“An ever-present danger”
By Rev. Michael Stonhouse
Meditation - Monday, July 8, 2024
Matthew 23: 1-12 (Forward, p. 71) CEV p. 1013
I still remember an early morning clergy Bible study at Knox Presbyterian here in Lloydminster. One of the clergy shared something from a book he had just read. The book suggested that all of us, as pastors, are inclined to act like modern day Pharisees. As he shared from the book, I could see why.
So, today’s small portion of Jesus’ denunciation of the Pharisees and teachers of the Law certainly bares some consideration from us:
-we, like they, can claim to be experts in the Scriptures, and work
hard at trying to understand what they say and how to apply it.
-nevertheless, we can also be quite ‘expert’ in getting around what it
clearly says when we ‘feel like’. Clergy of a more liberal frame of
mind can rationalize it away by choosing to ‘spiritualize’ that
particular passage, rather than taking it literally. Or, if of a more
traditional attitude, we can say that it was written for some other
time than ours, and so no longer applies. Sadly, as investigative
journalist Julie Roys uncovered, this is far more widespread than we
care to acknowledge. There was widespread misconduct, greed,
corruption in some churches and Christian groups--conduct that was
systematically covered up by the ‘system’, aided and abetted in a
serious lack of accountability. As Jesus so bluntly put it, ‘They say
one thing and do something else.’
-we, like the Pharisees and their ilk, can, consciously or
unconsciously, can lay all sorts of expectations and rules upon
people, anything from dress codes (for both men and women) and
make-up to deportment in church to giving to how we are expected
to vote. (I recall growing up in Alberta being told emphatically that no
true Christian would ever vote for any party than the Social Credit
party.)
-likewise, our leaders can quite ‘up and out there’ in wanting to be
seen and recognized—and supported financially. I note that those
who have television or writing ministries are especially ‘careful’ that
their names be ‘out there.’ And, sad to say, even the traditional,
‘established’ churches, like the Anglicans, can have their own
pecking order. (Here I remember some official gathering of our
clergy where someone was demanding that we line up in order of
seniority—the junior clergy going first and the senior ones drawing
up the rear, the supposed place of prominence—in order to process
into the church. Fortunately, a more senior person put an end to
such nonsense). But even so, some people in the church put much
too emphasis on titles and status, even as the scribes and Pharisees
did.
Now I don’t think that Jesus was meaning to erase all distinctions or all sense of merit or authority, but simply to put them in their proper place. We will always have people in leadership, but we must always count them secondary to the authority and leadership of Christ. (It is Jesus who gives the ‘marching orders’, not our earthly leaders.) And likewise with teachers: we need qualified teachers, more of them in fact, but they must always place themselves humbly at the feet of Christ and learn from Him, who ultimately is the only true teacher of the faith.
So, Jesus, as is often the case, is asking us to thread a fine line between the necessity and importance of leadership (after all, Jesus mandated it, see Ephesians 4:11-12) and the necessity of that leadership not taking itself ‘too seriously’ and always giving proper place to Jesus and to the word. How to do that is an ever-present balance and not doing so an ever-present danger. Thanks be to God who can assist us in this. Amen.
Forward notes: “And call no one your father on earth, for you have one Father—the one in heaven” (verse 9).
“At a Bible study I once attended, the facilitator said something that has stayed with me for a long time: don’t make idols out of people.
“It’s very easy to fall into parasocial relationships with celebrities. I’ve often had to stop watching movies or listening to music when I became so bitterly disappointed with the hurtful actions of people associated with them that I couldn’t enjoy their work anymore. I’ve even struggled with trusting religious figures because, I realize, I never actually know what kind of choices they have made in their lives. Having worked in a domestic violence shelter, I am reluctant to make assumptions about what people’s lives are really like based on how they present themselves to me.
“As discouraging as all this is, I know the universe has a moral compass. This passage from Matthew is an important reminder to not worship false idols but to put my faith in God, who always provides and never fails.”
Moving Forward: “What is it like for you when people say that someone you admire hurt them? How might God be calling you to respond?”