Reflection: "Charades and Reality"Today’s Gospel reading today puts Jesus in front of a large crowd and he exposes the scribes and Pharisees as fakes, telling the crowd, "The scribes and Pharisees sit on Moses' seat; therefore, do what they teach you, but don’t do as they do, because they don’t practice what they teach. They tie up heavy burdens hard to bear and lay them on the shoulders of others, but they themselves are unwilling to lift a finger to move them, just doing their deeds so as to be seen by others."
Wow! That's a pretty harsh judgment. I guess many teenagers have lived through a whole list of do’s and don’ts that their mother or father impressed on them - and swore that they would NEVER say those things to THEIR children. You know, things like, "You're not leaving the house in THAT outfit!" or "Wipe that look off your face!" or "Just wait until your father/mother gets home!" and at the top of that list was the one that reeked of the sort of adult hypocrisy that teens love to latch onto: "Do as I SAY, not as I DO!" Of course, what goes around comes around and so as parents, we find (or found) ourselves saying some of the very things we vowed never to repeat, and we understand so much better the frustrations our parents must have felt. Not just the frustrations, but also the desires and the hopes they held for the kind of people they wanted their children to become. The truth is that it's awfully hard to live up to our ideals - you know - to practice what we preach. We hear that same truth running through the tirade by Jesus against the scribes and Pharisees in today’s reading. Have you ever heard of the country music song "Nobody Wants to Play Rhythm Guitar Behind Jesus; Everyone Wants to Be Leader of the Band"? No? I’m not surprised, because it wasn’t exactly top of the hit parade. Ok, it's a bit funny, but after we get through laughing, we may start to think about the accuracy of that sentiment. Some people don't want to be backup in a band behind the up-front man, Jesus. In other words, we don’t want to see ourselves as part of the supporting cast of helpers and putting Christ first. Most of us secretly want to be the leader of the band, to be even more important than Christ. How appropriately this humorously phrased statement fits with today's Gospel reading, which goes to the heart of a lack of proportion in our lives. It's no accident that Jesus speaks about humility. All too many of those who opposed Jesus liked to be in the place of honour, and if the arguments against them in the Gospels are even somewhat accurate, they were always jockeying for position. Jesus said we must have a sense of proportion - that the love of God must be in us, giving us a basis of humility. Let me tell you a story about humility. We read that because of his great devotion and faithfulness to his king, a shepherd was promoted to the position of prime minister, but the other ministers were angry that someone of such lowly origin should be so highly honoured, and they tried to find some way to bring him into disfavour. However, try as they may, they could not find anything objectionable about him, except for one curious thing. Once a week he would enter a little room (that he kept locked) and stay in there for about an hour. The nobles told the monarch about this strange event and said they were certain that he must be sneaking some of the wealth of the kingdom into that room. The king doubted it, but gave permission for them to break into the room and make a search. What they found was a small bundle containing a dilapidated pair of shoes and an old robe. The prime minister was brought before the king and asked about this curious bundle in the locked room. He said, "I wore these things when I was a shepherd. I now look at them regularly, so that I won't forget what I once was and how unworthy I am of all the kindness and honour you've given to me." Humility - the word comes from the Latin word for ground - “humus”. But I don’t want you to confuse being humble with being treated like dirt. Instead, it can mean being fertile, filled with possibility, open to the seeds of hope and the watering of baptism. Another story about humility relates to the arrival of a man at the main Chicago railway station in 1953. He was there to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. Off the train stepped a tall man with bushy hair and a big moustache. As the cameras flashed and city officials approached with hands outstretched to meet him, he thanked them politely, but then asked to be excused for a minute. He walked through the crowd to the side of an elderly black woman struggling with two large suitcases. He picked them up, smiled, and escorted her to the bus, helped her get on, and wished her a safe journey. Then Albert Schweitzer turned to the crowd and apologized for keeping them waiting. It is reported that one member of the reception committee told a reporter, "THAT is the first time I’ve ever seen a sermon walking." We've all been given a task - to live in harmony, weep with the mournful, laugh with the joyful and not be conceited. Specifically, we are called to be righteous, but not self-righteous - instead, we are called to be humble. In our Gospel today, Jesus paints a pointed picture of a barren religious life featuring all the outward signs, but none of the inward reality. The religious leaders looked good - they were always prepared to set down the rules and regulations, but the force of God's love wasn't behind it, and they didn't practice what they preached. What if we were forced to REALLY be accountable? In other words, to preach what we practice, not the other way around, but to put in front of God and everyone what we really do? How would we like it, and would you or I really be prepared to do that? Probably not. Jesus showed us that there needs to be a connection between the professions of faith we make each week and the kinds of lives we lead. We can't be prideful. We must be humble. In the Kairos Juvenile Detention program, team members perform a number of mask skits to show the boys how all of us hide behind masks at certain times - the trick is to recognise when you’re doing it and know when to take it off. “I wear my religious mask because it’s safe! I’ve been wrong about so many things in my life and I’ve been told that I’m wrong so many times. By wearing my mask I feel that I can’t be criticised. Sometimes I carry a bible around with me as part of my mask. I really don’t know how I stand with religion or even with God, but my religious mask keeps people from seeing and criticising ME. I don’t even know if I live a religious life – but you think I do!” The religious leaders in our Gospel story used piety as a front for their hypocrisy and their pretend charity was a lie. Here are the words of Jesus: "They tie up heavy burdens hard to bear and lay them on the shoulders of others; but they themselves are unwilling to lift a finger to move them." They didn’t know when to take off their “religious” masks, did they? If you and I treat others with contempt, as inferiors, then our religious exercises become like clanging cymbals. Self-made religionists usually lack love and character, preferring the spotlight and places of high visibility. They love themselves, not God, and something is missing - Jesus Christ, because he makes us humble, grateful and receptive. If we make Jesus Christ Lord of our lives, we get rid of hypocrisy and false religion. Because of him and the way he led his life, we know we can’t pretend. We can never measure up to him, but he relieves us of the burden of keeping up pretences, of playing charades. It’s not what others think of us, but what HE thinks of us. So, yes, there's a place for us in the band of Jesus and our job is to play rhythm guitar behind Jesus. Christ is the focus, not us. His is the tune to sing, not ours. If we point to the Lord and not ourselves, if we are humble, fertile humus, with God's help we can be faithful, good, earthy, productive people for Jesus. Pastor Rick
1 Comment
LENA BERYL BLOK
5/11/2023 04:26:34 pm
Hi Rick, this is a very fine message. Thank you.
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