August 3, 2013

• Who am I to judge?

  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!

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  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.

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