If you are like me, you are tired of the same garbage assaulting us daily. We are constantly barraged by demands for our loyalty, from politicians, companies, even friends and family. Think this way, vote this way, buy this way. Regardless of how appealing it may seem, it all seems like there is some bit of rubbish tossed into the mix somewhere, and we know it because of that faint whiff of rot that is carried in the background. God knows, it's everywhere.
No, really, God does know.
If you take a good, hard look at the prophets, they all decry the garbage of the day, both in Iron Age Israel and Judah as well as in Technology Age America. There is indeed a cultural divide, but as the saying goes, the more things change, the more they stay the same. To that end, the prophets tell us that God will devise a new way for his people, a road through this wilderness of pundits and peddlers and other people throwing one inanity after another at us.
That new way found itself expressed in Jesus. This same Jesus was all about the poor, the marginalized, the disenfranchised, the despised, yet also had an eye for the beauty of an extravagant gift (for instance, today's Gospel, where Mary of Bethany anointed His feet in homage and thanks, foreshadowing His death and burial).[1] This new way involved both Jesus providing teaching that tied up the Law and the Prophets together in a new understanding, showing how they mattered in everyday life and how they showed us the Kingdom of God, and Jesus delivering us from the sin and corruption that prevents us from realizing the Kingdom of God by His Death and Resurrection. By these great gifts, Jesus gave us the ability to conform to His example and truly become eternal children of God.
Not to say we've gotten there yet. St. Paul mentioned in writing to the Philippian Church in Macedonia that as of the writing he had not yet reached the goal himself.[2] That goal is the focus of our life-long walk with God. Like St. Paul, following the new way in Jesus Christ, we "...press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus."[3] The thing about following a difficult path or climbing a peak is not to look back, to keep instead one's eyes on the ultimate goal.
The amount of garbage confronting us is immense. What we wade through daily is deep. However, if we keep our eyes on Jesus, the perfecter and completer of our faith, we have a way to get through the garbage, the goal being the Kingdom of God and its realization around us and in our lives. Keeping His teaching at the forefront of our consciousness and letting His deliverance power us, we have a hope of cresting above the garbage and embracing real meaning in our lives.
[2] Phil. 3.14
[3] Ibid.
Cover image fresco of Christ Anointed by Mary of Bethany, Serbian, 14th Century, Decani Monastery, Kosovo, Serbia