Scriptures for today are Here
It’s Halloween weekend, and once again, if we’re lucky, we will see lots of small people dressed as princesses, pirates, Jedi knights, Giant M&Ms, witches, goblins, mermaids. It’s one of my favorite things, to distribute candy to small children (and let their parents worry about hiding it later).
A few years ago, I was at Party City shopping with my daughter for her Halloween costume. I happened to be wearing my clergy collar, and I saw a woman looking at me, puzzled. She finally asked me, are you dressing up as a priest for Halloween? I said no, I am a priest. She said (because it always helps to point out the obvious when advancing an argument), but you’re a woman. I said, yes, that’s why it wouldn’t be a good costume for me, no one would believe it!
Many people are puzzled by my clergy costume, not sure what to think when they see me wearing it. But I also find myself behaving slightly differently when I am wearing it in public. I tend not to drive in a way that might irritate other drivers; I am less likely to complain about poor service in a restaurant; I feel more obligated to smile. Maybe you’ve found yourself doing the same thing wearing a cross – behaving slightly better, knowing that people will expect you to act like a Christian. And we have to ask ourselves, why should the costume we wear make a difference in how we act; if we think Christians act a certain way, shouldn’t we act that way all the time?
Wearing a costume and acting like religious people is exactly the critique Jesus gives of the Pharisees in the gospel today. The word “hypocrite” that Jesus often applies to the Pharisees actually means “actor.” The Pharisees wear phylacteries – small boxes with scripture inside, to remind themselves and others of God’s law – and long fringes, so people can see that they are wearing a prayer shawl under their normal clothes. Now there’s nothing wrong with wearing these things – Jesus probably did too.
The problem comes if these things are only a costume and don’t reflect the reality of the person wearing them. What Jesus critiques is acting religious in order to gain status and approval. Pharisees were people who obeyed law to the nth degree. For instance, written law said not to work on the Sabbath; Pharisees added interpretations such as, a tailor shouldn’t carry a needle around the day before Sabbath – he might get caught out on the Sabbath with the needle in his pocket, and carrying it back home would be “work.”
And even more difficult, Pharisees took the extensive purity and hand-washing regulations that were meant to apply to priests worshiping in the Temple, and tried to apply the same rules to ordinary people on everyday basis, which would make it impossible for them to earn a living. Poor people were unable to meet the Pharisees’ standards, so they were considered less holy; Pharisees were considered teachers, leaders, authorities, better than everyone else. Which Jesus criticizes as hypocrisy – it’s one big act, a costume that fools no one. Making life difficult for other people is not what God’s law is about. God’s law is about leading a new life, living according to the law of love, expressed clearly in Torah (which Jesus respected), letting our inward selves reflect the truth that is expressed by whatever costume we wear. God’s law is about living life with integrity.
In any Bible reading, we can interpret it on three levels:
- · What was going on in the original story, at the time it happened?
- · What was going on when it was written down, what did it mean then?
- · What does it mean for us now?
It’s pretty clear what is going on in the original story: it’s Tuesday of Holy Week, Jesus is in Jerusalem, he has made some powerful people really angry, and they are about to conspire to bring him to the cross. Jesus knows this, and he doesn’t back down – he keeps pushing them. Jesus actually seems to be carefully stage-managing this entire confrontation in order to give up his life on the cross. What he tells the disciples today – those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted – isn’t just a saying. He is going to demonstrate it decisively on the cross in a few days, as he dies in utter humiliation – yet two millennia later, we will see that cross as a throne – the throne of God’s love, poured out for us. There is no costume here, no act: Jesus will show us, not tell us, what love is.
Well enough – what’s going on at the next level, when this story was written down? Matthew wrote his gospel around 80-90 AD, wrote to a community of mostly Jewish Christians near, but not in, Israel – possibly in Antioch in Syria. This is a time of revolutionary change in Judaism. In 70 AD, Romans had destroyed the Jerusalem Temple, Jews had dispersed all over the world, and Judaism changed forever.
The Jewish world had been absolutely centered in the Temple. Worship occurred only there – this is where all the sacrifices mandated by the law occurred. Judaism since that time has been missing one huge aspect of what God commanded the Jews to do: sacrifice in Temple to atone for sins. We should not underestimate the heartbreak and sheer urgent revolutionary re-thinking necessary for all Jewish people at the time Matthew wrote.
