“The kingdom of God is at hand"

Today’s gospel addresses the question whether or not we too want to be fishers of the human family. When Jesus called the Apostles together, he didn’t call them to become an army of legalists, but rather to be fishermen - to cast our nets deep and wide, to capture all human beings in a deep sense of love.  When we cast our nets, the point isn’t to try to augment our membership, but rather to become brother and sister to others.  Being fishers of men and women isn’t a membership drive!  It is, rather, a way of dedicating ourselves to the vision of an all-inclusive human family where no one suffers isolation and violence. Where all are clothed. Where the prisoner is freed.  Where the sinner is welcomed home.  Where the enemies sit at table with each other. Where healing is more important than figuring out who is right and who is wrong.   When Jesus invited the disciples to follow him and leave their nets behind and to become fishers of the human race, he invited them to with him to break bread with him and to discover the power of love.  After he formed them, sent them out to share Good News. He didn’t send them out with memorized formulas that would be imposed on others and a sword to convert the unwilling.  Today’s readings help us get at the question from the beginning, will we too become fishers of men and women?

My first reading of the book of Jonah as a young teen I had a literal understanding of the story: I understood that Jonah was as a story about a man who was swallowed by a whale. I missed the part about why Jonah was swallowed in the first place. Jonah was avoiding his duty of following God’s mandate, to preach repentance and forgiveness in Nineveh and when he refused to go to Nineveh, God created a storm and his shipmates tossed him over the side where a whale swallowed him and spit him up on the shore. In the seminary we studied the Jonah story and learned about why Jonah was so reluctant to preach to the Ninevites.  They were considered unclean and unworthy of saving by the Israelites. They were enemies and Jonah didn’t want to save his enemies - even if God sent him to get them to change. In my reading of Jonah today after experience in parish ministry and working with people who are from other religions - each of our religions claiming to contain the one and only truth - that maybe our claims of who is “saved” or who is more saved than others - has led me to read Jonah in a deeper, more reflective way.  The story is about self-righteousness.

After years of conversation with clergy colleagues from other religion and churches, I’ve come to see elements of “truth” in another person’s religious tradition. I’ve learned to appreciate rituals and doctrines of other religions without diminishing my belief in my own.  When we have multi-religious dialog with other clergy, it’s not for the purpose of winning people to our side, but rather, to appreciate what they see as truth and what they teach as doctrine.  Clergy and laity that are threatened by inter-religious dialog tend not to do well with this approach. If Jonah were here, he would run for the hills!  You see, the story is about God wanting Jonah to repent of his self-righteousness so that he could LOVE the people as his brothers and sisters.  Sadly, Jonah couldn’t love them. His self-righteousness prevented his conversion. The story ends with him filled with resentment, sitting alone.

This past week I saw this Indian movie, PK (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PK_(film)) that tells the story about self-righteousness in a different way: with dancing, singing and humor. The movie is about an alien, known as “PK” who came down to study the human race.  He lands in India - a country that is one of the most religiously diverse countries in the world. As soon as his space ship lands, a thief robs him of the special remote control for the space ship.  Without the remote control, he is stuck on earth. So PK sets out to look for the device. He discovers that humans speak and that they lie.  Because he doesn’t know how to lie and that he uses only thoughts to communicate, he has to learn the language the the only way he can learn the language is to hold someone’s hands.  Of course no one wants to hold his hands, so a musician that befriended him, took him to a lady who gets paid to “hold men’s hands.” He learns the language after holding hands with her - and that’s all he did - hold hands. PK had no sense of what is acceptable or not acceptable, he’s simply an innocent child.

PK doesn’t understand why people lie and why they hide the truth from one another.  So…on his journey he is asking where he can find his special remote control.  And of course no one could help him, but everyone told him to ask God for help. He knew that people were sincere in their belief so PK looked for God. He started out in a Hindu temple, then went to Catholic church, then a Mosque. At each place he made an huge ruckus - accompanied by songs, dances and a lot of laughs. After experiencing more confusion and getting no guidance from the clergy, PK came to see that the human family worshiped 2 gods. The God that made the universe, who loves the human race and who wants only the best for his children and a second god: the god that human beings made up: the god of capricious will who demands favors from the people in order to grant prayers, threatens people with damnation and controls people by fear and the use of violence. PK came to the conclusion that the clergy are “bad managers” who promote the second god.  These managers were interested in promoting their own will, rather than God’s will.  The movie is done in jest and doesn’t take itself too seriously.  And, like most Indian movies, there is a love story…but in this Indian movie, the love story is between a Pakistani boy (who is Muslim) and a high caste Indian girl who is Hindu. Will the love between the lovers be stronger than their differences?

