Sermon November 1, 2015 John 11:1-45

“Unbind him, and let him go.”

In considering today’s Gospel we are without a doubt in miracle territory.  Lazarus was well and truly dead.  He had been in his tomb for not one or two or three days—but four long days in a hot climate.  Martha is very clear about the condition of the body, “Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days.”  It is reminiscent of the opening line of A Christmas Carol:

Marley was dead: to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, and the chief mourner. Scrooge signed it…Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail.

Well Old Lazarus was dead as a door nail.  There was no doubt whatever about that.  And yet Jesus does the surprizing audacious thing—he raises Lazarus from the dead.  Indeed there are many surprizing things about this event.  First we have Jesus rather nonchalantly waiting to answer the request from Lazarus’ sisters, Mary and Martha, to come to Lazarus’ aid when he was ill.  He delays going to see Lazarus.  He seems to be saying, “I will delay until he is dead so I can really show everyone that the power of God is in me and I can perform the miracle and raise him”.  The next surprizing thing is that Jesus weeps.  He sees the distress that Lazarus’ death has caused Mary and Martha. When he sees it he weeps.  There are only two times recorded in the Gospel that Jesus weeps. 

This is one of them.  Did Jesus not expect that Lazarus’ death would cause Mary and Martha distress?  Jesus is able to know people so fully and here he is seemingly callous about the distress he will cause by delaying his return.  That is until he is face-to-face with Mary and Martha’s distress and he is moved and brought to tears.  Finally the great surprize is the act of raising Lazarus from the dead.  Many surprizes—indeed it all amounts to many surprizes wrapped in a puzzle inside a mystery.  All in all it is a miracle indeed.

What are we then to make of this miracle?  Do we accept it, as improbable as it is, on face value and add it to the list of miracles in the bible?  After all we are modern enlightened twenty-first century people who are supposed to believe in science and not in miracles.  What do we do with all the miracles recorded in the bible and especially all the ones that Jesus is recorded performing.  Then there is the central mystery of the Gospels—Jesus triumph of death on Easter Sunday.  The miracle of Lazarus is nothing compared that that.  Do we have to believe in the literalness of the miracles that are recorded in the bible?  Do we try and mythologize them a la Rudolph Bultmann who tried to interpret biblical events existentially?  Do try to understand them in an historical context.  Do we accept them as a matter of faith and say, well, if I don’t believe it all then I can’t believe any of it and what then would I base my faith on?

How to understand biblical miracles is a challenge for many modern Christians and it is a challenge that I have struggled with for many years as part of my faith journey.  My approach at this point in my journey is not to be concerned about the literal facts.  Did Jesus actually change the water into wine at the marriage at Cana?  If so, why did he apparently make enough for ten wedding parties? 

If Jesus drank wine why was there ever a prohibition movement?  Was it red or white and was there ever any wine like it before or since?  Did Jesus really walk on water coming out to the disciples in a boat on the Sea of Galilee?  Did Peter actually also walk on water until he lost his nerve of his faith?  More controversially, was Mary actually a virgin or was that a mistranslation of the Hebrew word for young girl? What each of us believes and how we understand these events is a matter of faith.   I do not want to try and convince you about the facts one way or the other and whether or not they happened the way they are recorded.

What is important for me is the truth that is contained in the event and not the truth of the events.  How are we to understand the truth of the message that is contained in the scripture passage?  In today’s account of Jesus raising Lazarus what can that say to us here today?

The key for me is the last statement of Jesus, “Unbind him, and let him go.”  This is exactly what Jesus is saying to each of us.  We are to unbind ourselves from the things which bind us hand and foot and prevent us from living the full life that Jesus calls us to.  There are many things which bind us and prevent us from living the life that Jesus calls us to live. 

One way of looking at the things that bind us to our present life is to think of it as sin—those things which prevent us from living fully in Jesus Christ.  We may look at other people and believe we are better than them.  We put all our attitudes that we don’t want to recognize in ourselves on others.  They are the problem and I do not have that problem. They are the ones causing trouble in our church and not anything that I am doing.  If only those people would become Christians like I am then the world would be more as God wants it to be and how Jesus calls us to follow him. 

