eleven::nineteen

(a homily)

Will things ever change? When will the people of the Covenant made with the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob cease to turn from that Covenant and God to the rulers of the day? It still happen today with the people of the New Covenant. When will it stop? Can no one see that the rulers of this world for the most part simply destroy? The powers invade new places and customs; beautiful distinctions are suffocated for the sake of hegemony. And all too often the people of the church, the people of God are right alongside the rulers, blessing their destructive regimes. Yes, the proverbial Crusades. The swastika embossed upon red in German chapels. The star spangled banner proudly placed in American sanctuaries. Will we ever learn?

Living the Christian life is beyond difficult. It necessitates a miracle. It is counter-intuitive to everything surrounding us, and so it is more than difficult to learn how to live as a Christian. It is certainly not helpful when the crowds rebuke us for trying to reach out to Jesus for healing. When we admit that we are blind, they try to silence our cry. In our setting, the crowd doesn't have to work too hard to deafen and stifle discipleship. It has the aid of a dominant culture that thinks it can do nothing wring, one that even the churches think OK to appropriate, and so the admittedly blind one won't easily be understood as seek the Good.

Yet, Jesus hears the call for mercy calls us to share his meal. See, this meal we are about to eat is one of the most subversive customs of all time. The bread and the blood of the new and everlasting covenant make us new. And somehow this meal and the fellowship it embodies is the answer to the questions I've asked.

We need to listen attentively to the Scriptures and stories of and about God's people throughout the centuries. Our time, though distinct, is not much different that other times. The church, it seems, is always on the brink of new forms of captivity. And yet we live in a new time as a new creation. In this reality we are given our identity and the ability to live differently than the world, to be determined, as it were, to die rather than profane the New Covenant. In our baptism we learned to die by identifying ourselves with Christ's death. At the Eucharist we are sustained in the new life of Christ in the power of the Spirit. And so, here we are, among God's people, in solidarity with the people of the covenant throughout all time, a people who will not follow the rulers of the earth, but who will be lead by the Holy Spirit, the One who makes all things new.

(1 Maccabees 1:10-15, 41-43, 54-57, 62-63, Psalm 119:53, 61, 134, 150, 155, 158, Luke 18:35-43)