Matthew 27, Micah 3, 1st John 3
We are now in the month of November and that means we are very close to the end of this liturgical year. After today, we have only three Sundays left in this year – one will be Thanksgiving, one will be Christ the King (or Reign of Christ, as it is often called these days,) and the third Sunday we will probably finish off Matthew for this season, but when those three are over we move right into Advent and begin a brand new liturgical year.
Since we are closing out a year, it seems logical to me to look backwards a bit, and the scriptures offered in the lectionary in these last weeks offer us plenty of opportunities to look into the times we – or those in authority over us -- have failed.
We’ll begin with Jesus, as recorded by Matthew, who gives us his very low opinion of the religious authorities of his time – from Matthew, chapter 27:
- Now Jesus turned to address his disciples, along with the crowd that had gathered with them. “The religion scholars and Pharisees are competent teachers in God’s Law. You won’t go wrong in following their teachings on Moses. But be careful about actually following them. They talk a good line, but they don’t live it. They don’t take it into their hearts and live it out in their behavior. It’s all veneer.
- Instead of giving you God’s Law as food and drink by which you can banquet on God, they package it in bundles of rules, loading you down like pack animals. They seem to take pleasure in watching you stagger under these loads, and wouldn’t think of lifting a finger to help. Their lives are perpetual fashion shows -- embroidered prayer shawls one day and flowery prayers the next. They love to sit at the head table at dinners, basking in the most prominent positions, preening in the radiance of public flattery, receiving honorary degrees, and getting called ‘Doctor’ and ‘Reverend.’
Well, ..... It’s pretty clear that Jesus – at least in Matthew’s version – was not a fan of the religious authorities around Jerusalem. This is a clear indictment of those who take on such roles only for the power and glory they bring them, while not caring at all about those who are supposedly in their charge.
This was not a new idea at Jesus’ time by any means. Denunciations of the misuse of power were common all through the writings of the Hebrew prophets. Like this piece, written by Micah, as far back as the 700’s BCE:
- As for the prophets who lead my people astray,
- they proclaim ‘peace’ if they have something to eat,
- but prepare to wage war against anyone who refuses to feed them.
- Therefore night will come over you, without visions,
- and darkness, without divination.
- The sun will set for those prophets, and the day will go dark for them.
- The seers will be ashamed and the diviners disgraced for God will no longer speak to them.
As long as there have been positions that bring great power, there have been humans to abuse and take advantage of them for their own gain. It’s been like this in religious settings – and still is today – just check the news any day – you’re bound to see something. But let’s extend this thought out a bit and imagine these readings today being addressed to possessors and users of, say, corporate power, or even worse, political power. They are all around us.
Greed and a lust for power have always been with us wherever there might be personal gain. And their control tactics may work in the world – but this is not what God desires from us. Scriptures such as these I’ve just read are calls for us to look back and see where God’s word has been ignored – and to challenge us to review our own ways. Are we really as much in line with God’s will as we may think we are or might there be changes we may need to make for ourselves?
This past week, the day after Halloween, we celebrated once again All Saints/Souls Day, which is also a time for looking behind us. It’s a time we remember those who have gone before us, but – unlike the woeful words of the prophets - it is also a time to remind ourselves of the good that has been done and the legacy of hope and service that has been left for us to follow.
Most of us today tend to lump All Saints and All Souls into one time of remembrance rather than trying to differentiate those who performed deeds of great virtue from those who may have just scraped through, doing the best they could. Even those who may not have achieved great things for God remind us that we don’t all have to be heroes and martyrs to please God.
And, in this, the third scripture I want to share here today, we hear a different word. This one from the New Testament post-gospel writings – specifically the first Letter of John, chapter three:
- What marvelous love our God has extended to us! Just look at it—we’re called children of God! That’s who we really are. But that’s also why the world doesn’t recognize us or take us seriously, because it has no idea who God really is or what they’re up to.
- But friends, that’s exactly who we are: children of God. And that’s only the beginning. Who knows how we’ll end up! What we do know is that when Christ is openly revealed, we’ll see him—and in seeing him, become like him. All of us who look forward to his return shape our actions and our lives, with the glistening purity of Jesus’ life as a model for our own.
Yes, looking back, we see many cases of God’s people getting tangled in their “me first” dreams, but the reminders are plentiful that we are not always the selfish or the power-seeking. The reading from John tells us not only what we might become, but more importantly, what we are already. Children of God. This is who we are by God’s own word.
Yes, we can look back and see our errors, but even then we have always been God’s own beloved children. Let’s keep our focus there and strive to live every moment in fulfillment of that knowledge. As the writer of John’s Letter reminds us: Who knows how we’ll end up!
Thanks be to the God who creates us and loves us always.
RSS Feed