Lessons: Psalm 26, 28; Deuteronomy 4:15-24; 2 Corinthians 1:12-22; Luke 15:1-10.
We grow tired of the cost of running American life. It seems to me that is a fairly universal complaint. Every political race today has the question of what will we fund and at what rate and where will we cut. Add to that, who should pay what rate of tax to whom, and we have much of the political conversation too simply summed up with no nuance. At least that is what I observe. I am not about to propose a simplistic answer.
Every culture has conversations which heat us up. Sometimes they are more subtle, more nuanced than at other times. The moral life of Israel was governed by a sense of God's law. Their first task was to understand who God was and was not, In Deuteronomy today Moses is reviewing this with the people before they enter the Land of Promise. God is the deep mysterious voice heard in the fire which did not injure the bush, just as God was heard in the cloud which gave the Ten Commandments. Never mistake this God for the reflection of the seasons, the sun or moon or earthly image or self. This undomesticated God is forever present and mysterious and holds you to account.
It is this understanding of God which governs the social interactions of the religious as Jesus encounters them in the Gospels. The leaders are thus puzzled by Jesus' choice to keep company with 'sinners.' Why would a righteous man risk being defiled by their thought, actions, ways? Why would we for that matter? "Mind the company you keep," comes to mind. For often you will be judged by them.
Jesus responds to their murmured thoughts by two parables of lost things found. There seems to be one sheep grazing separately from the herd. Does not the shepherd go looking for it since it is in his charge, forms his wealth? Would anyone of you just offer it up to the wolves? A woman looses a piece of her jewelry worth a full day's labor. Does she not light a lamp and seek it? Will she not examine the nooks and crannies of her home, making order as she goes? When you find the sheep or the coin, is not your heart so delighted that you call out to your companions, "Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost...the coin."
So it is with God. The task is to join God in seeking those who are lost to God or have lost a sense of God. It is not to abandon them. Finding people has also to do with listening to them, seeing their worth in their eyes, sharing one's own sense of God active within. If there is a connection, notice it. If not seek it.
I wonder how we might treat every person if we saw each as valuable as part of God's wealth? I wonder what our priority would be if we took our own wealth, saw its relative worth, divided it by 100 and assigned that value to every human being? That is what Jesus asks of us. That is what Jesus asked of himself. This is where we are assigned religious authority.
It is this worth of each individual seen that aids a nation in sorting out how to be true to God...if this is a priority. It is not simply assuming the position of a Pharisee, a judge, grasping an important piece of the law and righteously moving on. The question of Jesus it seems to me is, do our laws and decisions reflect the whole worth of a person, enable it, call it out? If so, good. If not, now what?
No comments:
Post a Comment