November 12, 2023

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE READING:

“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” (James 1.27)

“So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” (Matthew 6.2-4)

TODAY’S REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

We know that there were many different people on that mountainside where Jesus preached. In the area of Capernaum on the north shore of Lake Genneserat, the Sea of Galilee, the fact of multi-culturalism was not considered unusual. It was like a melting pot of nationalities, economics, social strata, religions and cultural histories. In the midst of all that was the nation of Israel and the Jewish religion. It would serve us well to recognize that “mainstream” Judaism would have been in the minority in and around Capernaum. While the Torah remained the Word of God and the guidebook to moral and righteous living, the practices of such would have been flavored by being in a world that was not so Jewish as in Jerusalem. Of course, in the days of Jesus, even that traditional Judaism found in the Law and the Prophets of old was being compromised by the fear of Rome which populated, or should I say- polluted, Jerusalem and Judea. Politics had, and has, a way of bringing a change to the way people think and act; especially if it is not your own politic. This was even more true the further you moved away from Jerusalem. By the time you got to Capernaum, Caesarea Philippi or even Nazareth and beyond wherever Jewish communities existed as they had been established during the Exile six hundred years prior, the presence of “conservative hard-line” practitioners over and against the “more liberal and inclusive” petitioners was well established. Yet, regardless of one’s theo-political viewpoint, being Jewish was key and critical to their choices in living in the world but not of it. With that in mind, I would remiss if I did not remind us in reflection that while there were “non-Jews” present that day on the mountainside, the words which Jesus disseminated to the crowd were intended first and foremost to the Jews. Yes, Jesus is the savior of “the world,” but those who are saved professed a belief that Jesus was the Christ of God and the Messiah of the People of the Land of Promise. That point was non-negotiable and should remain so to this day.

So, when we rehear and listen again to the teachings of Jesus, let us do so knowing this simple fact is in place. As in the words of Paul recorded in the Letter to the Romans, “…the gospel is first preached to the Jews and then to the Gentiles.” I saw a theopolitical cartoon today on social media which speaks to this point. In it are two people. We see only their backs. Across one was draped the Palestinian flag and the dialogue bubble held the words “Praying for peace in the Middle East.” Across the back of the other was the Israeli flag. That dialogue bubble said “Praying for redemption of Israel.” Jesus did not dissuade non-Jews from following Him nor in believing Him. He encouraged it as much as He encouraged those who were of the lineage of Abraham to investigate their own perspective as not bordering on being non-Jewish themselves. How could they do that? Hypocrisy and misinterpretation would be the criticals responses to that question. Deciding for themselves as to what the Law and the Prophets declared, especially based on experience and enculturation, or to be “followers” in name only would stand as a witness against them. They, as they discovered in logic jousting with Jesus, ended up convicting themselves of hypocrisy and heresy. I have a thought that Jesus some sense of satisfaction leading people to that point of reference for themselves. So, like it or not in our modern mind, Jesus was speaking predominantly to the Jewish community and practitioners. Secondarily and constructively, Jesus spoke to everyone else who would consider believing in Him, what He taught and what He promoted.

With that in mind, we must put ourselves first in the shoes of the primary listening audience and consider how He was addressing their beliefs and practices as a Jewish community (liberal or conservation or mainstream). From that perspective, we should be able to apply the same spoken principle to our own community of faith in Christ. The first century communities of faith most certainly had to to do, so why shouldn’t we. By the time we near the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 70 A.D., we are already dealing with Jewish citizens and practitioners across the then-known world who had no experienced first hand the ministry of Jesus. It would be the disciples, now apostles, who would be disseminating such information as we know to be revealed in the gospels (including Luke’s Acts of the Apostles which I have titled before as The Gospel of the Church) and in the letters of Paul. So, as in today’s passage:

1. the needy would be all those who were Jewish and at-risk: widows and orphans first; then the beggars and from a distance some kind of charity for the outcast of lepers and disavowed Jews. There were tithes established for such “charity” as well as opportunities on many street corners as well as the steps leading up to the Temple to make token donations;
2. the hypocrites would be mostly the Pharisees who were bound to “works righteousness” because of their desire to be legalists. It would also include anyone else who made a show of being “charitable” and call it dutiful loving so they would benefit from being “seen as charitable” even though it was probably more tokenism; and,
3. the rest of the listeners who by standards of “those in Jerusalem” were themselves distant cousins of the faith just a step above the Samaritans and seen then as virtual outcasts or the lost of Israel.

In all of this, we would do well to hear Jesus addressing how the Jews took care of their “own” people. How could they be that proverbial “light of the world” if their light was dim within the inner circle. Of course, most of us are familiar with the criticism of the Church as being “Christians are the worst at shooting their wounded.” They can see to prosper the “unbeliever” but if the believer is struggling in the context of the world and in their faith, well let God handle it. Who would want to be a member of that community of faith? It would be better to stay on the outside than to believe one then had to become a “self-made success in the eyes of the Church” member. Most of all, I believe Jesus was speaking against the works righteousness mentality proffered by the Pharisees primarily and by the Temple leadership secondarily. There is supposed to be a difference between “works righteousness” and “righteous works.” I am learning to frame it for my own discussions with others to say, for the sake of word equality, “Righteousness works!” as an affirmation of fulfilling God’s will. On the other side, it remains “works righteousness” which is a failed system that looks good but plants little seeds and gains an even smaller harvest. (I have also learned to apply it to relationships saying: “Relationships work over and against works relationship.” I think you can hear how the struggle for harmony in relationships and success in communities is stretched to a breaking point when you consider it that way. Especially mindful I am when “relationships” is promoted as the fulfillment of the gospel call and “religion” is condemned as an anethma to relationships and righteousness. Perhaps this bears more reflection at another time. Until then, let us proceed further into chapter 6 with these thoughts and parameters in mind for faith communities and their members then and now. Until then, shalom.

PRAYER IN LIGHT OF GOD’S WORD:

Father, You have revealed to us best in Jesus the Christ. By Him and Him alone shall we gain the eternal life and our place in eternal rest, living for You always. Show us more and by Your Holy Spirit instruct us in the way we should go, the truth we should reveal and the life we shall live with you forever. In Jesus’ name, we pray. AMEN.