There is a lot of discussion in the media about the Occupy Wall Street protests, mostly agonizing about what it is that they want. It seems to me that the media is mostly blind to what is going on. But let's look for a moment a what these protesters want. The answers to this are varied, but add up to the same thing: they want the top one percent of those in power to stop controlling the rest of the country.
That isn't hard to understand. Certainly there are some strange people involved in the protests, enough to provide some humor for us all; but the essence of it all is economic: how to get the homeless off the street, and find ways to provide jobs for the many, many unemployed people who are trying to find a way to provide for their families. The fact that the media and the politicians don't quite get it is more of a symptom than a problem. Actually, it is somewhat amusing to see the well fed pundits and politicians criticizing the occupiers, because what they really want is for things to stay the same as they are and for all of the troublemakers to disappear. Their own welfare is tied to an economy that has shut out many people and allowed the profit to rise for the one percent who control the money.
At the Republican debate this week, Herman Cain lambasted the protesters. He said, "Don't blame Wall Street. If you don't have a job and if you aren't rich, blame yourself!" There is the problem in a nutshell. The powerful don't understand, and they don't want to understand.
In Matthew's Gospel, the Pharisees confronted Jesus after he had silenced the Sadducees. The Pharisees were the ones who kept the law perfectly and looked down their noses at everyone who didn't, according to their own judgment. They asked Jesus, "Which commandment in the law is the greatest?" Jesus answered them with a sentence that has become what we call The Summary of the Law:
"Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, your soul and your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment, and the second is like unto it, love your neighbor as a person like yourself. On these two commandments, hang all the law and the prophets."
There, again in a nutshell, Jesus gives us the law and teaches us to love one another as ourselves. The gospel says that the Pharisees eventually shut up and didn't ask him any more questions. That seems to be wise of them, but they were simply biding their time, waiting to bring Jesus up on charges, which they certainly did before Herod and Pilate before crucifying him on Good Friday. Their charges were that Jesus didn't keep the law, preached heresy and rebellion among the people. Certainly he did some of these things, but his teaching is so wonderful about God's attempt to get creation back to the way that it was intended from the beginning.
If we would simply pay attention to what Jesus told us about the law we would be almost there. He asked us to "love one another as we love ourselves" That is simple enough, isn't it? Certainly we do a lot for the poor, we contribute to food banks and other charities that take care of human need, but that isn't all that we are being asked to do. Loving our neighbor as ourselves means not only the person afar by also the person near. The one who lives beside you on your street, or who sits in the pew next to you or behind you. Jesus would like us to make this loving as personal as possible. That we have failed in this is demonstrably obvious. But every once in a while we are reminded about our obligation to love one another.
At Trinity Cathedral a number of years ago, we had a funeral for a man who was then our suffragan bishop. All of the clergy were there, the pews were filled from front to back. When the time came for communion, the family left their pews to go to the altar to receive. Down the center aisle came a bedraggled person dressed essentially in rags, a Pittsburgh street person. He settled into the pew that had been vacated by the family. Quickly, ushers in tails and cravats moved him out of there. He then went into one of the pews that were vacated by the clergy who had then gone to the altar to receive the sacrament. Again, the ushers moved him out of there and he walked unsteadily down the aisle.
There was an empty pew between the clergy and the lay people. Here he settled, but the problem wasn't over. Two priests came down to give communion to a woman in the first row of the laity. Again the ushers moved the man out, and he worked his way farther down the aisle. As he was moving in the church somebody asked, "Who is that man?" Quickly the answer was almost whispered, "It is the Lord"
When we left the church in procession, I saw him in a pew on the end near the back of the church where he had found a place. He never gave up. If that wasn't the Lord who came into the cathedral that day, it was a close approximation. He went to all of the places where he couldn't be accommodated but eventually found a place to be comfortable. He stayed among us and never left. I have thanked God for that experience that day more times than you can imagine. I learned a lot from it about how it is that we receive one another. Our Lord comes to us in curious garb sometimes. It is always important for us to receive him. He may be sitting next to you now. What are you going to do about it?
