"We Can Get So Off Base"
Matthew 23:1-12
Micah 6:6-8
Like most of us, John Burke (pastor of Gateway Church in Austin, Texas) assumed that he was not a judgmental person.
But just in case he was wrong, he tried an experiment: for a whole week he kept track of his judgments about other people. Here's what he discovered:
"Judging [others] is fun!
Judging others makes you feel good, and I'm not sure I've gone a single day without this sin.
In any given week, I might condemn my son numerous times for a messy room; judge my daughter for being moody—which especially bothers me when I'm being moody (but I have a good reason!) …. even my dog gets the hammer of condemnation for his bad breath ….
Some of you may be thinking, 'Wait, are you saying that correcting my kids for a messy room is judging?'
NO! But there's correction that values with mercy and there's correction that devalues with judgment.
I watch the news and condemn those 'idiotic people' who do such things.
Most reality TV shows are full of people I can judge as sinful, ignorant, stupid, arrogant, or childish.
I get in my car and drive and find a host of inept drivers who should have flunked their driving test—and I throw in a little condemnation on our Department of Public Safety for good measure!
At the store, I complain to myself about the lack of organization that makes it impossible to find what I'm looking for, all the while being tortured with Muzak—who picks that music anyway?
I stand in the shortest line, which I judge is way too long because—'LOOK PEOPLE—it says '10 items or less,' and 1 count more than that in three of your baskets—what's wrong with you people?'
And why can't that teenage checker—what IS she wearing?—focus and work so we can get out of here?
Judging is our favorite pastime, if we're honest—but we're not!
We're great at judging the world around us by standards we would highly resent being held to!
Judging makes us feel good because it puts us in a better light than others."
And that's kind of what the legal experts and the Pharisees were doing in Jesus' day.
They were putting themselves in a better light than others.
So Jesus spoke to the crowds and His disciples, and He warned them:
"The legal experts and the Pharisees sit on Moses seat.
Therefore, you must take care to do everything they say.
But don't do what they do."
In other words, "they preach, but they don't practice what they preach."
"They do all their deeds to be seen by others."
And later in Chapter 23 Jesus says that they are hypocrites, "blind guides," "whitewashed tombs," "snakes," and a "brood of vipers."
Their lives are like a 24-7 public relations operation.
The light of self promotion is always on because people are always forming opinions about them, and those opinions are what is most important.
They work long and exhausting hours trying to "prop up" a "better-than-the-reality" image.
The sheer volume of work that goes into trying to please or impress other people is absolutely exhausting.
But if we are going to be truly honest with ourselves and with God, we often live our lives more like the legal experts and Pharisees than we do like those imitating Christ.
After repeated confrontations with the scribes and Pharisees, Jesus has finally had enough.
The problem is not their religious traditions or teachings.
Jesus says that they are teaching the law of Moses: "Therefore, you must take care to do everything they say. But don't do what they do."
The problem is that they are misusing their authority.
They behave in ways that go against what they teach and say.
They talk about glorifying God, but what they are most interested in is glorifying self.
They talk about orienting their entire lives toward God, but they are really trying to draw everyone's attention to themselves.
They talk about their responsibility for the people, yet "they tie together heavy packs that are impossible to carry.
They put them on the shoulders of others, but are unwilling to lift a finger to move them."
Everything they do, they do to be noticed by others.
And in these things, the legal experts and the Pharisees aren't unique.
It's human nature to act with such hypocrisy and pride.
And it's easy to judge the attitudes and actions of the scribes and Pharisees of Jesus' day.
It's a whole other thing altogether to admit that we are a lot like them.
I know I am.
It's the biggest thing that gets between me and my ability to do what God has called me to do.
It's so easy to confuse my own interests with God's purposes, my own power with God's sovereignty, my own social standing with God's glory.
We all want to be liked, and there is nothing wrong with that.
We all want to be known and loved; this is what it means to be human.
It's important for all of us to feel as if we matter and are appreciated.
We all want promotions, raises, bonuses, good grades.
These are good things.
They become dangerous when the ends justify the means.
