Jeremiah 1:4-10

⁴ Now the word of the sovereign came to me saying, ⁵ “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”  ⁶ Then I said, “Ah, Sovereign God! Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy.” ⁷ But the Sovereign said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am only a boy’; for you shall go to all to whom I send you, and you shall speak whatever I command you.  ⁸ Do not be afraid of them,
for I am with you to deliver you, says the Sovereign.”  ⁹ Then the Sovereign put out a hand and touched my mouth; and the Sovereign said to me, “Now I have put my words in your mouth.  ¹⁰ See, today I appoint you over nations and over dominions, to pluck up and to pull down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.”

 

Hebrews 12:18-29

¹⁸ You have not come to something that can be touched, a blazing fire, and darkness, and gloom, and a tempest, ¹⁹ and the sound of a trumpet, and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that not another word be spoken to them.  ²⁰ (For they could not endure the order that was given, “If even an animal touches the mountain, it shall be stoned to death.”  ²¹ Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I tremble with fear.”) ²² But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, ²³ and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, ²⁴ and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. ²⁵ See that you do not refuse the one who is speaking; for if they did not escape when they refused the one who warned them on earth, how much less will we escape if we reject the one who warns from heaven! ²⁶ At that time God’s voice shook the earth; but now God has promised, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heaven.” ²⁷ This phrase, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of what is shaken—that is, created things—so that what cannot be shaken may remain. ²⁸ Therefore, since we are receiving a dominion that cannot be shaken, let us give thanks, by which we offer to God an acceptable worship with reverence and awe; ²⁹ for indeed our God is a consuming fire.

 

Luke 13:10-17

¹⁰ Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. ¹¹ And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight. ¹² When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, “Woman, you are set free from your ailment.” ¹³ When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God. ¹⁴ But the leader of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had cured on the sabbath, kept saying to the crowd, “There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the sabbath day.” ¹⁵ But the Master answered him and said, “You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water? ¹⁶ And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the sabbath day?” ¹⁷ When he said this, all his opponents were put to shame; and the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things that he was doing.

 

 

I find it very interesting to compare the biblical accounts of people coming into the presence of God.  The depictions range from intense fear and trembling to a casual affinity with God.  Some characters have even evolved in their response to finding themselves in the presence of God.  Abraham always seemed comfortable with God and followed God with blind faith but reached a place where he was willing to argue with God about the destruction of Sodom.  Sarah trusted God and yet laughed when God said she would bear a child.  Moses was frightened and intimidated when he found himself to be in the presence of God in the burning bush but evolved to being quite comfortable sitting in God’s presence.  Adam and Eve evolved in the other direction, they were very comfortable being with God in the Garden of Eden until they became frightened and hid themselves from God.  Isaiah is dismayed when he is transported into the presence of God for he was a man of unclean lips.  Jeremiah in today’s reading seems quite comfortable being summoned by God but still tries to buy himself some slack by claiming to be a mere youth unprepared to speak for God.  The people, as congregations of God followers have certainly varied in their response to being in God’s presence.  The people of Israel vacillated between praising God for their deliverance and griping and complaining that God had brought them into the desert to perish.  When God showed some anger with the people of Israel, they made it very clear they wanted Moses doing their talking for them.  It seems the people became quite casual with being in the close proximity of God, being in God’s temple was considered very safe.  In fact, it seems from the stories that very few people actually encountered God when they were in the temple.  I think the same may be sadly true for current day God followers.  I love the quote of Annie Dillard in Teaching a Stone to Talk, “On the whole, I do not find Christians, outside the catacombs, sufficiently sensible of the conditions. Does any-one have the foggiest idea what sort of power we so blithely invoke? Or, as I suspect, does no one believe a word of it? The churches are children playing on the floor with their chemistry sets, mixing up a batch of TNT to kill a Sunday morning. It is madness to wear ladies’ straw hats and velvet hats to church; we should all be wearing crash helmets. Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares; they should lash us to our pews. For the sleeping god may wake some day and take offense, or the waking god may draw us out to where we can never return.”

