Thursday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time
As Christians, we have to own it. We have to be able to say that we worship a very strange God. He’s the one who sought out lepers and unclean women and orphans and criminals. He’s the one who defied the rulers of the day to such an extent that they had to make an example of him. They didn’t just put him to death. They did so in the worst possible way. This is the guy we worship.
So, we can’t be at all surprised by the texts in front of us today. One from James and one from Mark.
The text from James is so clear. A rich guy shows up and then a poor one too. Who is attended to? Who do the people of his day care about? The rich man, of course. And today? Is it any different? In our culture, if you are rich, you are important, obviously special, and deserving (otherwise, how could you be rich?). And you are held in awe.
And if you are poor? Well, you probably are getting what you deserve. Or, worse, you are a drain on the system. You are very likely getting more than you deserve and all on the taxpayer’s back. Never mind that you are likely hungry. Or that you can’t get decent dental care. Or that the education that your children are receiving is grossly under-resourced. And never mind that you might end up in the emergency room with some condition that, if treated, will leave you financially ruined for years, maybe longer.
What the reading from the book of James tells us (as so many others in the Bible do) is that God is especially with the poor. God gets it. God understands how hard it is to be poor. God, after all, was poor.
As I write this, I have to say that I am very well aware that while I’ve had my financial challenges now and again, some to the point of humiliation, I’ve never been poor. I’ve never gone hungry. I’ve always had people I could turn to for help. That’s not how it is for a lot of people. And I have to see that.
The text from Mark is equally challenging and important. Like us, Peter doesn’t want to hear about the suffering that Jesus is to endure. He wants to imagine that Jesus is the triumphant king. He will ride into Jerusalem and put in place the new world order. But Jesus knows better. That’s not what’s coming. He’s going to die a pauper’s death. He will be humiliated just like poor people are humiliated every day.
We worship a very strange and wonderful God. Our challenge is to love him so much that we feel called to love those he loved. Those who, like him, were poor, forgotten, reviled.
May we think not as human beings do, but as God does. Amen.
- Sue Trollinger