READINGS

Luke 13:22-30
Genesis 32:28
Genesis 19:1-11
Judges 19:22
Psalm 107:2-3

HOMILY

There's quite a big jump from where we left off last Sunday and today's Gospel.

Last Sunday we brought out how Jesus was putting us on the spot with regards to how we are going to have to learn to discern signs, how we're going to have to learn to work out which side we're on.

And this is always going to be up to us and it's going to be a difficult matter.

So it's no surprise that the next few verses are about signs, that teach about the interpretation of the time saying how to interpret when it's going to rain and when you see the south how do you know, how do you not know, how to interpret the present time.

And the same thing about people going to trial: if you don't learn how to settle the case beforehand, you will be caught up in something that will drag you to the very end.

And then again interpreting the sign of some people being killed by Pilat, or others on whom the tower fell - learning to interpret the sign of what's that about.

And a parable of the fig tree, the healing of a crippled woman, the parable of the mustard seed and of the yeast - all of them learn how to understand what's going on, what are signs going to be like.

So then having gone through that teaching about the difficulty of interpreting science, there's a little break which is where our Gospel starts.

This is like the second part of Jesus's trip towards Jerusalem.

So Jesus went through one town and village after another teaching as he made his way to Jerusalem.

Someone asks him:

Lord, will only a few be saved? 

He said to them: strive to enter through the narrow door for many - I tell you - will try to enter and will not be able.

Imagine how shocking what Jesus said must have seemed to people at the time, how stern and shocking it must have seemed.

It's worth trying to pick up something of the shock he must have produced for his listeners.

So the question: Lord, will only a few be saved?

The kind of people who ask that question are people who basically assume that they are amongst those who are saved and look at all the wicked others and think:

Gosh there's only going to be very few of us who's going to be saved, because the others are so bad.

It's very rare that anybody asks that question from a position of deep compassion about everybody.

Lord, will only a few be saved? so he says to them... that kind of person has a pretty strict mind... so he said to that person: strive to enter through the narrow door.

In other words, he will not answer the question.

That kind of question originates from someone with a speculative mind who wants to know how the metaphysical state of things comes up with, who considers themselves to be on the "goodies" side.

Jesus's answer is, effectively, none of this speculative stuff (as though you're from a strong position and you can work out what the meaning of the universe and who's in and who's out); instead, he says: you strive to enter through the narrow door.

The entry is through the hard work of self-criticism in one way or another.

For many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able; will try to enter and will not be able.

Here there's just a hint under the surface of the one who tried, and the verb here - will not be able to, actually - will not have the strength.

Of course, this refers to Jacob and Israel, because they strove with God and prevailed.

And he was told: you have been strong with God, you have beaten God, you have been strong against God.

That's part of what made Israel Israel - the one who struggled with God as part of his process of learning, of overcoming himself.

It was then that he was able to go and see his brother Esau face to face, whereas before they had just been fighting.

Many will try to enter, but will not have the strength, will not be Israel.

So what he's talking about here is what it's like to be Israel.

Having used the image of the narrow door, the one that you have to slim down to get through, the one that you can't carry your bags through over with broad yokes and things like that; basically, it's the image of the possibility of self-criticism rather than imagining yourself in a stable broad place.

Then he tells this tale which is much more curious than it seems.

When once the owner of the house has got up and shut the door and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door saying: 

Lord, open to us - then in reply he will say to you: I do not know where you come from.

There's a lot of hidden reference behind these words.

Notice that he doesn't say, as in Matthew's Gospel, I do not know who you are. Instead: Where you come from.

Remember the story where an owner of the house has after dinner got up and shut the door, and a group of people stand outside and begin to pound at the door saying:

Open to us! 

But he will answer, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from.’

Don't do such terrible things to my guests.

Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.’

But he will say, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from. Get away from me, all you evildoers!’

Get away from me in that scene in Genesis to which I'm referring when Lot comes out of the house and stands in front of the door, they say:

Get back - it's the same verb - get back from here.

They want to grab the people inside the house.

And he said: Get away you, all you evildoers.

Now what I suggest here is that Jesus is telling the Sodom story in reverse, but with it being used as a judgment story which forces the proper reading of the Sodom story.

Jesus is suggesting to his listeners:

I don't know where you come from - hinting - are you, in fact, the people of Sodom who knock against the door, tell people to get out of the way, but in fact reject foreigners, the weak, those who are precarious.

Are you able to overcome your group feeling, your group togetherness?

That's what's going to determine where you come from, whether you are in fact Israel or whether you're Sodom.

So when he says:

I don't know where you come from, go away from me all you evildoers.

He's bringing to mind that terrible story of how a group of people knocked at a door and wanted to commit acts of great inhospitality against precarious migrants.

And they filled the square outside the house.

The Greek verbs appear again and again, even the pounding on the door, actually the pounding happens in the Judges version of the same story when it's the Levite's concubine.

They pound on the door: same verb here as which is the parallel story, but told about a similar act of inhospitality within Israel.

So he's saying: maybe you come from Gibeah, the Benjaminite Gibeah, or maybe you come from Sodom - I don't know where you come from.

