The host, Simon the Pharisee, a man committed to a rule-based
tradition, appears to be playing by his own rules - not following the normal
rules of hospitality - no water to wash the visitor’s hands and feet! And added to this Simon appears tolerant
towards a woman with a questionable reputation who is ‘molesting’ his principal
guest.
Jesus challenges his host with a story, the simplicity of which
exposes a critical truth. It is a story
about what matters most of all in life. The
moral of the story according to the Gospel is:
the one who loves the most is the one who is forgiven the most!
So, at the Dale Farm Travellers’ Site in Essex today who is in line
for forgiveness? Is it the saints or is
it the sinners?
Basildon Council says the law is the law and our hands are
tied. The law is the law says the local
MP. One rule for us and for them, say
local land and property owners.
In the Gospel reading for today, Jesus is suggesting there is
something higher than the law - mercy, forgiveness, love.
Presumably the Councillors, the Bailiffs, and local residents will
be satisfied with the symbolic shedding of blood that has appeared (caravans
leaving) and they will sleep in their beds in peace knowing that right is right
and the law, in the end, will prevail.
The question I have for myself is ‘where is God in all this?‘
My judgment is that God is locked up tight in the overwhelming
silence of the Faithful, and that it has been left to a few scruffy and one or
two posh protesting ‘angels’ to remind us that God is love and love is the
ultimate obedience of law.
The TV News, with mass delivery of fences, the diggers, the hard
hats, the apparent meticulous planning, eerily reminds me of the hard time the
Gypsies had under the rule of the Third Reich.
(Most German Christians did not see what was coming as they welcomed
Hitler).
Luke, in his record of Jesus being led away for crucifixion, has him
speaking these words: If such things as these are done when the
wood is green, what will happen when it is dry.’
Over the next hundred years, whatever happens with global warming,
the dominance of Europe in the world economy is bound to shrink - life will
become less juicy for most of us. We do need to be clear what matters most of
all.
This story from Luke alongside the events at Dale Farm not only put
my ecumenical vision into an uncomfortable perspective but also re-awaken
Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s question ‘who is Christ for us today?’ or who is Christ
for the Travelling Community in Britain?
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