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.

What's in a name?

 

Luke 2:15-21

 Yeshua, Jesus (ihsous) in Greek, is Salvation for us, what His name means in Hebrew. 

 According to Hoyle and Levitical Law, Jesus was circumcised.  He is called Rabbi.  He is Jewish to the day that He dies.  But His way of being Jewish is different from the traditional way.  His mission is to be salvation for all people.  He is Messiah.

 And it is the night shift of shepherds who get the announcement, like lowly Elizabeth and Mary before, and like ordinary Joseph.  Jesus is born in human form with a very huge mission for humanity.  Jesus comes into our existence to give us HIS existence.

 Philippians is beautiful in telling us that Jesus left His glory to give us hope.

Jesus lowered Himself to our level and even died our death to give us HIS Glory.

Jesus reached into our lives to give us life, life abundant and life forever.

 And we are called, even commanded to have that same mind in ourselves that was in Christ Jesus.

We are called and commanded to live that same agaph with one another, in emptying ourselves for the sake of the other, in order that all might be elevated.

 We are given child-ship, according to Galatians, even made heirs of the promise because of Jesus and His love.

We are important enough for God to reach into these lowly, mundane lives to elevate us to that child-ship.

 I believe that all of any faithful following of Jesus is in the living of agaph in the world.

I believe that any hope that we have in this world is in the living of that love to transform the world in it.

I believe that when we live that love as Jesus lived it in the world, we will see the repair of the world.

I believe that when we submit our wills to Jesus’ Will, we will know sustainable life.

I believe that when we live our lives in Jesus’ Way of agaph, we will know the beloved community and the peaceable Kingdom of God.

I believe with all my heart that this is possible, if those who claim Jesus’ name would only live as Jesus taught,commanded and modeled for us to live, as we have witness in the Gospels.

I believe with all my heart that Tikkun Olam, world repair, can happen if we show others a better way, Jesus’ Way of living in the world together.

And when the church sees itself as the movement of agaph in the world, instead of an institution to be served and preserved in the world, then it will be realized.

When the church sees its mission as the discipling in agaph of all in the world, rather than the indoctrination of people into OUR WAY of identifying with Jesus, we will see the Glory of God.

When the church sees beyond itself to the living of agaph in order to transform individuals, societies and the world, then we will now Justice and we will know Peace, because we will truly know Jesus.

When the church gets its nose out of “personal salvation” and “prosperity” and “growth in numbers, wealth and power”, and follows Jesus’ Way, we will find our faithfulness in having the same mind in ourselves as our Lord did in sacrificing for the sake of humanity.

Jesus’ name, Yeshua, means SALVATION – the salvation of the world, not only for eternal life, but for life here and now, in this part of God’s Kingdom.

Jesus’ name means saving the world and its hope for life here and now, out of the living of agaph.

The Word

 

John 1:1-14

 What is the essence of God being with us?  Is it not that God is with us in heart and mind, being and substance?  Is it not that God is with us regardless of our differences from God and differences with God?  Is it not that God is with us by choice, out of Love, to be the Grace that we need and show us the truth of life?

 Is the logos not life?  Is it not agaph?  Is the Word Grace?  Yes, and more.  The Word is the force of life that courses through our veins and the universe, connecting all lives with one life.  The Word is the light that shines in and through all people to counter the darkness of lies in truth.  The Word overcomes falsehood, destruction, despair and death.  The Word overcomes the world and its ways that are lived out of the falsehoods of empire that lead to destruction, despair and death.  The Word endures in the universe and in these lives to enlighten everyone.  The Word is life, life abundant and life forever.

 The Word is the Word, whether received or not, acknowledged or not, accepted or not, known or not.  It is, nonetheless, the Word, and it gives the power of those who live within it to be children of God, born of Spirit and happening to live in flesh.

 The Word became flesh for a time to dwell among us and identify with us, so that we could identify with the Word in the world, address the world with the Word and transform the world through the Word.  The Word became flesh and dwelt among us to give us example of how to live within God in the world, applying the perfect love originated by God to the world, and thus transforming the world.  The Word became flesh so that we, the flesh, might become Word in the world – Love in the world, Grace in the world, Truth in the world and Life in the world.  As the Word made flesh is full of Grace and Truth, so are we who know, love and follow the Word to be Grace and Truth, and thus the flesh made Word in the world.

