"Jesus ate with sinners
And
they killed him for it”
That is what
my friend liked to say.
We might
add:
Jesus
thought everybody
Would be better off
Sitting at table together
Eating together
Breaking bread together
No hay duda
Jesús ama a
todas las personas
él comió con todo tipo de
personas
Y nos invita a hacer lo mismo
We might say
“the more the merrier”
Jesus would have said
“the more diverse the better”
las personas más diversas
que pueden reunirse - la mejor
vida será
Steven
Tyler from
Aerosmith
Sings:
Give
me some love!
We're
all somebody from somewhere
Some
mama, some daddy,
Some
big, some little, some left, some in the middle
Some
white, yellow, black or red
Todos somos personas de Dios
Moldeado y
creado por Dios.
Aliento dado
por dios
Todos somos tipos de la imagen de
Dios
Y somos amados
For me
One of the times
When Christianity
is at its best
is when people do just
what Jesus invites us to do
eating
feasting
with
different people
sitting
and knowing one another
deeply enough
to know each other’s stories
with the capacity
to pray for each other
Dios imagina
una gran fiesta
con todas las
personas
Para toda la
gente
Donde estamos familia
Con una mesa donde encontramos
Jesús y la realidad de nuestras
vidas
these
ideas were so very powerful
so deeply imbedded
in Christianity
that we see them reflected
in the Hebrews lesson
appointed this morning
el libro de hebreos
fue impactado
por la visión
de Dios
y las palabras
de Jesús
(Written
some 50 or so years
After
Jesus’ resurrection)
The
author reminds the Christians:
No descuides
la hospitalidad
con los
extraños.
Do not neglect hospitality to
strangers
No descuides
compartir lo que tienes
Do
not neglect to share what you have
No descuides hacer
buenas obras
Do
not neglect to do good works
But this is not new
This is not a new theology
Or new ideas
esta no es
una idea nueva de dios
This is
God’s ancient truth
una verdad muy antigua
God’s ancient desire
For
instance
This
is part of what Jeremiah is
Trying to explain to the people
In God’s prophesies
Jeremiah
is telling the people
They
have been greedy
They
had forgotten what it meant
to be a stranger in a strange land
They had
forgotten that they were to take care of the
Widow
and the orphan
The poor among them
The stranger in their midst
They forgot the hospitality
Required of the people of God
They forgot the hospitality which
We find in Jesus actions
And in Jesus words
de hecho
todos los
profetas
le ha
recordado al pueblo de Dios
que se meten
en problemas
cuando se
olvidan
cuidar a las personas
a las viudas y huérfanos y los pobres
The powers
that Jesus is addressing
Are
political and religious powers
A dangerous combination
And these powers believe
That to be right
To be
righteous
You
have to leave people out
You have to be separate from others
los poderes en
este mundo
mienten
nos dicen
para ser justo
que tenemos que dejar a gente particular
afuera de nuestras vidas
para ser justo
tenemos que tratar a unas personas
en una manera diferente
pero
no es la manera de Cristo
The false
gods of this world tell us
To
be worthy
We must shut others out
And eat only with the right people
Among the other righteous
Eat only among the godly
the faithful
the pure and the clean
This
is not Jesus’ way
Not
God’s way
Jesus says
“Be humble”
Humble
Theologian Frederick Buechner
writes
“humility
doesn't consist of thinking ill of yourself
but
of not thinking of yourself much differently
from the way you'd be apt to think of anybody
else.”[i]
antes de que podamos
sentarnos a la
mesa
con personas
diferentes a nosotros
debemos ser
humildes
debemos practicar la humildad
Jesus
continues by suggesting
We
need to eat with each other
Across class boundaries
Health boundaries
Racial
boundaries
Political
boundaries
We need eat together
At the same table
We need
invite
the poor
invite
those
who
can never repay what we give
para ser como dios
Jesús dice
Da
generosamente
vive
generosamente
comer
y cenar
con los que no pueden
volver a
pagarte
God in
Christ Jesus
Is
not a transactional God
God is not making deals
For the faithful
For the righteous
No
God is inviting everyone
Into God’s grace
And to sit at God’s table
La verdad es que
no llegamos a la mesa
haciendo feliz
a Dios
Dios es feliz porque
llegamos a la mesa
porque ponemos
mesas
afuera en el
mundo
dentro de nuestros
barrios
donde todas personas
se unan a otros
pero estamos
en una temporada en este país
donde tenemos una gran división
We live in
a time of bitter division
A
time of distrust in the foreigner
A
time of distrust for other citizens
A
time of scarcity
A
time when we believe
Some are better Americans than
others
Some are better Christians than
others
vivimos en una
época
en la que
juzgamos a los
demás
a través de los ojos políticos
o ojos
nacionales
y no con los ojos
de Jesus
A time
when we all too easily
Try
and fit in
Rather than be part of
The unrighteous
The
despised
And
the unwanted
es lo que es
ser humano
deseamos ser
aceptados
no queremos ser rechazados
y muchas veces
intercambiar la visión de Dios por
el bien de pertenecer
God
invites us to be virtuous
Dios nos invita a ser virtuosos
Ejemplos de
compasión - compassion
Who respect others – mostramos
respeto
Who are loyal to God’s vision of
one community
And model
grace.
que somos leales a dios como
comunidad de gracia
God has
invited us
Into
God’s great narrative
Dios nos ha
invitado
a la gran narrativa de Dios
God’s great banquet feast
And to that feast
God has invited all people
El
gran banquete de Dios
Y a esa fiesta
Usted y yo estamos invitados
a ser un nuevo tipo de comunidad
We have an
opportunity
tenemos ante nosotros
un momento de
gran desafío
In the
year that is before us
We
have an opportunity
To
live into the great
Invitation of God
To be different
To be a community
Of humble brothers and sisters
Sitting around God’s table
And in God’s house
In this
way what we discover
As
Jesus says,
Righteousness is not something
Attainable in this world
But in the world to come
el camino hacia la justicia
es solo
pasando
por este mundo
alrededor de una mesa común
And the
only way to get from here to there
Is
to participate in God’s story
And join in what God is doing
here and now
So it may
be Steven Tyler’s song
But
it is God’s message:
Give
me some love!
We're
all somebody from somewhere
Some
mama, some daddy,
Some
big, some little, some left, some in the middle
Some
white, yellow, black or red
Give
me some love!
