Proper 17/15th Sunday after Pentecost, August 28,
2016St Martin’s Episcopal, Moses Lake by Annette Fricke
Pride was not created for human
beings because the beginning of human pride is to forsake the Lord. Our traditions
can be a source of pride as well as a stumbling block. According to Tevye in “Fiddler on the Roof”, “Because of our
traditions, every one of us knows who he is and what God expects him to do.” Yet
the most powerful part of the story is when he disowns his own daughter for
marrying an Orthodox Christian. How do
traditions begin? And is it all traditions that do this or only some of
them? Who decides? Is it not the strong, the powerful, those who
can defend a good argument to a logical conclusion that decides for others and are
therefore agreed upon? Or is it the
wealthy who buy up corporations, hospitals and insurance companies only to feed
them with their own agendas, agendas that may not be in the best interest of
the people who are already there or people who may come to work there in the
future. Furthermore, those who buy such
institutions may have no real interest in benefiting those who use their
services. Again, who decides what
changes and how? It’s definitely not poor people, the blind, the lame, and the
crippled.
Besides all of this talk of tradition
and how it relates to marriage in particular, we know that some Jews insisted that
marriage was only to another Jew of the opposite sex while others held that it
didn’t matter if you married another Jew.
There are several examples in the Old Testament of the latter, perhaps
the most known is that of Ruth. Although the modern pattern for marriage for
both Jewish and Christian people has changed, our roots remain the same. In
Biblical history, there were three stages to a wedding between a man and a
woman. Examples of this pattern can be found in the marriage of Isaac to
Rebecca, Jacob to Leah, and Jacob to Rachel. If you care to look these up, they
are all in the book of Genesis. The first stage was the signing of a
contract. In this stage, the bride
agrees to a husband and her father signs a contract with the husband. When the contract has been signed, they are
legally married. In the second stage
which lasts up to seven years, the groom raises money as agreed in the
contract. When that money has been
secured, the groom informs his bride’s father and the date is set to actualize
the wedding at the home of the bride. The companions of the groom and the groom
go to the home where the maidens of the bride and the bride are waiting. The
bride and groom go to a designated room while everyone else joins in
celebrating.
Afterwards, everybody travels to in
procession the groom’s house to celebrate further in the wedding feast.[1]
Wedding feasts were elaborate celebrations for the entire community, lasting as
long as a week. This culture is radically different from modern weddings where
only the invited may attend. This
culture also lived as extended families, not the nuclear families of today
which also more times than not are blended families or families torn apart by
divorce. This is partially due to newer perspectives on marriage and greater
longevity.
But back to Jesus. He is at one of
those several days’ celebration kind of wedding. This celebration is on the
Sabbath. Jesus has already been chided
for healing that day. Jesus had just healed on the Sabbath—again . This is the fourth time he’s done this,
according to Luke. Some of the Jews are
undoubtedly saying to themselves or aloud, as we were told in last Sunday’s
gospel lesson, “Why does he insist on doing this when there are six other days
when he can do this? Why won’t he follow
the rules? He knows the rules. We shouldn’t have to keep reminding him. While others are thinking or saying, “There
are those who absolutely adore him and others he angers to the core. What are we supposed to do with him? Why must he mess with long-standing
tradition?” Once again, Jesus begins
talking about something unexpected. He’s
talking about who sits where at a wedding banquet. In the Jewish society of the time, apparently
that mattered because the host decided where each person sat and gave the best
seats to those who were considered the most esteemed and most deserving of
honor.
Jesus has decided to take this
opportunity as a teaching moment. He brings up seating arrangements which
have been in place since at least the writing of Genesis. In Old Testament times
the Israelites sat at table;[2]
and in the order of their dignity or seniority[3]. We also know that double and five-fold
portions were given to distinguished guests.
Food was given to the poor, but it was less and sometimes just crumbs.[4]
In the backdrop of the Old Testament
where a banquet is a frequent emblem of heavenly happiness,[5]
Jesus brings us a vision of the kingdom of God that is the reverse of his day’s
wedding feast. His day’s wedding feast
is also a reflection of how many people of that day and age lived their lives. Basically he is saying to them that they are
focusing on the wrong things. The tradition is called into question. If a
tradition is not all inclusive where people are treated with equal dignity and
respect, it needs to change. Luke, throughout his book continuously informs us
from start to finish that Jesus turns societal norms upside down. Jesus says that we should not be honoring the
powerful, but those who have nothing and are considered nothing in
society. We should be honoring the poor,
the crippled, the lame, and the blind.
In today’s societal terminology, the homeless, the mentally ill, the
physically challenged, and those who have no sight. That could be expanded to
also include the oppressed; represented by those who are undereducated, can’t
hold a job, or are disproportionately in the workforce. Also of concern are
those who have grown up in dysfunctional families of abuse and neglect, whose chances
for normal relationships is severely compromised.
Those are the people that the rest of
us need to defend. It is not enough to
simply allow them to help themselves.
They need help from the outside, from people who have the advantage of
being in power. If you are of a majority
ethnicity, you have power; the power to change things. A church can continue on with its traditions,
but never have a dialogue with those ‘less thans’ of society or think they
already know without getting their hands dirty in a face-to-face
encounter. None of us really knows what
it is like to be inside the skin of another person, to know emotional and
physical pain in the way that they do.
In a society of quick fixes, we know that pills are only a partial
answer to mental and physical ailments. In order to change a system, the
question must always be asked, what can we do to make it better? We may not make it the best, but there is
always room to make it better. Making
things better will make some people upset.
A case in point is from the news that many people with past felony
charges are now being given the right to vote whereas previously many of them
were never given the right to vote again.
Each decision made should follow the example we have in Jesus’
teaching. The criteria of what we say and
do is this: How is it that we can show mercy to the least of our brothers and
sisters, mercy that will help them stand and in every possible way celebrate
being equal, not just in the afterlife, but right now? It doesn’t have to be something big like a
decree from the United Nations, it can be just the small consistent things we
do every day. Start every day with the
thought, ‘what can I do today to be a vessel of God’s grace?’
[1] http://www.bible.ca/marriage/ancient-jewish-three-stage-weddings-and-marriage-customs-ceremony-in-the-bible.htm
[2] I
Samuel 16:11
[3]
Genesis 43:33
[4]http://www.biblehistory.com/links.php?cat=39&sub=413&cat_name=Manners+%26+Customs&subcat_name=Banquets+and+Feasts
[5] Isaiah
25:6; Luke 14:15; Revelation 19:9
