Leaven & Salt, Transform From Within, 5th Sunday Ordinary Time

Today’s Gospel is part of the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus addresses the crowds and delivers the   Beatitudes  “blessed” he tells them.  Blessed are the; mourners, the meek, the hungry, the merciful, the pure of heart, the peacemakers, and the persecuted. Now remember Israel was waiting for a princely warrior king messiah that would battle the Romans and expel them from Israel. .Was this the messianic army to drive out the Romans – the meek and the pure of heart?

Now, we must stop for a moment and consider the dynamics of the Kingdom of God according to Jesus.

The Kingdom of God, comes secretly and hidden. It arrives un-expectantly and in unexpected places.

The Kingdom of God is hidden (not because God wants it so) but because the world looks in the wrong places for it, or fails to recognize it, or is willfully blind to it. The kingdom of God is concealed but it is abundanty and effectively active, even where it is not seen.  God transforms everything from within.

The Kingdom of God also does not come following a linear path, it's more tidal, ebbing and flowing in human history. And the Kingdom of God does not destroy; not ages, kingdoms, nations or cultures it infiltrates them with truth, permeates them with light, and transform them according to His will.

 So now, back to the gospel of today. Jesus knew the Roman Empire was not going anywhere. 

He also knew the reign of God had come, had already broken into the Roman world like some weed in a well-manicured garden. Indeed, the Roman Empire was a well-manicured garden, and a well-oiled machine.

It had turn Jesus’s home of Galilee into one of its stomping grounds. Herod Antipas, client king of Rome, had turned the Sea of Galilee into a commercial hub of fishing and fish processing and a vital center of merchant shipping. He built his new capital, the splendid and imperial, Tiberius on its western shore to attract pilgrims and tourist on their way to Jerusalem.  Galilee was not a backwater. Roman roads crisscrossed Galilee, Roman commerce moved east to Damascus, north to Jerusalem and west to Mediterranean ports.  Roman taxes were collected and Roman dues paid.  

Jesus had grown up in this Roman world.  It was a world of power, expansion, and commerce.

Jesus saw Roman power as something that could not be beaten, but he also saw that it was already being penetrated by the Kingdom of God, sprouting up like a misplaced seed; small and concealed, but full of promise, and unstoppable by its very nature.

Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount (and throughout his gospel message) says God’s reign has already begun, growing in our very midst, though it was still hidden from the world too blinded by its own reflection to see the truth. Jesus tells the crowd, those who already have experienced God’s presence: the meek, the merciful, and the pure of heart, even the persecuted are blessed. 

 But, many would still ask where is God’s flaming sword of wrath where is his mighty and glorious army?   We want payback & vengeance not mercy & forgiveness. Jesus knew that God's reign did not, nor would not, come like some glimmering army in the noon day sun, but rather like a commando dropped onshore on a moonless night, behind enemy lines so to speak.

God's kingdom comes like a quite, life giving, breath. Its entry into the world was unassuming but necessary, even critical, like salt and leaven, or as natural as light, and as relentless as a mustard seed.  But, it was also mysterious and marvelous like a hidden pearl or as an unmeasurable treasure buried in an abandoned field.

Jesus also tell us that even though God was concealed, he was, and is, active, like leaven that contributes to generous rising of bread or light, first hidden under a basket, but escaping to illuminates the dark room, or as Jesus says, it is even like city on a hill, first obscured by the morning fog, but when the fog is burned away by the mid-day sun it reveals the perfect glorious city.

And the dynamics of God Kingdom are also the dynamics of God’s people. Like those living in 1st century Galilee we are constrained and limited to our time & place and the powers that be. But, Jesus reminds us that we are not prisoners or slaves of that power. He shows us we do not have to give in to the shimmering allure of the dominate culture nor do we to run from the inequalities of absolute power.  

We can dig in and work from within; building up God’s Kingdom right in the very center of our culture; brick by brick,  making one better choice at a time, one act of kindness or one act of forgiveness.We infiltrate

 pride with humbleness, we permeate greed with generosity,and we transform meanness by kindness.

We can transform, by God’s grace and our patient hard work, the entire culture, starting with ourselves first, than our marriages and families which then spills out and permeates the school and playground, the workplace, the parish, the community and the nation, everywhere and always choosing human dignity over human commerce and the common good over the private good. We can use the world to better the world, we can use the culture to make the culture better, we do not hate the world for what it has become but we love it for what it was meant to be.  Blessed indeed those that already do this.

But, if we do not choose the better and the good and we don't share the many gifts we receive from God, his kingdom remains hidden because we are inactive and sterile, we are salt that loses its value and light that remains hidden in darkness. 

But, we are children of light and faithful servants and our mission and our goal is to be the light of Christ that illuminates the dark corners of suffering, and to grow like the humble mustard seed into a tree capable of - in Isaiah’s words, 

 “To share our bread with the hungry, shelter the oppressed and the homeless, cloth the naked and not turn our back on our own and remove from our midst, false accusations and malicious speech”

  We are capable of this and even greater things, even if they are small things. God's kingdom is here in our very midst. We must live this reality and we must proclaim it. How do we proclaim this good news? Jesus tells us loud and clear

 “Your light must shine before others that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father”

May the good work God has begun in us and the world come to fruition and fulfillment.