Subversive

Mark 2:13-22

        Whether you like change or not, I think it is safe to say that just about everyone likes life to go on pretty smoothly. Don't rock the boat! 

         One of the problems for Christians and especially at this very introspective time of year is that the teachings which we follow are those of a real radical, a grandly subversive individual named Jesus.

         In today's Gospel reading from the Liturgy of the Hours, we find Jesus doing things that our mothers taught us not to do. He associated with all the wrong sorts of people. Today it is tax collectors. They are the worst you know, sort of the pimps of Rome. Not liked at all. Yet Jesus pulls up a chair and dines with them and answers His detractors well.

        Later in the same passage Jesus' disciples are breaking the fast. Think back when meat on Fridays was unthinkable and considered a mortal sin if you dared break the rule. Jesus and his disciples do such things almost as a norm, almost as an in your face kind of act.

        In other passages, Jesus routinely consorts with women. Jesus spent some real quality time chatting with the woman at the well. She had several strikes against her. Woman. Samaritan. Questionable marital status. These marks were major stumbling blocks in ancient times. Jesus has no qualms about his association with her. 

       My favorite I'd have to say is Jesus curing the 'pais' of a Roman Centurion. This is so radical, even today. A soldier from the occupying army seeking Jesus to cure his pais. Strike one, soldier. Strike two, pais is translated as the subordinate male lover for the soldier, not a mere servant or slave.  Look it up in the Google.  Jesus' love is expansive, unlimited and subversive. Jesus cures the man.

         So what are we called to today in Lent 2018?  Are we as liberal with accepting God's outpouring of love on ourselves?  Am I capable of seeing through the happy horse shit of religion and society to be a beacon of God's love? Most of us don't have the audience Jesus had, nor do we have the calling. I do think we can see wrongs and try to right them. I do think we are capable of treating everyone the same way we would like to be treated. 

        Can we be subversive in the name of God? Love the unlovable? Speak truth to power?

        And speaking of power, my husband just walked into to say I probably should not have eaten sausage quiche for breakfast . . . . oh well!