The movie wasn’t shown in India because it would upset many people and could very well incite some to commit violent acts. It is sad that religious extremism has brought us to this sad place in history. Attacks against Muslims and Jews is on the rise and here and in Europe. In the US religious zealots have taken it upon themselves to kill others here and even take their violence abroad. (See http://thehumanist.com/news/religion/5-dangerous-christian-hate-groups and http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/25/anti-gay-belize_n_3653609.html) Hyper-sensitive religious zealots go on murderous rampages against unbelievers or anyone that disagrees with them. Hyper-vigilant, so-called “super-patriots” fool themselves in thinking that they have the moral high ground when they choose to suspend civil rights and due process in the name of security or when they invade another country in the name of national interest. Self-righteousness whether it be motivated by religion or misguided patriotism, will always result in violence. 

As religious people, we have the unique responsibility to stop this insidious cycle. We must reflect Jesus’ words, “The kingdom of God is at hand.

Repent, and believe in the gospel.” Pope Francis recognizes that each believer must confront his or her own self-righteousness (see http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/the-self-righteous-can-cook-in-their-own-stew-says-pope/) and engage in dialog, not a diatribe.  We have to achieve a new perspective of one another and gain understanding and mutual respect, we would continue to resort to violence.  “Perhaps more than ever, such a need is felt, because the most effective attitude against all forms of violence is education towards the discovery and acceptance of differences.” (http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2015/01/24/pope_francis_listening_is_essential_in_effective_interrelig/1119849)  The Church’s tragic history of involvement in inquisitions, pogroms, and ethnic cleansing tells us that we are not unacquainted with the use of violence to prove a point. Religious folk must rise above our sins.  We must engage in dialog, not shrill debate.  We must be more concerned for finding truth in one another rather than to determine who is right and who is wrong. Sadly, Jonah never learned the lesson, will we?  

2nd Sunday of Ordinary Time: Martin Luther King, An American Martyr

Martin Luther King, An American Martyr

Second Sunday of Ordinary Time

My mom was a story teller - she got that from being from Hawaii where everybody “talks story.” After dinner we would stay at the dinner table and keep on “talking story.”  My cousin Sue would come over sometimes and she and my mother would talk from 3 in the afternoon until well in the late evening talking story.  I loved her story of the 1946 Tsunami not because of the horrific event that happened, but because her story of the Tsunami was really about the reactions of the people around her.  My mom was in a school bus on a pali looking down on the valley when she saw the Tsunami. The bus driver yelled out, “Tsunami” an unfamiliar word to the children in the bus. And the kids leaned over one another to see the Tsunami crush houses and push through the the jungle as the water from the ocean traveled inland destroying everything in its path.  My mom talked the nervous energy of the other kids on the bus as they watched what was happening down below. My mom remembered how my grandmother’s face and her shoulders looked when they told her about the Tsunami because my uncle was at the school that was destroyed by the Tsunami. She told me how the other mothers in the neighborhood sounded as each mother heard the news whether her child died or was found alive.  When we share stories we “abide” in the consciousness and heart of the story teller. We begin to see what the storyteller sees and feel what the storyteller feels.

Jesus was one who was able to talk story. His manner of teaching was not pure recitation of the law, but through parables and direct human engagement. He sat with people, broke bread and talked story. Jesus drew people in when he talked about this kingdom. Jesus invited people to become his disciples with the phrase “Come and you will see.”  This mean that people became disciples by “abiding” or “staying” with him.  In the gospel today John the Baptists’ disciples were interested in Jesus and John encouraged them, “Behold the Lamb of God…” he said.  When they approached Jesus they stayed for dinner and presumably stayed the night.  They “abided” with Jesus. This is what I call “salvation through relationship.” 