If we are to love our neighbours as ourselves we first have to love ourselves.  If we are to do that we need to be able to acknowledge the aspects of ourselves that we don’t like and don’t want to acknowledge.  If you think of someone who really gets your goat—who really annoys you, what is it about that person that causes you to react so strongly?  Once you have identified those characteristics look at yourself.  Could it possibly be, in any way that those things are parts of you that you don’t really want to recognize?  

For me one of the most powerful examples that Jesus showed us is the case of the woman caught in adultery.  Are any of us in a position to throw the first stone?  Are any of us without sin?  I know I am not.  Although I certainly at times have an impulse to cast that stone and am willing to join in with the other stone throwers.  Of course when I feel this way I can easily feel I am justified. 

Jesus calls us to love one another and love ourselves.  We need to start by truly loving all those unloved, disowned parts of ourselves and bring them to Jesus in acts of forgiveness and reconciliation.  In that way we can start to become the people that God intends us to be.  Amen.

Let the Mystery Be

This morning I am following up on yesterday’s sermon and pondering the mystery of life.  I based my sermon (which is posted seperately) attached) on the reading from the book of Job.  It is something of a mystery why the book of Job was included in the canon of the bible as it puts God in a less than favourable light.  Job becomes the pawn in a celestial wager between God and Satan with dire consequences for Job and his family.  However, the story does have a happy ending for Job. All that Job loses is restored to him and he lives happily ever after and dies at a ripe old age of biblical proportions.

In the course of the story Job demands an audience before God and demands justice.  However, God is less than sympathetic to Job’s plight and states that God and God’s works are beyond Job’s comprehension.  Job humbles himself and admits to God that it is beyond his comprehension:

Then Job answered the Lord: “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. ‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’ Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. ‘Hear, and I will speak; I will question you, and you declare to me.’ I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; ⁶therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”     

It is hard for us human being to live in the mystery of life.  We can deny it as some people with a scientific bent try and believe that we will solve the mystery of creation.  Or, as religious people, we can try and put God in a nice box that we define and tie up with a bright bow.  However, if we are honest and humble enough, as Job was, we can try and live in the mystery of life.  In my sermon I quote Helen Luke, one of my favourite authors who is one of the great explorers of this mystery:

true mystery is the eternal paradox at the root of life itself—it is that which, instead of hiding truth, reveals the whole not the part.  So when, after having made every effort to understand, we are ready to take upon ourselves the mystery of things, then the most trivial of happenings is touched by wonder, and there may come to us by grace, a moment of unclouded vision. 

True paradox can be difficult to understand and to live with but it is in paradox that we can discover God.  I believe that we are called to let the mystery be in all its wonder and respond to God with praise and thanksgiving.  I will close with a verse from my favourite song on this mystery; Let the Mystery Be by Iris Dement:

Everybody's wonderin' what and where they all came from. Everybody's worryin' 'bout where they're gonna go when the whole thing's done.
But no one knows for certain and so it's all the same to me.
I think I'll just let the mystery be.

Sermon October 25, 2015 Job 42:1-17

The book of Job does not come up in the lectionary very often, and I don’t believe that I have ever preached a sermon based on it, so I thought I would take this opportunity to use today’s reading as a basis for my sermon.  Indeed I don’t think that Job is one of the books that is often used for sermons.  I checked my source for sermon ideas and there were no sample sermons based on today’s reading from Job.

Indeed when you look at the book of Job it is surprizing that it actually is part of the canon and was included in the bible by the church fathers.   It may not be all that familiar to many people because of this so I thought I would spend a bit of time explaining the context for today’s reading.  The story of Job opens with an idyllic scene of a perfect life.  Job is the best of men living in the best of possible circumstances.  He is a man who has a happy family.  He is rich by any measure.  He has many servants and cattle.  Above all, we are told he fears God and live a blameless life — it is almost too good to be true.  This passage when we read it leaves us with a chill for we are certain such good fortune cannot last — conflict must arise otherwise there would be little point in telling the story.  As this account of a good man is included in Holy Scripture we except that God will enter the picture to save our hero from whatever evil befalls him as in the case of Esther or Isaac when he is about to be sacrificed by his father Abraham.  However, we discover that when evil does indeed enter to disrupt Job’s idyllic life, the source is not what we expect.

