Matthew 7:1-5 Good News Translation
“Do not judge others, so that God will not judge you, 2 for God will judge you in the same way you judge others, and he will apply to you the same rules you apply to others.
3 Why, then, do you look at the speck in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the log in your own eye?
4 How dare you say to your brother, ‘Please, let me take that speck out of your eye,’ when you have a log in your own eye?
5 You hypocrite! First take the log out of your own eye, and then you will be able to see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.
Luke 18:9-14 New International Version
The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector
9 To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable:
10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.
11 The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’
13 “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’
14 “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.
“Do not judge others, so that God will not judge you, 2 for God will judge you in the same way you judge others, and he will apply to you the same rules you apply to others.
3 Why, then, do you look at the speck in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the log in your own eye?
4 How dare you say to your brother, ‘Please, let me take that speck out of your eye,’ when you have a log in your own eye?
5 You hypocrite! First take the log out of your own eye, and then you will be able to see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.
Luke 18:9-14 New International Version
The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector
9 To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable:
10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.
11 The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’
13 “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’
14 “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.
Reflection
Reign of Christ Sunday is the end of the liturgical year for the church. Advent begins the new year. I guess it’s supposed to be a kind of feel good, Christ is King, God is in charge, everything will work out just fine Sunday.
Or maybe it’s supposed to be a review of everything that happened to Jesus or everything Jesus did: the virgin birth (which was a very bad translation from the Hebrew) and healings, miracles, casting out demons, changing water into wine, the resurrection.
Maybe it’s just a day we think about Jesus and figuring out what is the most lasting, truest message for you in your life right now. Not for all time and forever, you don’t have to commit or promise that this is the once and for all answer for everyone for all times and places. Just what do you think is Jesus’ most important message for you today?
So I’ve been thinking about Jesus, and I think one of his truest lasting messages is how each one of us can be more truly human. Jesus constantly showed us how to show up for each other, how to treat the people who cross our paths, how to regard our friends and neighbours with our respect and presence, how to understand ourselves.
There’s another parable I would like to share this morning, you might know it as the parable of the weeds and wheat in Matthew 13:24-30:
The Parable of the Weeds
24 Jesus told them another parable: “The Kingdom of heaven is like this.
A man sowed good seed in his field. 25 One night, when everyone was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. 26 When the plants grew and the heads of grain began to form, then the weeds showed up.
27 The man's servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, it was good seed you sowed in your field; where did the weeds come from?’ 28 ‘It was some enemy who did this,’ he answered. ‘Do you want us to go and pull up the weeds?’ they asked him.
29 ‘No,’ he answered, ‘because as you gather the weeds you might pull up some of the wheat along with them. 30 Let the wheat and the weeds both grow together until harvest. Then I will tell the harvest workers to pull up the weeds first, tie them in bundles and burn them, and then to gather in the wheat and put it in my barn.’”
It’s a strange story that keeps us scratching our heads and and it raises a lot of questions: Why is the Kingdom of Heaven like the story? Who is this person’s enemies that could come and over sow his whole field without anyone noticing? – Wouldn’t they have seen the lights, and if no lights then how did they see? How would you even sow a whole field of weeds…and again what exactly is the point of this story; How does it resemble the kingdom of God – and I don’t even want to think about burning the weeds.
But sometimes even if I don’t get the story and how it is supposed to be read and understood I still get something out of the story. I’m admitting I can’t make heads or tails about what Jesus was trying to tell his listeners but there is some thing in the story I do understand: we are like those fields.
Weeds and wheat, the useless stuff that gets thrown away and the good stuff that get put into the barn. That’s us – at least we are capable of growing both. Each of us is capable of petty sarcastic narcissistic immoral evil thoughts and behaviours and each of us has the capacity to be loving compassionate generous creative good thoughts and behaviours. No one is exempt, to be human, to have free choice means good and evil and all that comes along with it is part and parcel of being human. We get to choose good or evil, weeds or wheat, and it isn’t easy because we don’t always see those weeds growing – we don’t even know where they came from.
The story of the tax collector and the Pharisee praying describes the complexity of the problem. You have the tax collector, obviously not a good guy, in cahoots with the enemy; both Roman and Jewish, profiting off the labours of well, everyone he collects taxes from. He is despised and ostracized by many in the community.