That isn't hard to understand. Certainly there are some strange people involved in the protests, enough to provide some humor for us all; but the essence of it all is economic: how to get the homeless off the street, and find ways to provide jobs for the many, many unemployed people who are trying to find a way to provide for their families. The fact that the media and the politicians don't quite get it is more of a symptom than a problem. Actually, it is somewhat amusing to see the well fed pundits and politicians criticizing the occupiers, because what they really want is for things to stay the same as they are and for all of the troublemakers to disappear. Their own welfare is tied to an economy that has shut out many people and allowed the profit to rise for the one percent who control the money.
At the Republican debate this week, Herman Cain lambasted the protesters. He said, "Don't blame Wall Street. If you don't have a job and if you aren't rich, blame yourself!" There is the problem in a nutshell. The powerful don't understand, and they don't want to understand.
In Matthew's Gospel, the Pharisees confronted Jesus after he had silenced the Sadducees. The Pharisees were the ones who kept the law perfectly and looked down their noses at everyone who didn't, according to their own judgment. They asked Jesus, "Which commandment in the law is the greatest?" Jesus answered them with a sentence that has become what we call The Summary of the Law:
"Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, your soul and your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment, and the second is like unto it, love your neighbor as a person like yourself. On these two commandments, hang all the law and the prophets."
There, again in a nutshell, Jesus gives us the law and teaches us to love one another as ourselves. The gospel says that the Pharisees eventually shut up and didn't ask him any more questions. That seems to be wise of them, but they were simply biding their time, waiting to bring Jesus up on charges, which they certainly did before Herod and Pilate before crucifying him on Good Friday. Their charges were that Jesus didn't keep the law, preached heresy and rebellion among the people. Certainly he did some of these things, but his teaching is so wonderful about God's attempt to get creation back to the way that it was intended from the beginning.
If we would simply pay attention to what Jesus told us about the law we would be almost there. He asked us to "love one another as we love ourselves" That is simple enough, isn't it? Certainly we do a lot for the poor, we contribute to food banks and other charities that take care of human need, but that isn't all that we are being asked to do. Loving our neighbor as ourselves means not only the person afar by also the person near. The one who lives beside you on your street, or who sits in the pew next to you or behind you. Jesus would like us to make this loving as personal as possible. That we have failed in this is demonstrably obvious. But every once in a while we are reminded about our obligation to love one another.
At Trinity Cathedral a number of years ago, we had a funeral for a man who was then our suffragan bishop. All of the clergy were there, the pews were filled from front to back. When the time came for communion, the family left their pews to go to the altar to receive. Down the center aisle came a bedraggled person dressed essentially in rags, a Pittsburgh street person. He settled into the pew that had been vacated by the family. Quickly, ushers in tails and cravats moved him out of there. He then went into one of the pews that were vacated by the clergy who had then gone to the altar to receive the sacrament. Again, the ushers moved him out of there and he walked unsteadily down the aisle.
There was an empty pew between the clergy and the lay people. Here he settled, but the problem wasn't over. Two priests came down to give communion to a woman in the first row of the laity. Again the ushers moved the man out, and he worked his way farther down the aisle. As he was moving in the church somebody asked, "Who is that man?" Quickly the answer was almost whispered, "It is the Lord"
When we left the church in procession, I saw him in a pew on the end near the back of the church where he had found a place. He never gave up. If that wasn't the Lord who came into the cathedral that day, it was a close approximation. He went to all of the places where he couldn't be accommodated but eventually found a place to be comfortable. He stayed among us and never left. I have thanked God for that experience that day more times than you can imagine. I learned a lot from it about how it is that we receive one another. Our Lord comes to us in curious garb sometimes. It is always important for us to receive him. He may be sitting next to you now. What are you going to do about it?
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