BREAD

 Matthew 26:26 – “As they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to his disciples saying, “Take, eat, this is my body.”

The action shifts abruptly as the discussion of who will betray Jesus is dropped without resolution. Is Judas still there? Did the others hear the exchange between Judas and Jesus? What do they think of it? These questions highlight the active nature of Matthew’s gospel. There is very little reflection. Instead, Jesus is always either healing or teaching. The Italian film, “The Gospel of St. Matthew,” captures this well. Jesus walking turning his head to look at his disciples following – always on the move.

In this text, he is teaching them again. Jesus takes, blesses, breaks, and gives the bread to his disciples, and says, “This is my body.” He is reminding the disciples and us that he, the Son of Man, blessed by God, will be broken himself at the hands of the Romans. Crucified on a cross for the crime of sedition.

Some of you will recognize here the beginning of the “Words of Institution,” the basis for the Lord’s Supper, Eucharist, or Holy Communion. I’m not going to get into a discussion of how to best interpret what Jesus means by ‘my body.’ The disciples are not recorded here as having any reaction to these words. There are many interpretations and many famous discussions on this issue. This communal meal is meant to at least remind us of Jesus’s life and teachings, his death, and his Lordship. It is sustenance, however we want to define sustenance, on our journey.

Henri Nouwen, in his book The Beloved, uses these words as a meditation on Christian spiritual life. We are taken (chosen), blessed, broken (our ideas rearranged), and given/consumed/used by God to others in service. We are all in different places in this process. I almost wrote progression, but it’s not a linear progression, because there are so many areas of our lives that get changed, and it doesn’t happen all at once. It takes time to incorporate our new thinking and being into our lives or even accept a new way of thinking and being. It’s like a spider’s web – connected, but not yet complete. Or even a spiral staircase on which we keep circling up deepening our understanding about things as we ascend, but never quite reaching the top. This is why people speak of “becoming” a Christian. We progress, but are never quite there.

Like Nouwen, I too see this as a metaphor for our own lives in Christ. However, the order and definitions of these words I will use differs from Nouwen’s, because my experience of life in Christ took a slightly different path. My order would be broken, blessed, taken, and given/used. You might have a different order. Over the next four weeks, I’ll talk about each of these four steps/experiences as a Lenten meditation on my spiritual life and, who knows, maybe yours too!

In the meantime, think about how this metaphor works for your spiritual life, or how it doesn’t. If it doesn’t, what metaphor would work?

Be good to yourself too.

B

 

BETRAYAL

The news that Rush Limbaugh has died and the results of the impeachment trial need to be addressed. First, Rush. Rush is famous for being a terrible person. He’s famous for playing a game called “Barack the Magic Negro” on his radio program. During the AIDS crisis he called out the names of those who’d died and celebrated it. He called a woman a slut for taking birth control pills. And he admitted in the early 90s that he did it because it paid well.

Betrayal.

Rush egged on Republicans to further and further monstrousness. He played a key role in their decades-long effort to stay in power through voter suppression, gerrymandering, and getting money into elections. Along with Fox News, he was the Republican party’s spokesman. As such, he had a duty to speak truth rather than spout the lies that drove Republicans further and further away from democracy. I had a university professor who said in a lecture, “Democracy seems nice, we should try it.” Rush was a part of the reason we still do not have a democracy.

Betrayal.

I don’t know what Rush thought about the impeachment and I’m not inclined to look it up. I’m gonna take a guess that he was against it, as most Republicans were. Which brings us to the other betrayal of the last week. Although it was always a long shot that the senate would vote to convict the former president, having a majority rather than a completely partisan vote on conviction makes me happy. I was not surprised to hear McConnell’s speech afterward. He is a coward of the highest order.

After voting to acquit Donnie, Mitch made an impassioned speech about how guilty he was and how he shouldn’t hold office again. He’s trying to eat his cake and have it too. (Look it up, the other way makes no sense.) This sends a terrible message to Donnie’s Q followers. He’s giving permission for them to try it again. In fact, remember March 4^th. That is the next date that some of his supporters have decided is the date to inaugurate Donnie. Some believe that there hasn’t been a legitimate president since the 18^th president, President Grant. They believe that on March 4^th, Donnie will be inaugurated as the 19^th president. If this makes no sense to you, congratulations, you live in reality. Trump’s hotels have already raised rates for that weekend. It would be great if our Republican leaders could look past their own lust for power in order to condemn these actions, but they agree with these actions. They would have been fine had it succeeded on January 6^th and they’ll be fine if they succeed on March 4^th.

Betrayal.

I’ve been reading James Baldwin’s The Cross of Redemption: Uncollected Writings and in every essay, he writes the same thing. America has got to deal with its white supremacy problem. And it is even more of a problem now than when he wrote these essays over 50 years ago. We didn’t listen then. But we can start listening now. You may think I’m overreacting, but our democracy hangs in the balance. There are already 33 states working on passing 130 voter suppression laws. Republicans will keep doing what’s been working for them.

Betrayal.

And as we learned last week, Jesus’s response to betrayal is, “Woe to the one through whom the betrayal comes!”

