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Matthew 23.1-12

Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat; therefore, do whatever they teach you and follow it; but do not do as they do, for they do not practice what they teach. They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on the shoulders of others; but they themselves are unwilling to lift a finger to move them. They do all their deeds to be seen by others; for they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long. They love to have the place of honor at banquets and the best seats in the synagogues, and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and to have people call them rabbi. But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all students. And call no one your father on earth, for you have one Father—the one in heaven. Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Messiah. The greatest among you will be your servant. All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted.


Something new stuck with me in this reading that I never noticed before. "Jesus said...The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat; therefore, do whatever they teach you and follow it."

Jesus goes on to say that these Pharisees and scribes do not act as they teach, so do not act like them. However, considering how Jesus criticizes their behavior so verbosely, it is surprising to me that he does not tell his disciples to discount everything these scribes and Pharisees do AND say. It reads very much like the old adage, 'do as I say, not as I do.'

Why is it that Jesus instructs the disciples to do whatever these scribes and Pharisees teach them? The passage states it is because these scribes and Pharisees "sit on Moses's seat." I am not sure exactly what this means, but I assume it means something to the effect of they are following in the tradition of Moses's teachings. So part of it seems to be that the tradition and foundation of these scribes' and Pharisees' teachings in Moses is so solid that their teachings are derivatively good. However, these teachings must be inevitably difficult to follow if the teachers themselves are not doing so.

There is something else here that is speaking to me. Somewhere in this passage I receive the message that everyone has something to offer. Yes, these teachers are vain, they love titles, and positions, and power. However, they still have something to teach worth hearing. The instructions to follow these teachers' teachings reads to me as Jesus saying 'don't throw out the bath with the bathwater.' Despite these scribes and Pharisees acting in an ungodly way - and of course actions speak louder than words - their words still have value. They may act in very human ways, but Jesus tells us to still listen to them, to still do as they SAY to do.

I find this so interesting, and there is something godly in it. We are all human, and I know too often I get tied up in prestige, power, and the rat race (which often feels like a hamster wheel these days). However, that does not mean we do not hold some wisdom, that we do not have something to say that is worth listening to. And while certainly it is more important how we act, and that we strive to act in the ways Jesus asks us to, that does not necessarily mean we should always be silent. God speaks through us, even if our feet don't always move with the words.

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Daniel 9.4-10

I prayed to the Lord my God and made confession, saying, “Ah, Lord, great and awesome God, keeping covenant and steadfast love with those who love you and keep your commandments, we have sinned and done wrong, acted wickedly and rebelled, turning aside from your commandments and ordinances. We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes, and our ancestors, and to all the people of the land. “Righteousness is on your side, O Lord, but open shame, as at this day, falls on us, the people of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and all Israel, those who are near and those who are far away, in all the lands to which you have driven them, because of the treachery that they have committed against you. Open shame, O Lord, falls on us, our kings, our officials, and our ancestors, because we have sinned against you. To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, for we have rebelled against him, and have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God by following his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets.

Until I read this confession of Daniel I had not thought much about confessions themselves. This is a religious confession, so there we will remain. The confession begins in the first person singular, and Daniel pretty quickly dispatches his transgressions. He then begins with “we” which seems through the course of the next six verses to be sufficiently broad to include the entire congregation, all of the Israelites, the entirety of the people.

Daniel makes this confession when the Israelites have been living in hard times, the people dispersed and enslaved. The nation, the congregation has transgressed. The transgressions against the Lord, “the great and dreadful God,” are listed. The list may seem general, but I suspect any pious member of the congregation could list the specifics of the laws broken, the prophets disdained. The “men of Judah…..the inhabitants of Jerusalem…” knew the laws as their descendants know those same laws today.

But we are not members of this congregation. We do not tend to believe that nations are punished by the Lord. As a nation we look away from transgressions beyond the immediate and passing fashionable ones. No “creditable authority,” that is, no modern Daniel, is proposing the current pandemic as a punishment of God. A couple of prominent evangelists suggested the 911 attacks on our nation were God’s punishment for our misdeeds and transgressions. But their words were vilified immediately to a degree leading to public retraction and apology.

As with Daniel in verse 4 we do have our confessions on the individual and personal level, our “Confiteor”--our prayer of acknowledging our sins and asking for God’s mercy. The Confiteor, which is beautiful, is exquisite in its vague nature regarding sins and transgressions. I think that if we enjoy, believe in and take comfort from confession but we do not believe in punishment or real specificity of our transgressions, perhaps we should look more closely into ourselves to explore the precise purposes confession, public or private, may serve for us.

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Matthew 5.43-48

‘You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.” But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax-collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

This familiar chapter from the Sermon on the Mount instructing us to “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” seems so straightforward. Jesus lived this directive, and it is a message conveyed to us in multiple ways throughout the bible. Yet, while reflecting on this passage, and wanting to go deeper into its meaning, I found I had more questions than answers.

What Jesus says to us here seems simple: Loving those who are easy to love (those who already love us) is mundane and not as righteous as loving all (including those who are our “enemies”). To do this is to be “perfect” and live the word of God.

In theory I agree with this concept. I can imagine how living this might make a kinder, equitable, righteous and more whole world without the negative forces that currently divide us and cause so much pain. But how on earth do we live this? While it might be easier to love those who already love us, I do not always find it “easy” and I think for most people it can be a tremendous struggle at times. Loving your enemy, then, seems like such a Herculean task.

What eventually grounded me in this passage was Jesus stating that God “makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous”. This moved me deeply because it conveys God’s infinite love and generosity to all of us. Before thinking about this as it relates to how I might love my enemy, I thought, I need to fully embrace what it means that God loves me with all of my many flaws and shortcomings.

Like most, I tend to judge myself when I have thoughts or engage in actions that disappoint me and don’t demonstrate my values. Sometimes, rather than turn to God for guidance in these moments, in haste I will distance myself from these transgressions because they are distressing and causing me bad feelings. Of course, this also creates distance from God. Although perhaps not the intended message, this passage serves to reinforce that God loves us for who we are in our entirety. If God can love the unloveable parts of ourselves then we can too. And if we are able to acknowledge these difficulties to ourselves and God without judgment, then we can begin to understand them, and with compassion, begin to change.

Starting small and within myself, has helped me begin to understand how we move closer to the perfect place of loving our enemies. By understanding my own failings as a person but being able to accept and work on them with compassion guided by God’s help, I am better able to extend this love and understanding to others. To “Be perfect” then is really to accept that we are all anything but.