“Yes, But . . .” (Matthew 22:34-46)

 

During seminary I spent one summer taking a unit of Clinical Pastoral Education at the University of Kentucky Medical School.  Among clergy Clinical Pastoral Education is known as CPE and its purpose is to train people to become chaplains.  At the University of Kentucky Medical School, the emphasis was on hospital chaplaincy.  So, for one summer I got to learn about and practice being a hospital chaplain.

A part of that training was done in groups with others taking CPE.  In these groups we would share papers, discuss our experiences of attempting to be chaplains, and do some good old group therapy . . . or what was called Inter-personal Relations sessions . . . which we affectionally called IPR.  With the help of those in our group IPR sessions were opportunities to explore psychological and spiritual issues within our lives with the support of one another.  The idea was to build up one another as we discovered parts of ourselves that CPE was exposing to us.

And, for the most part, that was what IPR sessions were . . . a growth experience.  Except when it was Burt’s turn to share in the group.  When Burt shared, anything and everyone was fair game to his critical eyes.  No one escape the fury of Burt’s criticism.  Many was the time when the rest of us left the group licking our wounds when Burt got done.

According to Burt his heart was in the right place because he “loved us like brothers.”  Every time that Burt began a litany of criticism and complaint against one of us in the group he would say, “John, I love ya like a brother . . . but!”  Then he would proceed to tear the person apart with great glee in his voice until the individual was nothing but a pool of despair . . . gasping and grasping for whatever life there was left.  He was brutal.

By the end of the summer, as far as the group and the head of the CPE program were concerned, Burt had failed . . . he had failed as a chaplain, failed as a pastor, failed as Christian, and failed as a brother.  He barely got out of the program alive in the end.  Which surprised him.  When told it was based on how he treated others, his defense was that everything he did was based on love . . . after all, he always prefaced his attacks with the statement, “I love ya like a brother.”

In the end, his actions betrayed his words.

Actions can betray words . . . beliefs . . . and, one’s own faith.  In education there is a word that is used to describe a set of criteria or standards for grading an assignment . . . for grading one’s progress.  That word is “rubric”.  Though the word is grounded in the realm of education, we all know that there are “rubrics” or “standards” that we are all held up against to determine whether or not we pass . . . to see if we “make the grade.” 

In our reading this morning we see a rubric being used.  Jesus is confronted by the Pharisees with a test. It is a simple test of a single question posed by an expert in the law: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”  The Pharisees were looking for a particular answer to the question to determine whether or not Jesus was a legitimate rabbi or teacher.  Anything less than what the rubric said would be proof that Jesus was a phony and false teacher and prophet.  It was a rubric well known to everyone who claimed to be faithful.

To which Jesus answers correctly.  Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’  This is the first and greatest commandment.”  Jesus passed with flying colors . . . he passed the test; yet, he did not stop there.  He upped the ante.  Jesus added, “And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”  Jesus pulls a “yes, but . . .” on the Pharisees.  Knowingly or unknowingly he hits his challengers with his own rubric . . . his own standards . . . of what it means to be a person of faith.

Here Jesus tells those who are gathered that while it is important to love God completely . . . it is not enough.  It is not enough to truly claim that one is a child of God just because there is a complete love of God.  While it is a good start there is more to it than just that.  There is more . . . there is also the love of others.  It is out of this deep abiding love of and for God that the faithful are called upon to love others . . . to love others as God has love them. 

One does not exist without the other.  To pass both must be in the life of the faithful person.  Though Jesus proclaims that loving God is the greatest commandment, he places loving others right up there beside it.  They are inseparable.  He states that everything in life is based upon these two together.  He tells those in his presence and those of us reading or hearing this story, “All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Intentional or not, it is against this rubric that the faithful are considered as to whether they are passing . . . whether they make the grade.  Ultimately isn’t this what we all should consider when we are evaluating our own faith as a follower of Jesus?  I think that it is a good starting point.

Remember Burt?  This is where Burt failed in his declaration of faith.  Despite his proclamation of “love for all” his actions betrayed him.  His words were not to nurture and build, but to hurt and destroy.  In the end, he failed.

