22 Pentecost, A p26, November 5, 2017
Micah 3:5-12 Ps. 43
1 Thessalonians 2:9-13,17-20 Matt. 23:1-12
Lectionary Link
On Tuesday, I was greeting students coming to the preschool and the teachers and the children were all in Halloween costumes. And a parent asked me, "Fr. Phil, where's your costume." And I said, "I'm wearing it. I'm dressed as an old priest." And he replied, "Well, your costume is really authentic."
The oracle of Jesus in the early church's Gospel includes some comments about costume religion. And that hits home to us Episcopalians since we like to use vestments in our liturgies. We have a long tradition of liturgical haberdashery, especially in our High Church tradition. We like color and ceremony; we like aesthetics. But we need to remember that it is not clothes that makes the person, even though this might be a common cliché of culture or a quote of Mark Twain who said, "Clothes makes the man; naked people have little or no influence on society."
Clothes have meanings. This is particularly evident with the clothes which we call uniforms. Uniforms announce the occupation of the persons wearing them. In a hospital, doctors and nurses have "uniforms." Police and fire personnel have uniform. Clothes make a certain kind of announcement about a person before we actually know the person.
Clothes make false announcements at certain times, like at Halloween. Lots of little princesses, superheroes, policemen and firemen seen on Halloween. It's fun to pretend and make a false showing of oneself. It's fun to play and act and appear to be someone or something that we are not.
Jesus said that it is inauthentic to wear the outward signs of faith and religion when there is not an inward and authentic practice of religion.
In outward religion, along with the clothes of faith, there comes the institutional titles. Rabbi, teacher, Reverend, Father, Pastor, Confessor, Rector, Presbyter and Bishop.
The words of Jesus warn us about becoming too over-identified with the outward signs of religion and position.
His words are harsh. He cries to us: Don't play at religion. Don't wear the costumes of being religious unless we are doing the inner work of faith and religion in the transformation of our lives to manifest the true character and identity of the life of faith.
What is one of the best ways to have our truer selves revealed and be delivered from our over-identification with outward appearance? It comes from those who know us apart from our outward identities. How does the children of police and fire personnel know their parent? They know them as mom or dad, not as officer or captain. How do the children or spouse of priest know their parent or spouse? Not as father or pastor but as mom or dad, or dear take out the trash.
When people don the uniforms of their professions, it is natural for them to expect a certain degree of respect for what the uniform represents. At the same time, a person who is called to a profession knows that the love of doing one's calling is more important than getting any respect for doing what one is called and loves to do.
The words of Jesus cite religious people who had the appearance of religious office but who did not have the inner charism or the calling of the office. They were like religious police who expected respect for the uniform even while they misused the power of the uniform.
The words of Jesus are exaggerated speech to provoke authentic living. Jesus said, "don't call anyone your teacher or father or rabbi. Call only God your Father and only have one teacher, the Messiah."
Some biblical literalists have used this passage to forbid the use of any religious titles at all. Persons have told me it is wrong for people to call me Father Phil because of these words of Jesus. But if one is crassly literal, one could by the same logic be forbidden to call one's own parents mom or dad, because we really only have our heavenly parent.
I believe the wisdom that is being taught by Jesus is the importance of uniting office and charism. I can have the office of rector, priest, teacher but not have inward grace and charism of doing what priestly, leader teachers are supposed to do. And it is a shame when people have titles of authority but do not have the inward grace of actual character in their calling.
A doctor can be brilliant but have really off-putting bedside manner; some doctors can really contradict their very healing arts with their lack of personal tact with the people whom they are called to heal.
For a Texan, this saying of Jesus is like the saying, "He's all hat and no cowboy!"
We can be seduced to live our lives as religious pretenders. We can get the "certificates" of baptism, confirmation and ordination and still fail to get into the spiritual flow of the grace of God that we can access with authentic faith in our professions.
I don't believe that Jesus is against religious professions or any profession. What Jesus wants is the authentic uniting of the inward grace of God's calling to complement the outward certificates of professional competencies. We need both.
If we pretend in our profession of faith, we actually may still get public approval because we "look" the part for those who do not know what we are really like.
As harsh as the indictment as the words of Jesus seems, his words are really an invitation for us to connect the outer appearance of our lives of faith with the inward grace of the winsome performance of love and justice and kindness. And isn't this what all want? Don't we want to live with authentic connection between what people think that we do, with God's grace working in us to give us calling and love in what we do?
And what does it mean to know God as our heavenly parent? And the Messiah as our instructor? I think it means that we are less hung up on the outer trappings of our professions, and motivated by a sense of calling, love and service of others in what we do. And we cannot fake this for ourselves. We know when we are authentically connected with charisma and grace, because then we help others be and become their better selves too.
I was raised in a denomination where ministers did not have vestments. I am now in a church which has vestments and titles. I read the words of Jesus when we didn't have vestments. I read the words of Jesus now when I wear vestments. And clothes don't make the person. Titles of respect and authority don't make the person.
What makes the person is the inward connection to God as our heavenly parent and to the Messiah, the Christ. And if we live and work from our connection to God and to the Messiah, we can hope to unite the outer office and the inward charism of our lives so that we can winsomely present Jesus Christ to the people in our world. Amen.
