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| 14 Pentecost 10 September, 2006 The Rev. Robert C. Granfeldt |
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Last week I said I had given up on the sermon I had been working on, because it had
just gotten too complicated for a Labor Day weekend! But, you know, I just couldn’t let
it go! So we’re going to go back to last week’s Gospel, today – but, complicated as it
is, I’ll try to keep it simple!
Last week, the Pharisees had challenged Jesus about his disciples’ failure to
observe the rules about ritual cleansing before a meal, and Jesus berated them for
confusing tradition with the laws of God, giving his great teaching that it’s not what
goes into a man that defiles him, but what comes out of him! He really gave it to them!
He really gave it to those poor Pharisees! Sometimes I feel really sorry for them. They
really weren’t treated very well by the Evangelists – the writers of the Gospels.
You’ll recall that I have commented many times, that it took a while for the Gospels to
be written down. It wasn’t a case where four followers of Jesus said, right after the
Ascension, “Gee, we’d better write all of this down, before we forget.” No, the
Gospels were written with specific purposes in mind, and well after the fact. While
the Crucifixion took place somewhere around 30 A.E., the earliest Gospel, Mark,
probably wasn’t written until sometime between 60 CE and 85 CE – thirty to fifty five
years after the fact! Memories – and, more importantly, understandings – change
over a span of years like that, and we ought always to remind ourselves of that fact
when we read or hear the Scriptures; not to mention the fact that the Gospel writers,
with one, possible exception, never even knew Jesus! Even when they got the bare
facts straight, they may well have missed the nuances, the flavor, of the events they
reported.
For instance, this bad rap that the Pharisees got. It’s probably not very accurate.
Whether it’s that the Evangelists didn’t really understand what went on between
Jesus and the Pharisees, or that they presented the Pharisees selectively for their
own purposes, or that it’s an accidental portrayal, because the conversations
between Jesus and the Pharisees that the Gospel writers chose to report just
happened to be ones in which the Pharisees look bad, it’s impossible to tell. But we
do know one thing from history, itself, quite apart from what the Gospels say: we
know that the Pharisees were NOT bad people.
Phariseeism had it’s roots in the period of the Babylonian exile, when the central
focus of the Hebrew faith, the temple, was lost, and a new focus had to be found. And
Phariseeism had it’s birth in the Maccabean rebellion. As a political party – which is
just one of the things they were – the Pharisees were no worse than most, of the
period, and probably better than many, particularly the Sadducees. Now there’s a
group you’d have expected Jesus to take on – but nary a word of condemnation of
the Sadducees! Actually, too, in spite of the picture we get of them, in the Gospels,
the Pharisees were the religious liberals of their day, and the historian, Josephus,
even describes them as modernists.
By the time of Jesus, though, the pharisaic movement had become moribund; it had
lost most of its former vitality, and was really going nowhere. In fact, within a hundred
years, after the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple, Phariseeism will
have died out, giving birth, in the end, to the Rabbinic Judaism that has carried the
Jewish faith into the present.
But the problem with the Pharisees in Jesus’ day is not that they weren’t good
people, nor that they were hypocrites, nor that they didn’t mean well or try hard. The
problem was that they had become STUCK! They had gone as far as they could go.
They had no vision to lead them into new things, new ways of thinking. They clung,
rather, to the old ways, the old thoughts. And their approach, by the beginning of the
First Century of the Common Era was to hang on to what they had, and to go over,
and over, and over the same ground…
And that wouldn’t do, in the First Century.
In the First Century, change was in the air; a new day was dawning; new approaches
were needed. And new leadership. The Pharisees couldn’t cut it.
And than along came Jesus.
Jesus was part of what was happening. Jesus was part of the change that was
occurring. Jesus was the bearer of new ways of thinking, new ways of understanding.
You may not realize it, but there has long been considerable scholarly opinion that
Jesus was, himself, a Pharisee. That seems odd when we think of the run-ins he had
with the Pharisees, and the things he said about them! But it is precisely those run-
ins that give the scholars that impression, because they have the flavor more of
squabbles between brothers than the battle of implacable foes! A lot of hot sounding
rhetoric –like last week’s Gospel – but no really deep division when you look closely.
The Pharisees were protectors and teachers of the Law. So was Jesus. But Jesus
saw the Law of Moses in a new context – the context of a God of Love, and the law of
love. And all of the Law of Moses had to be interpreted in that new context, had to
give way to that new understanding. The Law, he said – this Law, the interpretation
and teaching of which was the very LIFE of the Pharisees – the Law depended solely
and completely on the command to love one’s neighbor as one’s self, and to love
God with one’s whole heart, mind and soul.
