"The Matrix and the Bread of Life"

I want to start off with the complaint of the people in Exodus because this quote encapsulates the problem of religion.  Religion offers the idea of “The Promised Land,” but when that promise comes at a time of deep suffering and pain, we react in anger and even resentment. “Would that we had died at the LORD’s hand in the land of Egypt, as we sat by our fleshpots and ate our fill of bread! But you had to lead us into this desert to make the whole community die of famine!” The Israelites expressed their frustration by saying that they were willing to return to a system of exploitation and oppression rather than struggle through the necessary steps for them to secure freedom.

Their complaint; however, was not unexpected. Slavery in Egypt was quite different than the slavery that we had in our country. Slaves in Egypt had food and water and while mistreated, research about slavery in that era tell us that that the people were not beaten in the same way Africans were beaten in the United States. Pharaoh kept the Hebrew people alive and happy just enough to keep working, but they would never be truly free: they would never decide anything for themselves or for their community.  Pharaoh’s system was insidious in that people sustained their own suffering by “eating out of their fleshpots” and the “fill of their bread.” No one was motivated to ask the deeper question, “Is this just?”  “Are we really free?”  Moses organized the the people to resist and push back against the system  and he mobilized them to eventually leave the system entirely. Today’s excerpt is an artifact of the struggle not only for the physical separation from the system of oppression, but for the more complicated inner journey of liberation. 

Real liberation, authentic freedom requires those who have been freed to actually believe that they are free men and women. For instance, if you do not see yourself as free you will never truly be free. If you do not even see yourself as being enslaved, you will never even want to fight for freedom. In fact, those who refuse to see the system of oppression will resist the movement of liberation. They will call people “communists” or “do gooders” “unrealistic idealists.” They may even resort to killing the prophet of justice.  Can we think of any examples where this happens today?

The Hebrew people were enslaved and they struggled within themselves to accept if they were in fact slaves or not. Whether enslaved in Egypt or Babylon, God’s people had to struggle with the responsibility that comes from consciousness. Once they were aware that they were slaves and accepted the concept that God didn’t make human beings to be slaves to one another, they were faced with making a choice: to be free or to remain a slave. 

One of my favorite movies of all time is the Matrix.  In one of the most important scenes of the movie the two protagonists, Morpheus gives Neo the option of being conscious or continuing his life as it is: working, paying taxes, going about everyday activities or knowing the truth that he is a slave and all that surrounds him is false. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFhn_GUAhGU) This scene encapsulates the process of conscientización that is necessary for one to take up the causa for liberation.  

The movie’s premise is that all humanity is trapped in a “matrix” of oppression and falsehood. People’s life energy was literally being absorbed to sustain a complex of machines that really ran the world. In exchange, these machines provided the illusion that people’s lives were meaningful.  Morpheus represented a movement of “conscientización” which sought to free humanity from enslavement, but the only way to enter the movement was to accept the truth: that we were slaves. In the pivotal scene of “conscientización” Morpheus offered Neo two pills: one red, the other blue. “…The red pill will answer the question ‘what is the Matrix?’ and the blue pill simply for life to carry on as before.” Neo reached for the red pill and Morpheus warned Neo, “Remember, all I’m offering is the truth. Nothing more.” Neo accepted the red pill and he took the water. After, Morpheus says, “Follow me.” Neo went on to become aware of his entrapment and became a kind of “savior figure” that led the human race to freedom. Returning to the Scriptures, we have Jesus before the crowd, not with a red and a blue pill, but standing before the people offering them a choice: to continue to eat the bread of falsehood, the bread that perishes, or to eat the Bread of Life which is given by the Son of Man.

