Well, yeah. Gotta admit to singing the party line–if they cut off my pension, I’m toast. We pew-sitters are experts at talking big but not delivering; we’d like to see the System around us improve, but we won’t invest time or money to change it. Lessons to be read this weekend slap us around a bit–yet there’s Grace at the end, without which we can do nothing. Meanwhile, let’s be goaded into at least thinking about being known by our love. And humility.
MICAH 3:5-12 had nothing but sharp words for “the prophets who lead my people astray”. These are condemned by YHWH for selling out to the highest bidder. “(Zion’s) rulers give judgment for a bribe, its priests teach for a price, its prophets give oracles for money, yet they lean upon the Lord…” As one who teaches and preaches for a salary and a pension, I’d say we were all in the same leaky boat! The systems in which we are planted reward us for going along. Do we proclaim the Voice of God while counting the rewards of our involvement?
St. Paul’s First Letter to the THESSALONIANS 2:9-13 reminds his friends there that he pursued his tent-making work “night and day” so as not to be a financial burden on them. As professional clergy, I’d like to skip over this part, since so many have cheerfully (?) supported me both then & now. Was Paul giving himself over to pride? We Thessalonians are encouraged to seek holiness by allowing Grace to flow over and around us. Unlike Micah, we don’t stand under the cloud of condemnation: God greets us new each morning, whether or not we lived “successfully” the day before.
The pre-Good Friday message from Jesus is found in MATTHEW 23:12. He warns his followers and the folks gathered ’round about the Scribes and Pharisees and us who interpret the harsher teachings of the Torah but then go our anointed and merry way. “They do all their deeds to be seen by others…to have the place of honor at banquets…to be greeted with respect in the markets…” (But I LIKE the VIP treatments!) I’ve gotta admit to all of the above, and maybe you do too.
So we all wear masks of some kind to hide away from scrutiny. We’re highly invested in the popular opinions of being well-liked and praised. “The light of self-promotion is always on in hypocrites, because people do not stop having opinions about us, and these opinions are utterly important to us.” (Allen Hilton, in FEASTING on the WORD, A 4:265) He goes on to say that “the antidote for hypocrisy is grace.” Tomorrow will be a better day!
In the process of unfolding, Horace Brown King
Scripture texts to be read on the upcoming weekend can be accessed each Tuesday at horacebrownking.com
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