Matthew 23:13-26
"But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you lock people out of the kingdom of heaven. For you do not go in yourselves, and when others are going in, you stop them. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cross sea and land to make a single convert, and you make the new convert twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.
"Woe to you, blind guides, who say, 'Whoever swears by the sanctuary is bound by nothing, but whoever swears by the gold of the sanctuary is bound by the oath.' You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold or the sanctuary that has made the gold sacred? And you say, 'Whoever swears by the altar is bound by nothing, but whoever swears by the gift that is on the altar is bound by the oath.' How blind you are! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred? So whoever swears by the altar, swears by it and by everything on it; and whoever swears by the sanctuary, swears by it and by the one who dwells in it; and whoever swears by heaven, swears by the throne of God and by the one who is seated upon it.
"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill, and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. It is these you ought to have practiced without neglecting the others. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel!
"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup, so that the outside also may become clean."
Yep, for those of you accustomed to receiving your Gospel in Sunday-sized portions, that really IS Jesus talking. I’m not sure if Luke or Matthew got it right, but in Matthew the equivalent of these verses will be found tacked right on to the Beatitudes, though to Luke’s credit some of the scorch has been removed. It does give you a sense of why those Scribes and Pharisees might have gotten fed up with Jesus, though. How many times would you have to hear “You cross land and sea to make a single convert, and you make the new convert twice as much a child of hell as yourselves” before you began to fantasize taking this guy out? Blind fools….hypocrites…blind guides…I don’t know but if this is a verbatim speech of Jesus, you might just see the referee pulling out a yellow flag and making the universal sign for “Piling On.”
But then, Jesus has this edginess throughout these Advent readings, doesn’t he? One of the books I’m wading through is entitled The Forgotten Ways. It’s a pretty thorough critique of how we good “mainline” folk have mostly missed the boat when it comes to really being the church in the 21st century. The author, Alan Hirsch, comes from a perspective that is, well, not exactly compatible with my own, yet I find him often making points I have to nod to. Specifically, he wonders whether we have allowed the institutions of Christendom to obscure or derail the church’s mission. I’m still licking my wounds from his critique of “ordained” leadership (he prefers “apostolic” leaders…the difference a topic for another post!) but as I read the Gospel for today, I wondered if Jesus would not be nodding in at least timid agreement.
The line that got me in the Gospel was “you tithe mint, dill, and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice, and mercy, and faith.” Yep, I thought….bring all the seasoning but forget about the meat! Small wonder that one of the stories I heard more times than I can remember as a child growing up in the church was good old, “Stone Soup.” It did occur to me every now and then when yet another well-intentioned adult decided it was just the right children’s sermon, that it would not have broken anyone’s bank to throw in a little pork, or chicken, or beef. When I got a little older, and offered the same children’s sermon myself, usually around Lent, and usually as a prelude to a soup meal at the church, I knew when the time came to actually MAKE the stone soup it would be a good idea to start off with a few cups of good beef or chicken broth.
Maybe, just maybe, God doesn’t want the spices we can part with. Maybe God wants the meat and bones of this enterprise. Maybe that is why it wasn’t good enough to wait until He could Twitter or IM his Good News—He had to take on true, full humanity if He was to save it…leaving it forever with the problem of addressing One beyond “he” or “she” as one or the other and always leaving someone unsatisfied….
By now, Good Christian, I am guessing you have made at least a dent in your Christmas shopping list. My ears are still burning from Jesus’ tirade and so I have to ponder, and suggest, that somewhere on that Christmas list we should give some consideration to what it is that God really wants this Christmas. Meat and potatoes. Justice. Mercy. Faith.
Just for kicks, give a wonder to what Jesus might have to say as, say, the City Council argues about whether or not churches can allow the homeless to sleep in their basements during the Advent season…can they have cots? What happens if they get unruly? Will the good upstanding Scribes and Pharisees appointed to watch the unruly hoard fall asleep? Then what? Would Jesus sputter and shout? Or would he just sigh, shake his head, and wonder if the next Nazareth down the road might be a little more open to His Presence?
That’s Advent…cleaning the inside of the cup so that it’s ready when the gifts of heaven pour forth. “For unto you is born this day a Savior….” Pray that we are ready!