Recall last week what I said about the bread, that Jesus offered a paradigm different from the consumerist paradigm where the solution to hunger is to purchase from the rich bread that would feed the people. Jesus offered a new system, “Have the people recline together.”  The paradigm of reclining together rather than purchasing bread from a rich merchant is a paradigm of mutuality, solidarity, cooperation and equality.  Reclining position suggests that all at the same level and that the solution is found by feeding one another with the meal of the poor: barley bread and fish. Jesus paradigm of mutuality ushers in a new age of justice where humanity cooperates together in feeding the hungry by sharing equally in the harvest and labor, rather than creating a system that exploits the labor of the worker and rewards only those who can afford to pay for food.

After hearing Jesus speak, the people were hungry not only for bread, they were hungry for what Jesus himself was offering. They asked, “What sign can you do, that we may see and believe in you? What can you do?” Jesus responded,   “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst.” By identifying himself as the Bread of Life, he offered them the choice of taking responsibility and sharing this consciousness of the need for liberation with the world.

Let us, then, eat this bread: the Bread of Justice, the Bread of Consciousness, the Bread of Liberation. And as we eat, we remember that we were promised true, authentic and everlasting liberation…where all who take this bread and eat it, will in turn become bread for others.

Empires of the Golden Calf

Empires of the Golden Calf

The prophet Ezekiel reveals his conversation with God in our first reading. In this conversation it is clear that God has sent the Spirit into the prophet to wake up the people - to stir up in them a sense of HOPE. Ezekiel along with his people was forcefully exiled to Babylon 600 years before Jesus’ birth. Ezekiel knew that liberation would not come in the short run. In fact, liberation for God’s people would take several generations. God wanted him to give the people a DEFIANT HOPE in their religious speech that would eventually bear fruit in personal aspirations and political action.

Jesus’ words and actions are also about DEFIANT HOPE. His preaching, like Ezekiel’s was about “conscientización” the waking up of one’s heart, mind and soul. His prophetic ministry made people aware of the conditions of oppression that they lived in and at the same time inspired them to take responsibility for their own liberation. In today’s passage Jesus is preaching to a skeptical audience. Because the people had become accustomed to accepting the difficult conditions imposed by Rome. Galilee was basically a large labor camp for the workers employed by the Romans and the wealthy political class of Jerusalem. The congregation in the synagogue didn’t want to accept the challenge of freedom. Instead of saying “What do I need to do to be free?” they said, among themselves, “Who is this crazy guy?!”

All wealth and resources from the colonized areas in the Roman Empire flowed to Rome.  Roman citizens were given full rights and privileges and non-Roman citizens were seldom if ever given a pathway to Roman citizenship, therefore keeping people in a permanent state of subjugation and servitude.  How did Rome maintain this inherently unfair system? Through militarization of the Temple Police and the presence of Roman Army. The threat of violence ensured that goods and wealth would always flow to the top. Few if any wanted to challenge this injustice. Because Galilee was considered a “back water” area populated by the underclass and workers, no one saw the poorest of the poor as a threat. And sadly Jesus knew it. “‘A prophet is not without honor except in his native place and among his own kin and in his own house.’…He was amazed at their lack of faith.”  

Jesus; however, did not have lack of faith. Being in the line of Ezekiel’s prophetic ministry, Jesus belonged to a larger movement in what historians today understand as a time of rising resistance to the Empire. (see http://www.patheos.com/blogs/thepangeablog/articles/unpublished-papers/behind-lukes-gospel-the-roman-empire-during-the-time-of-jesus/ and if you have time, https://heldercarlosdotcom.wordpress.com/2013/07/13/the-socio-political-and-economic-situation-in-the-first-century-c-e-palestine-the-earthly-ministry-of-jesus-and-the-programme-of-renewal-for-the-people-of-israel/)  Jesus’ unique contribution to this movement was the emphasis on making one free on the inside as a way to become free on the outside. Change happens when each of us become the change we want to see in society.  If we want to be free from being subjected to the hate and violence of the Romans, then we ourselves have to become free from being violent and spiteful. If we want to be be shown mercy, then we ourselves must be merciful. Jesus understood that in order for one to be DEFIANTLY HOPEFUL in confronting political and economic oppression, one had to be DEFIANTLY HOPEFUL on the INSIDE. 

