21st Week OT (Wed): 2 Thes 3.6-10, 16-18 and Matthew 23.27-32
Fr. Philip N. Powell, OP
Church of the Incarnation
PODCAST!
Jesus to the Pharisees: Hypocrites! Whitewashed tombs! Full of dead men’s bones and every kind of filth! You are evildoers, children of murderers, and hypocrites! So much for the pablamed nonsense that Jesus never condemns, that Jesus is always open to and accepting of every human failure. So much for the nancied notion that Jesus gently guides, sweetly persuades, and never, ever uses harsh words to correct error or call sin “Sin.”
Plainly, Jesus is perfectly capable and eagerly willing to bounce the stubborn Pharisees and scribes around a bit for their spiritual posing. Clearly, Jesus is perfectly capable and eagerly willing to lob a few “Bill O’Reily” grenades amongst his religious enemies. Obviously, Jesus is perfectly capable and eagerly willing to insult his opponents in order to startle them, anger them, stir them up, maybe even incite them to violence! Why? Why is he so ready, willing, and able to take these guys on with such offensive, alienating, and unhelpful rhetoric? That’s easy: he loves them.
And because he loves them he is willing to smack them around a little to make this devastating point: you are lying to yourselves and the rest of us when you say that you would not have killed yesteryear’s prophets; you are the children of those who murdered the Lord’s messengers, and you are, in fact, plotting even now to kill me! He loves them so he tells them what they will not believe. He loves them so he tells them the truth. Jesus’ “unhelpful” rhetoric, his “hurtful” speech is an instigation to repentance. And though his medicinal rant is delivered to the scribes and Pharisees, we hear it as well.
In his second letter to the church at Thessalonica, Paul writes: “We instruct you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to shun any brother who walks in a disorderly way and not according to the tradition they have received from us.” This is not the practice of “no harm, no foul” we’ve grown accustomed to the contemporary American church. This is not the anemic plea for endless dialogue that we hear these days when a brother or sister walks a disorderly way. This is not an instruction from Paul on how to set up processes for consultation on dissension or committees for discussion and feedback on reform. Rather, Paul is instructing the Thessalonians to turn out those who reject the identity of the church, those who refuse to be formed by the community of believers that they have joined voluntarily. So, throw them out and be done with it! Right?
Not quite. Teaching and preaching the truth in love is a ministry of patience. Yes, it is also a ministry of naming sin “Sin,” but it also a ministry naming grace “Grace.” And it is first and always first a ministry of proclamation, the good spiritual work of telling every man, woman, and child by word and deed that the Lord has invited them to live life with Him and that they are given every chance, every opportunity to perfect His love by exercising their divine gifts for others. Patience and charity, then, are the good habits of seeing the Biggest Possible Picture and letting God be God in His own good time.
Those among us who vandalize the tradition, who walk a disorderly way but insist on doing it among us can be hounded, scolded, griped at and about, argued with, proven wrong, and even physically removed. But the question remains: what have they heard and seen from you, for us, in the way of patience, in the way of charity, in the way of medicinal help? Those who walk apart will do so sometimes despite us or even because of us, but why will they return to us, why will they order their lives and come back to this handed-on adventure of loving God and being loved by Him? Will any of them point to you, to me and say, “Because of him, because of her I am back”?
Jesus rakes the scribes and Pharisees because he loves them. He rakes them to wake them up. He wakes them up to repentance, not punishment, to cure and to healing. We are to be doctors of the soul not judges of conscience, healers of the Body of Christ, not jailers for the Church.
Fr. Philip N. Powell, OP
Church of the Incarnation
PODCAST!
Jesus to the Pharisees: Hypocrites! Whitewashed tombs! Full of dead men’s bones and every kind of filth! You are evildoers, children of murderers, and hypocrites! So much for the pablamed nonsense that Jesus never condemns, that Jesus is always open to and accepting of every human failure. So much for the nancied notion that Jesus gently guides, sweetly persuades, and never, ever uses harsh words to correct error or call sin “Sin.”
Plainly, Jesus is perfectly capable and eagerly willing to bounce the stubborn Pharisees and scribes around a bit for their spiritual posing. Clearly, Jesus is perfectly capable and eagerly willing to lob a few “Bill O’Reily” grenades amongst his religious enemies. Obviously, Jesus is perfectly capable and eagerly willing to insult his opponents in order to startle them, anger them, stir them up, maybe even incite them to violence! Why? Why is he so ready, willing, and able to take these guys on with such offensive, alienating, and unhelpful rhetoric? That’s easy: he loves them.
And because he loves them he is willing to smack them around a little to make this devastating point: you are lying to yourselves and the rest of us when you say that you would not have killed yesteryear’s prophets; you are the children of those who murdered the Lord’s messengers, and you are, in fact, plotting even now to kill me! He loves them so he tells them what they will not believe. He loves them so he tells them the truth. Jesus’ “unhelpful” rhetoric, his “hurtful” speech is an instigation to repentance. And though his medicinal rant is delivered to the scribes and Pharisees, we hear it as well.
In his second letter to the church at Thessalonica, Paul writes: “We instruct you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to shun any brother who walks in a disorderly way and not according to the tradition they have received from us.” This is not the practice of “no harm, no foul” we’ve grown accustomed to the contemporary American church. This is not the anemic plea for endless dialogue that we hear these days when a brother or sister walks a disorderly way. This is not an instruction from Paul on how to set up processes for consultation on dissension or committees for discussion and feedback on reform. Rather, Paul is instructing the Thessalonians to turn out those who reject the identity of the church, those who refuse to be formed by the community of believers that they have joined voluntarily. So, throw them out and be done with it! Right?
Not quite. Teaching and preaching the truth in love is a ministry of patience. Yes, it is also a ministry of naming sin “Sin,” but it also a ministry naming grace “Grace.” And it is first and always first a ministry of proclamation, the good spiritual work of telling every man, woman, and child by word and deed that the Lord has invited them to live life with Him and that they are given every chance, every opportunity to perfect His love by exercising their divine gifts for others. Patience and charity, then, are the good habits of seeing the Biggest Possible Picture and letting God be God in His own good time.
Those among us who vandalize the tradition, who walk a disorderly way but insist on doing it among us can be hounded, scolded, griped at and about, argued with, proven wrong, and even physically removed. But the question remains: what have they heard and seen from you, for us, in the way of patience, in the way of charity, in the way of medicinal help? Those who walk apart will do so sometimes despite us or even because of us, but why will they return to us, why will they order their lives and come back to this handed-on adventure of loving God and being loved by Him? Will any of them point to you, to me and say, “Because of him, because of her I am back”?
Jesus rakes the scribes and Pharisees because he loves them. He rakes them to wake them up. He wakes them up to repentance, not punishment, to cure and to healing. We are to be doctors of the soul not judges of conscience, healers of the Body of Christ, not jailers for the Church.
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