Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 120

I have come to set the earth on fire,

and how I wish it were already blazing!

There is a baptism with which I must be baptized,

and how great is my anguish until it is accomplished!

Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth?

"If you want peace, work for justice." Pope Paul VI urged the United Nations. Since that New Years Day in 1972, the imbalance of wealth and poverty has only worsened throughout the world. If nations are not presently making war against one another, they cannot suppress the restive populations who suffer the violence of poverty. Mindless, irrational, futile terrorism spreads from slum to slum through megacities even as the powerful, paralyzed by satisfaction, wring their worried hands. Their peace is prosperity for a few and scarcity for the majority.

"Peace! Peace! There is no peace!" the prophet Jeremiah cried as Jerusalem suffered yet another siege. In today's first reading we hear a common complaint about the Lord's prophet,

"...he is demoralizing the soldiers who are left in this city, and all the people, by speaking such things to them."

The king and his counselors want control of every authoritative voice in city. Religious authorities should support the government and the war effort. Criticism is unpatriotic, even when it speaks an uncomfortable truth.They cannot comprehend why the Lord has abandoned them. They cannot suppose the Gospel might oppose their rule. 

We might feel that "the angry god of the Old Testament" has been superannuated. We might dismiss their jeremiads until we realize why the prophets railed against the city. Jerusalem was supposed to be a holy city. There should be no homeless orphans, abandoned widows, or unwelcome aliens. Given the superabundant providence of God, his people would share and share alike as they had shared manna in the desert. No one would go hungry; no one would have too much; all would have enough. If they competed it was in generosity, not in accumulating stuff.

But Jerusalem had proven to be like any other city; and Judah and Israel were nations like any other. Their religion had no visible effect on their economy or their social life. The wealthy dismissed the majority as unworthy of their attention, while the poor ate the crumbs that fell from aristocratic tables. Their piety went no farther than halfhearted displays of ostentation. Why would they not suffer the fate of other cities and nations, disappearing under the wash of history?

Many centuries later, Jesus' criticism of that religious tradition which supported corrupt government authorities was scathing.

You build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the memorials of the righteous, and you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have joined them in shedding the prophets’ blood. Thus, you bear witness against yourselves that you are the children of those who murdered the prophets;

In the twenty-first century it is easy to suppose we are different from our ancestors. Surely we are not the children of those who murdered the prophets. If geography and time have not set us apart from them, technological advances, economic developments, and cultural evolution have created an impassable barrier between us and our ancestors. Recently, during the revolution (whichever you prefer) we were created out of nothing and the past lost its relevance. Our universe is discontinuous with that of nineteenth century slave owners and twentieth century cold warriors. Can ethical decisions of the post-atomic, computer/social media/twitter age compare with those of our ancestors? Are we not entirely unrelated to the past?

But we still build tombs of the prophets and adorn the memorials of the righteous. We still celebrate the virtue of our heroic ancestors and dismiss their injustices. The same immigrants are still unwelcome as undocumented aliens, orphans are aborted and divorce has created a whole new class of "widows." We are only a nation like other nations with no particular claim on God.

We still need salvation which comes only from the One who warns us,

I have come to set the earth on fire,

and how I wish it were already blazing!

There is a baptism with which I must be baptized,

and how great is my anguish until it is accomplished!

Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth?

No, I tell you, but rather division.

From now on a household of five will be divided,

three against two and two against three....