Sermon 07/6/08
Matthew 11:16-19
Come, Love! Sing on!
Let me hear you sing this song -
sing for joy and laugh,
for I the Creator am truly subject to all creatures.
- Mechtild of Magdeburg
Just a few days ago, as I was researching for this morning's reflection, I found an article in the most recent SBL Journal that dealt directly with a portion of our lectionary text from Matthew. It was titled, "Will the Wise Person Get Drunk?" by Thomas Phillips. The article explores the criticism leveled against John and Jesus and concludes that the behind the criticism lay the judgment that neither of them could be considered wise because they practiced extremes.
Philosophers back then debated whether or not a wise person could drink. . . .
The text from Matthew notes the difference between John and Jesus and criticizes them both. (Note that while the historical Jesus rejected John's vision, the tradition is very cautious about that rejection since they were courting John's disciples after Jesus' death. This is perhaps not unlike the way our current presidential candidates are now courting the middle.)
All the while, Q is asking, "what's wrong with these people?!" (Very human frustration.)
John as ascetic: fasts.
Why was John Fasting? He fasted as a sign of repentance, for purification, and in expectation of a coming apocalypse. This would result in the overthrow of the Roman occupation and the restoration of Israel.
Jesus as glutton and drunkard: feasts.
Why was Jesus feasting? He feasted as a celebration and inauguration of the Kindom of God. This feasting together created a non-discriminating table. All are welcomed and honored. (It's not enough to simply welcome all!)
Dominic Crossan believes that Jesus advocated,"an open commensality, an eating together without using table as a miniature map of society's vertical discriminations and lateral separations." (Crossan, JESUS; A REVOLUTIONARY BIOGRAPHY, p. 69) He goes on to discuss how this was embodied in Jesus' teachings and practice.
The social challenge of such equal or egalitarian commensality is the parable's most fundamental danger and most radical threat. It is only a story, of course, but it is one that focuses its egalitarian challenge on society's miniature mirror, the table, as the place where bodies meet to eat. Since, moreover, Jesus lived out his own parable, the almost predictable counteraccusation to such open commensality would be immediate: Jesus is a glutton, a drunkard, and a friend of tax collectors and sinners. He makes, in other words, no appropriate distinctions and discriminations. And since women were present, especially unmarried women, the accusation would be that Jesus eats with whores, the standard epithet of denigration for any female outside appropriate male control. All of those terms - tax collectors, sinner, whores - are in this case derogatory terms for those with whom, in the opinion of the name callers, open and free association should be avoided.
The Kingdom of God as a process of open commensality, of a nondiscriminating table depicting in miniature a nondiscriminating society, clashes fundamentally with honor and shame, those basic values of ancient Mediterranean culture and society.
Ibid., p. 69f
Our text from Matthew, Luke and Q this morning reveals some of the reverberations of this clash.
In our practice of celebrating communion we embody this in serving one another: we each get to be the host. (Theologically speaking, God is the host and God is within each and every one of us.)
It's not enough to believe that everyone is welcome or that everyone is equal. It's not enough to wait for God to make our social prejudices, discriminations and separations go away sometime in the future. What is needed is a present free from these fundamental social inequalities. But this requires us to do the hard work of creating and maintaining new forms of community that are open, inclusive, egalitarian, and mutually respectful. Such forms of community may clash with society's values and may evoke criticism or hostility from those who are afraid just as it did for Jesus and his followers.
But perhaps this text might offer us more helpful insights in the creation of this Kindom of God. Maybe the clash might be experienced as a song or as a dance rather than as a battle. A dance in which we are all invited to join in, sometimes taking the lead, other times following along. Perhaps those who refuse to join in are simply taking a little more time before the inevitable risk of stepping out to the music of life. Maybe we can allow each other a moment or two to feel the beat, to gather courage, before we surrender to the forces that unite us and free us in this mysterious and intoxicating rhythm of the Kindom of God.
Let me end this morning with the words to a song that was written by a well known and deeply loved local poet, Rick Masten, who died a few months ago. About two years ago Ric joined us in worship and read and discussed several poems he had written. It was a magical morning. It seems fitting to end, in tribute to Ric Masten, with his song "Let It Be a Dance."
Let a dancing song be heard.
Play the music, say the words
And fill the sky with sailing birds
And let it be a dance.
Learn to follow, learn to lead.
Feel the rhythm, fill the need.
To reap the harvest plant the seed
And let it be a dance.
Everybody turn and spin.
Let you body learn to bend
And like a willow with the wind
Let it be a dance.
A child is born, the old must die.
A time for joy, a time to cry,
So take it as it passes by
And let it be a dance.
The morning star comes out at night.
Without the dark, there is no light
And if nothing's wrong, then nothing's right
So let it be a dance.
Let the sun shine, let it rain.
Share the laughter, bare the pain
And round and round we go again
So let it be a dance.
Chorus: Let it be a dance we do.
May I have this dance with you.
Through the good times
And the bad times, too.
Let it be a dance
We do.
Matthew 11:16-19
Luke 7:31-35
What does this generation remind me of? It is like children sitting in marketplaces who call out to others:
We played the flute for you,
but you wouldn't dance;
we sang a dirge
but you wouldn't mourn.
Just remember, John appeared on the scene neither eating not drinking and they say, "He is demented." The child of humanity came both eating and drinking, and they say, "There's a glutton and a drunk, a friend of toll collectors and sinners, and wisdom is justified by her children."
Copyright © 2008, the Reverend Rick Yramategui, All Rights Reserved