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(Luke 13:22-35 NJB) |
Meditation for the Second Sunday in Lent
Kup began writing his column at the Sun Times, the year before my oldest brother was born, so by the time I came to be, he already had been on the job for a dozen years. By the time I became aware of much of anything, Kup was not just a columnist. He was also one of the radio voices of the Chicago Bears and he was a TV star, with a late show on Saturday night that mirrored his newspaper column. Long before Saturday Night Live, “Kup’s Show” was blazing a trail. Along with many of the early SNL stars who hailed from Chicago, my Mom and Dad would not think to miss Kup on Saturday night. The show dealt with inside news and gossip about local and national celebrities, and politicians. Any time a major star was in Chicago over the weekend, you could just about guarantee that they’d be stopping by Kup’s couch to say “hello”. You never could be certain who might show up on “Kup’s Show”. One week it could be Vice President Richard Nixon, or Malcolm X. The next week it might be Jack Benny, Danny Thomas, or even Frank Sinatra, stopping by just to croon, “My kind of town, Chicago is…” Over the course of its run, the show was recognized with fifteen Emmy Awards and a Peabody. When he went on vacation, Bing Crosby was known to fill in and write Kup’s column. Tragically, Kup and his wife lost a child in 1963. Several days after the death of President John F. Kennedy, their daughter, Karyn Kupcinet, was found murdered in Hollywood, where she had been working as an actress. Primarily because of Kup’s political connections, and the fact that Kup knew Jack Ruby in Chicago, more than one writer has attempted to tie Karyn’s death to one of the various conspiracy theories about the assassination. Always a man with a keen and insightful wit, it was events such as this that inspired Kup to once rhetorically ask, “ What can you say about a society that says that God is dead and Elvis is alive?” Perhaps the most charitable answer to Kup’s question is that such a society has its perspective really messed up and its priorities completely out of whack. Unfortunately not much has really changed since the days when Jesus walked and taught throughout the villages and town of Judea. Jesus intimates in today’s Gospel that the people of His day were just as confused and messed up as we are today. The person who asked Jesus about how many would be saved, assumed that salvation was for the Jews, the people of the Covenant. And he assumed that the Gentiles were to be shut out. Jesus’ response to him must have come as something of a shock. Jesus told him that entry into the kingdom, salvation, was not something that could be taken for granted. It was not something bestowed because of one’s genealogical roots. Rather, while “making his way to Jerusalem”, Jesus told him that to attain the goal one had to struggle, work at, and strive after the Kingdom. The word for striving is the same root word from which we get the English word, ‘agony’. The way of salvation is not the way of ease, or comfort, or hedonistic pleasure. It is not the way of It is the way of Jesus, which is the way of self sacrificial love. It is the Way of the Cross. Jesus tells us that if we try to take the easy way, we will ultimately fail and find ourselves on the outside looking in as the great Feast takes place, while a multitude of strangers are seated and feasting while we go unfulfilled and hungry. Merely identifying ourselves as Christians will not save us. That we sat in Church and listened to what others testified to about Jesus will not gain us salvation. God expects us to actively participate. He expects us to struggle, to strive to be shown approved of by God. He expects us to quit worrying about such things as where Elvis has been sighted this week and to leave our misguided perspectives, and our wanton desires crucified at Calvary and buried in Baptism. He desires that we should humble ourselves before the His Throne, seek the Spirit of God to indwell us ever more fully, and that we put on the mind that was in Christ Jesus, the mind that drove Him to put aside His glory and take up the attitude and work of a servant. Let it be so. Amen.
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hrough towns and
villages he went teaching, making his way to Jerusalem. Someone said to him,
‘Sir, will there be only a few saved?' He said to them, ‘Try your hardest to
enter by the narrow door, because, I tell you, many will try to enter and will
not succeed. ‘Once the master of the house has got up and locked the door, you
may find yourself standing outside knocking on the door, saying, “Lord, open to
us,” but he will answer, “I do not know where you come from.” Then you will
start saying, “We once ate and drank in your company; you taught in our
streets,” but he will reply, “I do not know where you come from; away from me,
all evil doers!” ‘Then there will be weeping and grinding of teeth, when you see
Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and
yourselves thrown out. And people from east and west, from north and south, will
come and sit down at the feast in the kingdom of God. ‘Look, there are those now
last who will be first, and those now first who will be last.' Just at this time
some Pharisees came up. ‘Go away,' they said. ‘Leave this place, because Herod
means to kill you.' He replied, ‘You may go and give that fox this message:
Look! Today and tomorrow I drive out devils and heal, and on the third day I
attain my end. But for today and tomorrow and the next day I must go on, since
it would not be right for a prophet to die outside Jerusalem. ‘Jerusalem,
Jerusalem, you that kill the prophets and stone those who are sent to you! How
often have I longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her brood
under her wings, and you refused! Look! Your house will be left to you. Yes, I
promise you, you shall not see me till the time comes when you are saying:
Blessed is he who is coming in the name of the Lord!' 
rowing up in
Chicago was an interesting experience. I was presented with a whole number
of options and learning experiences that never would have been available had
I grown up in Northern Minnesota, as my parents did. I was also exposed at
an early age to viewpoints and opinions that simply would not have been a
part of my formation had I grown up anywhere else. One of the characters
that went into the mix that makes up me was a columnist for the Chicago Sun
Times, names Irv Kupcinet, famously and affectionately known as “Kup”.