Rightly Representing What We Believe about God

 24 Pentecost 26B November 3, 2024
Ruth 1:1-18 Psalm 146
Hebrews 9:11-14 Mark 12:28-34

Lectionary Link

Jesus was not from the line of Levi so he was not in the priestly lineage.  But in the metaphorical titles that the early church gave to Jesus, he was a prophet, a priest, and a king.  The early church believed that he was the superlative case and the essence of what being prophet, priest, and king means.

The writer of the book of Hebrews confesses Jesus as the great heavenly High Priest, deriving from the pre-Levite figure of Melchizedek, the mysterious King/priest of Salem who received tithes from Abraham.

According to the writer of the book of Hebrews, the Risen Christ intercedes at the heavenly altar for humanity.  The essence of intercession is offering the service of one's life for others in words of prayer and in deeds of life.

In our appointed Gospel, Jesus replied to the scribe that loving God and one's neighbor was more important than the entire system of animal sacrifices the offerings of which were one of the main functions of the Temple priests.

The animal sacrificial system of Judaism was replaced by the followers of Jesus in asking disciples to be living sacrifices, offering the entirety of ones words and deeds as being on behalf of loving God and our neighbors.

And who is our neighbors?  As much as the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament seem to the text books for Judaism and Christianity, they both indicate that God regards everyone to be neighbors as people made in the image of God.

However, in human community, the human situation of everyone does not turn out to be equal in dignity and in favorable circumstances.   Holy Scriptures proclaims teachings to equalize the situation for those not so fortunate.  The Psalmist wrote that God cares for the stranger and sustains the widow and the orphan.  The great Law to love God and our neighbors as ourselves is divine law to equalize the blessing among all people and to alleviate the conditions of deprivation for the suffering.

And that brings us to the example of Ruth?  Who is Ruth?  She is a foreigner, a Moabite, and a widow.  She has a deep affection for her mother-in-law Naomi, and after her husband and father-in-law had died, she decides to go with Naomi in her return to her native Judah.  Ruth was a foreigner and a widow in Judah, but she met Boaz who manifested a care for her, a widow, and she faired well as a foreigner in Judah.  In fact, she as a foreigner is listed in the messianic lineage of Jesus.

The message for us today is that we are to represent the truth about God to our world.  What is the truth about God?  God cares for the vulnerable, and we are given the great commands to love God and our neighbor to practice a equalizing love and justice to represent in the very best way that God cares for the vulnerable.

Let us endeavor to rightly represent the God who cares for all our neighbors, especially those most vulnerable.  Amen.