Jesus has just finished serving disciples at table, which has included washing their feet. He goes on to encourage them to continue his works, “Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes in me will do the works that I do, and will do greater ones than these.”
Jesus was a poor man who served other poor men and women. In a sense, he also served the ruling class – by encouraging their conversion, from ruling to serving. Unfortunately, in the book of Acts, Twelve early followers make a backwards conversion, from serving to ruling. They turn away from doing the “works” Jesus does of serving people rendered poor. “Widows were being neglected in the daily distribution” of common goods, including food. “The Twelve… said ‘It is not right for us to neglect the word of God to serve at table.” The Twelve were rejecting as their work Jesus’ work. They were asserting that Jesus’ work of being poor and being in physical communion serving those who are poor were less important than “the word.” But “the word” is not separate points of dogma and rather sharing about loving service. The word is made flesh. It is Jesus, it is disciples, serving in communion at loving agape meals healing persons rendered poor by rulers. Jesus’ “word” included truths about rulers making people poor and refusing to serve them. The Twelve too were now refusing to serve the poor and crafting for themselves ruling roles – superior to the serving “works” of Jesus. An upper or ruling class was introduced into a people’s movement and began to shift it to shift to institutional christianity. The new priestly class crafted the ‘Mass,’ a vestige of Jesus’ “works.” Vestige meaning “a small, degenerate or imperfectly developed part of something from the past.” Jesus’ meal communion with the poor was crafted by priests into a performance of them ‘saying the Mass.’ In time, priests crafted the High Holy Mass, in Latin, a language the people did not speak. Granting virtues assigned to it, the High Holy Mass was not crafted as a communion with those rendered poor. Devotees of such a Mass are in the news in Kansas, members of the Society of St. Pius X, whose historical and current practices include support for colonialism and antisemitism. One member of the Society is Kansas State Representative Francis Awerkamp, a ruler interested in the “the word of God” but not willing “to serve at table.” Awerkamp wants an “ordinance prohibiting public camping, sleeping, or obstructing public right-of-ways… Violations (are a)… misdemeanor with a fine… subsequent violations (are) a class C nonperson misdemeanor (30 days, $500)… (it will result) in more supervision… in collection of docket fees, fines, and supervision fees.” (#2430 was defeated in committee but will likely be re-introduced). Such laws serve the wealthy for-plunder prison corporations helping to fund politicians like Awerkamp. It cannot be said that Awerkamp or his supporters ‘believe in Jesus’ nor ‘will they do the works that Jesus does.’ It can be said they are hypocrites, unapologetically so for their hypocrisy is pervasive; verbal agreement but no observable (Christ-like) conviction. They champion not Jesus’ inclusive communion but empire’s anti-poor discrimination. They laud American exceptionalism while they render Americans poor and homeless through debt wages, food taxes, exorbitant health care costs, and increased housing costs. At the same time they endorse capitalist competition that further impoverishes Americans into homelessness while they benefit from monopolies such as for-plunder prisons to jail all the homeless their schemes produce. People rendered poor and homeless by rulers increasingly includes children. What will become of a people that treats its children so poorly?
“Children… are the future of humanity But many of them live in poverty And without shelter homeless on the street Searching through rubbish bins for scraps of food to eat… (no) opportunities as privileged children do The road from the poor… to prison leads them to… The Government does not care about those who live in poverty No political advantage in philanthropy do they see… Poor children without homes and sleeping rough And life for them already hard enough At the wrong end of the social divide Any chance of a good future to them is denied.” (Poor Children – Francis Duggan)
Prayer: Beautiful Spirit, keep us in communion with people who are poor.
Question: What are my hypocrisies?
May 07, 2023 Gospel John 14:1-12 Fifth Sunday of Easter