Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26
Proper 5 (10) - Year A
My goodness! How did we get back to Hosea 6.6 so quickly. Aren't we simply to read the scriptures, underline them in blue, and file them away? Here we are called to apply what was read earlier. [It also wouldn't hurt to glance ahead to Matthew 12:7 to see this repeated again in regard to the religious institution of Temple. So, whether oriented toward those who would keep "sinners" out or temples standing, this line about mercy rings clear.]
It must be admitted that we progressives are a pretty motley crew. We are disorganized, riding off in all directions at once to rescue this or that particular cause. We can't always explain the "Christian intuition" we have been given that sensitizes us to issues of injustice - we simply know pain when we hear it whimpering under a barrage of religious jargon about why life can't be any different than it is.
Yet it might be said that we are in close proximity with a key, life-shaping, reality - mercy. Mercy first, mercy second, mercy last. We know we stand in need of it and value that gift so highly we want to scatter it wherever we go, no matter where it might land or how it might be received.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2002/june2002.html
A cry from the universe still arises in our midst: "Go and learn what this means, 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.'"
Zechariah 7:9
"This is what the LORD Almighty says: 'Administer true justice ; show mercy and compassion to one another.
Matthew 23:23
"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices -- mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law— justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.
John Wesley, The Witness of Our Own Spirit, Sermon 12.
"...we are moving straight toward God, and that continually; walking steadily on in the highway of holiness, in the paths of justice, mercy, and truth."
These three references all have "mercy" in a central location that ties together "justice" with "compassion, faithfulness, and truth." It is so easy for these qualities to lose track of one another. In some sense the hard-headedness of justice doesn't know what to do with the soft-heartedness of compassion, faithfulness and truth (in the lower-case, human-sense of the word).
Where is mercy these in these days of preemptive war, increasing numbers of those without access to health insurance/care, a widening gap between economic classes? Do you think a renewal of talk about mercy might help refocus the community of life?
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2005/june2005.html
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Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26
Religion as opiate, the masses make religion profitable. We make up in volume (the poor) what we lose in missing the big sale (the wealthy). To say that Jesus has come for the sinners is to have him claim the basis of the current church's profitability. What would the Temple be without the sinners and their sacrifices?
Temple/Cathedral and Synagogue/Church all have a vested interest in sinners qua sinners. We talk a good game of helping them be put right and draw near to God, but should that actually happen, what then?
There is no recorded instance of Jesus' forgiving and healing bringing him a rupee, much less a lepton/mite. Wow, Jesus really was for the sinner as sinner and not just sinner as source of institutional stability. What would it mean for you and me to be for sinners as Jesus was?
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2005/june2005.html
To Abram and Matthew a call: "go from your country" and "come, follow me" - there is another spot where we will find greater life, greater hope beyond hope. Being open to this call in our own day is part of the challenge for settled individuals and congregations and nations.
This call is not just geographical. The Psalmist and Paul remind us of the changes we need to be making internally that our heritage might be healed, that our distress and sacrifice be swept away by steadfast love.
Whether an external move or an internal one, a key element is transformation from acting out of fear of further distress because our guilt needs to be atoned for by some sacrifice to being proactive beyond fear to ask for what is needed (Tabitha's father and unnamed woman with a twelve-year hemorrhage) in anticipation of steadfast love without retributive punishment needing to occur first.
Note the acceptance of Jesus of the request for him to move, not Tabitha's father or Tabitha. Note the acceptance of Jesus of a touch that slows him during his journey.
Perhaps we might envision a mutual journey - G*D's and ours - not one pulling or pushing the other from where they are, but a mutual attraction and desire to move in common.
- - -
journey without a destination
challenges our control need
even with past adventures
having turned out well
there is hesitation
to trust againjourney without a destination
raises again an insatiable god
testing and testing again
our temptation
to settle
injourney without a destination
is a realistic assessment of our lot
no matter how we disguise it
change and death obtain
warrants to search
empty livesjourney without a destination
anticipates beyond current plateaus
use of several learnable skill sets
to envision preferred futures
to enact their foundations
to enliven generations
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_06_01_archive.html
While it is fun to eternally play with the "Why" questions of life that will seemingly never be settled, even with cute retorts about physicians and bridegrooms, the larger parenthesis of this passage is that of action.
We begin with a not-so-innocent bystander minding his own tax forms and everyone's, who is called to action – "Follow" – and he does.
We end with caller being called. "Follow", says another official to Jesus. And follow Jesus does. Even with delays along the way Jesus follows. He follows into a present past and then leads to call again from an unexpected future.
Between calling and being called there are those fun questions of "Why?" For the moment put them aside for if they are not able to be treated as poetry they will eternally trip us up and divide us.
Another take would have Jesus learning the mercy he claims G*D desires. This mercy shows a new way of doing business – a caller is ready to be called. It is so easy to claim that a caller has priority over the called. It is a mercy to not be trapped into a position, even one as exalted as Messiah. Hear again how Jesus is called away from teaching to living his teaching with his action. Mercy entails life changes in the face of other plans that had been made.