Friday, January 4, 2013

1/19/13 – Saturday of 1st week in ordinary time - Mark 2:13-17, Hebrews 4:12-16


        The word of God is living and effective, sharper than any two-edged sword, declares the Letter to the Hebrews.  This is so true, and this is why that so often we can listen to God’s word and it can speak so pointedly and directly to what is going on in our lives, even though the place and time of our modern world is so different from the context of ancient Israel in which God's word was written. 
         Ancient Israel was a very divided society.  On one side were the pious Jews, such as the scribes and Pharisees, who strictly adhered to the laws and commandments of God down to the smallest detail.  On the other side were the people who did not keep all of the laws, those who were deemed sinners or unclean, those who were judged unworthy by their society.  The law abiding Jews shunned those who were deemed unclean: they did not do business with them, they refused to give or receive anything from them, they were not allowed to marry them, and they avoided any kind of social contact or table fellowship with them.  Jesus’ association with the tax collectors and sinners, those deemed unclean, shocked the sensibilities of those who followed the letter of Jewish law.  In calling Matthew to be one of his disciples, Jesus chose one of the unlikeliest of men – a tax collector whose profession was despised by the Jewish people.  When Jesus was criticized by the Pharisees for the company he kept, he explained how he sought out those in the greatest need.  Jesus is like a physician, but he healed people on spiritual & psychological levels, as well as on the physical level.
         In our society, just as in ancient Israel, we can often judge people, especially by what is on the surface.  I remember one incident that happened to me when I was a seminarian a couple of years ago.  I had taken the Greyhound bus from Milwaukee to visit some friends in Winnipeg, Canada.  On my way back from this trip I arrived in downtown Milwaukee at about 4 am on a very chilly winter morning, and was waiting on a street corner for the local bus to take me back to the seminary in the suburbs.  A police car came up to me; the officer asked me if he could take me to a local homeless shelter or find me some help. I guess that by standing on the street corner with a big backpack in the early morning hours I looked more like a homeless person and not very much like a seminarian. As this incident points out, often we can judge what we think we see.
         In light of today’s Gospel message, let us pray that God challenges us to look beyond labels and stereotypes, that we open our hearts and not judge people.  May we be drawn into the living word of God, the word that links us with Jesus sitting around a table with tax collectors and sinners, opening our hearts to all as our brothers and sisters in God’s kingdom. 

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