20 Pentecost Proper C, October 27, 2019
Jeremiah 14:7-10,19-22 Psalm 84:1-6
2 Timothy 4:6-8,16-18 Luke 18:9-14
Lectionary Link
The Gospel of Luke includes much about how those who were apparently unlikely people, become the favored selected and chosen ones for events of grace and salvation.
The Gospel of Luke was written for communities of the Risen Christ decades after Jesus lived. They were communities which practiced the Christian mission to the wide spectrum of people in the Roman Empire. So, how did the Christian mission become the community of so many who would have formerly been known as unlikely?
The writer of Luke's Gospel wanted to trace this mission to all unlikely people, back to Jesus. So his writing told of the stories of how Jesus made the unlikely people, the outsider and the forgotten, the chosen and favored people of a graceful encounter with Jesus.
Who were the most likely favored people during the time of Jesus? It would have been the Jews and their religious leaders. The likely people of favor would have been those who observed and followed the rules of the various religious leaders of the chief religious sects of Judasim, the Pharisees and the Sadducees. The religious leaders would have been honored people of authority like rabbis, scribes, lawyers and priests of the Temple. Rich people were likely people of favor because their wealth was assumed to be evidence of God's blessing.
Who were the unlikely people of favor during the time of Jesus? Women, children, tax-collectors or publicans who were non-observant Jews who collected taxes for the Roman Emperor, centurions and Roman soldiers, Samaritans, fishermen, and all manner of people who fit the purity code categories of being defiled or unclean because they had a sickness. People who had unclean spirits; people with leprosy, blind people, deaf people, people with withering hands, and people who could not walk and people who followed the radical prophet John the Baptist. And Luke presented that Jesus was really concerned about poor people.
What had happened between the time that Jesus of Nazareth walked on this earth and the time five decades or so later when the writings of Luke Gospel came to their textual form?
The Jesus Movement had moved out of Jerusalem and Israel. It had spread to the cities throughout the Roman Empire. The Jesus Movement had attracted people from diverse backgrounds; it had moved way beyond the synagogue communities.
So how do you tell the story of what you have become in Christian community and practice? The Gospel of Luke proclaimed that the churches of the cities of the Roman Empire became diverse communities because of Jesus of Nazareth. "We've become a diverse community of "unlikely" people because Jesus brought unlikely people to the experience of God's grace.
How do you tell the story of Jesus of Nazareth knowing what the Jesus Movement had become in the five decades after his life?
If the Jesus Movement was so inclusive, then it was inclusive because Jesus must have been inclusive. So when the story of Jesus was told, it must be told to show how he included all of the unlikely people of people of valid faith of his time.
Jesus was presented as hanging out with and inviting people who were unlikely to know the favor of God as it was preached and practices by the Pharisees and the Sadducees of his time.
Many people did not know the favor of the official religious people of the time of Jesus. Yet, this entire group of unlikely people were shown to experience the favor of God through their meeting with Jesus Christ.
Luke, the writer, believed that the diversity which the Jesus Movement had become, had it origin in the ministry of Jesus of Nazareth. As he gathered all of the oral traditions about the life and the sayings of Jesus, he found that Jesus was one who welcomed the unlikely people of his time to God's grace and favor. Jesus went to people who did not darken the door of the synagogue and the Temple. Jesus associated with the unlikely religious people of his time.
The parable about the contrasting prayers of the Pharisee and the tax-collector indicate to us that Jesus believed that God welcomed the unlikely religious folks of this world to God's favor.
The tax-collector of the parable was one who had no religious resume. But what did he have?
He had a heart of contrition. He did not believe he was entitled to anything. He knew he was guilty of a manifold acts of dishonesty to make a living. The tax-collector of the parable of Jesus represented everyone who has come to the awareness that we are not entitled to anything based upon an inherent status that we receive from our birth into a particular social setting.
We cannot earn the entitlement from God if we believe that we naturally deserve it more than other people because of our group identity.
Everyone actualizes the favor and entitlement from God when he or she comes to the point of contrition, to say, "Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner."
The amazing thing about the gift of God's grace is that we can't actualize it unless we are in the condition to actually acknowledge and receive it. And it is state of contrition, the sense of needing a higher grace, which helps us to actualize salvation in our lives.
What are the signs of contrition? We no longer feel automatically entitled to anything. We don't take credit for what we did not earn; we don't live as people born on third base and think that we've hit triples. We quit comparing ourselves to others as being more favored because of our pedigree and social, education or economic attainments. We have no problem in committing humility, because we've actually experience the greatness of God. Instead of living as life stealing parasites off the greatness of God, we live as loving dependent children on the largesse of God's good favor, who are ever thankful and ever generous to share with others.
The Gospel of Luke presents to us a program of how we can move from the sense of self-entitlement to the grace of knowing ourselves as entitled through God's grace as one of God's children.
Each of us is the Pharisee and the tax-collector in the parable of Jesus. We are the Pharisee when we catch ourselves acting in the mode of self-entitlement or entitlement because of our social status. We are the tax-collector when we arrive in the honest place of contrition when we with deep honesty sigh, "Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner." Amen.