The surprizing thing about the book of Job is that Job becomes a pawn in a celestial wager between God and Satan.  Now it must be understood that this was before Satan had been expelled from heaven after his revolt against God. 

He is one of the ‘heavenly beings’ who come to present themselves before God.  It is, in effect, like a royal court appearing before a king.  Satan, which appropriately means ‘the accuser’, lives up to his name and holds that Job’s fear of God and blameless life mean nothing as Job has never been put to the test.  Satan bets God that if God permits him to send troubles into his untroubled life Job will curse God.  

Satan does an exemplary job of troubling Job, killing his children, and destroying his property and still Job does not curse God.  Satan ups the ante and with God’s permission Satan attacks Job’s person ‘inflicting loathsome sores on Job from soles of his foot to the crown if his head’ — yet still Job’s faith in God holds firm.  Job is further inflicted, however, rather than Satan this time, it is with a visit from so-called friends who insist that Job’s troubles must be due to Job’s own action.  Job demands an opportunity to appear before God to seek justice.  God permits this, however God attacks Job’s impertinence in questioning God’s actions as a mere human is not in a position to question the creator of the universe.  Job wisely defers to God’s omnipotence and Job’s fortunes are restored and more.  He is blessed with possessions and children albeit not the same ones.  In addition, as a bonus, Job’s erstwhile friends are punished.  

This is where today’s reading begins.  God requires that Job’s three friends, Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite make restitution to Job for their betrayal of his friendship.  The ending is happy, at least from the author’s perspective.  All is restored or replaced that was taken away from him by the celestial wager between God and Stan.  He has thousands of sheep, camels, oxen and donkeys.  He has a new family with seven sons and three daughters.  

Unfortunately it was not so well with the Job’s original children who were killed as part of Satan’s test of faith, but apparently in that time what was important was to have children so Job’s lineage would be assured.

As you can see this book does not put God is a good light.  So the question we must ponder is why was it included as a book in the bible?  I believe there are at least two reasons.  First, there is the question of faith.  Despite everything that God has apparently put Job through, Job’s faith is not broken.  His faith in God as his Redeemer is unshakeable.  This is a lesson  which is very applicable to us today as it has been universally for people.  It is inevitable that we all are going to suffer losses in our life.  A loved one is going to die; our health is going to betray us; we are going to lose a job at a critical time.  We have the question, why do bad things happen to good people?  How do we maintain our faith in a loving God at these times?  It may have been easier in Job’s time as God was understood to be wrathful and vengeful at times ever to God’s people.  Fortunately our trials will not be as severe as Job’s but they may seem so at the time.  We fortunately have the love of God as shown in Jesus Christ.  We know that the love of God is there to sustain us even though it is sometimes hard to recognize.  

The second reason for Job is the great mystery of life.  We human beings are God’s greatest creation.   We have many gifts that God has given us; intellect, reason, questioning hearts and minds, the desire to know God and the belief that we are able to discover and discern who and what God is.  We have created science which has done much to unravel the mysteries of the universe.  Science and scientists have discovered so much of how the universe works that they are beginning to believe that they will discover everything and will be able to explain everything.  They may even imagine they have discovered what they are calling the “God particle” which they think may be the source of everything. 

However, as much they have and will eventually discover about all of God’s creation, they will reach the limits.  We human being are limited and we will never fully know God and the mind of God.  To think otherwise is hubris. 