Micah 3:5-12 Ps. 43
1 Thessalonians 2:9-13,17-20 Matt. 23:1-12
Lectionary Link
On Tuesday, I was greeting students coming to the preschool and the teachers and the children were all in Halloween costumes. And a parent asked me, "Fr. Phil, where's your costume." And I said, "I'm wearing it. I'm dressed as an old priest." And he replied, "Well, your costume is really authentic."
The oracle of Jesus in the early church's Gospel includes some comments about costume religion. And that hits home to us Episcopalians since we like to use vestments in our liturgies. We have a long tradition of liturgical haberdashery, especially in our High Church tradition. We like color and ceremony; we like aesthetics. But we need to remember that it is not clothes that makes the person, even though this might be a common cliché of culture or a quote of Mark Twain who said, "Clothes makes the man; naked people have little or no influence on society."
Clothes have meanings. This is particularly evident with the clothes which we call uniforms. Uniforms announce the occupation of the persons wearing them. In a hospital, doctors and nurses have "uniforms." Police and fire personnel have uniform. Clothes make a certain kind of announcement about a person before we actually know the person.
Clothes make false announcements at certain times, like at Halloween. Lots of little princesses, superheroes, policemen and firemen seen on Halloween. It's fun to pretend and make a false showing of oneself. It's fun to play and act and appear to be someone or something that we are not.
Jesus said that it is inauthentic to wear the outward signs of faith and religion when there is not an inward and authentic practice of religion.
In outward religion, along with the clothes of faith, there comes the institutional titles. Rabbi, teacher, Reverend, Father, Pastor, Confessor, Rector, Presbyter and Bishop.
The words of Jesus warn us about becoming too over-identified with the outward signs of religion and position.
His words are harsh. He cries to us: Don't play at religion. Don't wear the costumes of being religious unless we are doing the inner work of faith and religion in the transformation of our lives to manifest the true character and identity of the life of faith.
What is one of the best ways to have our truer selves revealed and be delivered from our over-identification with outward appearance? It comes from those who know us apart from our outward identities. How does the children of police and fire personnel know their parent? They know them as mom or dad, not as officer or captain. How do the children or spouse of priest know their parent or spouse? Not as father or pastor but as mom or dad, or dear take out the trash.
When people don the uniforms of their professions, it is natural for them to expect a certain degree of respect for what the uniform represents. At the same time, a person who is called to a profession knows that the love of doing one's calling is more important than getting any respect for doing what one is called and loves to do.
The words of Jesus cite religious people who had the appearance of religious office but who did not have the inner charism or the calling of the office. They were like religious police who expected respect for the uniform even while they misused the power of the uniform.
The words of Jesus are exaggerated speech to provoke authentic living. Jesus said, "don't call anyone your teacher or father or rabbi. Call only God your Father and only have one teacher, the Messiah."
Some biblical literalists have used this passage to forbid the use of any religious titles at all. Persons have told me it is wrong for people to call me Father Phil because of these words of Jesus. But if one is crassly literal, one could by the same logic be forbidden to call one's own parents mom or dad, because we really only have our heavenly parent.
I believe the wisdom that is being taught by Jesus is the importance of uniting office and charism. I can have the office of rector, priest, teacher but not have inward grace and charism of doing what priestly, leader teachers are supposed to do. And it is a shame when people have titles of authority but do not have the inward grace of actual character in their calling.
A doctor can be brilliant but have really off-putting bedside manner; some doctors can really contradict their very healing arts with their lack of personal tact with the people whom they are called to heal.
For a Texan, this saying of Jesus is like the saying, "He's all hat and no cowboy!"
We can be seduced to live our lives as religious pretenders. We can get the "certificates" of baptism, confirmation and ordination and still fail to get into the spiritual flow of the grace of God that we can access with authentic faith in our professions.
I don't believe that Jesus is against religious professions or any profession. What Jesus wants is the authentic uniting of the inward grace of God's calling to complement the outward certificates of professional competencies. We need both.
If we pretend in our profession of faith, we actually may still get public approval because we "look" the part for those who do not know what we are really like.
As harsh as the indictment as the words of Jesus seems, his words are really an invitation for us to connect the outer appearance of our lives of faith with the inward grace of the winsome performance of love and justice and kindness. And isn't this what all want? Don't we want to live with authentic connection between what people think that we do, with God's grace working in us to give us calling and love in what we do?
And what does it mean to know God as our heavenly parent? And the Messiah as our instructor? I think it means that we are less hung up on the outer trappings of our professions, and motivated by a sense of calling, love and service of others in what we do. And we cannot fake this for ourselves. We know when we are authentically connected with charisma and grace, because then we help others be and become their better selves too.
I was raised in a denomination where ministers did not have vestments. I am now in a church which has vestments and titles. I read the words of Jesus when we didn't have vestments. I read the words of Jesus now when I wear vestments. And clothes don't make the person. Titles of respect and authority don't make the person.
What makes the person is the inward connection to God as our heavenly parent and to the Messiah, the Christ. And if we live and work from our connection to God and to the Messiah, we can hope to unite the outer office and the inward charism of our lives so that we can winsomely present Jesus Christ to the people in our world. Amen.
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