These stories provide us with some insight into how others have understood their God encounters and perhaps they can guide us into understanding our own God encounters and how we react.  This isn’t about when we come into God’s presence, our faith tells us we are always in God’s presence.  There is no where we can go that God is not there.  We do not go to the temple or the church so we can be in God’s presence, we go to have an encounter with God, or, as Annie Dillard suggests, maybe not.  An encounter is not just a coming into the same space, we can be in the presence of another person but it isn’t an encounter until something is exchanged between us and the other.  Just like encounters with others vary by the depth of the intimacy of the exchange, so our encounter with God varies by how much of ourselves we reveal and how open we are to plunging into the depth of God.  The sacred stories confirm what might seem obvious, our encounter with God is shaped by how we understand God and how we understand ourselves.  Adam and Eve were comfortable encountering God until the new they had disobeyed and they feared God’s wrath.  Abraham and Sarah have encountered God in their journey to the new land, the promised land, and they know they can trust God, so even when they fall short of God’s expectations, they do not fear encountering God.  Moses is frightened when he encounters God as a burning bush until he discovers how much God loves him and loves the people of Israel.  Even later in his life when he disobeys God and he knows God is disappointed in him, Moses does not fear to come to God and petition God for a different outcome.  The people of God are shown over and over again that they can trust God to be just and to be loving toward them.  God in fact does not give them or us what we deserve, God gives us grace.  The people however always want to return to depending on themselves, and only seeking an encounter with God when all else has failed. 

Jesus came to the world to show us once again that we do not need to fear God, even when we know we have disobeyed God, or failed to trust God.  God is not waiting for the opportunity to zap us, God is not setting up tests for us, so God can correct us.  God loves us; God loves us more than we love ourselves, and certainly more than we love each other.  I believe we do not seek a deeper, more vulnerable encounter with God because we fear losing control, losing all our preconceived notions of who we are and how we are to live, and what it means to be beloved community.  We are afraid to tap into that powerful force that is God.  Someone said, many people use religion like a vaccine, they get just enough to keep them from catching the real thing.  We want a superficial encounter with God.  We don’t go to church expecting to have an life altering encounter with God.  We go to wave and say hi to God but not to set down and expect to have a deep conversation with God or to bare our souls to God for examination and cleansing.  We are not expecting God to do a healing in us.  Like the priests in the story from Luke, we don’t want that kind of thing going on during sabbath in the temple.  How often when we hear the stories of Christ healing, do we think or ourselves as the one who needs to be healed, the ones who need to come to Christ and seek that we be set free from those things that keep us from being whole?  Being liberated is both a relief and a challenge.  When animals that have been raised in captivity are released they very often have no concept of what it means to be free.  I watched a video of lab beagles that had never been out of their cages being released into a yard.  They are frightened of the grass and want to return to their cages.  We are so like that.  An encounter with God that frees us, heals us, also challenges to go out into the world differently.  I have heard speculation on what the blind person, the crippled person, and the maniac did after Jesus healed them.  They have no skills, they have never had any way of supporting themselves and relied on the compassion of others who saw their challenges.  How did they support themselves without their disabilities that made them sympathetic?  Are we also afraid of an encounter with God that takes away our excuses for not doing more, for not living differently, or for not loving others as we love ourselves?  The depth of our encounter with God is dependent upon how willing we are to be profoundly changed.  Amen.

Sacred texts:

Isaiah 5:1-7

Let me sing for my beloved my love-song concerning a vineyard:
My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill.
² My beloved dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines;
built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it;
my beloved expected it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes.

³ And now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and people of Judah,
judge between me and my vineyard.
⁴ What more was there to do for my vineyard that I have not done in it?
When I expected it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes?

⁵ And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard.
I will remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured;
I will break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down.
⁶ I will make it a waste; it shall not be pruned or hoed,
    and it shall be overgrown with briers and thorns;
I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.

⁷ For the vineyard of the sovereign of hosts is the house of Israel,
and the people of Judah are God’s pleasant planting;
God expected justice, but saw bloodshed; righteousness, but heard a cry!

 

Hebrews 11:29-12:2

²⁹ By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as if it were dry land, but when the Egyptians attempted to do so they were drowned. ³⁰ By faith the walls of Jericho fell after they had been encircled for seven days. ³¹ By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had received the spies in peace.

³² And what more should I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets— ³³ who through faith conquered monarchies, administered justice, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, ³⁴ quenched raging fire, escaped the edge of the sword, won strength out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. ³⁵ Bereaved received their dead by resurrection. Others were tortured, refusing to accept release, in order to obtain a better resurrection. ³⁶ Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. ³⁷ They were stoned to death, they were sawn in two, they were killed by the sword; they went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, persecuted, tormented— ³⁸ of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground.