We have all heard many times that there are millions and millions of laws written to make us live up to the Ten Commandments.  And that is probably true . . . yet, here we have Jesus simplify it for us.  He tells us that if we can love God completely and love others, we cover all the laws and words of the prophets—all of them!  Such is the rubric to use in assessing our faith . . . love.  Love of God.  Love of others.  Do our words . . . our beliefs . . . stand up to this rubric?

In Jesus we are given the example of what it means to love God and others.  In Jesus we are shown the way to love God and others.  Through Jesus we have the key to success as a follower.  It is not easy to follow in the footsteps of Jesus . . . to live up to his example.  There are moments when we stumble and fall . . . moments when we forget whose we are . . . times when we let loose with the angry word . . . moments when we fail.  We all do!  At the same time, we have a God who loves us . . . a God who forgives us . . . a God who is willing to pick us up, stand us on our own two feet, and to encourage us to try again . . . and again . . . and again.

I do not think that God is too excited about the phrase of “yes, but” when it comes to faith.  Especially when that “yes, but” is a contradiction to loving God and others.  We are called by God to love . . . we are shown by Jesus how to love . . . and, it is up to us to do so.  No one can do it for us, we have to do it for ourselves and hope that our actions are the ripples upon life that change others.  The hymn asks the question: How will they know that we are Christians . . . followers of Christ?  And the response is simple: Love.  They will know that we are Christians by our love.  This is the greatest of all the commandments . . . love . . . love of God . . . love of others.  Amen.

“The Struggle is Real” (Matthew 22:15-22)

The writer of Genesis, chapter one, verse 27 tells us: “So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”  This is something we need to remind ourselves about from time to time . . . we are made in the image and likeness of God.  We are chips off the old block . . . we are the children of God.  We are God’s and we need to remember that because we are created in the image of God—the likeness of God, we are to act like God.  We are to serve through our lives as God’s agents, partners, and co-workers in fulfilling God’s desires and will in the world in which we live.

It is especially important to remember as we consider the reading, we have heard this morning.  In Matthew’s version of the story of Jesus we are at a point when things are beginning to heat up for Jesus.  Jesus has entered Jerusalem and is greeted with great adoration by the people.  Taking advantage of that popularity he enters the Temple and overthrows the tables of the moneychangers, challenging both the political and religious powers in control.  When confronted by the powers that be as to what authority he has to do such things, Jesus tells several provocative—even threatening parables—challenging the authority of those who question him.  Jesus has upset the apple cart and stepped on quite a few toes in the process.

Which brings us to our reading this morning. Jesus is confronted once again in hopes that he can be trapped into saying or doing something that will ruin him and his movement.  The powers that be are angry, thus the Pharisees and Herodians—two groups that have little to do with each, two groups on opposite ends of the political and religious spectrum—temporarily team up to trap this upstart rabbi.  They pose a question . . . they set the trap . . . as they ask: “Teacher we know that you are a man of integrity and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You aren’t swayed by others, because you pay no attention to who they are. Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay the imperial tax to Caesar or not?”

That is a tough question.  Jesus is now stuck between a rock and a hard place . . . a “no win” situation . . . depending on how he answers the question.  If he answers that the tax should be paid, he loses the support and even gains the opposition of those following him.  If he answers that the tax should not be paid, he positions himself over and against the Romans.  Which is not a smart thing to do.  So, in the minds of the questioners they are certain they have him trapped.

At least that is what they think.  Instead we see Jesus flip the question and broaden it to a more challenging proposition to the questioners and those who are watching and listening to this whole thing play out.  Taking a coin, he asks whose image is on it.  They reply, “Caesar’s.” Then he tells them to “. . . give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”  With a simple one sentence answer Jesus averts the trap and throws it back issuing a challenge to them and his hearers that echoes throughout the generations to today.

