Reflection: Mushroom in the Rain
Matthew 25:31-46
Sheep and goats,
left and right,
blessed and accursed,
the rewarded and the punished…
Just as if there are two distinct, two different categories of people,
it is as if that is also so of the “Bovidae”…
(Sheep and goats belong to the same sub biological family, the Bovidae. Please
see this Bovidae group tree. What’s interesting is that except for the small
representation of sheep here, all the rest look more similar to goats than to
sheep!)
Today’s scripture illustrates that there are things that can’t be
mixed—like oil and water, and that we must not be confused about telling their
differences. Today’s Gospel story tells us that the sovereign set
aside the sheep, the first group, the righteous kind, at the right hand and
said to them, ‘Come, you that are blessed by God, inherit the kingdom prepared
for you from the foundation of the world. You gave food and welcomed the
stranger, the least of these who are members of my family. Just as you did it
to the least of these, you did it to me.’ I am sure those who hear this
declaration would be exceedingly joyful to be affirmed as the full, faithful,
first class members in the sovereign’s family, the Kingdom of God.
However, the first group cannot share their joy without humbly
acknowledging that those who were rejected by the sovereign are on the left
hand. They are accursed into “eternal punishment.” It reminds me of how the
Exodus story ends in the Bible. After the Israelites managed to cross the Red
Sea, the water, that had been separated to make the dry land for the Israelites
to run away, came back to swamp the chasing chariots and
soldiers of Egypt and drown them. How do we make room to lament the
lost, regardless of being on the right or left? Where is the room for the
lament for
all humanity?
Certainly, the vindication of the righteous ones is good news. That’s
what we want to hear. We want the ultimate triumph of goodness. Those who tell
truth to power, those who selflessly care for the most vulnerable, and even
endure persecution because of their faith, those who seek liberation from
oppression and move to unite, in solidarity, for liberation of others, must
inherit the kingdom of God; “the righteous into eternal life” (v. 46))
Certainly, the vindication of the righteous ones is good news. At the
same time, I would consider even greater good news would be that Jesus actually
spoke in his time (not as the addition by the later authors with their own
interpretations) “You have heard that it was said, ’You shall love your neighbour and hate your
enemy. ‘ But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute
you, so that you may be
children of God; for God makes the sun rise on the evil and on the good, and
sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. For if you love those who
love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax-collectors do the same?
And if you greet only your brothers and sisters – what more are you doing than
others?” (Matthew 5:43-47)
Before the birth of Christianity, and even today, religions, including
Christianity, have not been free from practicing blessing and cursing.
Historically, Christian churches hardly separated themselves from interrogating “who
is worthy of being part of community we call church and who is not?” and
what is the condition for full membership, and what isn’t?
Using blessing and
cursing as the two sides of the same coin, church authority and members
often ignore and fail to understand the full scope of the kingdom of God: the
profoundly inclusive and loving nature of the kingdom of God which is all about
giving life
and allowing it to flow through the lives of all people. In God’s kingdom,
there’s no first class, no second class. There are not those who are fully
worthy, those who are less worthy, or those who are not at all worthy. God’s
kingdom is not about a place but about the nature of the realm of God. No one has
inherited nor earned superiority or tickets to enter the kingdom of God. The
kingdom is life in God that plays out as
love for the needy ones. And, aren’t we, somehow, all of us, needy in
certain times and manners? We all are worthy of being loved. We, needy ones,
are also called to love others who are needy in the same way. It’s the daring
work to love in the hardest conditions.
Those who bully and those who are bullied, those who inflict and those
who are traumatized … those
who are sober and those who struggle with
addictions, those who are right, those who are wrong… no one is inherently
excluded. Everyone needs good
news. While we continue to strive hard to name what is evil as evil – for example, evil is the
colonizing act to keep one group in first place, in the position of being
superior and worthy, and the others in second place, not fully worthy to be
accepted to be family as who they are, however, I encourage us to still uphold the GREATER way of how
God’s realm of justice and love works – with the greater condition: having everyone in radical
respect and profound equal belonging. Its love and inclusivity is so BIG
that the kingdom of God, or God’s realm, is revealed to us as Holy Mystery,
which unites us, even as oil and water, into the realm of profound belonging.
Here is a children’s story that I would like to share with you, as I believe this story is a good illustration of the holy mystery of God’s realm. It is originally a Japanese folktale retold by a 20th century Jewish writer Mirra Ginsburg. This children’s story is about how we, sheep and goats - -there are so many different kinds of goats within the Bovidae family, 443! -- find shelter and protection under the realm of God’s inclusivity as Holy Mystery, especially in the times when things seem to go wrong, resources are scarce, trust in each other’s generosity is thin.
Please read this fabulous children’s story: Mushroom in the Rain, retold
by Mirra Ginsburg, illustrated by Jose Aruego and Ariane Dewey.
https://www.ousd.org/cms/lib/CA01001176/Centricity/Domain/3684/1.pdf
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