May God bless you with discomfort at easy answers, half truths, and superficial relationships, so that you may live deep within your heart. Amen.
This week, a television commercial, that if I remember correctly was first seen at a Superbowl, is being rebroadcast. It begins with a child costumed as Darth Vader walking around his house attempting to get gadgets to work, and toys to move, using the force. In the background, John Williams’ theme music for Darth Vader plays as gadget after gadget does nothing.
It continues with the child’s father pulling up in his car, a Volkswagon Passat, parking it, and walking inside. At the same time, the Darth Vader clad kid goes outside, stands in front of the car, and does the force move. From inside the house, the dad presses the power button and the car turns on, remotely. The child is stunned, thinking that he has made this happen.
I love this commercial because it makes me laugh. I can’t say that it convinces me that I should buy a Passat. It seems like quite a bit of money to allow me to convince a child that he has the power of the force. But the commercial does do its job. Commercials have a goal. Tell you what you don’t have and then demonstrate how you can rectify that situation. in this case, if you want to be able to turn on your car remotely (or with the force), buy a Passat.
Of course everything in the commercial looks perfect, a perfect house, a shiny car, a beautiful family, a well-manicured yard, in this case, a fun loving Stars Wars fanatic for a child, and, of course, the golden retriever. No matter if you realize all the carefully situated messages, you still see yourself being blessed with culturally perfect things, if only you act on buying the item being advertised. That’s what marketing is all about.
We heard in today’s lesson from Exodus about an early marketing scheme. The ancient Israelites complained to and about Moses because, as they crossed the desert, they were thirsty. Moses went to the Lord who instructed him to take his staff and jam it into a rock. He does and water comes forth. The situation is solved. Moses is again a hero, God again saves them, everything is good until those deeds are forgotten.
The problem with this is there are times in our life when we are thirsty. I’m not just talking about a lack of water, but about all those things that we call blessings, not being there. Maybe our car breaks down, our house collapses, someone we love is sick, we are lonely, or we’ve failed an important test. Whatever it is, Moses isn’t there to hear our complaint, to take it to God, so that God can produce a water coming out of a rock miracle that will prove God’s love for us.
That is just not reality. And yet, there are some who point to this lack of God’s providence as proof that someone, or some group, is not being blessed by God. There are even some who take a disaster, a calamity of sorts, and read into it a message of God’s dissatisfaction with a course of action or even dissatisfaction with a specific person. That is selective amnesia about how God relates to the world, because every one of us will be caught in moments of trial and tribulation.
The reality of the story of the Exodus is that it was told for generations around the campfire, by gifted storytellers, whose goal was to share God’s love and God’s kingdom with those who listened to their stories. These storytellers were not historians, they were ancient marketers of God’s ways. Their goal was to express that God inspired their people to escape from slavery and flee from Egypt, and that God loved them.
OK, some say, then that means that I don’t need to believe that stuff. They say that there isn’t truth in those words we call scripture because it is not always factually and historically accurate. This was the very question we discussed with our 7th and 8th graders last Sunday evening. What is truth and where do we find it? Although there is some hyperbole, some exaggeration, in the ancient stories about God, it does not diminish the important truth that is God’s Word.
Jesus took those same words, those teachings, that truth, and explained how it spoke of God. Jesus did this in the midst of people who used the same words, what is known as holy scripture, to subjugate the weak, persecute those who believed differently, and to validate their own power and authority. Does that sound familiar?
The supposed religious authorities, the ones who possessed the seats of power, tested and quarreled with those who disagreed with them by trapping them in a sophisticated game of language. If you say this and that, then you will be ‘in’ with God. If you fail to follow those rules, the rules defined by those very authorities, then you are a false prophet, a blasphemer, or a dangerous influence on our core values.
This is exactly what they did to Jesus, over and over again, throughout his ministry. It was like they were the ancient Israelites grumbling about the lack of water in a desert. In today’s Gospel lesson, which follows the story of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, (what we celebrate on Palm Sunday) we hear of the chief priests and the scribes questioning Jesus about his authority to do these things. What things are they talking about? They were wondering who gave Jesus the authority to teach about love, heal the sick, cleanse the Temple, and no doubt, to enter Jerusalem, like a king but on a donkey, to cries of Hosanna. Those priests and scribes considered that authority to rest with only with them. So who was this Jesus?
Who gives you authority to do these things? (Their tone suggests that these things are ‘terrible.’) The easy answer for Jesus is to say ‘from God,’ but that is exactly what those chief priests and scribes want him to say. That plays into their language game. If Jesus says that, he is trapped by their methods of manipulating meaning and convoluting the understanding of authority. See, these learned authorities, with licenses, titles, and probably years of education, knew the words to say to discount anyone else’s God given authority. Essentially, they ask Jesus, in a public setting, to produce his credentials.
Jesus turned their question back at them. Instead of saying, “my authority comes from God,” he said, “Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it from human origin?” It is hard to see how this puts the chief priests and scribes in trouble. You have to remember that this was a public setting. If they said ‘heaven‘ then they would have to answer to why they had persecuted John’s authority. And because the crowds held John in high regard, they didn’t dare say it wasn’t from heaven. In other words, they took a quick poll and then answered in a way that hedged their bets and protected their own credibility. They said, “We don’t know.”
Jesus then tells a parable that helps explain how to determine authority. The parable plays two brothers against each other. One agrees to do what his father requested, but then doesn’t follow through. The other refuses his father, but in the end fulfills the request. It would be perfect if there was another brother who said the right thing and then did it, but often things aren’t perfect.
Jesus turned the tables on the chief priests and scribes by pointing out that their years of book knowledge, their piles of credentials, and their carefully crafted questions are not where authority is found. Authority is in the works themselves. If the crowds understood the parable on that day and we gather meaning from it on this day, we should be empowered to subject authorities with closer scrutiny. We should be skeptical of those who preach by pointing fingers of judgment at others living in faith. We should be wary of those who pick out certain scriptural passages to prove someone is defying God’s word, but ignore other verses that open the possibility of love and acceptance.
Unlike being a doctor or an engineer, being an authority of God is not earned by years of study, by human hierarchy, or by passing exams. All that is required is that we believe, work to change, and then go out into the vineyard to work for God.
Now, just like back then, there are religious teachers who proclaim that being in God’s world is a matter of saying a few things and then life will turn for the good. They are marketing a set of goods. If you buy into this, then life will be easy. Take this list of prescribed beliefs (which we will conveniently provide for you) and you will be saved. It is as easy as checking off these boxes.
That is not what Jesus had in mind. He called on people to pay attention, to respond to the world in love, and to discern how God’s authority should be seen through works and action. At times, it is going to messy, sometimes we will grumble, but then, if we are paying attention not to what someone says, but to how one acts, God’s authority in the world becomes quite clear.
We can learn from our grumbling about what makes us uncomfortable and possibly also learn how our lives need to mature.
Jesus told those priests and scribes that even after they saw God’s authority in action, they did not change their minds. Pay attention to the world around you. Don’t be satisfied with easy answers, half truths, or superficial relationships, instead, be present in the fullness and messiness of life. From there, you can find the love of God.
The Rev. Dr. Kurt Gerhard (kurt@stpatrickschurchdc.org)
St. Patrick's Episcopal Church (www.stpatrickschurchdc.org)
September 25, 2011
Pentecost 15A (Proper 21)
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