements while addressing the evils of empire before them.  Jesus used imperatives to command that they do or not do, according to the Law of Love.  Jesus used parables to teach about how the Kingdom is different from empire.  Jesus taught by example as He modeled the agaph of which He spoke and which was at the center of His message.  Jesus acted.  Jesus did not just sit and talk or offer thoughts and prayers alone.  Jesus addressed the evils all around and acted to counter the devastating effects of those evils, while teaching people how to live differently and be there for one another, resist empire and usher in the Kingdom of God. 

 “obey/recognize…”

  Imperatives were given.  They were commanded.  Do not judge.  Forgive.  Love God and Love Neighbor.  Give them something to eat.  Heal them, share the Good News with them.  Do not live as the purveyors of empire live or adopt their values.  Do not imitate those in power, with wealth or those with great status.  Be humble, give of yourself to others and share power so that all have agency in their lives. 

 “everything that I have commanded you…”

  All authority had been given to Him, so Jesus OWNED the commandments.  His fulfillment of Deuteronomy 6 and Leviticus 19 took on very active, direct applications in repairing the world of empire to be reflective of the Kingdom of God.  Jesus made agaph THE COMMANDMENT.  We are to actively commit our words and actions to the well-being, completeness and wholeness of the other, even stranger and enemy, and especially the most vulnerable among us. 

 This is OUR mission in the world.  Empire still exists, in America.  People are still suffering under it.  The Good News of Jesus is living Word because it addresses this.  It is relevant because it offers Jesus’ Way of Life as an alternative to the way of empire, which leads to destruction and death.

 As YOU are going along in life, teach by example the Way of Jesus in the living of agaph, including everyone without judgment, and making sure they know they belong to Christ within the Body.  Recognize and obey what Jesus taught, commanded and modeled as examples of agaph, everything that Jesus commanded as we have witness in the Gospels.  

And remember, Jesus is WITH US to the end of the age.  That is meant to represent both comfort and accountability to us.