Since the Temple had been destroyed, Judaism had to change – and it could have simply disappeared. But how it survived was under the leadership of the Pharisees. Their careful rule-keeping became the hallmark of Jews down to this day; it became the way the Jews, dispersed all over the world, kept themselves distinct from other people. Their view of how to live became a big controversy for Matthew’s community, who had also grown out of Judaism, and which had to decide, in this time of revolutionary change, whether people had to become Jews and keep all the commandments in order to become Christians.
Matthew’s answer, like the answer that eventually prevailed for all Christians, was no – it is not the keeping of rules that makes us Christian. We do not have to keep all of the Jewish law; we only need to obey the primary rules of the Jewish law: to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, and to love our neighbors as ourselves.
Because the early church made this decision, Christianity was able to grow and spread throughout the world, and we are Christians because of it. The Pharisaic version of Judaism, focused on Torah and keeping all the commandments, has come down to the present – and we need to be careful not to judge it negatively. Clearly, Christian judgment of Jews has led to horrible abuses in history. But even more, remember that what Jesus is judging is not following the law itself, or wearing phylacteries & prayer shawls. Jesus himself probably did these things, and Jesus says the law is good. The Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat, so do what they say, he tells the disciples. What Jesus is judging is doing these things while imposing them unjustly on others: changing one’s costume without changing one’s heart.
Which brings us to the third level of interpretation: what does this mean for us? I think all of us can point to times when the Christian church has been more interested in Pharisaic rules and regulations than in changed hearts. Almost 500 years ago tomorrow, Martin Luther nailed 95 theses to the door of the cathedral in Wittenburg, protesting abuses of power and corruption in the church, things that led ordinary poor people to become victims. One abuse was the church’s decision to rebuild the cathedral of St. Peter in Rome using the sale of “indulgences” to ordinary people, which purported to offer them early release from Purgatory. One enterprising seller of indulgences went around Germany singing this catchy little rhyme: “When the coin into the plate pings, the soul from Purgatory springs!”
Modern churches can likewise become fixated on outer things, like ceremonies and costumes (like these nice fringes and phylacteries – err, stole and chasuble – that I’m wearing). And we can easily forget about the change of heart that Jesus calls us to, when he says those who exalt themselves will be humbled, while those who humble themselves will be exalted. Which is another way of saying: the basic law is to love God with all your heart, soul and mind, and love neighbor as yourself.
So how do we modern/postmodern Christians follow Jesus’ law of love? I believe that the church, for all its tendency to become a bit Pharisaical in its observance of rules, is still the best way for us to keep ourselves renewed and reminded of the law of love. Being part of a church community helps us keep growing on a personal level – adopting spiritual disciplines like prayer, worship, Bible study, repentance, and serving others, that keep us close to God, and open to hear God’s call to us.
Having a community of other Christians, to nourish our own spirits, to demonstrate God’s law of love, to serve alongside, to work together to pour love into our world, is the best way to keep growing spiritually through life. A church community can bring people together to do amazing things, like the 18 members of Nativity who are away this weekend on a mission trip to Navajoland – they are rebuilding houses, repairing a church, worshiping with our Navajo Episcopal brothers and sisters. And I imagine that the people who go on this mission trip, like anyone who goes on a mission, will find themselves changed even more than the people they serve – because loving our neighbors as we love ourselves changes your heart from the inside out.
It’s not an easy thing, to let God change our hearts – it’s a discipline that sometimes calls you to do things you would prefer not to do: as G.K. Chesterton said, Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and not tried. Being a Christian in more ways than just wearing a Christian costume takes courage and openness, willingness to let God call us to new adventures.
So how do we let God change our hearts? I suggest this: try going around pretending that you are wearing a great big cross emblazoned across your forehead. It’s just like wearing a clergy collar – I think if you believe that cross is there like a costume for all to see, if you believe that people will see what you do as a reflection of what Jesus would do, then you will find that you start acting more like a Christian – loving God and loving your neighbor.
Because the truth is, it’s not a costume. We all do wear a big cross right here across the middle of our foreheads. We received this cross at our baptism, when we were marked with it, with the words, “You are sealed by the Holy Spirit in baptism and marked as Christ’s own forever.” It’s not a costume. It’s the real thing. And that cross is what gives us the power to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, and to love our neighbor as ourselves.
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