Faith in God’s Inclusivity

	Fr. Roger Vermalen Karban

The readings for Sunday, June 9, 2002, the Tenth Sunday of the Year, are Hosea 6:3-6, Romans 4:18-25, Matthew 9:9-14.

According to Father John Meier, author of “Jesus, A Marginal Jew,” one of the ways the historical Jesus demonstrated his belief that “the kingdom of God is close at hand,” was by constantly reaching out to those whom main-stream Jews excluded from that kingdom.
Even ultra-liberal Scripture scholars (people who hold we can know almost nothing about the historical Jesus) are certain that he habitually hung out with individuals who weren’t even close to the bottom rung of the Jewish social ladder.

But we often overlook one of the ways Jesus expressed his faith in God’s inclusivity. Though some modern Christian churches use his selection of the twelve as the basis for excluding specific people from certain ministries, Father Meier believes Jesus created and used them for the opposite reason: as a way to demonstrate the total inclusiveness of God’s kingdom. Just as the original twelve sons of Jacob once constituted all of Israel, so Jesus’ Twelve showed his intention to include all Israelites in God’s kingdom — even public sinners like Matthew who collected taxes for Israel’s enemy: Rome.

Imitating Jesus’ inclusive personality quickly became an essential dimension of faith for his first followers. That’s why Matthew copies Mark’s well-known narrative of Jesus’ call of Levi/Matthew. It’s important for the evangelist that this Jewish traitor not only “. . . got up and followed him (Jesus),” but that he also invites him to eat a meal at his home.

No action in the ancient Jewish world more shows oneness between individuals than two people dining together. So it’s no wonder those guardians of religious exclusivity, the Pharisees, demand to know, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

Jesus counters their attack on three levels. First, stressing his ministry as healer: “Those who are well do not need a physician; the sick do.” Second, referring to the prophetic statement of Hosea in our first reading: “Go and learn the meaning of the words, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ ” Finally, giving his far-from-perfect disciples a “shot in the arm:” “I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Like all prophets, Jesus and Hosea demand that people return to the roots of their faith. And both know there’s no deeper root than God. They realize that religious folk often mouth the words, “Let us strive to know the Lord.” But they also know such people rarely have a desire to break through the systems of ritual and the codes of law which they’ve created in order to actually experience God working in their daily lives. Their religion gives them a false sense of security. Because they can control people’s access to liturgies and have the power to excommunicate anyone who flaunts their religious regulations, they can refuse to deal with a God who constantly offers love and mercy to everyone.

Hosea believes that only those who weave all people into their lives will be able to weave God into their lives. And Jesus, by his choice of the twelve, shows he believes the same thing.

That’s why today’s second reading is so important. In it, Paul deals with the most controversial act of inclusivity in Christian history — something which the historical Jesus never encountered — the admission of Gentiles into the Christian community. Like Jesus and Hosea, he goes back to the roots of his faith to justify his ministry to non-Jews. Using Abraham’s response to Yahweh in Genesis 12 as a pattern for all believers, he reminds the Roman church that righteousness — doing what God wants us to do — comes not from obeying laws or performing rituals, but simply from having faith in God.

Jesus found such faith in those who broke laws and were excluded from sacred rituals: tax collectors and sinners. In whom do we find that faith today?