Now let’s take the conversation to our time. This weekend we celebrate Independence Day. We’ve talked about the Roman Empire as the context for Jesus’ ministry, let’s see the Scriptures in the context of the British Empire.  A critical reading of American history will show us that the British colonies on the East Coast began as a foothold for British economic expansion in the world. The promise of religious freedom was merely a “marketing strategy” to get people to migrate to the New World. British colonies here and in the Indian sub-continent were merely “cash cows” for the Crown.  Indigenous populations were seen as resources and commodities, not people. When the indigenous populations refused to comply with domination, they were exterminated and replaced with British subjects who were more likely to cooperate with the the Crown’s plan of Empire expansion.

Over time the colonists began to demand having a say in the decisions that affected their daily lives. They wanted representation in Parliament and to trade with other countries.  The British Empire, like the Roman Empire was not built upon the ideals of a participatory democracy. The Crown was the final word and all wealth and resources flowed from the bottom up. Only landed gentry with prior approval by the Crown could participate in making laws. And to ensure that this system stayed in place, the British Empire sent troops to maintain order. When the people pushed back against the Empire, the Crown placed greater restrictions on the people using violent force through increased militarization of the troops, censorship of published materials critical of the Empire and arresting people who spoke out against the Empire.  The “Founding Fathers” created the “Declaration of Independence” stating that the states were declaring a formal separation from the British Empire.  And that is what we as Americans celebrate today: Independence from a tyrannical system of oppression.  But are we really free? (The Declaration had many grievances listed, among them: criticism that resources from the colonies served the Crown and not the people; that the Empire unreasonably restricted immigration and land expansion; the unnecessary presence of a standing army without the consent of the people; that the occupying forces were never punished for murder and harm to the people; and for inciting divisions and insurrections within the states to destabilize the people from organizing local control).

Have we traded one Empire for another?  Are we still playing the same game, but merely changed the game-pieces? Pope Francis writes, “The worship of the ancient golden calf (cf. Ex 32:1-35) has returned in a new and ruthless guise in the idolatry of money and the dictatorship of an impersonal economy lacking a truly human purpose. The worldwide crisis affecting finance and the economy lays bare their imbalances and, above all, their lack of real concern for human beings; man is reduced to one of his needs alone: consumption.” (E.G. 55). The Empire of the Golden Calf’s “…thirst for power and possessions (that) knows no limits.” says Pope Francis. The Empire “…tends to devour everything which stands in the way of increased profits, whatever is fragile, like the environment, is defenseless before the interests of a deified market, which become the only rule.” (E.G. 56) 

In the explosive public document on the environment the Holy Father shows that our economic system is the culprit behind ecological degradation. The top 1% believe that they have the right “…to consume in a way which can never be universalized.”… Echoing the words of John Paul II, Pope Francis says, “God gave the earth to the whole human race for the sustenance of all its members, without excluding or favoring anyone.” (LS 92) Roman Empire. British Empire and now, the Empire of the Golden Calf. Again I ask, are we actually free?

The Declaration was written in a spirit of DEFIANT HOPE that these former colonies would eventually build a better society.  In our 239th year after the Declaration was signed, our so-called independence is sustained by increased personal surveillance, the suspension of privacy, and suppression of due process under the “Patriot Act;” with increased militarization of local police trained in suppression rather than conflict resolution leaving poor communities in a state of constant anxiety; and the creation of a permanent caste of people with no pathway to liberty and participation in democracy because the lieutenants of the Empire refuse to pass immigration reform. And a third time I ask, are we truly free?

