Jesus says a lot of things. Sometimes, Jesus says outrageous things, like “it is not right to give
Believing is DOING
The expression ‘seeing is believing’ has become common enough. Especially when we find ourselves live in suspicious times, among suspicious folks. We trust our eyes and our own experiences – and this is a good and healthy thing – but it makes a life of faith a real tightrope act.
Everybody Knows
The ’KINGDOM’ that Jesus proclaims is a place where folk are forgiven and welcomed. The rules for forgiveness are simple. There are no complicated (expensive) rituals.
To be forgiven, one must admit wrong and be ready to accept grace. She follows Jesus into the house, and offers these remarkable acts of gratitude because she recognizes the difference between her reality and the kind of world that Jesus proposes. And Jesus turns her gratitude into a parable. The reality of her sin (and the recognition of God’s forgiveness) prompts an overwhelming expression of gratitude.
Scandalous
So we might well be scandalized by the notion of church membership, and by the often-dismissive attitude that the church takes toward those who don’t believe, (or worse, toward those who don’t know what to believe). We are all guilty of thinking that membership (in the church) has its privileges – it does not. Membership comes with responsibilities.
It’s scandalous because we are both guilty of agreeing with Jesus and guilty of ignoring the rules – of feeding the dogs to spite the children. While it’s true that a life of faith requires a commitment – something that does set the believer apart – it is also equally true that God makes no such distinctions. Our ‘profession of faith’ is simply the act of recognizing that God has already claimed us.
Do not be afraid
What I didn’t know, as a ten-year-old was that good and bad coexist. That joy can be found in the midst of sorrow. That hope is not bound by the fences that fear builds. Jesus is teaching me that even now.
Just as, in an isolated place, food was found to feed thousands – abundance out of an imagined scarcity – in the midst of our constant fear, Jesus appears. In the most improbable way – Casually and almost carelessly Jesus arrives and invites us to set fear aside. WE are hard-hearted – no mistake. The world has toughened us up. But Jesus, who has never let us out of his sight, shows up and offers us a new perspective.
A place of abundance
This miracle of abundance is indeed from God, but I believe it is an abundance drawn out of what already exists. Drawn out of people who are encouraged and hopeful because Jesus has given them encouragement and shown them hope. In that hope, they are bold to share what they would once have kept jealously guarded for themselves.
With Jesus help, all of them are miraculously moved to share what they have. And there is enough left over to help drive home the message.
The Lord shall build you a house
Do you see it yet? Do you understand how wrong we’ve all been – with our penchant for large architecture, and our devotion to historic properties? We are prone to following in David’s footsteps. Our sanctuaries try to capture the glory and grandeur of God in their design and decoration. We have meant well – we really do aim to honour God in this. But through the prophet, God was pointing in a different direction. Metaphor – not Greek or Hebrew or the Good Old King James Version – is the language of these divine ideas.
John the Baptist loses his head
We are experiencing a global moment. In the last several years the approach to power by those who – in democracies all over the world – are granted the privilege of power by their fellow citizens has been hard to understand. And the citizens (you and I among them) have reacted to the occasional abuse of power and the slide towards absolutism. The all-or-nothing approach to politics is generating bad feelings and a growing sense of hopelessness. We say we want action – we want change – we want (something). But maybe what we need is John and Jesus.
Think again
We may have only experienced ‘repentance’ in relation to how horrible we are. The call to repent is aimed at a long and varied list of ‘sins’, but it is also a call to reconsider our actions, our attitudes, and our approach to life. Metanoia invites a turning around or a turning toward.
The word implies that we open our minds to other possibilities and different ideas. Better ideas. And in the context of this story of Jesus’ ‘rejection’ – by those who thought they knew him best – metanoia invites us to think again about what God is doing in our midst, about who Jesus is (to us) and what Jesus represents.
Asleep in the back
Again, there are those who would say God is either completely absent, or right here on “My” side. But maybe Jesus is just resting in the back.
Maybe Jesus would lift a weary eyelid and whisper “faith or fear?’ Maybe the lesson is in that question, and not in the calming of the waves. Maybe, just maybe, the collective wisdom and experience that we have of the goodness of God is enough to sail through this.