This phrase, “salvation through relationship” means that we are saved because Christ has chosen a relationship with us. And when he chose “us” he chose those who were marginalized. He was born in the margins of a small town on the outskirts of Jerusalem. He was raised in Nazareth in the province of Galilee - a marginalized region of poor subsistence farmers and laborers.  His ministry was among marginalized peoples: beggars, publicans, prostitutes and drunkards.  His death was outside the margin of the city - a place called Golgotha, the skull.

Jesus’ experience on the margins did not harden his heart, but rather, it gave him a powerful insight into the lives of people who needed hope and something to live for. Jesus changed lives because he was able to captivate people by using stories and parables and by treating people with non-judgmental compassion.  Jesus saw the value in gathering people together for meals in which stories and fellowship were more important than strict compliance with rules of purification and social protocol. When Jesus told stories and gathered people together, he made them disciples and the disciples went out into the world and forever changed the course of human history.

Ministers we are called to be storytellers.  The best ministers are those whose stories captivate people in such a way that listeners want to change the world. This weekend we recognize Martin Luther King, Jr., one of the world’s greatest storytellers. He had an incredible command of language and was able to share a vision of a society in which people from all races and economic backgrounds would be able to sit together and become a family. His vision, which we refer to as “The Beloved Community,” stood in stark contrast to the racial hatred and segregation of the 1950’s and early 1960’s. White leadership in the South were dead set against granting equal rights and protects to black people and Black people pushed back against the tide of ignorance with the use of violence.  White establishment in the North were not willing to share power with the emerging voice of Black people.

When racial tension escalated to a point where people were being arrested in mass numbers, White people took offense.  Among those arrested was including Dr. King who wrote a letter from jail addressed to the White establishment Churches that criticized Dr. King for his activism. (see http://coursesa.matrix.msu.edu/~hst306/documents/letter.html) This letter was an invitation to his critics to sit with him, to “abide” with him to understand why he is doing what he is doing.  In one section of letter Dr. King told why the African American community has mobilized itself for social change.  Dr. King wrote,

When you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate-filled policemen curse, kick, and even kill your black brothers and sisters; when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society; when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six-year-old daughter why she can't go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky, and see her beginning to distort her personality by developing an unconscious bitterness toward white people; when you have to concoct an answer for a five-year-old son who is asking, "Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?"; when you take a cross-country drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no motel will accept you; when you are humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading "white" and "colored" when your first name becomes "Nigger," your middle name becomes "boy" (however old you are) and your last name becomes "John," and your wife and mother are never given the respected title "Mrs."; when you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what to expect next, and are plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; when you are forever fighting a degenerating sense of "nobodiness" then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait. There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men are no longer willing to be plunged into the abyss of despair. I hope, sirs, you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable impatience.

This section of the letter is a litany of short vignettes that tell the life experience of an entire community. When we hear these stories, do they not resonate with our story - at least to some degree?  Do these short sentences not move your hearts? Can you understand their frustration and why people have chosen the course of action that they took?

Today we acknowledge Dr. King’s contribution in advancing our society to be a place or inclusion where all our stories are told and where all are welcome. We acknowledge that we still have a long way to go in bringing mutual acceptance between races and individuals. And maybe one day we will see the Beloved Community in which people regardless of their skin color, religion, national origin and status of citizenship will gather together. One day people will come to surpass tolerance with embracing others who are not like themselves. One day we will have that Beloved Community in which all sorts of people will respect and embrace one another as kinfolk and not see that one configuration of a partnership or family be a “threat” to their own partnerships or families.  Let us tell each other these stories of hope and that in our telling, we may find our way to one another and in manifesting the Beloved Community here and now.

Baptism of the Lord: Revolution v.s. Social Transformation

Revolution v.s. Social Transformation

Baptism of the Lord

…he shall bring forth justice to the nations, not crying out, not shouting, not making his voice heard in the street, a bruised reed he shall not break, and a smoldering wick he shall not quench, until he establishes justice on the earth…

In the above passage many Jewish commentators understand that the “beloved servant,” isn’t specifically a single person but rather the collective responsibility of the People of Israel: the People of God are the bringers of justice.  If we read Isaiah as the prophet who encouraged the entire people to take up their role as bringers of justice, we may inevitably ask ourselves as Christians, what is our role in bringing justice to the nations? Sure Jesus is the beloved servant, the beloved Son of God, but do we not also have a share in his mission? Are we not also called to transform hate into love? Exploitation into cooperation?  Greed into generosity?

