|
Saturday After Ash Wednesday March 8, 2003 by Rev. Herbert Nichols
The
readings today not only set a proper theme for the season of Lent; but
particularly for this year and the scandals that continues to surround and
haunt the church and rattle and rile the good people of God.
Let’s
listen first to Isaiah the prophet: “The Lord will renew your strength.
He will restore you like a watered garden, like a spring whose water never
fails.” But the prophecy of Isaiah was not fulfilled immediately, not
without first experiencing the parching thirst of persecution. The
Psalmist sings a painful dirge: “Incline your ear Lord and answer me for
I am afflicted - have pity on me God for you are good and forgiving;
Hearken O Lord to the sound of my pleading.” It sounds so similar to the
psalm from the lips of Jesus hanging on the cross. “My God, My God, why
have you abandoned me? Forgive them Father, for they not what they are
doing.” And his enemies mocked him. We know very well what we are doing.
Just as you knew what you are doing. Now you must pay the price. Now you
must die. No
matter what Jesus said or did, it seems there were always those ready to
find something to criticize and then pass judgment. How easy for them
‑‑ and for us ‑‑ to find faults, mistakes and bad
will in others while at the same time forgetting to look in our mirrors. So
often we hide who we really are and only dare approach God after we have
managed to "get it all together." But sadly, when we refuse to
expose our own vulnerability, we miss the opportunity of entering into a
genuine relationship with God as Savior or with others as fellow sinners. Like
Levi in the gospel today, we are invited to let go of anything that
obstructs us from freely following Christ, including a destructive
attachment to shame, guilt, and condemnation. Levi
was feared as well as hated for having sold out his soul, collecting taxes
from his own people for the occupying Romans. To make the analogy to
today’s society, he was clearly molesting his people financially. These
tax collectors, also like pimps, siphoned off percentages to fill the
bulges of their own pockets. Without
doubt Levi was filled with guilt and shame and was the target of hatred by
the other disciples when Jesus, extended this invitation -- to a totally
life changing encounter. Granted
that the notoriety and destructiveness of sexual indulgence upon the
innocent cannot be simply forgiven and forgotten, there must be procedures
of discipline as well as healing recovery. In this parish you had a
wonderful priest who endured the persecution of the damned before being
vindicated. I
think we must always ask ourselves in any situation what might Jesus do? I
think Jesus would certainly discipline, most likely retire, a disciple of
scandalous and such destructive conduct. But like the lost sheep, he would
leave the ninety nine faithful to seek out and protect the wayward one. He
would not not unless he was unrepentant. As
Christians seeking to be faithful we can begin with the words of Isaiah:
If you remove from your midst oppression, false accusation, and malicious speech. As
Christians we need to reach out to one another in the community to heal
the alienated and the apathetic and then the resentful and enraged.
Perhaps those can only be reached through prayer, real deep heart felt
prayer that goes as deep as their hurt and their hate ‑ not just
daubing the surface. |
