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Wisdom: Conventional or Counter-cultural?
This Sunday’s readings are concerned with wisdom and its effects. Some of the wisdom is conventional, conveying generally accepted beliefs, opinions, and judgments. It can be contrasted with true wisdom that counters convention. The two wisdoms meet in the Gospel. A conventionally wise rich young man who glorifies rulers, their wealth and laws, seeks…
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The Power of a Partner
Pharisees ask Jesus a seemingly simple question about divorce, “Is it lawful for a husband to divorce his wife?” Jesus, as always, shifts the unspoken premise away from patriarchy. Patriarchy is devised by and for men; their rights and control – for example over property, which includes a wife. Jesus shifts the premise toward…
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How Relevant is Jesus Christ to Christians?
Sunday’s first reading and Gospel are easily compared and contrasted. The first reading is from Numbers titled so because it numbers the men “fit for military service.” The men are unruly and as Moses has killed unruly people before he may again. This time Moses accepts that he needs more commanders for all the…
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Courting Vulnerable Service
Jesus witnesses a life of service and is urging it for others, “If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.” Jesus’ witness is rejected by men who do not serve but instead rule. They will cause Jesus’ violent death, I will “be handed over…
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Pence-ive Theology?
While on a journey, Jesus is thoughtful with Peter and others about what the future holds. He shares with them the suffering and death unthoughtful rulers will sinfully inflict upon him, I “must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed.” “He spoke this openly.”…
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Silence and Speech
A man who lives in silence, “a deaf man who has a speech impediment,” is brought to Jesus. His friends “beg Jesus to lay his hand on him” and heal him. Jesus does so by “putting his finger into the man’s ears and, spitting, touched his tongue.” Jesus then says, “Be opened!” – and…
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Fake Saviors
In Sunday’s first reading, the ruler Moses is cast as a savior. He tells the people they will be saved if they are obedient to him. If not, it will be deadly for them, “that you may live … observe the commandments of the LORD, your God, which I am commanding you … (I)…
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Sex Abuse
Subservience to supremacists is the unfortunate message of Sunday’s non-Gospel readings. The Old Testament reading glorifies people’s subservience to an earthly supremacist, Joshua, and to the heavenly supremacist, Yahweh, Joshua helped invent. Joshua incites submission to Yahweh from the people, “If it does not please you to submit to Yahweh, decide today to whom…
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Living Global, Eating Local
Jesus is revealing to the people the essence of Mystery, a God who is alive, evolving, becoming. Jesus uses living metaphors to imagine the essential vitality of Divinity. For example, Jesus speaks of bread, also of drink and of shared meals. The deep meaningfulness of living, of being and feeling alive nourished by a…
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Which God Is Not Dead?
Jesus has recently fed over 5,000 people with a few loaves of bread. Using bread as a metaphor, he speaks with them about God. He recalls the old desert story of ancient ancestors who believed God gave them “bread from heaven.” Jesus reminds his listeners those ancestors died. Jesus then applies the Divine metaphor…