And the Pharisees couldn’t get their minds around that idea. They couldn’t get past
the old legal requirements, to the glory, beyond – the Glory of God’s love that Jesus
had come to proclaim!
What it was, was TIME! Time for new ways to take over; time for new thoughts to
replace old one’s; time for new understandings to grow out of the old and to outgrow
the old – supplant them.
The Pharisees weren’t BAD people. They just couldn’t cope with a new age! Couldn’t
cope with the need to reexamine the old ways – THEIR ways. Couldn’t cope with the
need to REINTERPRET old truths in order to preserve them! Couldn’t cope with the
need to change what needed to be changed, in order to protect the changeless!
So they clashed – clashed as brothers might clash. And then – Jesus moved on. And
the Pharisees died out.
I think about these things a lot! About how much WE tend to be like the Pharisees,
today. Not bad people – no more than they were -- but people who, like they, would
prefer not to recognize that we’re in the period of the most rapid change in the way
we live our lives, and in the way we understand the issues of life, in the history of the
world.
As we look about and see the changes going on around us in the world, and the
changes that demand our attention even in our own church, there is a temptation to
avoid, to ignore, to deny what we can, and to look for someone to blame for what we
can’t. Just like the Pharisees.
But we’re called, not to be Pharisees, but to be followers of Christ. The world IS
changing – has changed drastically in the lifetimes of each of us, and especially in
the five years, tomorrow, since 9/11; the world will continue to change drastically in
the lifetimes of our children, our children’s children, and our children’s children’s
children. And our understandings, our ways of meeting the world, and – as the
Church – our ways of serving the world – must change, too.
The Pharisees made the mistake of insisting that THEIR ways of understanding the
world, and living in the world were the ONLY ways – were, in fact, God’s ways – when
they were REALLY only the ways that THEY were USED to.
We need to learn from their mistake – and from the one who challenged them in his
lifetime, and challenges us, today – to realize that it is, after all, not OUR world to
define, in the first place, but God’s; not OUR understandings that matter, at all, but
God’s understandings; not, indeed, OUR lives to live – but the lives that belong to
God.
And we need to learn from them that just as their God challenged them to open
themselves to new understandings, to new life, so does that same God – our God –
challenge us! Challenge us to open up, to change – for God’s sake!
In Jesus Christ’s Name. Amen.
just gotten too complicated for a Labor Day weekend! But, you know, I just couldn’t let
it go! So we’re going to go back to last week’s Gospel, today – but, complicated as it
is, I’ll try to keep it simple!
Last week, the Pharisees had challenged Jesus about his disciples’ failure to
observe the rules about ritual cleansing before a meal, and Jesus berated them for
confusing tradition with the laws of God, giving his great teaching that it’s not what
goes into a man that defiles him, but what comes out of him! He really gave it to them!
He really gave it to those poor Pharisees! Sometimes I feel really sorry for them. They
really weren’t treated very well by the Evangelists – the writers of the Gospels.
You’ll recall that I have commented many times, that it took a while for the Gospels to
be written down. It wasn’t a case where four followers of Jesus said, right after the
Ascension, “Gee, we’d better write all of this down, before we forget.” No, the
Gospels were written with specific purposes in mind, and well after the fact. While
the Crucifixion took place somewhere around 30 A.E., the earliest Gospel, Mark,
probably wasn’t written until sometime between 60 CE and 85 CE – thirty to fifty five
years after the fact! Memories – and, more importantly, understandings – change
over a span of years like that, and we ought always to remind ourselves of that fact
when we read or hear the Scriptures; not to mention the fact that the Gospel writers,
with one, possible exception, never even knew Jesus! Even when they got the bare
facts straight, they may well have missed the nuances, the flavor, of the events they
reported.
For instance, this bad rap that the Pharisees got. It’s probably not very accurate.
Whether it’s that the Evangelists didn’t really understand what went on between
Jesus and the Pharisees, or that they presented the Pharisees selectively for their
own purposes, or that it’s an accidental portrayal, because the conversations
between Jesus and the Pharisees that the Gospel writers chose to report just
happened to be ones in which the Pharisees look bad, it’s impossible to tell. But we
do know one thing from history, itself, quite apart from what the Gospels say: we
know that the Pharisees were NOT bad people.
Phariseeism had it’s roots in the period of the Babylonian exile, when the central
focus of the Hebrew faith, the temple, was lost, and a new focus had to be found. And
Phariseeism had it’s birth in the Maccabean rebellion. As a political party – which is
just one of the things they were – the Pharisees were no worse than most, of the
period, and probably better than many, particularly the Sadducees. Now there’s a
group you’d have expected Jesus to take on – but nary a word of condemnation of
the Sadducees! Actually, too, in spite of the picture we get of them, in the Gospels,
the Pharisees were the religious liberals of their day, and the historian, Josephus,
even describes them as modernists.