That is what the author of Job was attempting to express.  He was facing the mystery of all.  Job was granted his audience with God and came to acknowledge that God was beyond his understanding.  Today we know much, much, more of God’s creation than people knew in the time that the author wrote his account of one man’s attempt to understand the unknowable.  As much as we know and will ever know, God will remain the ultimate mystery.  To quote Helen Luke, “true mystery is the eternal paradox at the root of life itself—it is that which, instead of hiding truth, reveals the whole not the part.  So when, after having made every effort to understand, we are ready to take upon ourselves the mystery of things, then the most trivial of happenings is touched by wonder, and there may come to us by grace, a moment of unclouded vision.”  We can have the faith that Job had and proclaim as Job did, “For I know that my Redeemer lives, and that at the last he will stand upon the earth; and after my skin has been thus destroyed, then in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see on my side, and my eyes shall behold, and not another”.  Amen

Sermon October 18, 2015 Mark 10: 35-45

Has anyone every asked you to do a favour for them?  Did they do that without telling you what the favour was?  Well if they did you realize that was a set up.  It is an open ended request that could be for anything.  You could blindly say “yes”, but it could be for something that you find you can’t do or don’t really want to do.  That is the set up that James and John try on Jesus.  You think that they would know better.  They are Jesus’ close companions.  They knew him and what great insight he had about human nature and the foibles and follies people sometimes tried on other.  After all, he had been having mental duels with the Pharisees for quite a while. So here we have James and John, trying to pull a fast one on him.  They ask Jesus, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” 

Of course we are not surprized by Jesus’ response.  He does not fall into the rather obvious trap they have set for him.  “What is it you want me to do for you?”  They go ahead and tell him what it is they want.  What they want is quite the request. They want to be seated in the place of highest honour in God’s kingdom, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.”  This does not put them in a very good light when we step back and take a look at it. 

They are thinking quite highly of themselves—not something you think of as being good disciples.  I guess they were absent for the lesson on humility.  The parallel passage in the Gospel of Matthew gives it an interesting twist.  Matthew reports the mother of James and John doing the asking.  Matthew, in his Gospel, which was written later than Mark and based much of that Gospel on Mark’s, appears to realize that James and John are not put in a positive light and try to put it on their mother.  After all, what are mothers for but to do it all for their sons. 

What we have is a misunderstanding concerning will.  James and John believe that it is their will that should be in charge.  They want, understandably, that they should be rewarded for all their faithfulness and sacrifice.  After all, they had dropped their nets and left everything to follow Jesus when he offered to make them fishers of people. They had stuck with him through thick and thin, through the hard times and the good times.  Why shouldn’t they have the place of honour in the Kingdom Jesus was proclaiming.  It is only right and just.  If not them, who else? 

Unfortunately they had forgotten one of the key lessons that Jesus tried to get through their seemingly thick heads, “Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister”.  He reiterates this lesson, albeit in Matthew’s Gospel when he teaches them to pray, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven”.  Your will be done—not theirs or ours—but God’s will.  

That is one of the greatest challenges that we face as Christians.  We need to figure out what God’s will is for us and for the world.  That is indeed sometimes hard but we can turn to Jesus as our guide and he will show us quite clearly what God’s will is.  The even harder thing is to truly put God’s will in place of ours.  We humans are will-bound and we believe that what we want should be what we get.  We want to have the place of honour in God’s kingdom and here on earth.  We can even convince ourselves that God’s will and our will are actually the same.  They can sometimes be the same but unfortunately that is not often the case. 

Our ego, which is one of the greatest gifts of God, is also one of our greatest challenges.  Each of us has an ego which wants to be in charge.  It wants to maintain the status quo.  It believes it is the centre of everything in life.  Richard Rohr notes, “The ego wants to eliminate all bothersome, humiliating, or negative information in order to "look good" at all costs. The ego wants to keep you tied to your easy and acceptable levels of knowledge.”  Ego is a Greek word that means literally “I”.  The ego wants what it wants and will try to do everything in its power to get it.  Now the ego is not all negative. 

As I said it is one of God greatest gifts to us.  Without an ego we could not be in the world.  It enables us to strive to learn; to strive for success and for things it believe will make us happy.  However, if we let the ego run us and the world, we are and will be in deep trouble.  Just look at the world.  Many of the problems in the world are due to people’s desire to be in control; people wanting power, and doing whatever they need to do, to gain it.  In our personal lives we can be self-centred and egotistical to the detriment of ourselves and others.  Think for a moment of the last time that you wanted something that you knew in your heart of hearts was not good for you or someone else; and did it anyway.  The ego must find its proper place—which is in service of God. 

