Why well fed and well paid church liberals cannot talk about God's preference for the poor
Written by Fr. Juan Quevedo-Bosch
Sunday, 29 August 2010
I was sitting at a Church dinner with a group of people my equals in every respect, except I was the only one for whom English was not his first language. We were seven at the table; I sat in one end of it, my immediate neighbor sat all through the night giving his rather big back. He will pay attention to me only when I spoke to the waiter about anything to repeat again my order. He spent the whole night talking to the others English-speaking folks there who in turn did the same thing. The person in question is a well known and well positioned amidst the new liberal aristocracy of the Episcopal Church.
This has happen to me repeatedly, in all my ten years in this country and this church. Not surprising when I hear middle class, well paid and over-fed "liberals" talking in the church about God's preference for the poor and the gospel of inclusivity, their claim sounds to me terribly hollow.
Mixing of social classes at mealtime was unheard off in the ancient world, you normally invited your equals or superiors, not too different of what we do today. How many of you has invited to dinner people from the Spanish speaking service?
In Jesus' time, inviting non-elite persons to an elite part of the city will have considerable repercussions over and beyond a possible sense of discomfort or social awkwardness.
First, the host has to be presumed as having enough means to hold a banquet; therefore he will live in the elite part of the city, alongside his peers. The list of non-elite persons Jesus commands to invite to dinner will most likely live outside city limits to begin with. Non-elite persons will live outside city gates, along the roads and edges will live beggars, prostitutes, tanners and traders -all persons who will come into the city during the daytime to peddle their business in the market and public squares but who were not allowed to live within city limits-.
Therefore inviting non-elite guests for dinner will have an impact both on the invitees and host. The invitees will be reluctant to be found within city limits at night. Finding a place to sleep until the gates were to be open at dawn was another additional problem. The family of the host will be covered in shame damaging chances of advantageous marriages, profitable business deals and class reciprocity.
Precisely dinners were class reciprocity and solidarity were specially played out. So much that Jesus himself recognizes this sort of social theater when he gives pointers on common sense etiquette of where to sit.
Then, after sorting out all of these difficulties and provided that the actual invitees agreed to come, who else will sit at the table? Who wanted to share the shame of having dinner with outcasts, people who probably were not both ritually and physically clean? How that dinner will look like? Dinner was also the place for symposia, contemporary issues were discussed and specially questions of religious scope, especially interpretation of the Torah, since the host is a Pharisee. What were the uneducated, marginal, beyond-the-pale-scum, was going to talk about?
If you add, that Jesus is giving this unrequested advice to his host, while he himself is a just a guest, and in the process insulting all the people sitting at the table with him, who were there because they wanted to make something out of this invitation in terms of social investment, it is not surprising that he himself was not thrown out of the party.
If the passage last Sunday was all about the freedom of the Sabbath, freedom of social mores for the woman sick, freedom from sickness, wholesome expansive Sabbath of God, today the this meal taking place on a Sabbath, is all about the egalitarian Sabbath of God.
I do not think that Jesus is giving practical advice, but rather using his parable techniques, to scandalize his audience, to shock them into paying attention. He begins by using common sense etiquette advice, which could have gone over dinner rather pleasantly, to be followed by a scandalous suggestions of uninviting everyone who was there and inviting people who were at least suspect of not keeping the Law. These are people by whose sole contact, by merely being in their presence, will effectively render them all suspect and unclean.
Not only Jesus surrogate, spiritual family of disciples take precedence over his biological family but he makes sure that people understand that in the Kingdom they will sit, to continue the image of the Banquet, next not only to people like them but to the undesirable and unimportant. In the Kingdom not only, they will be received as in charitable and paternalistic but by birthright. These are the small brothers and sisters that are like him, his very image. Not somebody inferior that we need to advocate, or defend or lend our voice to the so -called voiceless, but a true companion in the way. They are family.
Christians, Jews and Muslims: God does not need your defending
Written by Fr. Juan Quevedo-Bosch
Saturday, 21 August 2010
And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight. Lk 13:10-17
I have met two people in my life who were afflicted with a similar ailment; one is my cousin Francis and one of our parkers here in Church. As with many other diseases, this one is particularly cruel at an emotional level, since your horizon slowly but surely lowers to the point of facing the floor for the most part. I remember the man I met here, struggling trying to catch a cab on Crescent street. I turn my face away; it was too painful to watch.
