6th Sunday after Epiphany
Luke 7:20-35
When [John’s disciples] had come to [Jesus], they said, “John the Baptist has sent us to you to ask, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or are we to expect someone else?’” Jesus had just then cured many people of diseases, afflictions, and evil spirits and had given sight to many who were blind. And he answered them, “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight; the lame walk; those with a skin disease are cleansed; the deaf hear; the dead are raised; the poor have good news brought to them. And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me.”
When John’s messengers had gone, Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to look at? A reed shaken by the wind? What, then, did you go out to see? Someone dressed in soft robes? Look, those who put on fine clothing and live in luxury are in royal palaces. What, then, did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. This is the one about whom it is written,
‘See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you,
who will prepare your way before you.’
“I tell you, among those born of women no one is greater than John, yet the least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.” (And all the people who heard this, including the tax collectors, acknowledged the justice of God, having been baptized with John’s baptism. But, the Pharisees and the experts in the law, not having been baptized by him, rejected God’s purpose for themselves.)
“To what, then, will I compare the people of this generation, and what are they like? They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to one another,
‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance;
we wailed, and you did not weep.’
“For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon’; the Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Nevertheless, wisdom is vindicated by all her children.”
A God Carved of Wood
The last few weeks have been absolutely wild. People have lost their jobs, organizations meant to benefit all of us have lost their funding or are about to, rights and support have been stripped away from those who need them most; there are things coming out of Washington that threaten our relationships with historic allies, that threaten supply chains, our health, our food. Everything I see and hear seems to be more absurd than the last, so much so that it’s starting to become difficult to differente between the truth and satire, because when the truth is this absurd, it feels like it should be satire. And, the satire starts to feel plausible.
Some of the most alarming things are coming from people who claim to be Christian, or who are using Christianity to justify some very un-Christian things. The pope recently denounced the incorrect use of a concept known as “ordo amoris” that can be found in the writings of early Christian thinkers like Augustine of Hippo and Thomas Aquinas. You may have seen on the news that “ordo amoris” was being used to justify the deportation of immigrants and pulling back aid to people who live in other countries, this constant refrain of “America first.” The claim is that “ordo amoris” states we should love our family first, the people in our community second, the people in our country third, and only after that, if we have any love left to give, to love the people in the rest of the world. We all know that Jesus would never say that, would never say that way of thinking is what the Kingdom of God looks like. But, people are claiming that this way of looking at the world is a “very Christian concept”, and that people outside of our nation deserve only the leftover scraps of our love.
The pope said that this was in incorrect interpretation of “ordo amoris,” and after reading what Thomas Aquinas actually wrote, I am inclined to agree. We are not alone in thinking that this is a perversion of our faith. As much as I’m bombarded by these news articles and blurbs of everything that’s going wrong, there are as many quotes and rebuttals by people who do not accept this way of thinking. Honestly, I sometimes feel like reading these is the only thing keeping me sane right now. A friend of mine posted this quote from Kurt Struckmeyer’s book, A Conspiracy of Love:
“At the heart of Christianity is a powerful ethic. It is what the first followers of Jesus called The Way – a way of living based on love and compassion, reconciliation and forgiveness, inclusion and acceptance, peace and nonviolence, generosity and justice. This ethic is what makes Christianity good. Without it, Christians can become rigid and intolerant, self-righteous and condemning, hate-filled and violent, selfish and unjust. In other words, without the ethic of Jesus, Christians can represent the worst humanity has to offer.”
I think this quote perfectly encapsulates what is happening, right now. Something is wrong. Something is broken. The values that Jesus taught us are being cast aside, and people are taking up a very different kind of mantle, championing a very different kind of religion. Last week, we looked at “The Sin of Empathy,” in which people are claiming that empathy and compassion are blinding us to the truth. The week before we talked about how laws are being passed specifically to hurt people, often with Christianity being used as the reason for those laws being passed. Not too long ago, we talked about people going to their evangelical pastors after worship to complain that “Jesus is too weak…that Jesus is too ‘woke.’ “Without the ethic of Jesus, Christians can represent the worst humanity has to offer.”
When John’s disciples asked if Jesus was the one that they’ve been waiting for, he said to them “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight; the lame walk; those with a skin disease are cleansed; the deaf hear; the dead are raised; the poor have good news brought to them. And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me.” This is what the Kingdom of God is supposed to look like. This is what following Jesus looks like. We help the people who need help. We share the message of God’s love with everyone. We love our neighbor with the understanding that all people are our neighbors. It seems like the message is so clear. But, some people aren’t interested in what Jesus has to say. They just want to know how they can use faith and tradition to serve their own ends. It’s like someone said in Bible study this week, “Are we ever going to figure this out?”
If we go by what we read in the gospels, the answer might be, “No.” Something that we see over and over and over again is Jesus having to constantly repeat himself. He has to explain parables multiple times; he has to describe the Kingdom of God multiple times in so many different ways. It’s almost as if human beings have a hard time understanding and accepting what Jesus has to say, even when he’s right there in front of them, when the words are coming right out of his mouth, when they know exactly who he is.
Jesus was God, who came down to earth in human form, to teach us and love us and heal us, and the people around him couldn’t accept him for who he was. Is it any surprise that we’re still having a hard time with that, all of these thousands of years later? People will grasp at anything to disregard the truth, even if that means making hypocrites of themselves. Verses 33 and 34 of our text say, “For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon’; the Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’” They can’t do anything right. Eat no bread and drink no wine, he must have a demon. Eat and drink, now you’re a glutton and a drunkard. It’s so easy to dismiss the truth when you don’t want to hear the truth.
I saw this line of a poem written by A.I. that I thought fit so well with all of this: “I am what happens when you try to carve God out of the wood of your own hunger.” It’s actually kind of shocking that was written by A.I. because it feels so true. If we take our desires, our base wants, and turn those into our god, that is idolatry. We can justify any action, or lack of action, any motivation, any law, any cultural norm, if that is the god that we choose. We can exclude anyone that we want, take advantage of anyone that we want, abuse, belittle, oppress anyone that we want when we carve God out of the wood of our own hunger. That is why Jesus tells us to help the needy, to help our neighbor, to be merciful, forgiving, and generous, because our desires are not always good. We are greedy. We are selfish, xenophobic, tribal. We are petty and vindictive. Any god carved out of that wood will only lead us to our own destruction.
The god that so many people are pointing to to justify their hatred and their violence is not a god that I recognize. I will cling to Jesus and his words of mercy. I will cling to our benevolent Creator who made us and provides for us out of love. I will cling to the Holy Spirit who binds us together and inspires us to build strong communities. I will not bow down to a god of strife and division and pettiness, no matter how many times it comes across my screen.
You know who God is. You know what real love looks like. I implore you to use your voice to call out these false idols, these gods carved out of wood. Point to who the real Jesus is, and help guide people to him. It’s the only way that we are going to survive.
I know that looking at the news or social media has been challenging the last few weeks, so I want to share this prayer that a friend sent me. It was written by Rabbi Irwin Keller in 2016, and he called it “A Prayer Before Reading the News.”
“My God, the soul that you have placed in me is pure and vulnerable. I am afraid that looking at today’s news will be painful. Encircle me in a robe of light so that I can witness the wounds of the world without being wounded myself. Let me learn what I need to know in order to be of my greatest use, without being overwhelmed by despair. I feel your protective light now as I open myself to the world’s suffering and the world’s joys. Amen.”
~ Rev. Charles Wei
