THOUGHTS OF A MONK

“New Wine” 

October 2004

Epistle: 2 Cor 1:8 - 11. Our only hope is in the Lord who rescues us and raises the dead. We receive many gifts through the prayers of others.

OT reading: Is 25: 6 - 10. The Kingdom of God may be compared to a great banquet with rich juicy foods and choice wines. The Lord will remove all veils and wipe away all our tears.

How do we understand today’s readings? Are they relevant to today’s lived experience? What do we think  when we hear the terms, publican, or tax collector, or sinner mentioned in the reading? As much as we might dislike paying taxes, we would hardly describe the local IRS agent as a sinner. We might disagree with the tax policy of a particular administration but surely we don’t blame government employees. And in general aren’t we all sinners? So what’s the big deal?

To grasp the real import of the text, we need an understanding of the terms as used at the time the Gospels were written. The Roman world was divided into geographical areas with a wealthy and powerful man in charge as a tax overseer. The areas were broken down into districts with another layer of bureaucracy added. Finally, on the local level the collection of various taxes, tolls, poll tax, property and transaction taxes were put out for bid. The winner, a local man, paid a substantial fee for the privilege of collecting the tax and so he had to collect enough to recoup his initial investment as well as make a profit. The system was ripe for gouging. Moreover, tax collectors were looked upon by their fellow Jews as collaborators with the occupying force, much as the Vichy government in France did with the Germans during WWII, and as such traitors to their own people.  Furthermore, they mingled with gentiles, not following the law, thereby rendering them unclean and as unclean they were considered sinners and excluded from the synagogues.  The Pharisees were strongly into avoidance of anything or anyone deemed unclean by their law. That included non-Israelites and whole classes of food.  

The new wine of Christ’s teaching was on the contrary all about inclusivity. He passed by Mathew’s tollbooth and extended to him the same invitation he extends to all of us. “Follow me!”  Matthew left all to follow Jesus. Like Simon and Andrew who, as fishermen, were told they would catch people, Matthew gave a banquet and invited his colleagues, considered outcasts and sinners, to draw them to Jesus and to experience the same call to be loved and included.

Now let’s look at the Pharisees. They were not evil. In fact they were scrupulous in trying to win God’s favor by following the very letter of the law. What they couldn’t understand was why Jesus would choose to consort with people whom they and the rest of society considered outcasts and sinners. The scandal of this situation in the eyes of religious people was that Jesus called for and modeled a style of discipleship based on association with sinners rather than separation from them, and one of the signs of this association still revered in Middle Eastern society was to share a meal with the other, thereby establishing an important relation with them. Every time we extend an invitation to those marginalized by society, the poor, the ill, gays, people of color, women, we continue the work started by Jesus and carried on by the Apostles. Our challenge as individuals and as a Church is to constantly check whether we are indeed trying to put the new wine of Jesus’ teaching into the old wineskins of our preconceptions. Trying to do so, we will not only lose our old ways, but also lose the new wine of Jesus’ teaching, his announcement of good news to the poor and his mission to the outcasts.

How might this gospel look translated into today’s situation? Suppose we were to observe a revered teacher and religious figure, not the Jesus whom we now know to be the Son of God, inviting gang leaders or so called “welfare queens” to sit in the front of a church or synagogue, displacing the regulars who attend every week and give substantial monetary support as well. Or how about inviting all the locally well known prostitutes up to take communion, telling them that God loves them and forgives them? Would we be affronted, angry, insulted and complain to higher authorities that this type of action is way out of line and probably blasphemous?

Where do we want to position ourselves? Do we want to be with those called to participate in the messianic banquet where, as the prophet Isaiah says, there are juicy meats and choice wines, or with the critics, complaining that others are not worthy to be at the banquet? Jesus requires us to choose when He issues the command to follow Him. We can only hope like St. Paul in today’s epistle, that the prayers of the community aid our weakness.