All things are possible in faith! That's the underlying message of today's readings. God appearing in the form of three visitors to Abraham and Sarah empowering Sarah to have a son Isaac who was the foundation of the Jewish faith has been always seen as a testament of faith as well as a new community different than anyone else as they believed in one God visited by three persons. Saint Paul amplifies this notion of the power of faith because it is through faith that we receive the love of God and it's God's love never leaves us even when we turn away from God is present for us. Equally Jesus came with a message based in love new community, and new heaven on earth. Jesus saw that many were clamoring for this new vision that he delegated out his authority to his apostles, all twelve of them. Please apostles and build the new Kingdom based in love with forgiveness healing and inclusion taking risks and going beyond the boundaries of the day. This in a few words is Jesus building an “emergent Kingdom” where he engages in a spiritual way the issues that are coming to the forefront in his own time. They were to go where no Jewish spiritual leaders had gone before. They were to reach out to the unloved, to the outcasts and sinners all of whom we're from the Jewish nation.
Jesus called the apostles to build his new community with worthy people, that is people who would be open to the vision of inclusion, forgiveness, peace, hope, home love. This would be the new heaven on earth where no one was cast aside because of who they were.
In 2020 what are we called again by Jesus and we are the new apostles. We are given a new Commission. We are called to go beyond our boundaries which we've inherited in our Christian culture and reach out in love and hope to those who feel left out and behind. We are to look at ourselves and make sure that we are not carrying prejudice and inherited racist attitudes within ourselves. We live in a white culture often forgetting that we have privilege given to us not because of what we have earned but because of the luck of our birth through colour of our skin and the place where we're born and for a lot of us because of our gender. If we are to build a Kingdom that is emergent and progressive as Jesus calls, we have to start within ourselves! We are called to dismantle racism and this dismantling begins with me and you at a personal level. May God Bless us with courage and self-honesty as we journey.