How far have we strayed! The Empire has been born again under a different name and the fruit of its loin is income disparity and a less democratic America. Special interests with deep pockets have influenced election outcomes and public policy.  Poor people and minorities are less likely to participate in elections. (see http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/01/why-are-the-poor-and-minorities-less-likely-to-vote/282896/)  Billionaire industrialists led by the Koch brothers have pushed through voter suppression laws limiting poor people’s access to participate in democracy.  (http://www.prwatch.org/news/2011/11/11117/koch-funded-alec-agenda-works-deny-voting-rights-brave-new-film-highlights-voter-) The income gap has shrunk the middle class by reducing wealth and increasing debt. (http://www.demos.org/publication/running-place-where-middle-class-and-poor-meet, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/laura-tyson/us-income-inequality-costs_b_6249904.html, and http://equitablegrowth.org/research/exploding-wealth-inequality-united-states/).  As if the lack of political access, disappearing wealth, and increased debt is not enough, the reach of the Empire has penetrated our very souls. A study from Harvard University’s School of Public Health shows that women who live in areas areas with large income gaps are much more likely to suffer depression than those who live in areas with a more equal income distribution. (http://thinkprogress.org/health/2013/10/31/2868811/income-inequality-women-depression/) When the spiritual heads of our households are hurting, imagine how hard it would be just to get ourselves motivated enough just to get out of bed to go to a job that doesn’t pay enough to provide the most basic necessities of our life. Whether you call it the Roman Empire, British Empire or the Empire of the Golden Calf our freedom, our independence still eludes us. Has the time come to declare our true independence? To be be truly free?

As people of faith we must be DEFIANTLY HOPEFUL. We must take up the cross and truly be free men and women. So come then to this table, a Table that reminds us that there is LIFE in the face of DEATH and that with God, all things are possible, especially a true, authentic and enduring freedom.

As I close, LET US CONSIDER THESE WORDS…

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Freedom is coming, Freedom is coming, Freedom is coming oh, yes I know.

Freedom is coming, Freedom is coming, Freedom is coming oh, yes I know.

oh, yes I know. oh, yes I know. oh, yes I know. oh, yes I know.

oh, yes I know. oh, yes I know. oh, yes I know. oh, yes I know.

OH, FREEDOM, OH FREEDOM. OH, FREEDOM - FREEDOM IS COMING OH YES I KNOW.

OH YES I KNOW, OH YES I KNOW. OH YES I KNOW, OH YES I KNOW.

The Ascension -

Jesus had a grand VISION: to change the world!  Jesus’ disciples are the core of that vision because they would create change in the world.  Today I want to talk about being a community of transformation based on the VISION of mutuality and unconditional love.

Jesus sent disciples into the world not retreat from it, but to get involved in the world:  to proclaim hope in a hopeless situation, love in a loveless situation, healing where there was injury and to pass that VISION down to a new generation of disciples. By living Jesus’ VISION out in the world, the disciples TRANSFORMED the world because they dared to proclaim the Good News. In the Gospel of Mark the Good News was preached through action: curing the possessed, healing the leper and the sick, forgiving the enemy, and embracing the poor. Jesus was the Good News and the crucifixion could not stop the Good News from going out into the world.  Wherever equality and mercy were present, transformation happened. When Jesus said, “Go and proclaim” we should understand that proclaiming wasn’t about shaming people into conversion, but about restoring the world to order through peace and forgiveness.  As Church folk we ought to remember that.

As a rabbi, Jesus was familiar with the Jewish concept of “Tikkan olam,” or “healing the world.” This Hebrew phrase literally means “repairing the world.” Jewish prayers call upon God’s people to serve God and at the same time express the hope that the whole world might be eventually abandon idolatrous patterns and accept God.  Rabbis like Jesus preached that the disciples might be “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exodus 19:5-6) and that they be “light of and to the nations”(Isaiah 42:6 and 49:6). “Tikkan olam" led rabbis like Jesus to promote an activist type of faith where human beings fundamentally share in the responsibility in bringing peace to the world and justice to the oppressed. 

