30 years of Just Living

"Lord, who may abide in your tent? Who may dwell on your holy mountain? Whoever walks without blame, doing what is right, speaking truth from the heart; Who does not slander a neighbor, does no harm to another, never defames a friend; Who disdains the wicked, but honors those who fear the Lord; who keeps an oath despite the cost, lend no money at interest, accepts no bribe against the innocent. Whoever acts like this shall never be shaken." - Psalm 15

This weekend we are celebrating the 30th anniversary of Nazareth Farm. We started the celebration with a board meeting Friday and today (Saturday) we celebrated a prayer service in the morning with a renewal of the mission statement of the Farm and a blessing of the Farm and its affiliates over the years. Tonight we will have a local band come and play for all those who came to celebrate and on Sunday we are celebrating Mass in the morning followed by a dedication of our porch to Jeanette Sandora.

In the prayer service the above Psalm was read and it caused me to reflect upon the purpose of the Farm and our lives in general as Christians. This Psalm gives us a little insight to the religious tradition to the people of the time period. The "tent" refers to the temple in which the Isrealites gathered. Prior to the building of a temple, Moses and the people traveled through the wilderness in search of the promised land. During their search, they carried the ark of the covenant in a tent which was a designated place where the Lord resided. The mountain is a referral to a designated holy place as well. This also could be a referral to the mountain in which Moses encountered God and received the ten commandments and the laws of the people.

In this Psalm an Israelite is asking a temple official what the requirements are to enter the presence of God. You then notice that the requirements simply spoke are to be true to yourself, love your neighbors, love your friends, refrain from what you know is wrong and when you assist the poor do it free of charge. (At the time period people did not lend money as investments, they did so to help out a struggling neighbor and hence they can be seen as the "poor" in their community. It would have been against the Law of God given by Moses to charge interest on that loan.). It was the belief of the Jewish people that they must abide by the commandments and laws in order to receive salvation. The laws included sacrifices of lambs, rams, cattle and other various animals. However, God became man in Christ Jesus and sacrificed His life as one final sacrifice for ALL humans. Christ became the sacrificial lamb. Before He departed this earth He left us with a series of teachings through stories, parables and His own living example.

Upon His death and resurrection the Holy Spirit was transferred into the bodies of the Apostles at Pentecost and through Baptism we receive the living God within us in the form of the Holy Spirit. The mystery of our faith is a beautiful thing yet challenging and extremely radical. Because of all this we are now called to take our faith to the next level. Not only must we follow the instructions given to us in Psalm 15 to be able to enter the temple (church) where God is present, but we must become a living EXAMPLE of Jesus Christ who is present with us through the Holy Spirit. This means that not only must we be respectful to the poor WHEN we help them but we are called to go OUT OF OUR WAY to help the poor. As we also heard in our prayer service today Jesus tells us in the book of Matthew chapter 25:31-46 we are to be judged by what we do for those around us. It is not just those who rob the poor (charge interest on loans) who break the Law of God as the old testament suggests, but it is also those who do NOTHING who are not answering the call to love and serve one another.

Nazareth Farm was developed to become a community deeply rooted in prayer which lives simply in honor of those who lack basic needs and who uses their many blessings to live with and serve the needs of those around them. Is this not what we are all called to do as Christians? I urge all of you to reflect upon your living situation, your family, your community. Are you worthy of "entering the tent" as listed by the Psalmist and are you a living example of Christ to others as we are called to be in the New Testament? Celebrate with us the last 30 years of "Just Living" which Nazareth Farm has been an example of by bringing home the ideas and cornerstones of the Farm into your own lives.

Welcome Home,
Nazareth Farm