B

HIDING

Matthew 26:25 - Judas, who betrayed him, said, “Surely not I, Rabbi?” He replied, “You have said so.”

I think it’s significant that Jesus only responds to Judas. The others seem to be ignored. I admit that Jesus’s response here has always confused me. So, I looked up the Greek wording and found something that I think explains it. In Koine Greek, the inflected verbs carry so much grammatical information that often the pronoun can be left out without compromising understanding. This happens often in the New Testament. In this text, however, both Judas and Jesus use pronouns when referring to Judas. Judas uses ‘ego’ for I, and Jesus uses ‘su’ for you. This construction is used to emphasize the person rather than the action. “Surely not I, Rabbi?” “You said it.” Jesus doesn’t reassure Judas, nor does he admit that he is aware of Judas’s plans. He throws back Judas’s words; an implied “Your own words have condemned you.”

My question then is what is Judas up to here? Is he testing Jesus? Is he trying to convince Jesus that of course it isn’t him? Is he admitting it? Does he think Jesus doesn’t know? Does he think no one else will know? Is he panicking? I know that sometimes, especially when I was younger, panic would make me pretend that I hadn’t done whatever thing I was accused of. Of course, that doesn’t work for long, if at all. I think that there is a sense that Judas wants to know whether his cover is blown.

We are all Judas. As human beings it is impossible to be perfect, and thus impossible to go through life without occasionally (usually accidentally) hurting others. We’re Judas in that we don’t want our deeds to be found out. I would love if all my worst moments were hidden and never found out. But hiding like this only builds a wall with bricks made of ‘appearances’ between us and the world. Walls keep people out.

Although it’s uncomfortable, maybe even embarrassing at times, letting ourselves be known by another is our only salvation. But it’s risky to let others see us as we are, whether we’re talking about good or bad traits. They all carry a risk of rejection. And yet, being truly known is our only salvation. Being known for all that we are and being accepted gives us freedom to be ourselves. This is different than thinking of ourselves as ‘good people.’

We all like to think of ourselves as good people, but that is a dangerous road to go down. Not because we’re terrible, but because we confuse thinking about ourselves as good with actually being good – or at least striving to be good. When we pre-define ourselves as good, it’s easier to think of everything we do as good and right. Once we define ourselves as good, it’s harder to think of ourselves as having made a mistake. It’s harder to hear that we’ve been wrong about something. Once we pre-define ourselves as good, appearing good becomes more important than doing good. It’s harder to let ourselves be known.

I think this might be Judas’s problem. He didn’t want to be known for who he was. It’s risky! Sometimes, it’s easier to hide than to share our brokenness. Sometimes, it’s easier to hide than to share our talents and successes! Sometimes, it’s easier to hide than to find our strength, or even to find out we’re average after all. Hiding behind the wall of ‘appearances’ keeps us safe but also keeps love out. The wall keeps God out too.

So, my challenge today is to tear down the walls that we’re hiding behind, share ourselves with others, and step out into the light of love wherever we find it.

B

 

WOE TO THE BETRAYER

Matthew 26:24 – “The Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that one by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that one not to have been born.”

I know right now, I’d like to say, “Woe to you,” to a lot of people. The Republicans who continue to support Donnie, even after he lost, after he spent two months trying to overturn the results of the election (illegally!), all the while laying the groundwork for an insurrection to stop the vote count on January 6^th. An insurrection that resulted in the death of five people that day and two people later as well as 140 people injured. Some of those injuries were serious enough to hospitalize them.

I’d like to think there will be consequences, legal consequences. Because they betrayed and are continuing to betray our country. By our country, I’m referring to people. People who have been struggling for centuries for equitable treatment from their government, for the right not to be gunned down like animals at the whim of police. People who are suffering from the pandemic economically, physically, or otherwise. People who were made poor, kept poor, and are left to fend for themselves.

I recently read an article in ‘The Land’ detailing the barriers that people here in Cleveland faced in order to get housing assistance during this pandemic. Income verification, documentation that their housing was ‘safe, warm, and dry,’ ID papers, and other requirements. Because none of these requirements were eliminated due to the pandemic, many people were denied aid that they qualified for, by multiple agencies. They then had to scramble for resources to stay in their homes. It is tempting to blame landlords for not maintaining their property, but many of them are as strapped for cash and their renters. Everyone is caught up in this web of suffering.

The article only discussed one neighborhood. Multiply that my millions of neighborhoods in the US and many agencies differing requirements for assistance and we can begin to get a picture of systemic racism here in America. It is not one person or group of people calling another a slur. It is the systematic, bureaucratic, unemotional, but NOT neutral requirements (for voting, housing assistance, IDs and driver’s licenses, etc.) that affect poor and low-wealth people disproportionately – Black people, immigrants, people of color. These systems that on the surface seem reasonable are designed to keep these populations down – poor and without power.

And that is the biggest betrayal of there is and it has been there since the founding of this country.

To the extent that we can – given the trauma we’ve lived through and continue to live through – it’s up to us, white people, to change these systems, making them equitable for all people who live here. To do otherwise is to betray Christ. And we know how Christ would respond to such betrayal.

Woe to the one by whom the betrayal comes.

B