In the passage from Micah chapter 6
the people are asking the age old question that many people have asked again and again: "What is the will of God?"
And what a great question to ask.
When we are asking this question, we are not far from the kingdom.
We are travelling down the right path--going in the right direction.
"With what should I approach the Lord and bow down before God in high?
Should I come before him with entirely burnt offerings, with year-old calves?
Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with many torrents of oil?
Should I give my oldest child for my crime: the fruit of my body for the sin of my spirit?"
"What does God want?," the prophet asks.
And the question is answered.
God wants us to do justice--to be a voice for oppressed people, unprotected people, widows, and foreigners, and to stand for the rights of handicapped people, minorities, the elderly, poor people, and every other person who is being treated as less than human.
God wants us to "embrace faithful love."
Or to "love kindness," or as some interpretations say it: "to love mercy."
They all mean the same thing, and it is this: "to have compassion or forgiveness toward someone whom it is within one's power to punish or harm."
Is there anything more beautiful?
"to love mercy."
To love showing compassion and forgiveness for those whom we could just as well punish!!!
This is what God is like, is it not?
God shows us mercy and compassion, even though it would be completely within His rights to punish us--unforgivingly.
Over and over again in the Gospels we are told that Jesus had "compassion" for the people He came across.
"For they were like sheep without a shepherd."
Jesus loves nothing more than to forgive the sinner, to bring sight to the blind, to preach good news to the poor and to proclaim freedom for those who are held captive by sin and brokenness.
What would it mean for you and for me to "love showing mercy to others" above all else?
How would this change our lives?
Would we be so apt to hold a grudge?
Would we be so apt to judge others?
The Hebrew word for "mercy" means "God's loving kindness," and so loving mercy is in fact crucial if we are to be like Christ Jesus in this world.
We are to respond to God's love by sharing that same love with others.
Are you doing that?
Am I?
It is so easy to "get off base," to "get off track" in our Christian walk.
It's so easy to go from being a lover of people to being a judge of people.
And when we become a judge of people, "we are they" we are the legal experts, the scribes, the Pharisees.
Jesus said that the Pharisees place all kinds of burdens on the shoulders of people, but don't lift a finger to help them.
In contrast, Jesus says, "Come to me, all you who are struggling hard and carrying heavy loads, and I will give you rest.
Put on my yoke, and learn from me.
I'm gentle and humble.
And you will find rest for yourselves.
My yoke is easy to bear, and my burden is light."
Why is Jesus' yoke easy and His burden light?
Because Jesus carries it for us.
What does the Lord require from us?:
"to do justice, embrace faithful love, and walk humbly with...God."
If and when we practice this way of life, we become liberated from the exhausting work of being obsessed with ourselves and what others think of us.
We move from being "me" centered to being "God and neighbor" centered.
And we naturally become servants of others, people who lift others up and get great joy from doing so.
And this great joy which comes from lovingly serving others lifts us up.
Jesus said, "the one who is greatest among you will be your servant.
All who lift themselves up will be brought low.
But all who make themselves low will be lifted up."
To do the will of God is to turn from self toward neighbor.
"Come to me," Jesus says to you and to me, "I will give you rest."
It's enough to cause the desire to judge others to disappear, as it is replaced by a love of justice, mercy, and a desire to walk humbly with God.
There is nothing more beautiful in all the world than a person who is doing this.
There is nothing more attractive.
Can you feel your soul relax into the freedom of Christ's embrace?
Let us pray:
Dear Jesus, You invite us to Communion today . . . to experience Your love through the bread of Your body and the cup of Your blood.
And You gave us words to say every time we come to Communion.
You told us to remember...
...Remember that we were sinners, that we were aliens, that God loves
us with an everlasting mercy.
To remember that, You, Jesus act justly and love mercy.
To remember that You, Jesus, suffered and died on the Cross for us when we absolutely did not deserve anything but alienation and punishment.
You told us to Remember.
Because if we truly remember, we will act justly ...
...love mercy...
...and walk humbly with our God.
May it be so.
Amen.
