“Jesus said to the chief priests and elders, “A man had two sons. To the first he said, ‘Son, go out and work in the vineyard today.’ He said in reply, ‘I will not,’ but afterwards changed his mind and went. The man came to the other son and gave the same order. He said in reply, ‘Yes, sir, ‘but did not go. Which of the two did his father’s will?” They answered, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “Amen, I say to you, tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God before you.”
The Gospel’s two sons represent a predicament of our time, especially for we who live in the U.S. It’s the difference between living the truth and presenting an image, a public performance that entertains and is specially prepared to gain favor but is a lie. The U.S. president presents an image of himself as a man of the people, like a McDonald’s fry station worker, while in truth he dominates as an oligarch with oligarch friends; he presents an image of himself as not needing his salary, while in truth he greedily gains from every possible corruption; he presents an image of himself as wanting no new wars while in truth he’s been waging war his entire life – on women, on the press, on workers, and on any person with “bad genes.” So too his MAGA supporters present an image of themselves as Christ-like, while in truth, they’re warrior-like. Like the president, they too dominate, are greedy, and wage war. Not only currently, but earlier U.S. nationalists presented an image of ‘America’ – as a nation of equals, while in truth we’re dominated by supremacists; as a nation of free people, while in truth we’re slaves to a greedy owner class; as a nation of creative people while in truth we’re forced or coerced into a bread and circus warrior ethic that targets women, minorities, immigrants, people who are poor and middle class, and anybody who dissents from this empire’s many warriors – soldiers/police/militia/ICE – who claim the right to wage war against us. Trump and MAGA tell lies about the image of America while they’re the truth of America. No need to utter, ‘This isn’t America.’ This is indeed America. America has always been this regime; the wealthy white male supremacist, the greedy plantation owner who enslaves people for political and capital gain, and the warrior whose ethic for waging war is destroying people and societies across the world. For this president, this MAGA, this ‘America,’ there’s nothing for which to apologize. Nothing for which to be held accountable. Supremacy, capitalism, and waging war is who they are, proudly so. When they’re being egregiously dominating, greedy, killers, they’re being ‘American.’ It’s only public figures who don’t fulfill this egregious imperial image who should be held accountable; Harris, Biden, Obama, Sanders, et al who are egregious for being un’American.’ It’s especially any and all lesser beings who don’t fulfill the egregious imperial image of ‘America’ who should be made to apologize, who should be held accountable, like immigrants. Yet, they’re the truth of America. America is every place where subordinated people live independent of supremacists and live together in equality, where enslaved people unbind themselves and live together in freedom, and where artistic people renounce killing and imagine and witness creative lives together. America, like every place, can only live its truth by admitting its image is just that, a public performance that entertains and is specially prepared to gain favor but is a lie. America First? “Amen, I say to you, tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God before you.”
“There’s a poem in Charlottesville where tiki torches string a ring of flame… where men so white they gleam blue… ever higher where Heather Heyer blooms forever in a meadow of resistance.… There’s a lyric in California where thousands of students march for blocks, undocumented and unafraid; where my friend Rosa… knows… a truth: that you can’t stop a dreamer or knock down a dream… our America, our American lyric to write—a poem by the people… Tyrants fear the poet… There’s a poem in this place… a poet in every American who rewrites this nation… There’s a place where this poem dwells—it is here, it is now, in the yellow song of dawn’s bell where we write an American lyric we are just beginning to tell.” (There’s a Poem in This Place – Amanda Gorman)
Prayer: Beautiful Spirit, guide us in the truth.
Question: How does my image of myself match the truth of myself?
September 27, 2026 Gospel Matthew 21:28-32 Twenty Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time
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