From the Daily Lectionary for Wednesday in the Sixth Week of Easter
Matthew 22:41-46
Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them this question: ‘What do you think of the Messiah? Whose son is he?’ They said to him, ‘The son of David.’ He said to them, ‘How is it then that David by the Spirit calls him Lord, saying,
“The Lord said to my Lord,
‘Sit at my right hand,
until I put your enemies under your feet’”?
If David thus calls him Lord, how can he be his son?’ No one was able to give him an answer, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.
You often hear me say that there is no division between the life of faith and our public lives; no division between the spiritual and the political, political meaning the means by which we order our common life. How we live our daily lives has everything to do with our faith, and vice-versa. Our vocation as followers of Jesus, after all, is to do justice, to bring about a new social and economic order, to manifest in the world God’s egalitarian vision for our human community, a decidedly public concern. The church has now for centuries abdicated its radical public witness, acquiescing to the notion that matters of faith are private and personal; better seen and not heard… don’t make any waves. In short, we have abdicated our ‘authority.’
The Gospel reading from Matthew is about authority. Jesus is referred to in Matthew as the “Messiah, the Son of David.” That is a complicated moniker because it is both intensely spiritual, and intensely political. Spiritual, in that the Ancient Covenant between God and the people of Israel was that they should be the light of justice to the known world, exemplified in their practice of God’s Law, the Torah; political in that David the legendary king of a united Israel was the exemplar of worldly power, keeping the peace, marshaling armies, defeating enemies. For Judaism the political world and the spiritual are intimately intertwined.
The authority of Jesus is continually rejected by the elite, those in power in Israel, because he doesn’t fit the kingly model. His kingdom, as he will tell Pilate, is “not of this world.” His kingdom is marked by vulnerability, shared abundance, radical hospitality, the inclusion of outcasts and untouchables. Jesus doesn’t fit the cultural mold of what authority looks like. His commitment to God’s vision of the world in the face of the culture was his undoing.
To reconcile the Way of Jesus, the way of God’s kingdom, and the ways of the culture seems an intractable proposition; but that is our mission, sisters and brothers. We are the truth tellers; we are the cultural critics; we are advocates for the Way of Love, which has the potential to transform the self-interested ways of the world. Now perhaps more than ever, we as people of faith are being called to engage the brokenness of our world, to model compassion and vulnerability. It is a matter of living into our authority within the public sphere. Our faith is not a private matter. It belongs amid the complexities of our world. Some will question our authority… but know this: there is no greater authority than Love.
A Prayer for Peace among Nations (BCP p. 816)
Almighty God, guide the nations of the world into the way of justice and truth, and establish among them that peace which is the fruit of justice, that they may become the kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
