Matthew 21:23-32

Proper 21 (26) - Year A

 


How do you justify your life, excuse yourself, apologize (defend) for your interactions?

Does the Bible tell you to ...?
Does your heart lead you to ...?
Does it just make sense to ...?
Does everyone do it?
Do you do it less badly than so-and-so?
Do you have framed credentials to ...?

I still marvel at ordination services that clunk a hand on and order, "Take thou authority...." as though something happens there that wasn't present before.

In a democracy we give credence to the authority of a majority (or even a judicially declared minority) to give license to make decisions.

Prophets don't get official sanction. A loyal opposition doesn't require certified status.

Are you still waiting for some authority to live well, to advocate for salaam/shalom/peace, to speak up and out for community?

As Jesus set aside his claim on deity, so we are to set aside our claim on authority. It is enough to live toward greater and greater generosity of spirit through our time usage, energy investment, resource sharing, and community building.

http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2002/september2002.html

 


 

It is this interplay between a flawed past trying to perpetuate itself and a better future trying to be birthed that engages every energy we have.

Whether Jesus' questioners respond to his question or not doesn't really make any difference. Things eventually end up in the arena of faith being worked out in fear and trembling as well as in joy and peace. So here we are, commissioned simply by being alive or ordained by others to "take authority." We've got it, what will we do with it? That is a question from ourselves to ourselves.

Even knowing that we will need to receive forgiveness for having taken authority, take it and apply it as best you can -- with generosity and mercy and saying what you mean and meaning what you say.

http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2005/september2005.html

 


 

Whether from the left or the right (depending which is in power at the time) we find we are afraid of the crowd in power or we scare the crowd out of power. Whether priest or prophet we are, from time to time, afraid of crowds that crowd around us and crowd out our integrity.

We end up with the favorite sayings of all too many kids, "I don't know", "I don't care." And without these we find ourselves captured by that old bugaboo of "I'm bored" which means "I'm powerless" and "I won't act".

As we wrestle with the issues of our day it is important to recognize that fringe groups are where the action is. Third parties don't have to win to change the conversation and decisions of the majority. Single-issue groups don't need a majority to make their point. But engagement to the point of challenge is crucial to perceived change becoming actual change. If we are only going to raise questions without having them be strong and persistent enough to challenge current behavior is to play the part of the religious leaders in this encounter. I've seen a recent comment that the abolitionists were never more than one-percent of the population but they stood for something other than decision by poll or majority.

We are here, not to tell our authority, but to act on it. Forward.

http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2005/september2005.html

 


 

An intriguing image of G*D is presented in Philippians -- an emptying G*D [?in distinction to a creating G*D, or are these integrally bound?] If you substitute Moses for Jesus Christ and then look back at Exodus you can catch a glimpse of this emptying G*D.

See again where G*D is - in front of Moses - where Moses will strike (unless he swats at a rock behind him). Can you see G*D facing Moses (no backside here) and saying, "Strike through me." Would you have the courage and humility of Moses to strike G*D to strike water for the people? Whether anyone else could be witness to this or not, Moses understood he was to strike G*D that the waters from beyond (that had been pent up at Creation and again in Noah's time) might surface through G*D, through Horeb, through a suffering and emptying of G*D.

Where are you called to strike that life-giving water might flow? Does it feel like you would have to muster more strength and humility than you have, to do so? Does not G*D always need to be bruised for life to flow? Do we always need to work through our own resistance to striking G*D that we might grow the next stage of our journey?

- - -

obey this why don't you
here it comes our difficulty
work out your own salvation
not someone else's
work it out in the absence of G*D
not for G*D's good pleasure
for your own
this is G*D's pleasure too

obey this past pleasure
again a difficulty
work with your fear and trembling
not someone else's
work in the presence of G*D
enabling with pleasure
a willingness to face fear
our pleasure too

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_09_01_archive.html

 


 

By what authority are you living?

This is not a comparative question. It is looking for a declaration. A comparable question is, "Who do you say I am?" Again, not a question looking for a comparison or a counting of the ways.

When this question is parsed, it isn't long before fears and confusions set in. Then it isn't long before we deny the very authority we had.

To further exemplify this authority question comes a test questions that appears to be either/or – a question about will-doing that is different from well-doing.

When we are within a healthy creative authority we aren't so quick to answer an either/or. We, rather, ask a question or two in return before responding [contrast "respond" with "answer".]

In the case of this question about will-doing, we want to know more about the nature of the "father". The presenting question about "will" isn't self-evident. Is obedience the key to "will" in this case? Is John the Baptist equitable with the "father"? Is there another anticipated encounter between "father and sons"?