There are people, otherwise healthy, who have no option that to bend over to survive. An article I just read about women in Addis Ababa Ethiopia, carrying firewood to survive and feed her family. It makes me think that “bent over” has something to do with enslavement and oppression, bondage if you will, surrender of your identity. In bondage to a disease, or enslave to a social system, or prisoner of your gender, or kidnapped by your customs, or prisoner of your sins, or to your family...
was watching the other day a German movie about what happenedimmediately after fall of the Berlin wall, it was interesting to me because Iwas there in East Germany before the wall came down and I went back after thewall has almost disappear. I always thought of the wall, because it partitionsa city in two as if we were to build a fence along Houston Street, separateLower Manhattan from Midtown, establish passport controls, and shoot people whotried to cross from one side to the other. The movie portrays the struggle of agood son trying to fool his communist mother, following a massive stroke, thatnothing has changed and the East Germany still was going strong.
To that end, he concocts all sort of complicated schemes,like paying somebody who used to be a commentator on TV news to tape for himthe news in a now abandoned TV studio. Her son tries to re-label the new cannedfoods with old East Germany brands and pays a group of young kids to visit hismother dressed up as Young Pioneers.
By now the country has changed completely, Germany has beenre-unified, Berlin is one city, yet inside that apartment, the old divisionpersists. The concrete and metal wall has come down but the wall of emotionsand memories that entrap them viciously it is still very much up.
Borders are not per se evil, borders are needed to delineatea semblance of identity, yet it is the nature of the border what matters. Likein Berlin, guards were order to shoot and kill those who wanted not live inEast Germany anymore and wanted to move to another part of the city.
Such a banal act in itself, like moving from Astoria toFlushing, but having to risk you life in order to accomplish it. When a border,be that a mental one or a physical one becomes so vicious, so evil, so deathgiving the time for its ending has come. When a border that is supposed to helpguide growth becomes a death trap, it is time for it to go.
It is from chapter 10 of the Gospel of Luke that we haveread from these past weeks. Last Sunday's readings are actually very importantfor boundary setting.
Jesus enunciates the Fundamental Law of His Reign, ratherthan memorizing the many mitzvoth, commandments, it will be enough to rememberthese two Love Neighbor and Love God, and he goes little further and explainswhat this love of neighbor and love of God looks like.
He uses a rabbinical device, the story, to enhance what hemeans by love of neighbor and love of God. In addition, he tells the story ofthe Good Samaritan and the Story of Martha and Mary. The commonality of bothstories is very gratifying.In both stories,boundaries are broken. In both stories, the villains are the heroes. TheSamaritan and the Woman are most unlikely candidates for example setting. Inboth stories hospitality goes to an extreme -The Samaritan- and on Martha/Mary-hospitality is not the better part-. Their behavior, both of Samaritan andMary, are both dissident and counter cultural.
The Samaritan crosses the outside boundary of racialdifference between Jews and Samaritans, he crosses also the internal boundaryof his own resentment and when he does, he does it abundantly.
He puts the injured man on his ride, and the he walks besidehim under the sun. His generosity does not stop there, he takes him to an inn andpays the equivalent of two days salaries for his care and then he risk hishonor -common and invisible currency of the Middle East- 'Look after him,' he said, 'andwhen I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.'. He did not know that man; he takeshospitality to a new level, he goes beyond well beyond the call of duty. Loveyour neighbor as yourself. This is the kind of love I am talking about he saysto the Lawyer, expert on Torah. Love that that knows no limits, one thatcrosses boundaries that bends you out of shape, one that leaves of your mentaland real borders a pile of rubble. Love your neighbor as yourself.
On the other hand, Martha lays a legitimated claim againsther sister for not helping her in her duties at the feet of Jesus. Mary was outof place listening like a man to another in the living room, by herself,risking her good name and reputation in small town, while he sister waspreparing the appropriate welcome to the worthy guest.
Genesis 18:1-10a, psalm 15; Colosenses 1:15-28; San Lucas 10:38-42
The summer holidays are a very special time. Many of us liked to go to the village where we all came from, to our old stomping grounds. I used to go to my grandparents every summer and I will spend two or three months there, it was the happiest time in my life. I went swimming in the beach, to the carnival at night and hang out with literally an army of cousins and relatives.
During my stay my grandparents spoke after lunch and dinner of the many unwritten cultural values and rules that every society has -the underwater part of the cultural iceberg- . In addition to the many good things that grandfather did like driving neighbors to the hospital and so on, there were things he said that were not as positive like: "man is for the street and women for the kitchen!".
Women in the Mediterranean world 1st century were largely segregated from the public sphere, into the home or domestic sphere. It was for the men to verbally fight for honor in the public square and the synagogues, women will of the same but with their cooking and housekeeping skills. It seems a bit what Grandpa said, "Women for the kitchen and men for the street", I guess patriarchy has a long history.
