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February 25, 2023Former Representative John Lewis continues to challenge me to "make good trouble" in my time in history and "making good trouble" as "repairers of the breach" is the charge laid out for us by the prophet Isaiah today. That is exactly what Jesus was doing when he called the Jewish tax collector, Levi, to leave his Roman tax collector post and follow Him. Worse still, Jesus became the guest of honor at Levi’s house along with other tax collectors and some Pharisees, lawyers of Jewish practice along with their scribes. All these sitting down at a shared Table. Expect plenty of tension and some "good trouble" occurring at that dinner Table!
When I was a teenager, I saw on a small black and white TV the "good trouble" Representative Lewis was making when with other marchers he walked across the Edmund Pettus Bridge into Georgia on "Bloody Sunday." He walked with other marchers for voting rights and "freedom" in America. Lewis was knocked to the ground and beaten severely, sustaining a concussion. On that small screen, I saw fire hoses and then dogs turned loose on marchers - unwarranted trouble unleashed by the police charged with "keeping good order."
The Pharisees in the Scripture complain to the disciples: "Why does he (Jesus) flaunt the laws we interpret and ourselves keep so carefully? Does he care nothing for "good order?" Do you, his disciples, care nothing about your own reputation or about maintaining good order in these precarious times? Jesus, knowing their thoughts makes the clearest statement of his mission we will hear this Lent: "Those who are healthy do not need a physician, but the sick do. I have not come to call the righteous to repentance but sinners." Am I called to repent and make some of this "good trouble" today?
