Reading the Gospels for Lent

 

Read Matthew 22-24

 

A few weeks ago, we read John 2, where Jesus changed water into wine.  Today, we read of another wedding feast that sounds like a scene from Game of Thrones.  Good lord, the King goes nuclear sending troops out to destroy everyone just because they didn’t come to his party.  Eek!!  You are now wondering, why am I reading this during Lent?!?  Not only that, then some poor chap didn’t get the memo on what to wear to the wedding feast and he gets tossed out on his ear.  Is this really the Word of God?!?  Is this really good news??  Take me back to Jesus doing the electric slide on the dance floor and changing water into wine of week one, please!!

Yet, part of the power in this passage, is that in Matthew there is something at stake in life.  We can’t just live our life on cruise control.  We cannot just sleepwalk our way through our days oblivious to the hurt and harm.  Your life matters.  Your actions and words matter.  How you treat others matters.  And, in your humanness, you won’t always get it right.  I will, like the poor chap who wore white after Labor Day to this wedding feast, won’t get it right always.  I am human size.  We live in the tension between being saved from brokenness and sent forth in blessedness.  We live the tension that we saved continually, day-after-day, through God’s love and grace and sent forth by God’s love to be beloved in the world.  This is where Jesus lands with the greatest commandment in 22:34-40: love God because you are loved by God.  Be love because Beloved is your first, last, and middle name.  I invite you today to not just read the words of the call/invitation to be intentionally/prayerfully embody love in the world.  Let these words have flesh, breath, and bone in your life today.  How will you love God with your full self?  Maybe this is through prayer or walking in creation listening to birds or sitting quietly.  Note, this is less about production or performance and more about being in God’s presence.  Prayer is the truth that we are beings (without constant movement).  Next, how might you love your neighbor?  This is where your prayers can have feet and hands and words.  You may take your neighbor some soup or cookies or just show up to listen and hold a hand.  This could be for your literal neighbor or the person whose name is before and after you in the church directory.  You can also expand the embrace of neighbor to people in our community, country, and around the world.  Finally, how do you love yourself?  How do you stop listening to that inner critic who loves to do color commentary on all your bumbles and stumbles?  How do you resist the tyranny of urgency (you must do something right now!!) as well as resist the tyranny of perfectionism (you must get it right the first time).  This will lead us back to the love of God that never lets us go.

In chapter 23, we sense the heat of intensity around Jesus preaching and teaching turned up.  If Jesus began his Sermon on the Mount in chapter 5 with blessings, he now flips the script to shine a light on the possible pitfalls of life.  Please don’t read these words as if Jesus is wagging his finger at you, read these words in a whisper, like a beloved friend trying to offer you compassion and love.  Remember for Matthew something is at stake here ~ that something is your life which Jesus wants to bear fruit of love and live the greatest commandment.  Amen.