"But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you lock people out of the kingdom of heaven. For you do not go in yourselves, and when others are going in, you stop them. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cross sea and land to make a single convert, and you make the new convert twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.
"Woe to you, blind guides, who say, 'Whoever swears by the sanctuary is bound by nothing, but whoever swears by the gold of the sanctuary is bound by the oath.' You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold or the sanctuary that has made the gold sacred? And you say, 'Whoever swears by the altar is bound by nothing, but whoever swears by the gift that is on the altar is bound by the oath.' How blind you are! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred? So whoever swears by the altar, swears by it and by everything on it; and whoever swears by the sanctuary, swears by it and by the one who dwells in it; and whoever swears by heaven, swears by the throne of God and by the one who is seated upon it.
"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill, and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. It is these you ought to have practiced without neglecting the others. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel!
"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup, so that the outside also may become clean."
Yep, for those of you accustomed to receiving your Gospel in Sunday-sized portions, that really IS Jesus talking. I’m not sure if Luke or Matthew got it right, but in Matthew the equivalent of these verses will be found tacked right on to the Beatitudes, though to Luke’s credit some of the scorch has been removed. It does give you a sense of why those Scribes and Pharisees might have gotten fed up with Jesus, though. How many times would you have to hear “You cross land and sea to make a single convert, and you make the new convert twice as much a child of hell as yourselves” before you began to fantasize taking this guy out? Blind fools….hypocrites…blind guides…I don’t know but if this is a verbatim speech of Jesus, you might just see the referee pulling out a yellow flag and making the universal sign for “Piling On.”
But then, Jesus has this edginess throughout these Advent readings, doesn’t he? One of the books I’m wading through is entitled The Forgotten Ways. It’s a pretty thorough critique of how we good “mainline” folk have mostly missed the boat when it comes to really being the church in the 21st century. The author, Alan Hirsch, comes from a perspective that is, well, not exactly compatible with my own, yet I find him often making points I have to nod to. Specifically, he wonders whether we have allowed the institutions of Christendom to obscure or derail the church’s mission. I’m still licking my wounds from his critique of “ordained” leadership (he prefers “apostolic” leaders…the difference a topic for another post!) but as I read the Gospel for today, I wondered if Jesus would not be nodding in at least timid agreement.
The line that got me in the Gospel was “you tithe mint, dill, and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice, and mercy, and faith.” Yep, I thought….bring all the seasoning but forget about the meat! Small wonder that one of the stories I heard more times than I can remember as a child growing up in the church was good old, “Stone Soup.” It did occur to me every now and then when yet another well-intentioned adult decided it was just the right children’s sermon, that it would not have broken anyone’s bank to throw in a little pork, or chicken, or beef. When I got a little older, and offered the same children’s sermon myself, usually around Lent, and usually as a prelude to a soup meal at the church, I knew when the time came to actually MAKE the stone soup it would be a good idea to start off with a few cups of good beef or chicken broth.
Maybe, just maybe, God doesn’t want the spices we can part with. Maybe God wants the meat and bones of this enterprise. Maybe that is why it wasn’t good enough to wait until He could Twitter or IM his Good News—He had to take on true, full humanity if He was to save it…leaving it forever with the problem of addressing One beyond “he” or “she” as one or the other and always leaving someone unsatisfied….
By now, Good Christian, I am guessing you have made at least a dent in your Christmas shopping list. My ears are still burning from Jesus’ tirade and so I have to ponder, and suggest, that somewhere on that Christmas list we should give some consideration to what it is that God really wants this Christmas. Meat and potatoes. Justice. Mercy. Faith.
Just for kicks, give a wonder to what Jesus might have to say as, say, the City Council argues about whether or not churches can allow the homeless to sleep in their basements during the Advent season…can they have cots? What happens if they get unruly? Will the good upstanding Scribes and Pharisees appointed to watch the unruly hoard fall asleep? Then what? Would Jesus sputter and shout? Or would he just sigh, shake his head, and wonder if the next Nazareth down the road might be a little more open to His Presence?
That’s Advent…cleaning the inside of the cup so that it’s ready when the gifts of heaven pour forth. “For unto you is born this day a Savior….” Pray that we are ready!
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