The Gospel for THURSDAY, June 23, 2005
Luke 22:24-30
An argument also began between them about who should be reckoned the greatest; but he said to them, ‘Among the gentiles it is the kings who lord it over them, and those who have authority over them are given the title Benefactor. With you this must not happen. No; the greatest among you must behave as if he were the youngest, the leader as if he were the one who serves. For who is the greater: the one at table or the one who serves? The one at table, surely? Yet here am I among you as one who serves! ‘You are the men who have stood by me faithfully in my trials; and now I confer a kingdom on you, just as my Father conferred one on me: you will eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and you will sit on thrones to judge the twelve tribes of Israel. -- The New Jerusalem Bible. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1995, c1985
One Who Serves
Jimmy Carter teaches Sunday School at the retirement home where my uncle spent his last days. The former president does this, of course, only when he is not building housing for those who otherwise wouldn't have decent affordable houses, or acting as a go-between for world leaders who otherwise refuse to communicate.
A Reflection
We are today witnessing a "power struggle" in the Anglican communion, with certain factions claiming that the Episcopal Church in the US should not be allowed to remain "in," because of its allowing the consecration of a bishop living in a committed homosexual relationship with another man. In fact, I can faintly hear some of the opponents saying, "Lord, shall we call fire down upon them?".
Among the most vocal are those from the so-called "global south," which includes Africa. The loudest is Archbishop Peter Akinola, of Nigeria, home to 3+ million AIDS victims, where one in three adults is illiterate, and where poverty is an increasing phenomenon.
Africa, for the unaware, is a continent characterized by poverty, hunger, pandemic AIDS/HIV, overwhelming governmental corruption, genocide, and any number of other really-horrible-things.
Yet the countries in which these awful conditions exist have sent representatives to England to attempt to get the US church chucked out of a confederation for which, amusingly enough, there are no rules about who may be in or out, and which is decidedly non-hierarchical. The Archbishop of Canterbury, recognized as the head of the Church of England, is merely "first among equals" in the Anglican Communion.
So we have another spat among those claiming "apostolic" authority and rights of succession, attempting to dictate to others what they must and must not believe and say and do. If there is a mote in the eye of the Episcopal Church in the US, then the beam in the eye of Africa is a monument to screwtape's efforts.
What was Jesus' response, to the squabblers, then? Become one of the least and serve them, as one of them. Hurry, Archbishop Akinola! Your HIV/AIDS population is dying at the rate of 300,000 a year, and the majority are women and children, those surely relegated to last place -- dead last -- in your society.
A Collect
Father, you who created the stars and the planets, help us to understand that we are reckoned as good only when we become as the least among us; and that in serving the least of our sisters and brothers, we act in accordance with the desires and commands of your son, our Lord. Amen
3:01:59 PM 
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