“The people sit in darkness.” A tyrant, aligned with another more tyrannical ruler, controls the darkness. He’s entombing a challenger in his darkness. The people need someone to step forth as a light. Someone does and offers a vision into the darkness and, more importantly, a vision beyond it. With this Sunday’s Gospel in one hand and the news of the day in the other, the description can be of this age. Thus, we speak of the tyrants Herod and Trump, Caesar and Putin. The empire’s silencing and arrest of John the Baptist is comparable to its silencing and arrest of current challengers. Empire’s spawn in darkness. Who among us will step forth as light? Who among us will provide a vision beyond the darkness?
A darkness strongly promoted by the current tyrant of empire is patriotism. Patriotism has already and will continue to entomb people in its darkness, specifically self-titled Christians. The people shrouded in the darkness of patriotism are diverted from the bright light of the “Community of God.” They are diverted from hearing, “Come, follow me.” From this Sunday’s readings, we learn Paul is among those shrouded in darkness. Paul rarely relays Jesus’ witness, especially to the Community of God. When Paul uses Jesus’ name he often uses it as a cover for his own dark and divisive beliefs. They are beliefs about sinners, their justified suffering, and the cross, and their meaning is spawned from the dark of empire. The dark of empire can be felt at this weekend’s inaugural festivities from Franklin Graham, Paula White, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, and other tyrants. They ensure empire’s naming of sinners – Mexicans, Muslims, LGBTQ. Their justified suffering will be made current. The crosses forced upon them will include the repeal of the ACA, the denial of human rights to persons who are gay, the proposal of a Muslim registry, and the diminishment of the EPA, public schools, minimum wage, alternative energy initiatives, and so much more. It will all be done under the darkness of patriotism.
Shifting from the darkness of patriotism with its cliques of national political parties, to a new bright light of a Community for all people is, in part, explained by author Thomas Kuhn in his book, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. In it, Kuhn describes the influence of paradigms and the difficulty in making a paradigm shift. Paradigms are “entire constellations of beliefs, values, techniques, and so on shared by the members of a given community.” Patriotism is one such paradigm and requires a shift. The shift first entails admitting we have a problem because the old paradigm is not working; it is dark. The shift next entails dealing with the resistance from those who benefit from the old dark paradigm, such as self-titled Christians. They will resist admitting how dark patriotism is and will resist any light being shone on that truth. The final and most important step of the paradigm shift is for people to give themselves to creating the new paradigm, to being the bright light of a new Community.
Prayer: Spirit, may we be your bright light in this world.
Question: How shall we create the new Community in our age?
January 22, 2017 Gospel Matthew 4:12-23 Third Sunday in Ordinary Time