😇 Epiphany 4

Readings: Micah 6:1-8; Psalm 15; 1 Corinthians 1:18-31; Matthew 5:1-12. For full, free access go to PewPewHQ.com/tfw/a-e04.

Central Thesis/Theme:

In this episode, I explore how instruction creates boundaries between insiders and outsiders in our faith communities. Drawing on readings from Micah, the Psalms, First Corinthians, and Matthew's Beatitudes, I examine who has the authority to teach, who chooses to be taught, and how genealogy functions as a meaning-making system. The central question isn't just what scripture says, but who decides they belong to the story being told—whether through Moses, Miriam, and Aaron, or through Christ as the bastard child who inverts expectations about insider status.

Key Textual/Historical Insights:

I translate "basileos" as "Republic of Heaven" rather than "kingdom" because by the time of the emperors, kings were subordinate to imperial power. "Republic" emphasizes distributed, public power rather than centralized control—Yahweh is a public God who engages openly from mountaintops, not through exclusive priestly channels. In the Beatitudes, I render "pure of heart" as "souls are clear" because purity language typically belongs to temple systems, yet God comes to us in Christ as a baby who shits his pants. The God-fearers were outsiders who sat on the synagogue porch, attracted but not fully committed—the perpetual tension between belonging and remaining outside.

Theological Argument:

Genealogy isn't just biology; it's a chosen meaning-making system that determines whose wisdom we draw from and whose story we trace as our own. Indigenous traditions understand this—they honor seven generations forward while we in the modern West barely think past our children. The Sadducees claimed righteousness through their Zadokite ancestry, but once that system broke, the high priesthood became mere political appointment. Similarly, when we ask who subscribes to our meaning-making system, we're asking about coherency across generations. Christ disrupts insider/outsider categories by claiming that the supposed outsiders—the rural, the poor, the hungry for righteousness—are actually the true insiders in God's republic.

Contemporary Application:

The work of peacemaking changes because humanity changes and evolves in ways God does not. If you find yourself doing the same old thing—clicktivism, getting mad at what everyone's supposed to get mad at—maybe the work needs to change. Some peace has already been accomplished, and now you need to do different work toward the same end. The devil doesn't strike the same place twice. Real work is tiring, confusing, maybe dangerous, but it adapts to accomplish new goals rather than becoming empty liturgy. I learned this returning to Iraq with so-called peacemakers whose work had become choreographed fabrication rather than genuine response to present need.

Questions Raised:

• How does genealogy function as both limitation and liberation in forming identity?
• What distinguishes God-fearers (resident aliens) from full insiders, and why does that boundary exist?
• If purity language belongs to temple systems, what does "clarity of soul" mean for approaching God?
• How do we recognize when our activism has become performative liturgy rather than responsive work?
• What does it mean that the Republic of Heaven inverts insider/outsider categories through elevating the lowly?