It's not a question of having seen somebody or known somebody or listened to somebody teaching in their squares.

It's not a question of any kind of identitarianism - that won't do at all.

It's always going to be a question of whether have you undergone a change of heart?

Have you undergone the route to becoming someone else? That's where you've come from.

It's a very very strong suggestion here that it's the question of who is to be saved.

It's going to be a question of a journey, nothing identitarian about it.

In fact, for those for whom it is identitarian, this is going to be a tremendously shocking thing because they're going to discover that what they thought was Israel was in fact Sodom.

And then he says at the end: there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth - very much what happened in the destruction of Sodom - when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the Kingdom of God.

So he's bringing to mind Abraham and Isaac and Jacob who is Israel.

What is the real Israel? Are you the real Israel? I don't know where you come from.

All the prophets in the Kingdom of God and you yourselves thrown out.

Thinking yourself good and throwing out others, you will in fact have thrown yourselves out.

Then people will come from east and west, from north and south, and will eat in the Kingdom of God.

This is a quote from Psalm 107:

Let the redeemed of the Lord tell their story — those he redeemed from the hand of the foe, those he gathered from the lands, from east and west, from north and south.

And the interesting thing about Psalm 107 is that, unlike many Psalms, it doesn't then go on to recount a potted history of Israel.

It gives a whole series of examples of people doing things with no reference to their nationality, their ethnicity, anything like that.

He's saying that those people will come from wherever, who will have made the journey away from this identitarian over-against-others kind of suggestion that that's how we're saved.

Then he says:

Indeed some who are last will be first and some are first who will be last.

And this is the phrase which apparently the Aramaism behind it is more complicated than that, it's not a simple reversal.

It's the suggestion that wherever you are, whoever you are, that there will be lastness in your firstness and firstness in your lastness.

It's a more complicated thing, but it does try to bring out the complete reversal that is going on of expectations.

This must have been hard to hear, this must have been hard to listen to.

Luke is writing it from his account as someone after the Holy Spirit has come out and poured on the Gentiles.

He's writing as someone who realizes how difficult this is for the Jewish people to accept the One who has come.

And what a complete turning around it does of anything identitarian.

This is enormously important for us as we struggle to separate ourselves from our own identitarianism, whether the ones that we all have or we're blind to or the ones that in some of us we actually profess as being a good thing - learning to detect where we are Sodom rather than Israel.

And so learn to receive those from east, from west, from north or south.

Those who are utterly unlike us, and yet who are coming in alongside Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and reclining at the banquet.

SUMMARY

The kind of people who ask that question are people who basically assume that they are amongst those who are saved and look at all the wicked other and think: gosh there's only going to be very few of us who's going to be saved, because the others are so bad.

Jesus says: Strive to enter through the narrow door. (He will not answer the question).

The entry is through the hard work of self-criticism in one way or another.

'but will not be strong enough': Jacob and Israel strove with God and prevailed, and this is a part of what made Israel = the one who struggled with God as part of His process of learning, of overcoming himself.

What's like to be Israel? Having used the image of narrow door, the one that you have to slim down to get through.

'After the master of the house has arisen and locked the door, then will you stand outside knocking and saying, 'Lord, open the door for us....':

He does not say 'I do not know who you are', but instead 'I do not know where you are from ... Depart from me, all you evildoers!'.

'... you evildoers' evokes the Genesis when Lot comes out of the house and stands in front of the door, they say: get back from here (they want to grab people inside the house).

Jesus is telling the Sodom story in reverse, but with it being used as a judgement story which forces the proper reading of the Sodom story.

Are you the people of Sodom who knock against the door, tell people to get out of the way, but in fact reject foreigners, the weak, those who are precarious. Are you able to overcome your group feeling, your group togetherness? This is what's going to determine where you come from, whether you are in fact Israel or Sodom.

It's not a question of having seen somebody or known somebody or listened to somebody teaching in their squares. It's not a question of any kind of identitarianism - that won't do at all. It's always going to be a question of whether have you undergone a change of heart, the route to become someone else, because that's where you've come from.

It's a strong suggestion that it's not a question of who is to be saved, but a question of a journey, nothing identitarian about it. For those whom it is identitarian, this is going to be a tremendously shocking thing, because they're going to discover that what they thought was Israel was in fact Sodom.

Are you the real Israel? I don't know where you come from. Thinking yourself good and throwing out others, you will in fact have thrown yourselves out.

'people will come from the east and the west and from the north and the south and will recline at table in the kingdom of God'

This is a quote from Psalm 107: 'Let the redeemed of the Lord tell their story ...'. The interesting thing about this Psalm is that unlike many others, it doesn't then go on to recount a potted history of Israel. It gives a whole series of examples of people doing things with no reference to their nationality, their ethnicity, anything like that.

Those people will come from wherever, who will have made the journey away from this identitarian over-against-others kind os suggestion that that's how we're saved.

The he says: indeed some who are last will be first and some are first who will be last. It's not a simples reversal (in the Aramaic), but the suggestion that wherever you are, whoever you are, that there will be lastness in your firstness and firstness in your lastness in regard to expectations.

Luke writes this having the notion that it must be very hard for the Jewish people to accept the One who has come.