Jeremiah 14:7-10,19-22 Psalm 84:1-6
2 Timothy 4:6-8,16-18 Luke 18:9-14
Lectionary Link
The Gospel of Luke includes much about how those who were apparently unlikely people, become the favored selected and chosen ones for events of grace and salvation.
The Gospel of Luke was written for communities of the Risen Christ decades after Jesus lived. They were communities which practiced the Christian mission to the wide spectrum of people in the Roman Empire. So, how did the Christian mission become the community of so many who would have formerly been known as unlikely?
The writer of Luke's Gospel wanted to trace this mission to all unlikely people, back to Jesus. So his writing told of the stories of how Jesus made the unlikely people, the outsider and the forgotten, the chosen and favored people of a graceful encounter with Jesus.
Who were the most likely favored people during the time of Jesus? It would have been the Jews and their religious leaders. The likely people of favor would have been those who observed and followed the rules of the various religious leaders of the chief religious sects of Judasim, the Pharisees and the Sadducees. The religious leaders would have been honored people of authority like rabbis, scribes, lawyers and priests of the Temple. Rich people were likely people of favor because their wealth was assumed to be evidence of God's blessing.
Who were the unlikely people of favor during the time of Jesus? Women, children, tax-collectors or publicans who were non-observant Jews who collected taxes for the Roman Emperor, centurions and Roman soldiers, Samaritans, fishermen, and all manner of people who fit the purity code categories of being defiled or unclean because they had a sickness. People who had unclean spirits; people with leprosy, blind people, deaf people, people with withering hands, and people who could not walk and people who followed the radical prophet John the Baptist. And Luke presented that Jesus was really concerned about poor people.
What had happened between the time that Jesus of Nazareth walked on this earth and the time five decades or so later when the writings of Luke Gospel came to their textual form?
The Jesus Movement had moved out of Jerusalem and Israel. It had spread to the cities throughout the Roman Empire. The Jesus Movement had attracted people from diverse backgrounds; it had moved way beyond the synagogue communities.
So how do you tell the story of what you have become in Christian community and practice? The Gospel of Luke proclaimed that the churches of the cities of the Roman Empire became diverse communities because of Jesus of Nazareth. "We've become a diverse community of "unlikely" people because Jesus brought unlikely people to the experience of God's grace.
How do you tell the story of Jesus of Nazareth knowing what the Jesus Movement had become in the five decades after his life?
If the Jesus Movement was so inclusive, then it was inclusive because Jesus must have been inclusive. So when the story of Jesus was told, it must be told to show how he included all of the unlikely people of people of valid faith of his time.
Jesus was presented as hanging out with and inviting people who were unlikely to know the favor of God as it was preached and practices by the Pharisees and the Sadducees of his time.
Many people did not know the favor of the official religious people of the time of Jesus. Yet, this entire group of unlikely people were shown to experience the favor of God through their meeting with Jesus Christ.
Luke, the writer, believed that the diversity which the Jesus Movement had become, had it origin in the ministry of Jesus of Nazareth. As he gathered all of the oral traditions about the life and the sayings of Jesus, he found that Jesus was one who welcomed the unlikely people of his time to God's grace and favor. Jesus went to people who did not darken the door of the synagogue and the Temple. Jesus associated with the unlikely religious people of his time.
The parable about the contrasting prayers of the Pharisee and the tax-collector indicate to us that Jesus believed that God welcomed the unlikely religious folks of this world to God's favor.
The tax-collector of the parable was one who had no religious resume. But what did he have?
He had a heart of contrition. He did not believe he was entitled to anything. He knew he was guilty of a manifold acts of dishonesty to make a living. The tax-collector of the parable of Jesus represented everyone who has come to the awareness that we are not entitled to anything based upon an inherent status that we receive from our birth into a particular social setting.
We cannot earn the entitlement from God if we believe that we naturally deserve it more than other people because of our group identity.
Everyone actualizes the favor and entitlement from God when he or she comes to the point of contrition, to say, "Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner."
The amazing thing about the gift of God's grace is that we can't actualize it unless we are in the condition to actually acknowledge and receive it. And it is state of contrition, the sense of needing a higher grace, which helps us to actualize salvation in our lives.
What are the signs of contrition? We no longer feel automatically entitled to anything. We don't take credit for what we did not earn; we don't live as people born on third base and think that we've hit triples. We quit comparing ourselves to others as being more favored because of our pedigree and social, education or economic attainments. We have no problem in committing humility, because we've actually experience the greatness of God. Instead of living as life stealing parasites off the greatness of God, we live as loving dependent children on the largesse of God's good favor, who are ever thankful and ever generous to share with others.
The Gospel of Luke presents to us a program of how we can move from the sense of self-entitlement to the grace of knowing ourselves as entitled through God's grace as one of God's children.
Each of us is the Pharisee and the tax-collector in the parable of Jesus. We are the Pharisee when we catch ourselves acting in the mode of self-entitlement or entitlement because of our social status. We are the tax-collector when we arrive in the honest place of contrition when we with deep honesty sigh, "Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner." Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment