The Power of "Yes" and "No"

Dear Friends,

One commentator I read recently referred to today’s Gospel as “The Better of Two Bad Sons.”

The first son said “yes,” he would go work in the vineyard, but he didn’t. Talk is cheap. There was no commitment in this man to follow his words with actions. The second son said no – but later went. He didn’t want to work. He didn’t want to do what his father asked. Maybe he was lazy or preoccupied. But then he went. Conversion. The second son had changed.

In this parable, Jesus is talking about those powerful words Yes and No. Yes, I will obey. I will cooperate. I will go. I will come. No. No, I won’t. No, I don’t want to. In Jesus’ way of talking about life, Yes and No are about hearing the word of God and keeping it. 

As Jesus travelled, spoke, challenged his hearers, he met people who relied on their track record of responding to God’s word. They claimed they were obedient, cooperative, indeed, fastidious about living according to God’s law. At the same time, they scorned the tax collectors and prostitutes – the ones who had said "no" to God, no to accepted religious practice, no to the values that the self-righteous had espoused. But these very people, the ones who had apparently said No had changed in the warmth of God’s love. Their behavior had changed. They went into the vineyard and worked hard, loved hard, became committed.

The thing to note about these two sons in Jesus’ story is that they were free – free to say Yes or No. They were called to obedience, but there was no manipulation or coercion involved.

The question that was put to the two sons in Jesus’ parable today is the same question that was initially put to us at our baptism. We spend a lifetime answering Yes and No, because the questions keep changing with the times. In this new moment, will we be faithful to the Yes of our baptism, as others want to destroy the community through attitudes and practices which disparage people because of their race, gender, economic status?

As the pre-election season heats up, it will be important for us not just to hear what the candidates say, but to study the implications of their platforms for the good of all. Over lunch with a group of women recently, we got onto the economy. One of the women was adamant that the economy was just fine, “After all,” she said, “look at your portfolio!” But a healthy portfolio for one or a few is not equivalent to a robust economy which makes all ships rise. We don’t have to say No to “What’s in our wallets?” in order to step into doing all we can so that the poor are less poor. “Yes” to doing what we can so that others may live securely is a Gospel Yes.

The conversion that Matthew speaks of the Gospel today is individual conversion. Ezekiel, in the first reading calls for corporate conversion. We are in this moment, this ongoing economic crisis together. Yes to one another is Yes to God. 

~ Sister Joan Sobala

God's Generosity

Dear Friends,  

The vineyard owner in today’s Gospel is in a hiring mood. He hires new workers all day long until the last hour. The story flows along with a certain ease when all of a sudden, it develops a twist that brings us up short and makes us question the fairness of the owner. Our sense of justice is offended. We are indignant with the owner and we feel empathy with the laborers who seem to be victims of unfair labor practices. “Call in the union! Call in the arbitrators!” we might want to shout.

For once, Jesus had it all wrong. Or did he? 

Where did this strange little story come from anyway? What was the context that gave rise to it? Why is it in Matthew’s Gospel and nowhere else? And why, in this moment of history, should we care anyway?

It’s important to know that Matthew’s Gospel was not written by some isolated individual who decided by himself what to include. Matthew was part of a community of believers which consisted of Jews who had become Christian. Their Christianity had deep and lasting roots in the Jewish tradition. The temptation for them was a sense of privilege. Matthew’s community had to face and deal with the acceptance of new people who wanted to be numbered among God’s chosen – and these newcomers lacked an unbroken pattern of lifelong piety. The parable points out discreetly that it was time to put exclusivity and division among people aside and welcome into the family of believers, sinners and tax collectors, Gentiles and the unclean.

The parable has nothing to do with justice or labor practices. Instead, it teaches us a most astounding lesson, namely that all generosity is unfair, and it is surprising.

You and I, too, have been the recipients of God’s generosity. Yet we might want to look askance on others who came after us who have received the promise as fully as we have with less time on the job, so to speak. The lesson for us as we go on and on in these pandemic times with its economic and climate woes is to learn to be generous as God is generous. As the landowner gave equal pay for unequal work because he was generous, so too, God gifts all of us seasoned or fledgling disciples equally for unequal efforts. Let’s do in like manner. At first, we might have to swallow hard, but wholehearted practice can bring us to a similar generosity.

Perhaps, most of all, we need to learn to relax and trust this God of ours who does such topsy-turvy things with our expectations and in our lives. Let God bring in others. We just need to welcome them as God does.

~Sister Joan Sobala

Restore the City of God in Rochester

Dear Friends,

We’ve watched numerous cities of our country and world, during the last half year, become places where  “violence and strife make their rounds day and night.” (Psalm 55.1) Portland, Minneapolis, Beirut, Kabul and Kenosha, Tulsa and Rochester.  Yet we can say with Isaiah, ours “is a city that is not forsaken.” (Isaiah 62.12)

It’s important to love our cities as places where God dwells, and people make their way toward goodness, justice mercy, and compassion – all those things which speak of wholeness in the community.

Two efforts you and I need to make to restore the city of God in Rochester.

Honest Dialogue. Not waiting impatiently for the other to finish so that I can have my say. Not seeking agreement with what I say, but searching for a common ground – a space between us that is empty and awaits a new reality. If we have honest dialogue, there will be a new reality. Gone will be the original orientation. gone will be the disorientation that violence brings. There will be a new and seminal orientation. Black and brown will not cease to be black and brown. White will remain white. But there will be appreciation for the rich and varied colors and all they bring to the city we are rebuilding. Let’s not skip over talking respectfully with one another about the racism issues of our day.

Work Toward  An End To Systemic Racism. From our founding as a nation, whites have considered black and brown people less intelligent, less than human, less capable. Some white people, to the horror of other white people, experimented on blacks at Tuskegee. We used the services, the bodies of black and brown people for our advantage. What makes this way of treating our brothers and sisters of color so awful is that we hardly adverted to this use and misuse. It was our normal. We may not think of our nation as systemically racist. But consider our American culture, our nation’s policies and institutions. They are woven through with racism. Developers mark out whole suburbs where blacks are not wanted, businesses have no black or brown people in administration. We could go on, but the point is for us to become color brave and nor color blind. To change our cities together, find at least one organization that is committed to life-giving change and participate. While the pandemic goes on, such organizations offer ways to participate from home by internet or by phone. Make the effort.

Finally, let’s pray together Psalm 122 (selected/paraphrased):

                          Our feet are standing on your streets, O Rochester

                          I pray for the peace of this city.

May all who love you prosper.

May peace be within your walls and security for everyone.

For the sake of my relatives and friends,

for the sake of all who dwell here, I say

“Peace upon you.”

For the sake of God, who dwells among us,

I will seek your good.

~Sister Joan Sobala

                               

                        

Finding the Light Within the Cracks

Dear Friends,

In his poem, Anthem, Leonard Cohen tells his reader,

“There is a crack in everything (there is a crack in everything)

That is how the light gets in.”

Don’t miss the cracks in our world. Despite the call to be socially distant, we are called to draw near to one another in support and compassion. Even though familiar routines have disappeared, new ways of being and doing are emerging. Despite the limitations of this pandemic, we can pause to listen, look, reach beyond the moment. 

There is a crack in everything. God is in the cracks.

    God, who teaches us the unruly freedom of the Word

    God who inspires the dignity of each person and who teaches us what it means to live a 

    connected life in a global world

    God, who gives us the Incarnation in a human scale and not as an abstraction

    God, who bids us to accompany one another in the darkest of days so as to find the cracks 

    and so enter the light

    God, who travels with us even when we travel in disagreement with one another.

This is our God. While human leaders stir fear in the people, God stirs hope. While human leaders hold back life to the full from all, God gives life to the full to all. While human leaders can give mixed messages, God offers truth.

“Ring the bells that still can ring (Cohen continues)

Forget your perfect offering

There is a crack in everything (there is a crack in everything)

That’s how the light gets in.”

Come on, sister! Come on brother! Let’s look for the cracks together and not give up.

Beyond the isolated and insular is light. And the light shines in the darkness. Ring the bells. Tell everyone who will hear to listen. God is new in our midst.

~ Sister Joan Sobala

Balancing Individual and Community Life

Dear Friends,

Two things vie with each other for the soul of the American public in our age as well as in our history – and I daresay, in our future. Of course, there are more than two, but humor me and let’s pay attention to these two. They are the good of the individual and the good of the community.

To be totally absorbed in the good of the individual can lead to selfishness. To be totally given over to work for the good of society can leave one empty.

The important thing is to keep a balance between these competing claims.

I once heard a story from the lore of a far distant land. It goes something like this:

On this particular day, the word went out throughout the village that Sarah was about to give birth. For days, as her time grew near, the sage of the village pondered what the name of the child of Sarah and Ben should be. The sage prayed, consulted the stars, and listened to the wind. On that new birth date, the whole village fell into silence, as it always did when a birth was imminent. Necessary messages were given in whispers, and even the children seemed to learn early on that the whole village must direct its energies to the birth of the new one of theirs.

As soon as the child was born, the sage whispered the name of the baby to Sarah, who first whispered it to the baby and then to Ben. Ben, in turn went out to the grandparents, siblings, aunts, uncles and cousins and whispered the name to each of them. And they, in turn, went out into the whole village to whisper the name to everyone.

As soon as the whole village knew the baby’s name, they converged on the house, stood around it and chanted, sang the baby’s name.

This was a loved child, a welcomed child, a child who belonged not only to Sarah and Ben, but to the whole community, where, as the child grew, its destiny and contribution to the life of the community would become clear.

The lessons are clear: Without the individual, there is no community. Without the individual, called by name in baptism, there is no church.

The civic community and the church welcome the individual and offer that person everything they need to grow and become more and more fully who they are. The individual also has a responsibility for the community and the church.

“If one is to do good,” says the ethicist William Blake, “good must be done in minute detail. General good is the lea of the hypocrite, the scoundrel and the flatterer,” he concludes.

But the movement from general good (e.g. I wish no one evil. All lives matter.) to the particular good (e.g. What must I do…) requires the sacrifice of some of our apparent individual goods. Therein is the rub!

To break down isolation of people by race, income and culture, to bridge the widening gaps that separate rich, poor and the shrinking middle class, to advance liberty and justice for all, we need to step up, step out, step in. Our baptism calls us to do nothing less.

~Sister Joan Sobala

The Lessons of the Women Disciples

Dear Friends,

Last Thursday, the 20th of August, was the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment, granting the women the right to vote. It all came down to Tennessee’s ratification, which was achieved with effort, determination, and belief that the vote would bring women to a new moment in the national move toward equality of women with men.

Last week was also the virtual Democratic Convention which confirmed Kamala Harris as Joe Biden‘s vice presidential running mate. 

Both of these were key elements in moving toward life to the full for American women.

But the story leading up to the ratification of the 19th Amendment and the choice of a woman of color seem to have no clear overt reference to the Gospel which undergirds and sustains our faith lives. Is there none? Do believers find cause to support women’s issues, women’s presence in shaping the life of our nation politically? Yes. Just take a long loving look at Jesus.

In a time when men only counted, Jesus interacted with both Jewish and Gentile women…the Samaritan woman at the well, with her many layers of experience, the Canaanite woman in last week’s Gospel, strongminded Martha and Mary, and the woman with the unending hemorrhage. Jesus touched the dead body of the daughter of Jairus and was touched by the woman who anointed him at the table of Simon the leper. Jesus had a group of disciples who were women, who did not run away in the face of his death, but stayed with him at the tomb when his male disciples did not. The most notable of the women disciples was Mary Magdalen. Mary, his Mother, was the first beloved woman in his life.

Jesus learned fresh, clear lessons from interacting with women – his mother whose awareness of a wedding need moved him to turn water into wine. He came to a new sense of ministering to foreigners because the Canaanite woman wouldn’t take no for an answer.

Jesus told stories about resourceful women – the persistent woman who stood before a judge until she got a satisfactory answer and the woman who swept and swept until she found the missing coin.

There are other women who might be your personal favorites.

All of them, partners of Jesus in daring, steeped in the depth of compassion, mercy and love, witnessed by their lives the love of Jesus for women. Later the church suffered from a convenient amnesia. It forgot that women were not second class in the eyes of Jesus. He accepted them and their lessons, their capabilities and faithfulness.

As women today go on to seek equality in all spheres of life possible, we have an indefatigable, faithful partner in Jesus – our God, yes, and our brother as well.

~Sister Joan Sobala

Lord, Help Me

Dear Friends, 

In our everyday world, people are divided into insiders and outsiders. People are enemies or allies, acceptable or not, Protestant or Catholic, educated or not. How we understand heaven can divide Muslims from Christians. Sometimes workers and management see each other in hostile ways. The divisions in Congress are evidence that people cut each other off from working together on problem solving for the common good.

But division/divisiveness is not of God.

Consider the 1st reading today from Isaiah: “the burnt offerings and sacrifices of foreigners who join themselves to me will be acceptable at my altar.”

So much of Paul’s letter to the Romans, part of which we hear today, invites us to give up divisions and be reconciled with one another.

And the Gospel tells a story we very much need to hear, so that we know that Jesus, too, had a hard time becoming wholeheartedly inclusive.

At the beginning of this account, Jesus wears blinders. He has been immersed in a ministry to his fellow Jews. But now, he crosses a geographic boundary into a foreign territory. A Syro-Phoenician woman calls out to him, but he did not respond. 

In last week’s Gospel, Jesus was able to stop the wind and waves, but now, he could not stop the woman’s persistent appeal for help. Mothers worldwide, in every age, will do anything they can to achieve their children’s well-being. She would not take no for an answer. Even the insult Jesus sent her way would not deflect her from her point, as she deftly turned Jesus’ words into a compliment of sorts.

“Lord, help me,” she begged. We heard the same cry for help on Peter’s lips last week, as he took his eyes off Jesus and sank into the turbulent waters.

Why should Jesus help Peter and not the Syro-Phoenician’s daughter? Why indeed?

What impresses me about this woman is how she did not let secondary issues distract her. She could have walked away in anger because Jesus was treating her in the stereotypical way women were treated then. She could have taken him for an arrogant Jew who looked down on Gentile foreigners. Sexist and racial exclusion are worthy of our combat. But she didn’t. She stayed on point, and her daughter was healed.

In our church and in our world, upholding life values requires that, as John Lewis reminded us, we need to keep our eye on the prize and make good trouble.

The Gospel shows us that inclusiveness in our mentality and practice is hard won. We are challenged today to have God’s own attitude in us toward humanity: to be welcoming and open, not closed and prohibitive. To do this with courage, we need to pray the prayer of Peter and the Canaanite woman: Lord, help me.

~Sister Joan Sobala