The Gospel for FRIDAY, May 27, 2005
Luke 16:10-18
Anyone who is trustworthy in little things is trustworthy in great; anyone who is dishonest in little things is dishonest in great. If then you are not trustworthy with money, that tainted thing, who will trust you with genuine riches? And if you are not trustworthy with what is not yours, who will give you what is your very own? ‘No servant can be the slave of two masters: he will either hate the first and love the second, or be attached to the first and despise the second. You cannot be the slave both of God and of money.’ The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and jeered at him. He said to them, ‘You are the very ones who pass yourselves off as upright in people’s sight, but God knows your hearts. For what is highly esteemed in human eyes is loathsome in the sight of God. ‘Up to the time of John it was the Law and the Prophets; from then onwards, the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is forcing their way into it. ‘It is easier for heaven and earth to disappear than for one little stroke to drop out of the Law. ‘Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another is guilty of adultery, and the man who marries a woman divorced by her husband commits adultery. -- The New Jerusalem Bible. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1995, c1985
The Intersection of the Law and the Kingdom
Jesus provides a bright line dividing what defines appropriate responses to God and God's children. Before we knew Jesus, all we had was the Law; after Jesus, we have the Law and the Kingdom.
A Reflection
If we fail to remember that Jesus reached out to those below the bottom of the socio-economic structure, we miss the main point of this message.
The oppression of both Rome and the Temple were the burrs in Jesus' saddle. A "righteous" man could "righteously" watch another man -- or woman or child -- starve to death, and still assert his claim to righteousness. While tithing the dill from his herb garden, the rich man Dives could walk past Lazarus every day without giving the act a second thought. His righteousness was not affected.
But in the Kingdom, we are held to Jesus' new commandment: to love one another as he loves us.
The scribes could collect rabbinical opinions about the Law, and the Pharisees could split hairs over their meaning, all the while watching their oppressed brother starve or freeze.
Jesus said, "No way."
Just past Pentecost, with the Paraclete's visit to the assembled apostles, we need to recall that it is the spirit of the law we are to observe; the letters will take care of themselves, as Jesus points out.
A Collect
Father, we come to you with hands outstretched but hearts barely open to you. Help us to be more like your Son, and to use your constant gift of Grace to carry your outpouring of love to all our sisters and brothers. Amen
4:20:35 PM 
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