The first generation of Christians had a strong activist faith and their communities were truly communities of Good News. The early community, as described in the Acts of the Apostles, shared their resources with one another and took special care of widows and orphans. The community was diverse and went to great lengths to be sure all voices were heard and incorporated into their activities.  These communities were made possible because new generations of DISCIPLES tried on Jesus’ VISION of transforming the world. Disciples should be strong and unafraid. “… they will drive out demons…pick up serpents with their hands, and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not harm them.”  Disciples should be people of healing: “They will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover”  Disciples should be people sensitive to other cultures and points of view: “…they will speak new languages.”

When we embrace those qualities and come from a place of hope and love, we truly are transformed and begin to live an a manner of humility and gentleness, patience and acceptance with others. We form communities - parishes where unity is found in diversity, not conformity. Our love for one another is unconditional and we embrace all people and reject no one. Our community would become a place of mutuality: where all parties come from a place of self-sacrifice not self-preservation. Our love is a love that forgives and heals, it is not not resentful: rather than blame and shame, we look to reconcile and mend.  Disciples of the Good News are drawn to one another, they are more inclined to seek the common good rather than pursue particular greed. Communities of the Good News are born out of Good News, that is a VISION of HOPE.  Jesus is THE NEW HOPE.

Jesus calls forth men and women of faith to faith rise up from the rubble of discord, jealously and violence and become new people held together by mutual respect in which all people’s giftedness are respected and honored and all stories are told, not just the ones with which we’re comfortable or that we find “acceptable” in Christian company. The Acts of the Apostles says that in the ideal community people will assume a number of roles and functions: missionaries, justice advocates, teachers, or those who care for the sick and suffering. Others will be drawn to teaching, others will be gifted in organization.  All works of ministry will be “building up the body of Christ…until we attain to the unity of faith and knowledge of the Son of God…”

Communities of VISION are strong and courageous. They are bold in calling out death and darkness. They do not fear the tyrant or dictator. They stand up to bullies and hate-mongers.  Communities of love battle ignorance and prejudice with dialog and common understanding. Isn’t this the VISION we want for ourselves? Jesus entrusted this VISION to us, so we must figure out if we are willing to accept the VISION - that is, take ownership of it and run with it, or will we stand paralyzed by indecision or fear of getting involved “looking up at the sky?” When Jesus ascended to God’s right hand, he left the disciples a VISION of a mission. The Feast of the Ascension is Jesus’ promise to pray from God’s right hand for us as we do our work.  Let us embrace that VISION and change the world!

Pentecost 2015

Traditionally we say that Pentecost is the birth of the Church. That is true, but if we accept that belief without any real critical reading, then we miss the entire point of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit was not “making” the Church - the Holy Spirit was not creating an institution with all its rules and structures. The Holy Spirit was gathering a community of disciples together and sending them forth into the world to continue the work that Jesus began: to heal the world. If we were to understand Pentecost from this perspective, we would see that the Holy Spirit at Pentecost gave birth to a MOVEMENT that is dynamic and relevant to all cultures and in different ages.

The Holy Spirit descended upon the believers for them to fully engage in the “JESUS MOVEMENT”: That is a movement centered around love and forgiveness.This movement was born in a society that was torn apart by violence. At the time of Jesus, all the resources of the known world were funneled to the top, that is, everything went upwards to benefit Cesar. When people refused or even resisted giving their alliance to Cesar, swift punishment followed. People were forced to comply with the system. When people didn’t “go along” surrogate enforcers were integrated into the society to force compliance. Social systems were compromised to weed out “rebels” and religious systems were compromised to ensure a passive population that allowed themselves to be preoccupied with the details of ritual purity rather than asking the big questions about injustice and exploitation.