That challenge is in how we are to live our lives in faithfulness to the fact that we are created in the image and likeness of God.  Being created in the image and likeness of God we have a responsibility to live our lives in such a way that we are God’s agents, partners, and co-workers in fulfilling God’s desires and will in the world in which we live.  We bear God’s image and likeness and therefore we are made to be more than we sometimes realize.  We are called upon to do the right thing . . . to do God’s thing.

This challenge hits the Pharisees, Herodians, and those witnessing this confrontation right where they live . . . between the way that they proclaim their faith and the way that they are living their lives.  It challenges us today as we consider whether we are giving to God what is God’s.  And, because this challenge stings in its intimacy and confrontation of who one is as the faithful, I cannot help but to feel a little empathy with the Pharisees and Herodians.  What Jesus is asking for is difficult . . . it is frustrating . . . and, it is easy to realize the struggle.  The struggle is real . . . then and now.

The struggle is real when we consider that we are barreling towards a contentious, divisive, and nasty election of our nation’s governmental leaders from the top down.  The struggle is real when we are offended by politicians and their followers of all kinds in the way they treat their opponents that are far from the mandates of how we should treat others according to Jesus.  The struggle is hard not to get caught up in all the name calling and finger pointing going on that has nothing to do with law and order, but in just putting down one’s opponent.  The struggle is hard because it is so far from the teachings and examples of loving others that Jesus represented and wanted. 

We know that the struggle is real because of how we react and feel about witnessing it taking place . . . it makes us sick to see people treat each other like that.  It makes us sad . . . frustrated . . . angry, as we try to make sense of such actions placed up against the witness of Jesus’ words and example.  When it comes to politics the struggle is hard to be the representative of God . . . to follow Jesus’ example.

The struggle is real as we are a community, state, nation, and citizen of the world continue to trudge through this time of pandemic.  The struggle to be God’s representative, co-worker, and partner is difficult when we have seen how divisive the pandemic has become because people cannot agree . . . cannot agree on whether or not the virus is even real . . . cannot agree on how to combat it . . . or see it as a test of faith.  Whatever the case we have seen how conflicting, divisive, and frustrating it has become as we attempt to do what Jesus would do . . . to be that presence of love, compassion, grace, and understanding no matter where anyone stands on the issue.

The struggle is real whenever we are confronted by situations in our lives when the will of God confronts us in our daily actions as a people of faith.  Whenever our words as people of faith conflict with how we are living . . . how we view and treat others who are different from us, who believe differently than we do, who come from other cultures, different neighborhoods, who are politically different than us, different religions. Whenever our hearts and minds become conflicted when placed in a situation in which our faith is being challenge . . . the struggle is real.  The struggle is real to remember whose we are . . . in whose image and likeness we have been created . . . and in being that presence in the lives that we live.  It is not easy, and the struggle is quite real.

In our reading this morning Jesus calls those who confront him, those who are witnessing it, and those who have read this story back to their primary identity as God’s children and stewards . . . as those who are made in the image and likeness of God and charged to act like God . . . the God we see in Jesus.  Jesus knows that this is not easy.  It is difficult because it makes us have to figure out what it means for our daily life, decisions, and actions . . . God’s way or the way we see the world around us acting? 

The struggle is real.  The struggle is real because of who we are as the children of God.  As the children of God, we must recognize the complexity of life and the world we live in . . . of the issues we face.  We must hold up the values of Jesus as we have seen him live them . . . not our interpretation, but as we have seen him live them. We must make space for the variety of voices and contributions of people who walk this journey of life with us.  We need to look for God’s work beyond our own community and the places we expect God to be . . . the world and presence of God is not only in our little slice of heaven but encompasses all of God’s creation.  And, we are to call each other back to God’s word and promise and charge that we are made in God’s own image and likeness and are therefore called to live in a way that others may detect the family resemblance.

All easier said than done which proves that the struggle is real.  It is hard work, but also good work . . . important work . . . work that calls for our all.  Jesus tells us, “So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”  When we get down to the naked truth . . . what is not God’s?  It is all God’s. All of it.  Jesus reminds us of that this morning.  We can do it . . . Jesus has shown us the way.  Amen.