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Deacon Tom Writes ©
“In The Beginning”
The Acts of the Apostles chronicles the
early days of the church as it came to understand its purpose and mission. It describes individuals coming
together and struggling to understand the profound mystery they had recently
witnessed. Today’s first reading
from the forth chapter says that, “...the
community of believers was of one heart and mind, and no one claimed that any
of his possessions was his own, but they had everything in common”. It
appears that the death and resurrection of Christ touched their lives profoundly
and so they made a conscious choice to live their lives according to the spirit
of Jesus’ teaching… and to care for one another… “so that there was no needy person among them”.
What’s
happened? Has the mandate Jesus
gave us to “love one another” changed? Has it been enhanced or modified or
made conditional so that we…love others
only IF they love us in return, or IF they hold the same ideological position
as we do, or IF they are the same color, ethnicity, or culture as us! God
forbid that we define “neighbor” as
used in the Golden Rule as only those who are just like us. Jesus had a much wider interpretation
in mind.
Jesus loves the victim, no matter what
side of the fence they are on. The Risen Jesus in not concerned about nationalism,
borders...ethnicity, etc. He is with the suffering of every race and creed. He
is an outcast with all those who are disenfranchised; he mourns with all the
broken hearted no matter the color of their skin…He is shunned along with all
those people we run and hide from...that we are afraid of…that we can't look in
the eye, perhaps because we helped contribute to the way they are. Christ suffers want, rejection,
isolation, poverty, and humiliation with all who experience those pitiful
states of existence.
We hear the rhetoric: we can’t afford to
pay for everyone to have health insurance… or let them work like the rest of us
have to...or send them home where they belong! And so Jesus wanders the streets today, sick and uncared for.
He sits in an ICE detention center waiting to be sent back "home".
He’s chronically unemployed, under educated, losing hope or lays wounded on
some far away battlefield, crippled by another “Child of God” who also is “only
following orders”.
Didn’t Jesus have something to say about
these things? How we have twisted and distorted his words. I guess the Romans
weren't as brutal as history or we might judge them to be. Sure they beat
Jesus...They tortured him…They made him drag the instrument of his death across
town...They nailed his hands and his feet to the cross so he couldn't move. And,
they even stuck a lance in his side to make sure he was dead. BUT, they never
silenced him! We do that when we choose to ignore the things he taught us…about
love, about being servants, about what it will cost to follow his lead.
In these joy
filled days following his Resurrection, let us pray to be filled with the Spirit
of Christ so we may follow his example and his teachings as those early
followers of his did “ in the beginning”.
Have a great
day!
Deacon Tom
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