The Good News in the Gospel it that James and John’s desire gave Jesus the opportunity to give us the true message of God’s will, “whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.”  This is not an easy lesson and it is not one that we will be able to undertake and accomplish without effort.  However, Jesus tells us that with God’s help it is possible.  The next time you desire something, take a moment and reflect on whether it is what God wants for you.  Stop and say the Lord’s Prayer—the prayer that Jesus taught us.  Let us do that together

News and Views October 19, 2015

Well, it’s finally here!  It seemed like it was a neverendum referendum but it was actually an election campaign—albeit the longest in modern Canadian history.  I will not talk about who you should vote for—this is not the forum for that.  However I will suggest strongly that you do vote—exercise your civic responsibility and duty to vote today if you haven’t already.  It is a true privilege to live in a country where we can vote and in which our vote will count—despite the imperfections of the first-past-the post system.  Canada was not founded through armed revolution like our good neighbours to the south and we can be assured that the voting will be done according to the rules, now that robocall scandal has been dealt with.   We can also be assured that the results of the election will be respected by our elected and appointed officials. So vote as if our future depended on it—because it does.  The greatest threat to our democracy is the indifference and apathy of the electorate who can’t be bothered to vote.

On the subject of the elected, we Christians do have a special concern regarding election.  We are the elect.  However, don’t let is go to your head.  To be the elect in this sense means to be chosen by Christ.  That may mean we are special but more to the point it means that we have a special responsibility to put God’s will ahead of other things especially our will.  We are called to put aside our selfish and egotistical desires and make a special effort to truly discern God’s will which can indeed be a challenge.  We often mistakenly conflate our will with God’s will.  We need to turn to Jesus Christ as the ultimate authority on God’s will and follow his great commandment to love one another as he loves us and to love our neighbours as we love ourselves.    I delve into this in my sermon from yesterday which is posted separately.  I hope you will find it thought provoking but before delving into it get a out and vote if you haven’t already.  Peace,
Greg

Sermon October 11, 2015

Mark 10:17-31 The Rich Young Ruler

Are any of you feeling uncomfortable hearing the Gospel this morning?  Well I must admit I am.  How many of us feel that we are rich?  We can say, “I’m not rich—the rich people are the Donald Trumps and the Bill Gates and the Warren Buffets.  They are the rich people—the billionaires.  Jesus is talking about them—I’m just comfortable.  Well I certainly am comfortable with all that I have.  I own a house and a cottage.  I own a late model car.  Indeed, a few weeks ago Lorna and I were taking about what we had and were amazed at how much we had.  Neither of us really expected to be as rich — sorry, comfortable— as we are in retirement.  I guess I should qualify that as semi-retirement while I am doing the interim.

Of course, no one here is in the same category as Bill Gates and company—at least I don’t think anyone here is.  If there is I could ask why we had trouble balancing the budget last year.  I guess we really can breathe easier and thank God that Jesus was not talking about us in today’s Gospel.  Now, some of you might be anticipating what I will say next.  All of us are comparable to the rich man in this parable—at least when we compare ourselves to what other people have in the world today.  Any of us who have a comfortable, secure life are rich—at least materially—compared to the vast majority of people in the world.  There is no way we can elude the fact that if Jesus was among us today he would be addressing us when he gives us the well-known aphorism about camels and eyes of needles. 

All that may well be true.  But to be honest we have to look a bit closer at the Gospel.  Jesus is speaking specifically to the rich man—he is sometimes called the rich young ruler.  The Gospel tells us, “²²When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions.” Jesus knew this man.  That is one of the amazing things about Jesus.  He knew people he encountered better than they knew themselves.  He knew that this man’s great sin was that he valued his wealth above all else.  He had made mammon his god. 

The question for us today is, “what or who your god is?”   Here we are getting into Ten Commandments territory.  Thou shalt have no other god before me.  Of course money can be our god as it was for the rich young man.  But of course there can be many gods (that’s with a small ‘g’) today just as there were in Jesus time.  Let’s think about what kinds of god people can have today.

