From the Daily Lectionary for Tuesday in the Twenty-First Week after Pentecost
Luke 11:27-36
While he was saying this, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, “Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts that nursed you!” But he said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it!”
When the crowds were increasing, he began to say, “This generation is an evil generation; it asks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah. For just as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so the Son of Man will be to this generation. The queen of the South will rise at the judgement with the people of this generation and condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to listen to the wisdom of Solomon, and see, something greater than Solomon is here! The people of Nineveh will rise up at the judgement with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the proclamation of Jonah, and see, something greater than Jonah is here!
“No one after lighting a lamp puts it in a cellar, but on the lampstand so that those who enter may see the light. Your eye is the lamp of your body. If your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light; but if it is not healthy, your body is full of darkness. Therefore consider whether the light in you is not darkness. If then your whole body is full of light, with no part of it in darkness, it will be as full of light as when a lamp gives you light with its rays.”
It’s not who Jesus is. It’s what Jesus says and does. The same is true for those of us who follow Jesus. It’s not who we are, nor is it about our status vis a vis the hereafter. It is about what we say and do. Jesus here is in full activist mode. He is calling himself the “sign of Jonah.” You’ll remember that Jonah’s mission was to go to the great city of Nineveh and call them out for their sins, in particular, their gross injustice toward their inhabitants. God also commissions Jonah to inform the Ninevites of their impending destruction. The twist in the story is that God changes God’s mind, and spares the city. Improbable redemption.
Jesus’ mission is of the same type. He is sent, like the prophets of old, to name that which is evil in his world; to call for justice; to speak the truth. The metaphor Luke uses is light. The Jesus movement in its practice of the faith, that is to say, a people who “hear the word of God and obey it,” is the light in a world beset by the dark designs of power. It is not enough to generalize about the dark… we must particularize it, name it, shine the light of truth upon it.
What shall we say about today’s post-modern “generation in our land?” Greed is no longer merely personal. It pervades the structures of our society. Gordon Gekko’s prophecy from the 1987 movie Wall Street, “Greed is good,” has become our creed. Our venerable justice system, governed by the rule of law, is being brazenly undermined by the very ones elected to protect it. Racism, America’s so-called original sin, has reared its head, has taken on new life, and begun a new reign of terror. In our very Constitution we proclaim that our citizenship affords life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Those words were meant by the founders to be a beacon, a motivation, for immigrants to seek lives of dignity and well-being in our democracy. Now, it is government policy to demean and terrorize those at our borders seeking asylum from oppression and violence. What has become of us?
It seems some days that our nation is beyond redemption. But “the sign of Jonah,” the mantle Jesus takes upon himself, is testimony that there is nothing that God can’t or won’t redeem. Love has that power; that no matter how profound the evil, love has the power to transform, and restore, and redeem. Our role as followers of Jesus is to act as if that “sign” is true, as improbable as it may seem. Wouldn’t that be something to see?
A Prayer for those who Influence Public Opinion (BCP p. 827)
O God, you proclaim your truth in every age by many voices: Direct, in our time, we pray, those who speak where many listen and write what many read; that they may do their part in making the heart of this people wise, its mind sound, and its will just; to the honor of Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