Isaiah calls for transformation: to bring forth justice not by “crying out” “shouting” “bruising reeds” or putting out the lights of other people.  Make no mistake, transformation is revolutionary, but it isn’t a revolution. In revolution, change happens, but the change is more of an exterior change that is held together by reluctant compliance and coercion.  Oppression doesn’t go away, it is merely transferred to a new set of people.  Because transformation is rooted in the Spirit of God it will result in positive social change in which all people are lifted up and are liberated from their roles of oppressor and oppressed. Unlike revolution, transformation does not happen through coercion or violence. The Servant of God (that is the collective of the People of Israel) will bring forth justice to the nations and work together to bring about a more just society in which the lion would lie down with the lamb.

Transformation will happen because people - as individuals and as groups - will come to see themselves differently and act differently. They will not look out only for themselves, but rather, they will see themselves as one another’s keepers. Moving beyond self-interest and self-serving actions, people will look to the well-being and concerns of their neighbors and work for the common good. John the Baptist called people to repent - to make personal decisions that would reflect an interior transformation from being consumed with matters of the self to be concerned for the well-being of others.

Inner transformation for us Christians requires that we identify with Jesus, God’s beloved Son.  When Jesus entered the waters of baptism in Mark’s gospel, God reveals to Jesus that he is the Beloved or “chosen” Son.  By accepting his identity - that is embracing who he is, Jesus identified with the poorest of the poor and the most rejected of all rejected peoples. By entering the waters of baptism Jesus immersed himself in the fullness of humanity and that meant that Jesus immerses himself in the plight of the oppressed, the lost and forsaken. His mission was to bring forth “justice to the nations,” to “open the eyes of the blind,” and “release to prisoners.”

God sent Jesus to announce a reign of healing and mutuality.  His mission established the reign of justice and compassion. Where Cesar’s reign came about by the use of violence, Jesus reign comes about through reconciliation. Cesar’s reign privileged only a few people and the result was inequality; an inequality that was sustained by violence. Under Cesar, regular people fought for scraps that dropped from the table of the wealthy.  Jesus’ reign is inclusive - no one is left out. Those who share in Jesus’ mission of bringing about the reign of justice and compassion work to life everyone up together. They work to establish a universal brother-and-sisterhood.  They act out of selfless love rather than selfish motive. They cooperate, not compete and they work toward the common good, not private gain.

If we are to accept our part in Jesus’ reign, we must therefore be purified of selfishness and self-preservation. We just repent and like Jesus, allow ourselves to be fully immersed into humanity - we must embrace everyone and fear no one. The Baptism of the Lord is our baptism in the mission of Jesus: to bring justice to all nations.

So, as we celebrate this feast of the Baptism of the Lord, we are invited to respond to the call of repentance, that is, to identify what we need to let go of so that we can embrace Jesus’ reign of peace and compassion. In repentance, we turn away from our individualized, compartmentalized and privatized lives and to enter into the Jordan River.  On this feast we step forward for communion in just the same way that Jesus entered into the Jordan with all people - sinners, the wayward, and the lost.  May the Eucharist of this feast prepare us for the work ahead: that is the work within each one of us and for the work we are called to do in this community and beyond.

Epiphany

One of the hardest things that my grandmother did when she came over to the United States was to adjust to life in a foreign country. She had not gone to school at all - her mother taught her at home.  She never left her small village until she sent to Hawaii on a pre-arranged marriage to marry a man she had never met until the day of her wedding. Like immigrants of all generations, adjustments are necessary for success and they’re never easy and sometimes if not most of the time, adjustments require sacrifice.

Some Vietnamese friends of mine told me their immigrant journey.  Prior to leaving they were in school, preparing for a career in law and medicine.  Escaping from the communists they left at night, caught a boat at the coast and were cramped with dozens of others fleeing from persecution. While on the high seas they were attacked by pirates, some of the women were accosted and everyone lost their belongings. They found temporary housing at a refugee camp in the Philippines. Eventually they came to the US and had to start their careers all over again while working at 2 jobs for minimum wage.