³⁹ Yet all these, though they were commended for their faith, did not receive what was promised, ⁴⁰ since God had provided something better so that they would not, apart from us, be made perfect.

12 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, ² looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.

 

Luke 12:49-56

⁴⁹ “I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! ⁵⁰ I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed! ⁵¹ Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division! ⁵² From now on five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three; ⁵³ they will be divided:

parent against child, and in-laws against children and parents.”

⁵⁴ He also said to the crowds, “When you see a cloud rising in the west, you immediately say, ‘It is going to rain’; and so it happens. ⁵⁵ And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, ‘There will be scorching heat’; and it happens. ⁵⁶ You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?

 

End of source texts.

 

It has been my experience that some people believe that those who follow Christ should always be nice.  Some of these people are Christ followers and some are not.  The general impression is that Jesus came to make us all play well together and get along.  I have encountered people within the church who firmly believe that the most important characteristic a congregation must have is unity.  We must strive to show the world that we are one big happy family.  The congregations I have served know that I am not a fan of the family metaphor for congregations.  Families are not easy to gain entry to, you must born, adopted, or married into a family.  All of these require a decision by the family head to allow your entry and once in, you are expected to conform to family identity or you will find yourself on the outside.  The honest truth is there are very few big happy families.  There are always persons who are not welcome in the family and people who wish they weren’t in the family, and people who aren’t sure they are a member of the family.

 

The other major problem with the big happy family image is that it is rarely an honest portrayal of the congregation.  Where two or three are gathered, there will be an argument about something.  We aren’t designed to be in total agreement with others; we rarely are in total agreement with ourselves.  I know I have some pretty fierce arguments with myself.  The wisdom of organizations has proposed that once a decision is made everyone in the organization is to come on board and deny any disagreement.  I suppose there is some value to organizations that require a unified effort to succeed at their purpose.  However, social organizations suffer with forced unity of thought.  People who are considering joining a social organization may decide to opt out if they believe everyone in the organization thinks, acts, and believes the same.  What if they don’t agree with some action or tenant of the organization?  I know I am more comfortable joining an organization where a variety of ideas and positions are expressed and encouraged.  Certainly the organization must decide to take one course or action or hold some beliefs in common but that shouldn’t require that those who think differently must be silenced.  Also lost when we silence the opposition for the appearance of unity is that we lose the voices we need when we see our chosen course is not taking us where we want to go.  I am a firm believer that living in beloved community does not require us to surrender our individuality or silence our dissent.

 

My position is supported by the texts for today.  Isaiah was a member of the nation of Israel and had great love for the people of God and yet he spoke a harsh message to them that they were off course, that they had lost sight of God’s plan for them to be a people of justice and righteousness.  I am secure in believing that Isaiah would not have been seen as a team player in his time.  He was not playing well with others but he was speaking truth to power.  He was pointing out to the people that their peace and prosperity were not based on God principles and it would surely fail.  They were producing fruits but they were sour fruits and their garden would be destroyed so it could be replaced with others that would produce sweet fruits.  Being a God follower requires us to speak honestly to power when power is being used in exploitive or hurtful ways.

Jesus clearly tells us that his mission was not to produce big happy families of people who never argued.  I am a member of a clergy group and someone posted that this was a hard lesson to preach and several agreed that they would be going to the other texts for this week.  I think this is a hard lesson if you want to insist that being Christian is about playing nice with others.  On the other hand, this lesson can be quite comforting if you have ever found yourself having to disagree with family members you love.  Love of family must never silence us when those family members say, do, or believe things that demean or harm others.  There is a family intervention concept called tough love.  The concept expresses the belief that sometimes love requires us to confront the one we love with the realities of their behaviors and the consequences.  Sometimes the most loving thing we can do is to tell someone that we think they are wrong.  I know that some of my most treasured moments of friendship were times when another person loved me enough to confront me with the implications or consequences of my words or actions.  If no one tells us, we will not know when we have acted from privilege or selfishness.