There are many obvious gods in today’s culture.  We have the god of materialism.  There used to be a saying, which I haven’t heard recently (thank God) the person who dies with the most toys wins; the question is wins what?  There is the god of power and success.   We can think of the lust for power displayed by the gods of the corporate world who put profits about people and earn obscene salaries while their workers struggle to survive on minimum wages.  We have people who are more concerned about keeping up with the Jones than contributing to welfare of this country. 

It is important to consider how we do spend our resources.  I don’t believe that Jesus is telling us all to sell all that we have—but do we need to consider the poor when we consider how we spend what we do have.  Are we going to spend what we do on luxuries or even non-necessities? 

Are we going to put some of our non-essential resources into helping others?  Right now the world is facing a refugee crisis of monumental proportions.  Can we decide to give some of the excess resources we have to meet the need of refugees?  We may not be called to sell all our possessions.  However, we are called to see the face of Christ in those refugees many of whom are dying in attempts to escape death in their own country. 

Unfortunately there are many people who don’t believe there is a responsibility to share what they have with others.  For many years I have been a follower of a column in the Saturday Globe and Mail; the Financial Facelift.  This column takes a look people’s financial situation—there assets and liabilities and how they spend their money and recommend what changes they should make to reach their goals—often it is having a secure retirement or owning a house or enough money to live comfortably.  I have been saddened by the small amount that people often give to charity in their spending.  These are usually people who are relatively well off—comfortably middle class.  Sometimes they are in poor financial shape—usually because their spending is in excess of their income—sometimes radically.  However, their spending often doesn’t include much in charitable donations.   There was one column recently that illustrates this.  A letter to the editor commented on it which I will quote from:

Last Saturday’s couple in their 50’s with total assets of $2.5 million took the prize for self-indulgence.  Buried among the expenditures of a net monthly income $13,975 were vacation spending ($500), discretionary ($1,131), dining, drinks and entertainment ($775) and charity ($10).  What? Did they buy some Girl Guide cookies?

I could say that this couple was the modern equivalent of the rich man in the parable.  However, I do not think they are concerned about the kingdom of Heaven or salvation.  If they do they have a strange idea of it.  This of course is, thank God, not the only response by Canadians today.  There are many Canadians who respond generously.  However, this has become, I believe, less common than it used to be.

Today we are celebrating Thanksgiving.  We in Canada have so much to be thankful for.  We live in a Country that has the resources to easily accept many refugees.  We have a country that was not founded in revolution and continues to operate under the rule of law.  Canada and Canadians have been blessed by plenteous natural resources—even though they are not as valuable as they were a short while ago they still have given us great wealth and continue to do so.  We are a country that has a wonderful education system and universal health care.   We have a country where people—regardless of their faith can worship without fear.  We live in a country where we can give back part of what we have received without it causing us real sacrifice.  We can give back to God part of what God has blessed us with. 

What can we do then?  Collectively we could consider sponsoring a refugee— St. John’s and St. Ann’s could sponsor a refugee family.  We can also encourage our government to live up to its responsibility to sponsor more refugees.  Canada is the equivalent of the rich young man in the Gospel.  Again I don’t believe Canada is called to sell all it has to give to the poor.  Canada is called to do its part as a nation of Christians and Jews and Muslims and atheists.  We all have responsibility collectively and individually.  I am the rich young ruler; you are the rich young ruler; Canada is the rich young ruler.  How are we going to respond to Jesus’ command?  When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions.”  Are we going to walk away or are we going to respond as Jesus commands us?  Amen. 

Sermon September 27, 2015: 17th Sunday after Trinity

Some years ago I learned an approach to understanding the Gospel.  There are actually three rules to this approach.  The first of the rules is, ‘the Gospel is always astonishing’. The second rule is ‘The Gospel is not fair’. Finally, ‘in the Gospel, God always acts first’. 

