Monday of Week 20 in Ordinary Time
Judges 2:11-19
Matthew 19:16-22
This passage from the Book of Judges could just be
the whole book in Miniature. Israel just can't stay clean. They are
addicted to the shiny God's of the Canaanite's. God, the One God,
delivers them seven times by sending seven Judges to bring them back. But
with the death of each Judge comes a reversion. It is dizzying.
God is a "tough-love" parent who tries to
save but the Israelites haven't quite bottomed-out yet. He (God) allowed them to fall into the power
of their enemies. Sounds to me like God is respecting human freedom.
The Gospel today is the story of the young man who
approaches Jesus with the question, What good must I do to gain eternal
life? Jesus responds with the commandments, which the young man
proudly proclaims that he has mastered. Then Jesus offers the next step, go,
sell what you have and give to the poor…Then come, follow me.
The sexy sins (and I mean sexy) appear loud and
clear in Judges. They are alluring, intriguing, impressive…shiny even.
So too are the material possessions of my own life, those I own and those
I covet. The dangers of wealth, clearly a difficult gospel theme for
first-century Palestine, is even more so in my world.
What do I count as blessing? If I
count something as blessing does that mean that its absence is curse?
I have some re-thinking to do. I must be careful when I interpret
tough scripture passages and somehow I am not implicated. I am the rich
young man. Perhaps he will turn around...
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