That said, it is important to say that not playing well with others will have its own consequences.  While the most loving thing we can do may be to disagree and confront, it does not follow that this loving act will reap us great love.  One of the hardest lessons we must learn about following Christ is that sometimes Christ will lead us into tough spots, painful spots, even deadly spots.  The promise of our faith is not that we will have a life of ease, that we will be loved by everyone, or even that we will see the fruits of our faith in this life.  As the letter to the Hebrews declares, those who have lived lives of faith have suffered all sorts of hardship.  Our faith is not a promise of a good life but a promise of a better world and a life that matters.  One of the clearest truths I have gained from my life as an interim minister is that it is much more important to be honest with the congregation than to be liked by the congregation.  I firmly believe this is the way every pastor should be with their congregation, the way every congregation should be with their pastor, the way every congregation should be with their visitors, the way every family should be with each other, and the way each of us should be with each other.  Playing well with others should mean being honest not pretending to agree for the sake of keeping the peace.  We will only achieve true peace when we love each other honestly and just as they are and just as we are.  Amen.

Isaiah 1:1, 10-20

The vision of Isaiah son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

¹⁰ Hear the word of the Sovereign, you rulers of Sodom!  Listen to the teaching of our God, you people of Gomorrah!  ¹¹ What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices?  says the Sovereign; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats.

¹² When you come to appear before me, who asked this from your hand?  Trample my courts no more;
¹³ bringing offerings is futile; incense is an abomination to me.  New moon and sabbath and calling of convocation—I cannot endure solemn assemblies with iniquity.  ¹⁴ Your new moons and your appointed festivals my soul hates; they have become a burden to me, I am weary of bearing them.
¹⁵ When you stretch out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers,
    I will not listen; your hands are full of blood.  ¹⁶ Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean;     remove the evil of your doings from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.

¹⁸ Come now, let us argue it out, says the Sovereign:  though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be like snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.  ¹⁹ If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; ²⁰ but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured by the sword; for the mouth of the Sovereign has spoken.

 

Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. ² Indeed, by faith our ancestors received approval. ³ By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible.

⁸ By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to set out for a place that he was to receive as an inheritance; and he set out, not knowing where he was going. ⁹ By faith he stayed for a time in the land he had been promised, as in a foreign land, living in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. ¹⁰ For he looked forward to the city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God. ¹¹ By faith he received power of procreation, even though he was too old—and Sarah herself was barren—because he considered the one faithful who had promised. ¹² Therefore from one person, and this one as good as dead, descendants were born, “as many as the stars of heaven and as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.”

¹³ All of these died in faith without having received the promises, but from a distance they saw and greeted them. They confessed that they were strangers and foreigners on the earth, ¹⁴ for people who speak in this way make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. ¹⁵ If they had been thinking of the land that they had left behind, they would have had opportunity to return. ¹⁶ But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; indeed, God has prepared a city for them.

 

Luke 12:32-40

Fear not little flock, for it has pleased your heavenly parent to give you the monarchy.

Sell what you own and give the money to poorer people.  Make purses for yourselves that don’t wear out—treasures that won’t fail you in heaven, where thieves can’t steal and moths don’t destroy.  For wherever your treasure is, that is where your heart will be.

Be dressed and ready, and keep your lamps lit.  Be like the household staff awaiting the owner’s return from a wedding, so that when the owner arrives and knocks, you’ll open the door without delay.  It will  go well with those staff members whom the owner finds wide awake upon returning.  I tell you the absolute truth, the owner will put on an apron, seat them at table and proceed to wait on them.  Should the owner happen to come at midnight, or before sunrise, and find them prepared, it will go well with them.

Understand this: no homeowner who knew when a thief was coming would have let the thief break in!  So be on guard—the Promised One will come when least expected.

 End of sacred texts

 

Why do we tithe?  Why do we give anything to the church or to God?  God has everything; God surely doesn’t wait anxiously each week to see if enough will come in to cover expenses.  I have heard stewardship sermons that seem to suggest this is exactly what God does.  That God is waiting to see if God’s people will give enough so God’s work can be done on earth.  I have similarly heard it preached that God has no hands but our hands, and God has no feet but our feet.  The image, if taken literally is of a Divine quadriplegic sitting helplessly waiting for someone to act in behalf of God.  I find these images at best troubling and at worst blasphemous.  God is not destitute and God is not helpless.  When we suggest our giving or our service is required by God, we elevate ourselves to equality or even superiority to God.  No, God does not need anything from us.

Why then do we give?  Why did God put such emphasis on tithing?  To understand why God commands us to tithe, we need to consider what we believe about any of God’s commands.  Some believe God is a tyrant bent on blind obedience from us.  For these folks, the reason God demands a tithe is because God can.  Others believe God is the ultimate wet blanket and God’s rules are meant to take all joy out of our lives.  For them, the tithe is just a way to make sure we don’t have enough income to have any fun.  And others believe God is all about rewards and punishments and tithing is a system by which those rewarded give back to keep the rewards coming and those who are punished are punished even more by taking from what little they have.  I believe God is all about love, justice, and peace and therefore I believe God’s commands are intended to guide us lovingly toward lives of justice and peace.