Jesus initiated a movement to QUESTION the legitimacy of such a system. His message was simple: love and forgive. “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.” Loving and forgiving pay attention to those who were left out and left behind. Loving and forgiving bid us to pay more attention to the suffering of the neighbor more than searching out heretics or maintaining purity for ritual sacrifice. Love makes us bold enough to ask the question, “Why ISN’T love enough?” Love makes us focus on the situation at hand, not an abstract law. “What does love demand of us in THIS situation?”  Love makes the choice clear: to love my neighbor, to support my neighbor, to mend divisions between myself and my neighbor…or to not care for my neighbor and let the division grow.

The JESUS MOVEMENT was set in motion the moment Jesus rose from the baptismal waters and preached Isaiah, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free…” The MOVEMENT was proven indestructible - Jesus ROSE from the dead.  The MOVEMENT was given to all generations and all humankind: PENTECOST. So let’s look at the origins of Pentecost.

Pentecost originates in the Jewish feast, “Shavuot.”  Shavuot celebrates the reception of the Torah. The festival is connected to Passover - that celebrated the liberation of the slaves from Egypt and Shavuot reminds the Jewish community that liberation is completed only when we work to liberate others.  The giving of the Law reminds the Jewish community the simple phrase, "All that the LORD says we will do.”  The gift of the Christian meaning of the celebration of Pentecost is derived from our Jewish roots.  For Christians, the law given to us is the LAW OF LOVE. “‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” And again, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.”  The Jewish admonition still applies, “All that the Lord says, we will do.”

So now, let’s look at the beatification of Monsignor Oscar Romero. The beatification of Oscar Romero taking place on Pentecost signals to the entire Catholic world that the work and mission of the CHURCH is in fact to walk with and advocate for the poor. This beatification also signals a radical departure from being a Church that was more concerned about compliance with our teaching, adherence to prescribed liturgical rubrics, obedience to authority, and working politely behind the scenes to help the poor, (but not at the expense of the rich). 

Brothers, how I wish I burn in the hearts of everyone this great idea: Christianity is not simply a collection of truths in which we are obligated to believe, or laws that must obey or a list of prohibitions! Such a concept of Christianity is rather repugnant. Christianity is above all things, about a person, one who loved me so much that in return, demands my love. The Christian faith is the person of Jesus Christ.  (November 6, 1977)

Now let’s return to Pentecost’s admonition, “All that the Lord says, we will do…”. Does this not demand that we address the issues of injustice not simply with words, but with our LIVES? Is it enough that we wring our hands in frustration with the condition of the poor? No! Is it enough that proclaim absolution over the penitent, and yet not lift a finger to help our sister or brother deal with the conditions that led them to sin? No! Is a handshake sufficient in demonstrating our solidarity with our brother and sister? No! Pentecost demands so much more than a silent prayer, a feeling of frustration over injustice, a proclamation of forgiveness or a handshake. We cannot remain blind and deaf to the realities of those who suffer; Pentecost demands that we get involved in the movement of liberation. We forgive sins by welcoming everyone to the table, Pentecost is the spirit of liberation, it is the spirit of a MOVEMENT in which all people must be made free. Our part in this movement is to participate in God’s plan of liberation.

I want to close our reflection with the prayer attributed to Oscar Romero.

It helps, now and then, to step back

and take the long view.

The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts,

it is beyond our vision.

We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of

the magnificent enterprise that is God’s work.

Nothing we do is complete,

which is another way of saying

that the kingdom always lies beyond us.

No statement says all that could be said.

No prayer fully expresses our faith.

No confession brings perfection.

No pastoral visit brings wholeness.

No program accomplishes the church’s mission.

No set of goals and objectives includes everything.

This is what we are about:

We plant seeds that one day will grow.

We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise.

We lay foundations that will need further development.

We provide yeast that produces effects beyond our capabilities.

We cannot do everything

and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that.

This enables us to do something,

and to do it very well.

It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way,

an opportunity for God’s grace to enter and do the rest.

We may never see the end results,

but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker.

We are workers, not master builders,

ministers, not messiahs.

We are prophets of a future not our own. Amen.

