Sunday, July 03, 2005

Proper 9, Sunday: Many are called...

Today's Readings:
Obscure ancient rites using the Umin and Thummin to determine who is the source of sin at the moment: Saul and Jonathan or the people of Israel. Finally, just Jonathan is blamed, but not killed. The people of Israel ransom Jonathan for what he has done for the Lord.
Paul discusses justification by faith, and provides the following progression: suffering produces endurance, endurance produces character, character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint, because Love has been given to us by the Holy Spirit.
Matthew's Gospel describes the Kingdom of Heaven as like a man who throws a banquet for his son's wedding. Many are called, few are chosen.
I'd like to disagree with Paul. This is not the first time I've said this. I don't think character produces hope so much as character produces trust in God. For years my father told me that mowing the lawn built character, clearly he understood those steps of Paul's reasoning. Dad didn't just say these things when he wanted me to do a chore I didn't want to do. He told me things like helping a recently widowed woman sell her husbands car built character. From what I understand in this context, character isn't about hoping things will be all right, it's about trusting that things will be all right. The word 'faith' in the English language has four counterparts in Greek and Latin, and they are better translated as Agreement, Trust, Loyalty, and Vision. My faith, coming from the vast wodges of character my parents instilled in me, is based largely on trust in God, seconded by loyalty, and even that is hard to see. I look at the non-canonical books of scripture for truth. Part of this project is to solidify my understanding of what is in the Bible so I can a)know my faith better than I did, and b)compare and contrast non-canonical books to the canonical ones because being Anglican, I believe the truth lies between the extremes, and the books in the Bible are there because the editors won the battle for control of the early Christian Church, but that's another long entry for another day.
Actually, what struck me the most about today's readings is the Kingdom of Heaven being compared to a person. This happens quite a lot when I think about it, but it struck me as odd. I'm sure the situation is the important thing in these allegories. Let's see how far the allegory goes: God invited His chosen people to the Kingdom, buyt they refused. God sent a prophet (plus) who told His chosen people how wonderful the Kingdom was. The chosen people still did not come. The minimum damage was ignoring the prophets, the worst was abusing and killing the prophets. God, enraged, killed those who had killed his messengers. God sent a new messenger to invite anybody to the Kingdom. They came, but some did not... At this point the parable is about someone not wearing wedding clothes and being cast into the outer darkness. These people came to the wedding, or the Kingdom, or the Church, and use it for their own ends, or refuse to acknowledge tradition or protocol, or they don't really transform themselves, or they are simply not worthy to be in the Kingdom.
My biggest problem with "Many are called but few are chosen" is that it is very exclusionary. It is easier to kick someone out than include them with this phrase. I think it is Nora Gallagher who, in a Via Media session, stated that using the Bible to exclude anyone is simply flat-out wrong. I agree. The point is to show the Good News of Jesus ("Hey Gang, God loves everybody now!") and invite people to closer communion with God, and help them on their journey. Ed Bacon loves the fact that the Episcopal Church allows you to come in as a whole person. This is what I feel, but this is not what Matthew is saying. I think the wedding clothes of the allegory can point to our outer demeanor, or our actions. In the whole Faith vs. Works dialogue, one argument is that Works without Faith is meaningless, but Faith without Works isn't real Faith. We should recognize, or look for, Faith by the evidence of the live changed by that Faith, in other words, the Works of a person transformed by faith.

posted by Josh English @ 3:15 PM

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