Widows, Strangers, and Orphans

Most of us grew up memorizing the names of the Twelve Disciples. In the Synoptics they are all men. In I Corinthians and in the Gospel of John they are a collective, The Twelve. Better. 

When we are quizzed to name the best among the disciples, we would probably volunteer Peter, James, and John. Some will add Mary Magdalene. But only a handful would say Jesus's mother in John, the Samaritan woman in John, and the child who offered five barley loaves and two fish. Also in John. 

Yes, my friends, a widow, a stranger, and an orphan. The three kinds of people closest to God's heart. 

The Gospel of John celebrates the Discipleship of the Unnamed.  Whom do we see at the beginning, throughout, and at the end of Jesus’s earthly ministry in the gospel? It is Jesus’s mother. Motherhood is discipleship. For millions of people in the world, LOVE is spelled, M, O, T, H, E, R.

Among the four gospels, with whom does Jesus spend practically a whole chapter's length in conversation, in dialogue, in mutual exchange of ideas? A stranger. A Samaritan. A woman.

For so many people today who find themselves strangers in foreign lands; refugees because of war; displaced and dispossessed because of greed, hospitality is discipleship.

Matthew, Mark, and Luke do not tell us where the barley loaves and fish that led to the feeding of the hungry 5000 came from. John does. It came from one of the hungry 5000. A poor child. The rich in Jesus’s time ate wheat. The poor had barley. The child offered five barley loaves and two fish. Are these enough to feed thousands? Of course not. But these are enough to inspire and birth miracles.

From August 8 to 31, Union Theological Seminary received a special blessing from God. The Lumad Bakwit Iskul composed of those closest to God's heart: widows, strangers, orphans, and more came to live with us. To teach us. To challenge us. To test our convictions. To show us grace under pressure, selfless gratitude, and true grit. 

And to remind us of our promise. To go to Galilee. Where Jesus is already waiting for us.