By the time of Jesus, though, the pharisaic movement had become moribund; it had
lost most of its former vitality, and was really going nowhere. In fact, within a hundred
years, after the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple, Phariseeism will
have died out, giving birth, in the end, to the Rabbinic Judaism that has carried the
Jewish faith into the present.
But the problem with the Pharisees in Jesus’ day is not that they weren’t good
people, nor that they were hypocrites, nor that they didn’t mean well or try hard. The
problem was that they had become STUCK! They had gone as far as they could go.
They had no vision to lead them into new things, new ways of thinking. They clung,
rather, to the old ways, the old thoughts. And their approach, by the beginning of the
First Century of the Common Era was to hang on to what they had, and to go over,
and over, and over the same ground…
And that wouldn’t do, in the First Century.
In the First Century, change was in the air; a new day was dawning; new approaches
were needed. And new leadership. The Pharisees couldn’t cut it.
And than along came Jesus.
Jesus was part of what was happening. Jesus was part of the change that was
occurring. Jesus was the bearer of new ways of thinking, new ways of understanding.
You may not realize it, but there has long been considerable scholarly opinion that
Jesus was, himself, a Pharisee. That seems odd when we think of the run-ins he had
with the Pharisees, and the things he said about them! But it is precisely those run-
ins that give the scholars that impression, because they have the flavor more of
squabbles between brothers than the battle of implacable foes! A lot of hot sounding
rhetoric –like last week’s Gospel – but no really deep division when you look closely.
The Pharisees were protectors and teachers of the Law. So was Jesus. But Jesus
saw the Law of Moses in a new context – the context of a God of Love, and the law of
love. And all of the Law of Moses had to be interpreted in that new context, had to
give way to that new understanding. The Law, he said – this Law, the interpretation
and teaching of which was the very LIFE of the Pharisees – the Law depended solely
and completely on the command to love one’s neighbor as one’s self, and to love
God with one’s whole heart, mind and soul.
And the Pharisees couldn’t get their minds around that idea. They couldn’t get past
the old legal requirements, to the glory, beyond – the Glory of God’s love that Jesus
had come to proclaim!
What it was, was TIME! Time for new ways to take over; time for new thoughts to
replace old one’s; time for new understandings to grow out of the old and to outgrow
the old – supplant them.
The Pharisees weren’t BAD people. They just couldn’t cope with a new age! Couldn’t
cope with the need to reexamine the old ways – THEIR ways. Couldn’t cope with the
need to REINTERPRET old truths in order to preserve them! Couldn’t cope with the
need to change what needed to be changed, in order to protect the changeless!
So they clashed – clashed as brothers might clash. And then – Jesus moved on. And
the Pharisees died out.
I think about these things a lot! About how much WE tend to be like the Pharisees,
today. Not bad people – no more than they were -- but people who, like they, would
prefer not to recognize that we’re in the period of the most rapid change in the way
we live our lives, and in the way we understand the issues of life, in the history of the
world.
As we look about and see the changes going on around us in the world, and the
changes that demand our attention even in our own church, there is a temptation to
avoid, to ignore, to deny what we can, and to look for someone to blame for what we
can’t. Just like the Pharisees.
But we’re called, not to be Pharisees, but to be followers of Christ. The world IS
changing – has changed drastically in the lifetimes of each of us, and especially in
the five years, tomorrow, since 9/11; the world will continue to change drastically in
the lifetimes of our children, our children’s children, and our children’s children’s
children. And our understandings, our ways of meeting the world, and – as the
Church – our ways of serving the world – must change, too.
The Pharisees made the mistake of insisting that THEIR ways of understanding the
world, and living in the world were the ONLY ways – were, in fact, God’s ways – when
they were REALLY only the ways that THEY were USED to.
We need to learn from their mistake – and from the one who challenged them in his
lifetime, and challenges us, today – to realize that it is, after all, not OUR world to
define, in the first place, but God’s; not OUR understandings that matter, at all, but
God’s understandings; not, indeed, OUR lives to live – but the lives that belong to
God.
And we need to learn from them that just as their God challenged them to open
themselves to new understandings, to new life, so does that same God – our God –
challenge us! Challenge us to open up, to change – for God’s sake!
In Jesus Christ’s Name. Amen.
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| Calvary Episcopal Church, Rockdale |
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