We have the authority needed to lay down our lives and to pick them up. We have the authority to change for the better. We have all the authority we need. Our question is whether we are bold enough to enact it – to be a prophet connected with other prophets to move the status quo ahead. In responding to our question we find our health (salvation and blessing) working toward wider health, larger salvation, and stronger blessing.

- - -

John Dominic Crossan and Jonathan L. Reed, in their book In Search of Paul: How Jesus's Apostle Opposed Rome's Empire with God's Kingdom, comment on "Spirit":

"In itself, Spirit or spirit is clear enough as the invisible glue that holds any group together around some past memory, present purpose, or future project. It is what turns a collectivity of people into a community of commitment either permanently or temporarily. It manifests itself in what that community thanks, says, and does; plans, decides, and accepts; believes, hopes, and loves. Everything thereafter depends on the content of that Spirit. And if you speak of a Holy Spirit, everything depends on the nature of that holiness. Finally, if you invoke the Spirit of God, everything depends on the character of that God.

"You can insist, with Paul, that God's Spirit is a charis, a grace, a free gift like, for example, air or gravity. From those analogies, God's Spirit is that which you can neither create by your own action nor deserve by your own virtue. But it is also permanently available for anyone and demands only that you accept it freely and cooperate with it fully. But, even so, you still have to face this question: What is the character of that God whose Spirit has overtaken you as a free gift?"

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2008_09_01_archive.html

 


 

During the recent church trial of Rev. Amy Delong (LoveOnTrial.org), the question came, “Are you now or have you ever been a “self-avowed practicing homosexual?” Amy wisely replied, “First let me ask you a question, do you ever ask that question of heterosexuals . . . that they are practicing?”

Church counsel had no response. “If we say yes, everyone knows that we don’t ask that question”: “If we say no, how can we ask it here without revealing our prejudice?”

And so Amy went on to clearly identify herself as a lesbian in a loving, committed relationship with her partner. Loving both her partner and her church, she calmly replied, “I won’t answer a question put to me with the intention of harming me.”

So, is the ministry of further revealing the expansive and expanding love of G*D done by a son who lives by the rules on the outside or by a daughter who lives by grace on the inside?

Forced choices by Jesus are no better than forced choices by chief priests of the Church un-Doctrinal Committee. Both have their limits; both reveal intentions.

What trick question have you been responding to when all that was needed was a twist and return question? Perhaps the bind you are currently facing isn’t really a bind. You are not between a rock and a hard place, but between accepted fantasy and walking free.

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2011/09/matthew-2123-32.html

 


 

The authority card is still being played to this day. We recognize it best when it is played against us rather than when we play it. It is a quick and dirty way of cutting conversation and consolidating power. It is short-run effective and long-run deadly to our very desire to use it for good.

It is this issue of authority that is played by every interest group and every status quo group that continues to bedevil church and state -- here there is no separation.

What we don't usually have is a good response to any accusation that we lack standing to stand where we do. Here Jesus puts folks into the midst of the conundrum [def: a riddle whose answer is or involves a pun] that is found at the intersection of heaven and earth. This is usually a very creative (if scary) place to live. It is the arena where the real questions need to be faced, rather than the covering questions about authority. It is one of the most exciting lines in the prayer taught by Jesus -- come "presence of G*D" on earth as in heaven.

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2011/09/matthew-2123-32.html

 


 

ahhhh



entering temple
unwelcome
questioning
authorityless
controversial
suspicious
unstable

entering camp
thirsty
quarrelsome
testing
fearful
threatful
demanding

entering today
entering tomorrow
entering freedom
entering life
entering vocation
entering solidarity
entering identity

carrying new-creation energy 
heart-opening compassion
head-opening sympathy
grounded honesty
true simplicity
careful hope
story ready
quick joy

carrying
sea-split water
into deserts
of our own making
generating
new water
in old lives

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2011/09/ahhhh.html

 


 

If the two greatest commandments are to Love G*D and Love Neighb*r there is no way to split authority in “heavenly” or “human” realms. These are intimately bound together.

Not to put too fine a line on it, this separation ends up privileging heaven over human. Listen to the danger here as Greg Brown sings, "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy" from his album, Freak Flag:

I don’t know why we as people
do the things we do.
We are mostly fine just the way we are
if we could only get a clue.
This longing for an afterlife
has damn near wrecked this place.
Mercy, mercy, mercy:
tears on a face.

http://youtu.be/OF2l_OWaWlw

This separation of heaven and human leads us to deny our own experience. The condemnation is not so much what we have done, but what we have failed to learn when the opportunity was upon us — “...even after you saw it, you did not change your mind.”

May your cry for Mercy be heard by yourself, bring the tears, and then the change.

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2014/09/matthew-2123-32.html