However, this not prevented women to compete in the domestic and private atmosphere, and that competition could be equally fierce. Moreover, Martha was entitled to demand her sister Maria t join the home team instead of wasting time trying to be a visiting Rabbi's disciple, which was a man's job to boot.
And it isn't that Marta does not want to learn, we do not know that from the text, but someone had to prepare the meal for the visitor. However, this passage cannot be understood without looking at chapter 10 of the Gospel of St. Luke. This portion of the Gospel is like a guide for the discip-les in mission and a description of the journey of Jesus to Jerusalem, all in one. At the beginning of the chapter Jesus sends the 70 disciples to evangelize and gives them precise instructions about what they have to do when they are visiting and evangelizing.
Then Jesus tells his audience the story of a trip gone wrong, in this case the story of the good Samaritan, which we heard last Sunday. The story is about a man assaulted on the road between Jerusalem and Jericho. It is the story of how the religious people who were supposed to have mercy did not and how someone who no one expected aid from was the one gave it: the good Samaritan.
Martha and Mary and the Good Samaritan are two stories in an interesting parallels. The story of the Good Samaritan is the story of how compassion, love of neighbor, can break racial and cultural barriers. The story of Martha and Mary, is the story of how the love of God, can break social roles. Remember "women belong to the kitchen and men to the street". Marta represents custom, sitting at the feet of Jesus Maria, violates customs, assuming the position of a man who wants to learn. She represents the compelling force of the love of God. Love neighbor of the Samaritan and Mary's love of God. The Samaritan goes and works, Mary hears and keeps in her heart. They are the pair action and reflection. Love for God and love of neighbor, are at the heart of the teaching of Jesus.
Jesus deliberately makes his teaching simple and easy to remember. Love of God and love of neighbor.
The Stoning of the adulteress and the summary of the Law.
Written by Fr. Juan Quevedo-Bosch
Saturday, 10 July 2010
In the name of God, most gracious, most merciful……you are not human you are not children of Godyou have ceased to exist, you are nothing, you are dirty scum, you are bagfulof dirt
This was the speechgiven by the jail warden to a group of frightened women arriving to theircenter of detention; their crime was to be unfaithful to their spouse, to be anunbeliever, to be an apostate
The jail warden seemed very convinced of how right he wasabout what he was doing
Some were to receive 100 lashes, somewhere to be confined tosolitary for the reminder of their lives, and others were to granted be killed bystoning, buried in the sand to the chest up, head covered with a cloth. A groupof women and men, ready to throw the first stone.
All of this in the name of God, most gracious, most merciful
The scene is from a movie called The Stoning that takes placein Iran, where an American woman living in Iran where she they accuse her ofinfidelity after being gang raped.
Recently some of you may have heard about Sakine MohammedieAshtiani, a 43-year-old mother of two accused of adultery and ordered to beexecuted by stoning. Her case is under review; her execution may be carried byother means.
In addition, before we feel very smug about how bad are “those”Muslims, a woman has just recently killed her six-week-old baby daughter bystuffing pages from the Bible into her mouth and effectively smothering her.
My issue today has not much to do with this or thatreligion, it has to do with a fundamental principle, more a guiding principle thatJesus enunciates in the Gospel passage today. One principle that we seemed toforget in the past and in the present.
The principle puts those of us who wish to model our livesafter Jesus teachings in a grid, or better in the form of a cross. Thehorizontal dimension, the dimension of God, vertical dimension, cannot be inopposition with the dimension of love of neighbor, the horizontal dimension.
In other worlds no matter how much we love God we cannot terrorizeother people to love Him. Simply, because love has to be born in freedom. Thatis precisely why we have free will, because God has loved us first and he wantsus to respond to his love with love.
The passage of todayand the passage to be read next week of Martha and Mary are both illustrationsof this interconnected principle, that the love of God and the love of neighborare the same, these two principles are entwined forever, we find in John 1: 18and following There is no fear in love.But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. Theone who fears is not made perfect in love. 19We love because he first loved us.If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar.For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God,whom he has not seen. 21And he has given us this command: Whoever loves Godmust also love his brother.
Why then religions who preach peace and love are then usedandmanipulated for hurting other human beingswho do not agree with its tenets?
For the last two weeks, my congregation has dwindled considerablyand today I am not sure I will have one. I blame 2010 FIFA World Cup. Have youseen the interest of people all over the world about who wins and all? I myselfwatched some games, Uruguay versus Germany.
A lot positive can come out of the attention people pay tothe championship. Like for instance, it is only in sports where we should battleeach other, if we could draw that teaching from the FIFA Championship the worldcould be a safer place and wars will cease. However, my point is that anything,be that a movement or person that captures the attention of so many, millionsindeed, be them sports, celebrities, entertainment , those are instruments ofsocial control.
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