Now I must admit that I don’t always use these rules.  However, I have found that when I do they can be helpful in trying to figure out what the Gospel is saying to me in the current moment.  I thought of this approach when I read today’s Gospel.  Specifically, I was surprized/astonished when I read that Jesus went to the house of the chief Pharisee.  Now, if I had been asked I would have said that this is the last place that I would expect Jesus to be.  It is like Daniel going into the lions’ den voluntarily.  Jesus was never reluctant to criticise the Pharisees and hold them to account for their approach to religion and their seemingly making a god of the law e.g. the Sabbath is made for man and not man for the Sabbath.  

Here we have the Gospel with Jesus breaking bread at the chief Pharisee’s house.  We might have thought that perhaps the fence—or should I say chasm—that separated the Pharisees from Jesus might have been mended and bridged. 

But we are disabused from that possibility almost immediately.  We are told, “that they watched him.”  In effect they had invited Jesus to dinner to do what they always seemed to do; try and catch him in some faux pas of religious law so that they could condemn him and his message.  That, of course, in itself is a breaking of the rules of hospitality.  That is not what a host should do.  The host should welcome a guest and put him or her in the place of honour. 

The drama unfolds and we have what seems to be a set-up by the host.  There is a man among them who has dropsy.  Now I wasn’t actually sure what dropsy is.  I looked it up on the source of all knowledge—I Googled it and found out.  It is the old term for Oedema which is an observable swelling caused by accumulation of fluid in the bodily tissue.  So it seems that this man—who had a condition that Jesus couldn’t miss—was invited there to be bait to trap Jesus in a blasphemy.  They probably thought that Jesus might be moved by his condition and heal him.  And as we are told it is the Sabbath and therefore he would have performed work on the Sabbath and broken the Holiness code.

However, Jesus is no fool (except perhaps for Christ). He beats them to the punch-line so to speak.  He asks the assembled religious leaders and lawyers, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath day?”  They know that they have been caught in the trap they set for Jesus so they do the only thing they can and say nothing.  He goes ahead and heals the man.  He doesn’t however stop there.  He uses the opportunity to show them what they should know as religious leaders.  He shows them that the law does allow work to be done if it is for compassionate reasons.  They would rescue an animal that was in need of saving.  Would not God expect the same for His people? 

He then gives them the final lesson—the icing on the spiritual cake so to speak.  He gives them a lesson in true hospitality and shows them what the spirit of the law is.  He shows them that the first shall be last and the last shall be first.  They are not to hold that they are the important ones.  They are to humble themselves. They are to be poor in spirit as Jesus will later tell us in Beatitudes.  Then they will be blessed. 

  

Where does this leave us?  Do we then have to remember to show true hospitality to other?  That sounds fairly easy doesn’t it?  If we invite someone to dinner we should not do it for nefarious reasons.  All well and good.  However, with Jesus I don’t think we get off that easy.  Jesus is calling us to true humility in all aspects of life.  It is like the Pharisee who is beside the tax collector praying “Thank God I am not like the tax collector”.  We are like that when we hold ourselves to deserve the best seat at the table in all aspect of life we are not humbling ourselves as we are called to do by Jesus. 

When we engage with someone what kind of an internal conversation do we have?  Do we compare ourselves to the other person and see where we are better or not as good as that person?  Do we put that person in a category of worthy of our friendship or even our attention?  We consider if this person is worth our while.  What do we think about those who are struggling? Do we categorize them as the worthy poor who should get our help or even the help of government?  So we think that refugees don’t deserve our help because they are probably terrorist anyway.  Jesus didn’t worry about the worthiness of the man with dropsy—he healed him. 

Admittedly it is hard to overcome what seems to be our natural inclination to judge others. However, Jesus also said judge not lest you be judged.  It is hard not to judge and in some cases we need to judge; is something positive of negative; is someone acting for the benefit of others or out of selfishness?  But when we judge we are called to see the child that God has created in each person we meet.  We are called to see Jesus’ face in the face of the homeless person and the neighbour we don’t get along with.  We are called to love one another as Jesus loves us.  It doesn’t seem easy but we are called to travel that road.  It is a journey we were called to take at our baptism and it is one that continues all our life.  Amen.