Roger Ray, pastor
September 18, 2011 Proper 21
Matthew 21:28-32
28"What do you think? A man had two sons; he went to the first and said, 'Son, go and work in the vineyard today.' 29He answered, 'I will not'; but later he changed his mind and went. 30The father went to the second and said the same; and he answered, 'I go, sir'; but he did not go. 31Which of the two did the will of his father?" They said, "The first." Jesus said to them, "Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you. 32For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him; and even after you saw it, you did not change your minds and believe him.
In the regular debates about social justice issues, progressives tend to hold the moral high ground on matters of fighting discrimination against minorities, immigrants and gays. We tend to have ethics on our side in discussions about immigration, education, poverty, access to health care, housing and food but when our critics have run out of ammunition in every other way, many will play what they consider to be their trump card: But do you favor abortion?
Some of my critics think that topic is their crucifix, wooden stake, holy water and garlic to protect them from the obvious conclusion of facts and information. Frankly, when I adopted an abandoned baby from a third world orphanage, I felt like I cast my vote on the abortion issue. I am not in favor of abortions, per se, but I am dramatically in favor of a woman's right to manage her own reproductive life. I will never get an abortion but the last time I checked, other than a really bad Arnold Schwarzenegger movie, I need to assume that I'm not in the club of people who need to be consulted on that issue.
But controversial issues are used to dismiss people when you can't think of any other good reason to dismiss them. It is called "redirection" in argumentation.
I quoted Thomas Jefferson in a conversation with a rather unhappy gentleman and he interrupted me and said, "Jefferson owned slaves, you can't take him seriously." And, you have to admit, slave ownership is repugnant, horrible, virtually unforgivable, but does that mean that Washington, Franklin and Jefferson had no redeeming qualities?
Dorothy Day had an abortion and several affairs. Martin Luther King, Jr. had lots of affairs. Martin Luther had some pretty serious mental issues and Joan of Arc was clearly schizophrenic. Mohammed was a polygamist. Abraham Lincoln suffered from major depression and may have been bi-polar. Gandhi refused to allow his wife to be given antibiotics that would have saved her life. Winston Churchill smoked cigars..... which is just one of the things I like about Winston Churchill...but I digress.
Seriously, if you look at history as if you were writing for a tabloid newspaper you would see the world as being a place devoid of heroes. But if you look for people who have accomplished a great deal, alleviated suffering, liberated the oppressed and made the world a better place, you could find a lot of exciting and wonderful examples.
As you have heard me say before, the primary conflict in the pages of the gospel is a conflict between a religion of piety and the teaching of radical compassion. The pious religious leaders lived their lives carefully to remain untarnished by the world. And there are some good things to say about piety. We certainly want our kids to live their lives in such a way that they don't end up with a criminal record. We don't want them to get pregnant in high school, or contract AIDS.
We want our kids to be productive, responsible and to enjoy a good reputation but if they need to go to treatment for addiction, do you want the rest of the world to look at them for the rest of their lives as being a second or third class citizen?
It is the fallacy of ad homonym, to try to insult a person's character to remove the credibility of their lives from them unjustly. And this is often the native tongue of religious people. We act like we're being pious when we are really just gossiping.
We skewer a person, like pinning a bug to a piece of poster board and then we identify them.... Welfare recipient.... Alcoholic..... divorced.... Gay..... convict... drop out....adulterer.... lazy.... Or worse, we have stooped to racism and derision based on language, nation of origin or family.
Jesus, a friend to the most outcast among the outcast in that environment.... And, you know, Jesus wasn't a rabbi.... Some people called him that but really, he was neither priest nor cleric.... Just the son of a poor family born under dubious circumstances. But he look at those important dignitaries....the pious, the religious, the respectable community leaders, and he said, "You know, God likes prostitutes a lot more than He likes you. God will prefer the company of the corrupt tax collectors over your solemn assemblies."
They didn't kill Jesus because he said that he was the messiah, they killed Jesus because he told those pious pompous priests that they weren't all that special.
This is, I believe, one of the real crises in leadership in our world today. We have allowed our minds to be captured by the pious when what we really need in church and in government are leaders who can do something.
There are people in public life who have lost their status...., do you remember in 1972 when Edmund Muskie dropped out of the presidential campaign because he wept in public? The same year Thomas Eagleton dropped out when it was discovered that he had been treated for depression?
Do you ever wonder how many wonderful, capable people never ran for office because they didn't want to be identified by having ever had a personal problem? I have had people trying to recruit me to run from everything from the school board to the state legislature but I already know what it is like to have been the victim of a puritan witch hunt and I would never subject myself to that kind of thing again.
Politics can be mean but the church can be more so and family can be even worse. The nip in the air this week reminds us that summer is coming to an end and fall is on the way. In a couple of months it will be Thanksgiving and a month later it is Christmas. This is my first full year as an orphan and my daughter still lives with me but pretty soon my life time of traveling to be with my parents on holidays will give way to waiting to see if my daughter will be coming home for the holidays.
For more than 30 years, during those horribly challenging years of being a full-time graduate student and a full-time pastor, but loading up the car for a long drive every Thanksgiving and Christmas, exhausted and yet pressured to take what I euphemistically called our "holiday guilt trips" so that I could get caught up on what all I was doing wrong in life.
So, let me say a pastoral word to all of you who are hoping to have in-laws and out-laws coming to your patriarchal home this holiday season: Jesus liked the prostitutes and tax collectors more than the pious people who did everything right.
Seriously, you cannot judge your kids into perfection. You cannot manipulate your kids with guilt or judgment into becoming the happy family you imagine. You cannot gossip your way into having the church of your dreams and you cannot dissect politician's personal lives to create the country you want to live in.
Give me a politician with a track record of accomplishments even if she or he has had a few major screw ups along the way. Give me a church that is willing to stand for something, even if they don't always get it right. Give me a family full of interesting people who live their lives to the fullest, even if their skeletons are hanging in the living room rather than the closet. I don't want my daughter to fail in marriage, career or life but I don't want her to be afraid to try.... Certainly not out of fear of her very Reverend father's judgment.
What I'm suggesting is, give your kids a Christmas present early, keep your opinions to yourself over Thanksgiving.
I realized many years ago that the Jesus of the gospels was tolerant of everything except intolerance. He was a friend to tax collectors and sinners. He hung out with prostitutes and the rejects of society but the only people he ever insulted, yelled at or condemned were religious leaders who passed judgment on others and that is a consistent element of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
Mark Twain used to say that he would prefer to go to Heaven for the weather but to Hell for the companionship. Ironically, it appears that Jesus felt the same way, which gives us some reason to hope for those of us who like to keep company with people who have bad reputations but who are a lot less pious. On this one, I can clearly say that I'm with Jesus and I hope you are too.
