Journey's Weekly Homilies
Numbers
11:25-29
James 5:1-6
Mark 9:38-50
“…if your
hand causes you to sin, cut it off; …if your foot causes you to
sin, cut it off; … if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it
out…”
I was probably
about 10 years old the first time I heard this Gospel story.
With the literal ears of a child I heard these words as a
command, and what I imagined was horrible beyond words.
I was terrified. I
knew I was full of bad behavior and sin—my parents reminded me
of this on a daily basis. Right
then and there I decided that if this was the best that Jesus
could do—the best he could do was to tell his disciples that to
live without sin, they were going to chop off hands and feet, and
pull out an eye---yuk! then there was no way I wanted to be a
follower of Jesus and yes—I decided right then and there that I
would rather die with my body intact and I would take my chances
with St. Peter and hell-fire.
Now fast-forward
50 years. These same
words—OK, maybe a slightly different translation than what I
heard originally—sound hopeful and full of promise. Jesus is suggesting that we can change—in fact,
Jesus is teaching that we must change when our
vision (our eyes), our path (our feet) and our actions (our hands)
do not embody the life of justice-seeking and compassion that
Jesus preaches. Now, Jesus knows that this change is not going to be easy.
Jesus warns his disciples that this choice to change will
be painful—Jesus uses the word “maimed” to invoke the image
of the tortured life that a peasant from 2000 years ago endured
when she or he lived with disability or chronic illness.
Jesus suggests that choosing to be his disciple will mean
choosing the same life as a “maimed” outcast—the same
disadvantaged life that any unfortunate peasant with a disability
or chronic illness experienced.
Unfortunately,
things have not changed much in 2000 years because today, when we
choose the life of justice-seeking and compassion that Jesus
preached, we are choosing to be uncomfortable and awkward and
clumsy in new ways of thinking and being.
We risk becoming that same outcast Jesus used in his
preaching.. As one
example, when we choose to see the humanity that is manifested in
Palestinian, Afghani or Iraqi cultures and we speak out in
recognition and defense of that humanity, we risk being outcast as
un-American and un-patriotic.
So now, 50 years
after I first heard Jesus preach about what it means to be a
believer and a disciple, I
can say: “Thank
you, Jesus, for speaking so clearly about what it means to be a
believer. Thank you
for pointing the way to change, and thank you for this direct
style—just tell it like it is and don’t pull any punches.”
But wait,
there’s more. Just
in case we missed anything, in the reading from James we hear an
explicit description of what society needs to change: The author denounces “the rich” very explicitly:
“You have laid up treasure… Behold, the wages of the
laborers who mowed your fields, which you have kept back by fraud,
cry out; and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of
the Lord of hosts. You
have lived on the earth in luxury and in pleasure; you have
fattened your hearts …”
Now in this time
of rampant corporate criminal behavior and globalization that
oppresses the poor, the weak and these without voice, it is really
easy to spot objects of this denunciation. We all can recite the litany of corporate wrongdoers and
white-collar criminals. Those
big guys—WorldCom and Enron and Arthur Anderson and the head of
the NY Stock Exchange—they are easy to despise.
We know without spending a lot of time thinking about this
that clearly this is not the path that Jesus wants us to walk.
But how much harder is it for each of us to thoughtfully
shop and then purchase produce that has been picked by
agricultural workers who are paid a fair wage? Or to buy coffee
that is fair-traded in the international marketplace? How much
harder is it for each of us to spend the time to personally
support the workers and organizations that embody the values of
justice that Jesus preaches?
Well—I can tell you that for me it is not easy to “walk
the talk.” This
choice challenges me personally in time and in my wallet, and
it’s hard to change old habits.
Every day I am challenged by decisions large and small.
Sometimes Starbucks is closer and has better parking and
anyway, it’s raining. But
each one of these daily choices that we all make every day is one
cobblestone that paves the path of justice-seeking and compassion
that Jesus calls us to live.
Jesus lived and preached compassion and justice for all
people he encountered and 2000 years later we are called “to do
the right thing.” Sounds
simple, doesn’t it? I
wish.
Last week Sam
preached on what it means to be a prophet and why Jesus was
rejected by his own people. Sam
said: “The cold
within us runs deep because we see people in terms of nation,
race, class, or simply our own self-interest.
And when a prophet reminds us of our common humanity we are
embarrassed by our narrowness and bitterness.
We will reject the prophet and bear the cold on our own
rather than draw together in the warmth of our common humanity.
Every time the fire dwindles another prophet rises up for
us to accept or reject.”
This week we hear
Moses exclaim, “…would that all the Lord’s people were
prophets, that the Lord’s Spirit would be given to them.”
Now we don’t know exactly what motivated Moses to
proclaim this. Maybe
Moses was tired of leading the people of Israel, tired of the
complaints about food and shelter, tired of the burden of
leadership—and simply spoke because of fatigue.
Maybe Moses was just having a bad day, or just possibly
Moses wanted to open to path to leadership.
But his words are as true today as they were when Moses
spoke. “…would
that all the Lord’s people were prophets, that the
Lord’s Spirit would be given to them.”
Think about how the world would change if each one of us
embodied God’s spirit of our common humanity—if each of us saw
every other person as a child of God and not in terms of nation,
race, class, or simply our own self-interest.
Think about how the world would change if our world leaders
possessed and acted on this vision.
This is the change—nothing less than to change the world—that Jesus commanded his followers to struggle towards. This is our challenge. We are each called to do this work of Jesus—each in our own way, however small or insignificant we may feel. Every one of us can make a difference every day. Each of us is called to see every other person as a child of God. As a follower of Jesus, we are called to choose the life of justice-seeking and compassion—one step at a time, one choice at a time. We will be uncomfortable and awkward and clumsy in new ways of thinking and being—not to mention being suspect as un-American and un-patriotric. But we are called. We can challenge the status quo and work for justice. The journey of 10,000 miles begins with a single step and we can take that step today. As a community of faithful believers in God’s justice, we can step forward and embody these lessons that Jesus teaches us. Amen.