Go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”

God the Father created us out of a divine act of love and with the intention that we be brother and sister to one another. God called Moses to lead his people out of slavery, the most brutal system of exploitation, and guide them into the Promised Land. God raised Israel up to be an enduring sign of resistance against enslavement in any time and any place.  In the course of history, God gave us his son Jesus the Christ, the INCARNATE WORD of the FATHER. Jesus the Christ died for all creation thereby restoring the human family once and for all to God’s original intent: equality and community.  From the Father and Son, we were given the Spirit, so that future generations of disciples would maintain the struggle for liberation with courage and steadfastness, wisdom and strength, prudence and spiritual sensitivity. This is the Trinity.  The power of the Triune God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is like a mighty river of Justice washing away the structures of exploitation and inequality. Jesus calls his disciples to go forth and let water flow into the desert, “Go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”  This is the evangelization of the nations - to proclaim the Good News.

Making disciples and baptizing them, means…

•      We proclaim FREEDOM: We open doors for those held in captivity, that we make a way where there is no way.  We confront the exclusion and bust open the doors of injustice that keep people in darkness, in isolation and in fear.

•      We proclaim VISION: Jesus gives us a vision so that we can see the possibilities that cooperation, forgiveness, self-sacrifice are ultimately more rewarding than acquiring things for ourselves.   

•      We create a COMMUNITY of disciples by welcoming people to the table! Our evangelical task is to find ways for people to share in the harvest and not feel shame and guilt so that they excuse themselves from participating fully in the banquet of love. Rather than insisting on conformity and uniformity, we would focus on inclusion and making space for a diversity and dialog.

Jesus was not initiating a massive membership drive to “sign people up” to be members of the Church. He was calling his disciples to change the world.  A world in which the blind can see. That those who live in conditions of darkness, would finally seen the dawn of a new day. In a changed world the mute speak for themselves and the deaf hear. In a world transformed by Jesus, those who were controlled by debt and poverty are given a reprieve, a “forgiveness of debt” as it were, and they can begin to live for a future that they can control.

In a society transformed by freedom, vision and community, the millions of people held in prisons, detention centers and secret holding facilities would finally have a chance of securing a strong defense and access to a fair jury trial. Those in bondage because of human trafficking and forced labor would be freed from their captors and the homeless man, the refugee, and the immigrant family would all have a chance to live without the fear of arrest, deportation or exploitation. In a transformed world, the emotionally isolated and physically incapacitated are connected to a caring and nurturing community.

When we baptize, we dismantle the fundamental structures of exclusion in the world. We confront the system of economic disparity where the owner is disproportionately rewarded from the toil of the worker, where racism masquerades itself in “law and order”, where creeping fascism becomes evident in the militarization and brutality of law enforcement, where people’s civil liberties and due process are ignored in our court and immigration system. Let’s step back and think about this.  Are we ready to shift our thinking about what it means to evangelize the nations? Can we be a Church that stands with those who yearn for freedom, that is guided by a vision where all are welcome? Can we be a Church that is BOLD?  

If we want to be bold, we cannot replace the Good News with rules and demands of obedience and our relationship with God cannot be expressed only on Sundays.  Remember our reading from Romans: we received the Spirit of freedom so that we no longer are enslaved by fear. We are the adopted sons and daughters of God and have been graced with a relationship with God, that we can call him “Abba/Father” and thus are co-heirs to eternal life with Christ.  If we believe these simple statements, then what do we have to fear in being a bold Church? 

A bold faith with high aspirations demands a faith response: to follow Christ, to imitate Christ - even to the point of giving our lives. If we do our job right we will probably suffer.  We will face opposition as we advocate for greater freedom and participation and there will be people trying to keep us down.  Opposition may be strong and at times and even overwhelming, but let us take our strength from this meal where we are nourished enough to  continue the Lucha, the Mission: to free captives, give sight to the blind and proclaim the Good News to the poor.