 So, the essence of God being with us, is the essence of us being with God – in how we live and move and have our being within God, in how we live as flesh made Word, knowing that the Kingdom of God is within and among us.  Jesus’ prayer in this same Gospel is that we would be one as He and the Father are one, in them as one.  The Word, who was with God and is God, desires to be one with us.  Transcend and Transform my sisters and brothers.  Transcend the values of this world in empire and embrace the values of the Kingdom of God.  Transform a world that is full of the darkness created by empire with Love, perfect Agape Love, so that we may live within God and know life, life abundant and life forever.  Transcend the ways of darkness and lies, the ways of destruction and despair and death.  Transform into sustainable light and life in joy and peace and hope.  Transcendence and Transformation only come through the Word – the Power of Agape Love.

 Be people of the Word made flesh.  Be the flesh made Word in the world.  The logos is agaph.

God is with us in this Mess

 

Matthew 1:18-25 on Advent III

 Matthew’s Gospel emphasizes that Jesus was of the line of David, the son of Mary but not of Joseph.  He was of the Holy Spirit of God.  Stressing that Mary was engaged to Joseph but had not lived with him, she was in trouble.

 Was Joseph contemplating her dismissal for her sake?  She would be found with a child and no husband, which could have put her in danger of the extremes of the Law of Moses if Joseph did not claim her.    Again, perhaps it was his own reputation that he was afraid of if he stayed with her.  But the Angel intervened on her behalf. 

 Isaiah’s prophecy would be fulfilled in Jesus, according to Matthew.  This young maiden did conceive and bore a son.  He would represent God being with humanity.  They named him Yeshua.

 Scandal.  Matthew claims the right lineage, the right pedigree, impregnation by the Holy Spirit of God and the right purpose for it all.  But everyone knows what a scandal it must have been for this young girl.  She had no options in her world, and her pregnancy could have meant marginalization or worse.  Joseph was not sure that he wanted to endure the scandal.  Mary had no choice.  Joseph was prompted to do the right thing by a messenger of God.  Jesus is born in scandal on earth.

 Jesus is born of woman, as any human child is born.  As current prophets have said, Jesus was born “between feces and urine” in blood, pain, and fear.  He was born in scandal and poverty.  He was born in a stable and laid in a feeding trough for animals.

 It seems like a strange way for God to come to be with us, or is it?  God comes to identify with “the least,” to minister to them and give them Good News.  Jesus comes as one of us to identify with us, so that we can identify with Him.  He comes to take on our frailty, lack and even scandal.  Jesus identifies with the imperfect and the most vulnerable among us.  Jesus is us.  Jesus was intimate with humanity.  Our plight is personal to Jesus.  As we do to “the least of these,” we do to Jesus. 

 He was born in scandal and died in scandal.  He took on the dirt and grime, the homelessness and poverty, the marginalization and scandal, and lived subject to the injustice and inhumanity of the world.  He was lynched for daring to question the powers that be and the values of empire. 

 Hey, if God is with us, God is with us in it all.  So, whenever we ask about where God is when we suffer the worst of what the world has to offer us, we must see that God is with us.  Jesus did not shy away from experiencing the worst of the world.  Jesus did not avoid its worst pain, even its death.  Jesus is with us and has been since his other-than majestic and serene birth in a stable.  God is with us in it all.

 I know this picture is not the beautiful, peaceful, and pristine picture painted by so many over the centuries, but neither is the life that Jesus willingly took on in order to identify with us in this world.  It is real.

 The fear in scandal of an unwed mother, the inability to pay for a room and the very human birth in a stable are not suitable circumstances around the birth of the Messiah of the line of David or Abraham.  But God is with us, as we are, and in that is Grace and Love, perfect love.

 Be with one another as an expression of such Grace and Love, unconditional and perfect love.  It will be messy and dirty, but God is in it.