The opening anecdote for this homily was given by Kerin Coughlin, who was scheduled to read at this Mass but is not feeling well. So let me just thank her and hope that she feels better. 

At bible study last week, Kerin told us that Billy Joel will buy out the front row seats at his concerts to prevent rich people from taking them – not to hear him, but to be seen by everyone. Then he will send his managers up to the cheap seats and get real fans who would pay attention to the performance. Jesus’ motivation today is rather similar. 

We first need a bit of archeology. Houses in Galilee in Jesus’ time would have been centered on a courtyard. The main door was in the center of the courtyard, and the kitchen, storage rooms and bedrooms would have been off of it.  Guests would have been entertained and fed in this courtyard.  Jesus had most likely spoken at a local synagogue and now was being entertained by a leading pharisee who had the space to hold a dinner for the town’s notables This would have been a major event and the common people of the village would have crowded around the front door to see who was there and what Jesus might say. They may perhaps have heard that he had often been in conflict with some of the Pharisees and looked forward to some fireworks. 

The connection between popularism and white nationalism has become a staple of our daily news feed. It may seem new to us, but it has particularly deep roots in American history.  The post-Civil War economic boom and bust economy was a gilded age for some people, but a time of unrelenting poverty for many more. Reformers saw this at the time and attempted to unite the poor, downtrodden, and dispossessed. They made significant progress around 1890, but ultimately failed. The rich and powerful used their influence to create divisions between native-born Americans and immigrants and especially between blacks and whites. This delayed even basic reforms for over a generation and required a major depression to finally move. (1)