God commands us to tithe because God knows how important it is for us to give.  Giving has actually been demonstrated to raise a person’s sense of well-being and self-image.  Persons with depression are less depressed if they give to or do something for another.  God wants us to feel the joy that comes from giving to improve the world.  We give to the church because it is about the tasks doing justice and seeking peace.  We give to the church so the church survives to tell others about God’s plan for this earth and for all that inhabit it.  We should give out of the real expectation that the church is making a difference, a positive difference in the community and the world.  If we give out of a sense of obligation, or in an attempt to purchase God’s favor, our giving is not only futile, God does not honor it.  Isaiah shares with us God’s rant about those who come to the temple and make their sacrifices and then go out in the world and exploit the poor and the aliens.  Their sacrifice is rejected by God because it does not come out of an understanding of God or any desire to please God.  God desire from us a surrendered spirit seeking ways to serve God to bring about God’s dominion on earth.  Obedience is greater than sacrifice. 1 Samuel 15:22

The mark of the faithful is their willingness to follow God’s guidance without knowing how it will come out.  The reading from Hebrews tells us that many have died without seeing the outcome of their faithfulness to God.  Faith means we don’t demand proof, faith means we trust even when the evidence suggests we cannot succeed.  It is easy for us to weary in giving and working for a world of justice and peace, but our faith requires that we do not weary in doing good.  Jesus tells us we are to be about the business of God our Sovereign because we never know when God will call us into account.  I have heard witty persons translate this passage into, ”Jesus is coming, look busy!”  I do not believe this passage is meant to relate to the second coming of the Christ, or even the day of our death or rapture.  I read the passage as a simple comparison to those who work for another and how pleased the employer is when he or she learns they can trust the employee to do the work without constant supervision.  God wants our faith and our commitment to God’s purposes to become so strong that we labor for them not because we know God is watching, but because we want to bring about a world of justice and peace.  We work not even to gain our pay or earn a better mansion in glory, we work because we believe in the work we are doing.  We give to the church not out of obligation but because we believe in what the church is doing.

What do I give to a God who has everything?  I give faithful service and a surrendered will.  Amen.

Hosea 11:1-11

When Israel was young, I loved the child, and out of Egypt I called my child.
² The more I called them, the more they went from me; they kept sacrificing to the Baals,
    and offering incense to idols.

³ Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk, I took them up in my arms;
    but they did not know that I healed them.  ⁴ I led them with cords of human kindness,
    with bands of love.
I was to them like those who lift infants to their cheeks.  I bent down to them and fed them.

⁵ They shall return to the land of Egypt, and Assyria shall be their king,
    because they have refused to return to me.
⁶ The sword rages in their cities, it consumes their oracle-priests,and devours because of their schemes.
⁷ My people are bent on turning away from me.  To the Most High they call,
    but they will not be raised up at all.

⁸ How can I give you up, Ephraim?  How can I hand you over, O Israel?
How can I make you like Admah?  How can I treat you like Zeboiim?
My heart recoils within me; my compassion grows warm and tender.
⁹ I will not execute my fierce anger; I will not again destroy Ephraim;
for I am God and no mortal, the Holy One in your midst, and I will not come in wrath.

¹⁰ They shall go after the Sovereign, who roars like a lion; when God roars, God’s children shall come trembling from the west.
¹¹ They shall come trembling like birds from Egypt, and like doves from the land of Assyria;
    and I will return them to their homes, says God

 

Colossians 3:1-11

So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. ² Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, ³ for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. ⁴ When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Christ in glory.

⁵ Put to death, therefore, whatever in you is earthly: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed (which is idolatry). ⁶ On account of these the wrath of God is coming on those who are disobedient. ⁷ These are the ways you also once followed, when you were living that life. ⁸ But now you must get rid of all such things—anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive language from your mouth. ⁹ Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have stripped off the old self with its practices ¹⁰ and have clothed yourselves with the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator. ¹¹ In that renewal there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all!

.