Just before I came to Guadalupe I went to a Mexico on a research trip to study the affect of immigration to the United States. A part of that trip was interviewing people who had been working in the US and returned back to Mexico and to hear the stories of Central Americans who were traveling through Mexico on their way up to the US. I and other researchers heard stories of leaving their families behind. All the Central Americans we listened to were beaten and robbed.  Every one we talked to spoke about how their lives were forever changed by the migration journey. 

Anyone who was ever compelled to make a life-changing journey - whether a sheltered girl from a rural mountain town in Southern Japan, a high school student escaping persecution from Vietnam, a young man crossing the Sonoran desert, or a young woman traveling from Honduras to Texas through Mexico - these are stories of sacrifice. Joseph and Mary’s story is also a story of sacrifice on many levels. Like my Grandmother, they were rural folk who had found themselves among strangers in a strange town. Mary gave birth gave birth to her child without the traditional support system of her mother and other women - she was on her own.  Joseph too had made a great sacrifice. Rather than do what would normally be expected of him, he chose to marry a woman whose child was not his own.

Mary and Joseph’s story and these immigrant stories are filled with uncertainty.  At times it would seem better to just give up and go back, to throw in the towel, call it a day…but most people do not give up, they do not return defeated. The indomitable human spirit drives us forward.  How is that possible when the circumstance around us would suggest that the most safe and logical decision would be to pack things up? Dreams and visions.  The dream of a better life drives people forward. If we have a clear vision of what we’re moving toward, hope is sustained and we continue moving forward. Isaiah’s passage encourages the people who lived in a time of deep darkness to imagine a different future for themselves and their children.

Rise up in splendor, Jerusalem! Your light has come, the glory of the Lord shines upon you. See, darkness covers the earth, and thick clouds cover the peoples; but upon you the LORD shines, and over you appears his glory.

Isaiah gave the people of Israel hope.  He allowed them to move beyond the struggle of every day life of look at the long term perspective.  Isaiah shared a long term vision for Israel: a vision of peace and security.  God’s people would no longer suffer the violence of invasions and wars.  The people would no longer have to forage for food, they would have a stable society in which they could tend their flocks and raise crops. Imagine for a moment if Israel lost HOPE and lost the perspective of a better life. Imagine if they simply gave up and returned back to Babylon to live once again as slaves.

So let’s fast forward to Jesus’ birth. When King Herod heard about the King of the Jews - the Prince of Peace, birth, his reaction was of fear. The entire power structure of Jerusalem that was holding up the Roman occupation was also troubled. Herod and his people could not bear the possibility that there might be an alternative to the darkness of the Roman empire and that is why they plotted to kill the Christ child.  What if the Magi crumbled under the veiled threats that Herod made.  What if they lost hope and returned to Persia? They didn’t because they were driven by a promise of a better tomorrow.

The appearance of the Magi was troubling to Herod because he and all of those who supported the Roman occupation of Jerusalem realized that an alternative to the terror of violence of Herod was a Peaceable Kingdom and that the Roman occupation would eventually crumble under the weight of its own oppression.  They knew that the long arc of history would in fact bend in favor of justice and that is terrifying to those who wield power. The Scripture says that the Magi looked to the stars for insight. This meant that they used human wisdom to find the Messiah that would usher in the Peaceable Kingdom. The Magi knew that the vision of a Peaceable Kingdom was not limited to the People of Israel, but that the Kingdom of Peace was a universal desire and that it was achievable!

The road to the Peaceable Kingdom suggests that all of us are on this pilgrimage journey together. In a sense, we might be considered spiritual immigrants, finding our way in a world that is not familiar to us. We will need to take chances and risks and we cannot be daunted by failures or set backs. We must move forward guided by a vision of a better tomorrow, as it were guided by a single star among many stars in the dark night.

This week is called, “Migrant Week” by the USCCB and so we as a Church honor all of those who have taken the journey through the long night - the immigrant journey. We recognize the sacrifices that our immigrant families have made yesterday and are making today and honor their contributions to building up a Peaceable Kingdom among us.  Reflecting on the story of Mary, Joseph, the child and the Magi, we will find our own story - a story within the story.  And like the Magi, we will bring gifts of frankincense - the symbol of prayer; gold - they symbol of resilience; and myrrh, the symbol of the ultimate sacrifice - giving our life so that others may live. In return for these gifts, God gives us his gift - his very Self in the person on Jesus.