Scriptural Basis
Matthew 5: 17-19
Blog Reflection
One of Christianity's most egregious errors has been anti-semetism. As if there was no Jewish religion before Christ came on the scene.
Many times we Christians forget that the founder of our Faith was a middle-eastern Jewish carpenter who was poor to the point of not having a place to lay his head. Jesus was not a white English-Anglo-Saxon, wealthy, power driven human being. Jesus was for Christians God's perfect revelation. Yet, as we read in the great hymn from Philippians 2: 5-11 Jesus did not deem equality with God as the most important thing.
Here Jesus instructs us that the love of God and neighbor is central to who we are as people of God. Jesus fulfilled these very instructions by the way he lived his life. Jesus is telling us in this Gospel to live as he lived.
What are we seeing around us?
Here in the great State of Minnesota, our Republican Legislature anxious to take care of a $6 billion dollar budget deficit are planning to lay that burden on the backs of our senior citizens. They are planning to cut millions of dollars from senior nutrition programs. Child care cuts proposed that would be harshest on low income families. I thought caring for families and children was the "pro-life" thing to do.
In our Republican controlled House of Representatives in the United States they have been working to cutting money from Planned Parenthood, public education/television/radio. Health care is too much of a burden for our federal budget. We can afford billions of dollars in tax breaks for the richest Americans, while middle class Americans are being denied unemployment benefits, affordable housing and job training programs.
One individual has rightfully called the Republican Party as the "Party of Scrooge."
"Are there no poor houses or prisons?"
The Judeo/Christian model that Jesus' example points us to tells us that to love and care for our neighbor in the most vulnerable and marginalized among us is a very important part of being a good follower of God. Making room for the immigrant to share our land and resources (see Leviticus 19:33,34) and the poor and the disadvantaged is to serve God, God's Self. (See Matthew 25: 31-46).
Forming a society and a Church that further stigmatizes individuals because of our sexual orientation and/or gender identity/expression, race, class, religion, language, gender, cultural practices etc, is not the kind of environment that is endorsed by Jesus and the Gospel that we read and study. Such are misplaced priorities and misguided practices within our great Faith tradition.
As we continue through this season of Lent toward Holy Week and Easter, among the things we need to do is readjust our priorities.
In the 2011 Lenten Meditations by Episcopal Relief and Development, the reading for Monday, March 28th has much to say about what I am writing in my blog today.
The Scriptural text was Jeremiah 7: 5-7:
May our prayers and work during this Lent extend to vulnerable LGBT teens who experience bullying in their schools and cities. Let our Lenten work be about ending our thirst for prejudice and violence on others who are different from ourselves, and embracing all as children of God.
It is that knowledge and fulfilling of the law of God that Jesus speaks of in today's Gospel.
Prayers
Matthew 5: 17-19
‘Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfil. 18For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter,* not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. 19Therefore, whoever breaks* one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
Blog Reflection
One of Christianity's most egregious errors has been anti-semetism. As if there was no Jewish religion before Christ came on the scene.
Many times we Christians forget that the founder of our Faith was a middle-eastern Jewish carpenter who was poor to the point of not having a place to lay his head. Jesus was not a white English-Anglo-Saxon, wealthy, power driven human being. Jesus was for Christians God's perfect revelation. Yet, as we read in the great hymn from Philippians 2: 5-11 Jesus did not deem equality with God as the most important thing.
Here Jesus instructs us that the love of God and neighbor is central to who we are as people of God. Jesus fulfilled these very instructions by the way he lived his life. Jesus is telling us in this Gospel to live as he lived.
What are we seeing around us?
Here in the great State of Minnesota, our Republican Legislature anxious to take care of a $6 billion dollar budget deficit are planning to lay that burden on the backs of our senior citizens. They are planning to cut millions of dollars from senior nutrition programs. Child care cuts proposed that would be harshest on low income families. I thought caring for families and children was the "pro-life" thing to do.
In our Republican controlled House of Representatives in the United States they have been working to cutting money from Planned Parenthood, public education/television/radio. Health care is too much of a burden for our federal budget. We can afford billions of dollars in tax breaks for the richest Americans, while middle class Americans are being denied unemployment benefits, affordable housing and job training programs.
One individual has rightfully called the Republican Party as the "Party of Scrooge."
"Are there no poor houses or prisons?"
The Judeo/Christian model that Jesus' example points us to tells us that to love and care for our neighbor in the most vulnerable and marginalized among us is a very important part of being a good follower of God. Making room for the immigrant to share our land and resources (see Leviticus 19:33,34) and the poor and the disadvantaged is to serve God, God's Self. (See Matthew 25: 31-46).
Forming a society and a Church that further stigmatizes individuals because of our sexual orientation and/or gender identity/expression, race, class, religion, language, gender, cultural practices etc, is not the kind of environment that is endorsed by Jesus and the Gospel that we read and study. Such are misplaced priorities and misguided practices within our great Faith tradition.
As we continue through this season of Lent toward Holy Week and Easter, among the things we need to do is readjust our priorities.
In the 2011 Lenten Meditations by Episcopal Relief and Development, the reading for Monday, March 28th has much to say about what I am writing in my blog today.
The Scriptural text was Jeremiah 7: 5-7:
For if you truly amend your ways and your doings, if you truly act justly one with another, 6if you do not oppress the alien, the orphan, and the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own hurt, 7then I will dwell with you in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your ancestors for ever and ever.
The people in Judah like to imagine that the presence of the temple will protect them. It is all that matters, they believe. Jeremiah comes along and shatters the illusion. The truth, he explains, is that what matters is how you treat those who are weakest and most marginalized in society.
Aliens-immigrants--matter because they have no support networks in the place where they are settling.. In Jeremiah's society, the fatherless mattered because they lacked the traditional support network for survival. The widow mattered because she had lost her husband and was alone
Let us all pause today and think about those in our society who are weak and who lack a voice. let us commit afresh to praying for these marginalized ones and doing everything we can to provide support for them. (Ian Markham, page 24).
May our prayers and work during this Lent extend to vulnerable LGBT teens who experience bullying in their schools and cities. Let our Lenten work be about ending our thirst for prejudice and violence on others who are different from ourselves, and embracing all as children of God.
It is that knowledge and fulfilling of the law of God that Jesus speaks of in today's Gospel.
Prayers
Give ear to our prayers, O Lord, and direct the way of your servants in safety under your protection, that, amid all the changes of our earthly pilgrimage, we may be guarded by your mighty aid; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Prayer for Wednesday in the Third Week of Lent, Holy Women, Holy Men, Celebrating the Saints, page 50).
Lord, make us instruments of your peace. Where there is hatred, let us sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is discord, union; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy. Grant that we may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen. (Prayer Attributed to St. Francis, Book of Common Prayer, page 833).
Almighty God, you proclaim your truth in every age by many voices: Direct, in our time, we pray, those who speak where many listen and write what many read; that they may do their part in making the heart of this people wise, its mind sound, and its will righteous; to the honor of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (Prayer for those who Influence Public Opinion, Book of Common Prayer, page 827).
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