A World Right Side Round
Reflections on Luke 15.1-10
RCL Proper 24C
15 September 2019
Holy Trinity Anglican Cathedral
New Westminster BC
Luke 15.1-10
15.1Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to [Jesus]. 2And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
3So he told them this parable: 4“Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? 5When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. 6And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbours, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ 7Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.
8“Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? 9When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbours, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’ 10Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
Sometimes the needs of the few outweigh the needs of the many.
I have been a Star Trekfan ever since the days of the original television program in the turbulent days of the mid-1960’s. Star Trekdid more than entertain us. The show’s writers dared to take on race relations, the nuclear arms race and even explore the light and the shadow that lies within each and every human being.
When the first Star Trekmovies appears a decade or so after the last television episode, many of my contemporaries rejoiced to renew our youth. At the end of the second film, The Wrath of Khan, Spock sacrifices his life to save the crew of the Enterprise. As he is dying, he tells his friend, Captain Kirk, that ‘the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few’.
The next two films revolve around the story of how Kirk and his loyal crew sacrifice their futures to find and save Spock when it appears that he has been resurrected from the dead. When, in the fourth film, Spock asks Kirk why they have done this, Kirk says to him, ‘Sometimes the needs of the one outweigh the needs of the many.’
There must be another way.
Now I have no reason to believe that the writers of these movies had today’s gospel in mind, although there were and are many people of faith within the science fiction community. But here we have it, the reversal of the utilitarian concept that has flourished within human society for millennia and within Western culture since the Industrial Revolution. We tend to think and to act on the principle that the needs of the majority trump the needs of a minority or minorities.
It’s true that in liberal democracies such as ours we do our best to protect the rights of minorities and individuals. But if we are honest with ourselves, there are moments when we lose our patience and think to ourselves, ‘Oh, just get over it and get with the program.’
When a criminal is released because of some procedural error, I know that I groan a bit. When the rights of a trans-national corporation to make a profit and impose economic hardships on local working people are defended by courts and governments, I cringe and lament. When communities and families are drawn into conflict over pipelines, indigenous rights and the national interest, my mind shuts down in frustration over what has become a ‘zero sum’ game where there are only winners and losers. There must be another way.
God’s long-term plan leaves no one behind.
As I read our first reading from Exodus, I could understand God’s point of view as well as the view of the People of Israel. God has brought this people of little political significance from out the grasp of the most powerful nation in the region. God has sent plagues, drowned armies and provided food and water through extraordinary means. God is about to make an eternal covenant with them and they are busy making for themselves an idol. No wonder God wants to start over.
The people have been wandering through the desert for what seems to them to be a long time. Even miraculous food and water grow a bit tiresome when they’re the only things on the menu. If the God of Moses can’t do better than this for them, then perhaps one of the old gods will take up the slack.
Before God can act, Moses steps in. He reminds God that God is playing the long game and there will surely be a few hiccups along the way. After all that God has done, perhaps there is some other way to move forward without destroying the whole people. I hear Moses saying, ‘True, they’ve been foolish, but let’s not lose sight of what you’re trying to accomplish. The needs of the plan can surely outweigh the indiscretions of a tired people.’
Jesus is also playing the long game. Common sense would tell us that spending our efforts on trying to recover small losses isn’t a good use of resources. But in the long game that is the coming of God’s reign of justice and peace, there are no expendable people, no redundant people, no one to be left behind. Even Jesus’ critics are worth some time in the hopes that they will come around to what God is doing in the ministry of Jesus.
In the long game that God has invited us to play, we regularly face decisions about balancing the needs of the many and the needs of the few --- even the needs of the one. If we lose sight of the truth that we are in this for the long haul, then we can lose patience, compassion and even hope, and enter into a 50% plus one, winner take all, frame of mind. I dare say that it’s a soul-destroying, life-draining way to look at the world. There is another way.
The world right side round.
I believe that the gospel describes the world as God intends it as a community in which the needs of the few --- even the needs of the one --- cannot be sacrificed on an altar of expediency. As the Apostle Paul writes elsewhere, the body cannot be whole if any part suffers. We are mutually interdependent upon one another and all of us, regardless of what we believe, where we live, what language we speak, what culture nourishes us, need to remember this strand of DNA embedded in the hearts, minds and souls of all God’s children.
In the election campaign that is now upon us, we shall hear the leaders of our political parties make promises and propose policies that they believe will speak to the majority of Canadians. As disciples of Christ we are called to listen closely to how our leaders speak about silent and sometimes invisible minorities --- if they speak of them at all. And if our leaders are silent, we dare not remain so ourselves. In the long game we are playing with and for God, no one is expendable. To many of our neighbours this may seem like a world turned upside down. But to God and to those who seek to be faithful to the covenants made with our ancestors, both Jew and Christian, it is the world the right side round.
No comments:
Post a Comment