Psalm 62: 5-12 (New Jerusalem Bible)
Mark 1: 14-20 (Common English Bible)
Across the recent days, we have had Martin Luther King Jr. on our hearts and minds, on top of the very cold weather we are experiencing. In December 1955, after Rosa Parks was forced off the bus in Montgomery, Alabama and arrested, clergy responded by organizing a one-day bus protest of that city’s buses. Black ministers and leaders held a mass meeting at Holt Street Baptist Church to discuss the possibility of extending the boycott into a long-term campaign. MLK Jr. was a young pastor, new in town. Toward the end of the meeting, one of the leaders asked him to speak. Rev. King said this, “We’re going to work with grim and bold determination to gain justice on the buses in this city. And we are not wrong. If we are wrong, the Supreme Court of the United States is wrong. If we are wrong, the Constitution of the United States is wrong. If we are wrong, God Almighty is wrong.” And I will say this, one very famous white evangelist of that era was also very wrong when he said, “Black people will just have to wait until they go to Heaven to receive civil rights.” I find that comment disgusting.
In a recent book titled, “Love Is The Way: Holding on to Hope in Troubling Times,” written by Michael Curry, the African-American, Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, calls us to change and follow the good news of Jesus during these critical times. And I will quote some of what he says.
“We come together because what binds us together is Jesus of Nazareth and his teaching and his life. We are committed to following the way of Jesus who says, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind and love your neighbor as yourself. Love the neighbor you agree with and the neighbor you don’t like. Love your Black neighbor, your white neighbor. Love your Asian neighbor, your Latino neighbor, your Indigenous neighbor. Love your South American neighbor. Love your LGBTQ neighbor, love your Muslim neighbor and your Jewish neighbor. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the prophets.”
Is it not surprising that Jesus harkened back to the prophets of the Hebrew Bible who used the metaphor “to catch a fish” as a symbol for judgment upon the rich. By inviting these oppressed fishermen to “fish for people” was to join him in his struggle to overturn the existing order of power and privilege. Jesus went on to insist that the “Reign of God” was near. While Roman oppressors used the power of their Empire to persecute the various people they conquered, Jesus had the courage to proclaim a new reign, a new kind of empire was coming.
In Greek, the “basileia ton theon” means God’s reign is Divine, the divine mystery who Jesus says the Reign of Love is at hand. Jesus invited the persecuted to follow him and learn how to usher in the Reign of Love, a true kin-dom, in the words of theologian John Dominic Crossan, a place where, “everyone has enough.”
Following Jesus is about learning the Jesus Way of overturning the existing order of wealth, power and privilege. That is why Jesus forced the money-changers out of the Temple in Jerusalem. Jesus’ call to follow him is as radical as dropping everything for the sake of ushering in the Reign of Love, creating a kin-dom where everyone can exist in an egalitarian society. This is not through the Roman way of violence and conquest, but the Jesus Way of nonviolent resistance, similar to the action Rosa Parks took on a segregated bus. To follow Jesus is to join a revolutionary movement to create peace through justice.
The reading from Psalm chapter 62 criticizes those who set their hearts on wealth. If we pursue riches we make wealth into a god. That wealth will perish, but the love of God is eternal.
AMEN
