Social scientists tell us that there are four basic social institutions
that make up a culture or society.
The first is Kinship, which is a belonging system.
Then there is Religion, which is a meaning system.
Then Political which is the order system.
Finally the Economic which is a production and consumption system.
In any one society, one of these systems dominate
and all the others are subservient to that system.
They are all present but one remains dominant.
Let’s just talk through them for a moment
because we really cannot understand Jesus’ words
until we understand what system he was living in
and what he was critiquing.
The first one is kinship.
Kinship is all about our belonging system.
We belong to the family or tribe.
We gain our value from being a member of the family or a tribe.
In particular, it is belonging to a family and its structure.
This was the dominant system in Jesus’ time.
The entire value is around houses and what happens there.
That is why we hear about Jesus coming and going
from dining at people’s houses.
He is always either healing somebody as he is coming in;
or going out of the house;
then he has fellowship in the meal.
This is predominant system in Jesus’ society at that time.
If we do not understand this system
then we will not understand what he says and does;
it is always a challenge to the system at the time.
And we will talk more about that next week
because we will talk about the fellowship at the table,
which is why next Sunday we celebrate the Body and Blood of Christ.
In the Kinship system there are the two things
that dominant keeping this value system going.
These are shame and honor.
If somebody in some way challenges your honor
then you are obliged under the system to retaliate and take vengeance
because that would somehow diminish your honor.
So it is a very feudal system in that sense.
The second one is Religion.
This is a little more obvious.
It is about the rules of purity.
One’s values come from the religious rules,
the rules that the Church has whatever religion that is.
We follow those rules and we gain meaning.
We move up according to how well we follow the rules
and we move down according to how we do not follow the rules.
That is where we gain value.
The Political system is again a little self-evident.
We have a set of values that come from
the politics of that party or individual.
The more we follow them, the more we move up in value;
the more we adhere to them, the more we are valued.
The Economic system is rather interesting.
This is production and consumption.
Here is how we gain value in the economic system:
The more we produce, the more valuable we are.
The more we consume, the more valuable we are.
The more we produce and consume,
oh, you are the most valuable of all.
Which system do you think is dominant in the American society?
Some people foolishly think it is the Political system.
But most Americans are fairly ignorant of their political system.
They do not really know it well.
Look at our local election that just took place, just 18% turnout.
I do not need to say anymore.
That is only 18% of the people who are deciding on
who will be on the ballot for the next election.
The election is decided by a very few
because most people do not understand it.
On the other hand, the Economic system, we get
because we are valued on how much we produce
and how much we consume.
This is the dominant system in America by a long shot
and every other system is subservient to that system.
If we do not produce, society says we are not very valuable.
The culture says we are not very valuable.
And if we do not consume, we are not very valuable.
That is why American society does not value seniors
because they have stopped producing
and they are not consuming very much anymore
because they do not have very many needs.
Unless they are billionaires
where they just spend, spend, spend;
and then their value moves up again.
Do you remember once when we were in the middle of a recession,
we would hear,
“Go out and buy a washing machine.
Help your society.”
That is what they told us. Right?
Go out and buy. Buy. Buy. Buy.
Value over society.
We do our part! We move up.
Why is this so important?
To understand why Jesus spoke as he did;
by the way, Jesus had a critique on every system
it was not just one.
He critiqued all of them but he predominately critiqued
the Kinship system because that is what it was dominant.
That is why he dined with people on both sides;
he dined with the Pharisees and leaders on one hand;
and then he dined with prostitutes and lepers on the other hand.
He ticked off both sides.
He did not follow the rules.
He did not follow the rules of the systems.
It is important to understand because
what Jesus does is introduce a new system.
He critiques all of them but he holds up a new system,
and that system is one of compassion or empathy.
Empathy is a more modern word for compassion
but an even better word might be equality
because our value is as a child of God.
We are children of God.
And nothing can take that from us.
We, all of us, are children of God. God created us.
We are a child of God and nothing can take that value away.
He is constantly validating this by dining with sinners on one hand;
and dining with the elite, and the religious leaders on the other hand.
He is trying to demonstrate equality.
And of course this is what this feast day today is all about.
The Feast Day of the Most Holy Trinity.
There is an equality between God as God is Father,
and God as Son and we even hear it in today’s gospel
that Jesus says, “What I give to the Holy Spirit is coming from me.
And the only reason it is coming from me
and it is equal to me is because I have exactly what the Father has.”
We are all equal and the key component here is
that we are all in relationship to one another.
And the relationship is one of equality;
a relationship that is based on being a child of God.
Then he invites us into that same relationship.
He invites us to be his adopted brothers and sisters
so that we then have the same relationship with
God who is Father and the Son, who is our brother,
shares that love with us.
There is so much ink spilled on trying to explain
the doctrine of the Trinity and it is unfortunate
because I think explaining it is less important than experiencing it.
And how we experience the Trinity is to do what Jesus did.
It is when we love one another, we experience the Trinity.
Saint Augustine probably said it best.
He said, God the Father is the lover;
God the Son is the beloved;
and the love that flows between them is God the Holy Spirit.
So when we become an adopted son or daughter of God
and we enter into that relationship
then Jesus is our brother and God is our Father
and the love the flows between us is the love of the Holy Spirit.
And that when we love one another,
this comes from the first letter of John,
when we love one another as God has loved us
then we participate in God’s very self.
We see the virtuous cycle that begins.
Now all of that is wonderful. Great theory. Great theology.
But how does it come down to our practical life?
We really cannot change the social institutional system we live in
but we can change how we operate in it.
We can decide to reject the Economic system for ourselves
and say, “No, we are not going to produce and consume
because the society wants me to;
I am going to live at my pace and my level.
I am not going to give in to the Political system.
I am not even going to give in to the Kinship system.
I am going to adopt this empathy system, this compassion system;
so I am going to follow Jesus.”
And what does that mean for us?
It means that we are willing to dine on one level
with the leaders and acknowledge them;
and on the other side, we must be willing to dine
with the broken, the wounded, the disenfranchised, the rejected.
Why? Because we are all equal.
We are all children of God and therefore,
what we do is we participate in the Trinity by treating all equally;
by our actions; by our empathy;
by our compassion to have a heart with them.
Today, as we receive as equal members,
no higher up than anyone else, each in different roles;
we come to the table to receive Jesus Christ.
And we come to remind ourselves of that equality before God.
We come to glorify the Trinity by participating in the Trinity
by loving one another;
by rejecting the social systems and
by adopting the one system given to us by Jesus Christ,
the one of compassion; one of empathy
that says we are all equal before God and
that we love one another and then
we participate in God’s very self the Trinity, Three in One.