Luke 12:13-21

¹³ Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.” ¹⁴ But he said to him, “Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?” ¹⁵ And he said to them, “Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.” ¹⁶ Then he told them a parable: “The land of a rich man produced abundantly. ¹⁷ And he thought to himself, ‘What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?’ ¹⁸ Then he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. ¹⁹ And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’ ²⁰ But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ ²¹ So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.”

 

End of sacred texts.

 

This past week Pope Francis caused quite a stir by responding to a question regarding gay priests by saying “Who am I to judge?”  While not a particularly novel concept, it is an amazing statement from a person who holds the title Pope.  The church, not just the Roman Catholic Church, has throughout the ages judged.  The Hebrew Testament is full of stories like the one in Hosea for today that describe God’s judgment of humankind and in particular the people of Israel.  I believe judgment is clearly a God appropriate activity.  However, the church leaders have a long history of assuming responsibility to judge humankind when God seems to be silent.

 

The prophets of Israel did not see themselves as judges of the people, they saw themselves as oracles of God.  They passed along what God had revealed to them regarding God’s judgment of the people.  There were leaders in Israel who judged the people based on their understanding of God’s law.  They were called judges, and later kings, there are no recorded queens in Israel’s political dynasties.  These political leaders relied heavily on the rabbis to interpret the law of God.  The rabbis interpretations of law are contained in the Talmud along with rabbinical insights on other aspects of Jewish society.  The rabbis attempted to take broad God laws and apply them to minutia of daily life.  The commandment to observe the Sabbath and keep it holy generated volumes concerning what activities could be performed on the Sabbath and which could not.  These rules and interpretations gave immense power to the monarchs and priests who enforced them.  These leaders were able to control and impoverish the people by enforcing the rules and levying fines.

Jesus came to earth so that the Word may become flesh and God’s laws could be explained in human terms.  Core to the teachings of Jesus is that God has not abdicated the responsibility to judge and God has not asked the spiritual leaders to judge for God.  Despite the clarity and frequent repetition of Jesus’ teaching on judging, the church of Jesus followers could not wait to take over the role of judge or humankind.  Even the apostles quickly fell into the role of judging.  God revealed to some of them that it was not their job to judge.  Paul realized that Gentiles should not be judged based on how well they kept Jewish law but should be accepted just as they are.  Peter was confronted by God on the rooftop not to call anything unclean that God has declared clean.  I would go so far as to say God told Peter, if God created it, it is clean.  Despite this, those who claim the authority of Peter have for hundreds of years claimed authority to judge the world because Jesus said on this rock, Peter, I will build my church.

What is particularly baffling when we consider the Christian leaders, Popes, bishops, elders, televangelists, and most other ordained persons is that they claim to be in the tradition of Jesus, their sovereign and they example.  We cannot find any example where Jesus says, you have behaved badly and you are being punished for your bad behavior.  Jesus never claimed authority to judge others.  Jesus does say there will be a judgment day, but he says it is God who will be doing the judging.  Even in the story of God dividing the sheep and the goats, the dividing criteria is said to be the way we treated even the least of these.  There isn’t any talk of our sexual behavior, or our position of the sanctity of life, or whether we have given our ten percent to God.  None of the hot topics of the church are in the sheep and goat story.  Even when the person comes to Jesus and asks him to tell his sibling what to do with the inheritance, Jesus says who am I to judge. 

Jesus was unconcerned about the equity of the distribution of the family wealth, Jesus cared about why the person wanted more of the inheritance.  Jesus teaches us over and over again, the fairness of what we get for our work is not a moral issue, the moral issue is whether we receive a sustainable wage and how do we use what we have been given  to bring about the dominion of God.  I do believe being a follower of Jesus requires us to evaluate situations and come to conclusions about the rightness of the actions.  We are to seek justice, we are to work for every person to be able to earn enough to sustain themselves and those dependent upon them.  We should be concerned about accessibility to health care and healthy food, clean water, and breathable air.  These are issues connected to how we use the resources God has given us to bring about God’s dominion on earth.  I do not believe I am in a position to judge another person’s  salvation or relationship with God.  It is not for me to judge who is worthy to come into God’s house of worship or to receive the elements of communion.  It is not for me to judge the sincerity of another’s profession of faith.  It is my job, and a pretty difficult job at that, to judge myself.  It is for me to examine my own actions, my own motives, and my own relationship with God.  I am hopeful the comment of Pope Francis reflects a move away from a judging church, and I hope and pray other spiritual leaders will also ask the question, who am I to judge.  Amen.