On the other side you have the Pharisee, the good guy, trying to live the righteous life, following the laws, praying, he understands the importance of setting an example for others in the community.
And Jesus comes along and praises the tax collector calling him justified before God and we get it. We understand exactly what Jesus is saying. And it’s not just about prayer because how many times have you or I thought just like the Pharisee.
“God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.”
Of course we might say it a little differently: I am not like those people, those addicts, those skinheads, those antivaxxers. I am not arrogant like him, I am not aggressive like her, I am a good person, I am a good parent, I am a good neighbour, I make good decisions, I am righteous before God.
I wonder if Jesus would tell us the story of the log in our own eye preventing us from seeing the speck we would try to remove from another’s eye.
I wonder if Jesus would say slow down, what are you really saying about yourself and your relationship to other people.
I wonder if Jesus would say: “What have you learned from these COVID times and your dependency on hundreds of other people we are normally not aware of or care about?” Not just doctors and nurses but people who stock grocery store shelves, make PPE’s (I never even knew there were PPE’s before COVID) truck drivers, technicians, janitors and the people who make toilet paper- a whole array of people who make our lives safer, healthier, better.
Have we learned to be better human beings, more conscious of ourselves, and our connection to God as well as to others around the world and in our communities.
I wonder what Jesus would say to us.
I wonder what story he would tell us that would open our eyes and soften our hearts, and reveal to us the capacity we have to receive the grace and love he offers; for only then can we offer our own love and grace to others.
We are blessed to have the stories of Jesus, we are blessed to have Jesus’ life as an example in how to live into the Kin-dom of God, we are blessed so that we may be a blessing.
May it be so Amen
Reign of Christ Sunday is the end of the liturgical year for the church. Advent begins the new year. I guess it’s supposed to be a kind of feel good, Christ is King, God is in charge, everything will work out just fine Sunday.
Or maybe it’s supposed to be a review of everything that happened to Jesus or everything Jesus did: the virgin birth (which was a very bad translation from the Hebrew) and healings, miracles, casting out demons, changing water into wine, the resurrection.
Maybe it’s just a day we think about Jesus and figuring out what is the most lasting, truest message for you in your life right now. Not for all time and forever, you don’t have to commit or promise that this is the once and for all answer for everyone for all times and places. Just what do you think is Jesus’ most important message for you today?
So I’ve been thinking about Jesus, and I think one of his truest lasting messages is how each one of us can be more truly human. Jesus constantly showed us how to show up for each other, how to treat the people who cross our paths, how to regard our friends and neighbours with our respect and presence, how to understand ourselves.
There’s another parable I would like to share this morning, you might know it as the parable of the weeds and wheat in Matthew 13:24-30:
The Parable of the Weeds
24 Jesus told them another parable: “The Kingdom of heaven is like this.
A man sowed good seed in his field. 25 One night, when everyone was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. 26 When the plants grew and the heads of grain began to form, then the weeds showed up.
27 The man's servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, it was good seed you sowed in your field; where did the weeds come from?’ 28 ‘It was some enemy who did this,’ he answered. ‘Do you want us to go and pull up the weeds?’ they asked him.
29 ‘No,’ he answered, ‘because as you gather the weeds you might pull up some of the wheat along with them. 30 Let the wheat and the weeds both grow together until harvest. Then I will tell the harvest workers to pull up the weeds first, tie them in bundles and burn them, and then to gather in the wheat and put it in my barn.’”
It’s a strange story that keeps us scratching our heads and and it raises a lot of questions: Why is the Kingdom of Heaven like the story? Who is this person’s enemies that could come and over sow his whole field without anyone noticing? – Wouldn’t they have seen the lights, and if no lights then how did they see? How would you even sow a whole field of weeds…and again what exactly is the point of this story; How does it resemble the kingdom of God – and I don’t even want to think about burning the weeds.
But sometimes even if I don’t get the story and how it is supposed to be read and understood I still get something out of the story. I’m admitting I can’t make heads or tails about what Jesus was trying to tell his listeners but there is some thing in the story I do understand: we are like those fields.
Weeds and wheat, the useless stuff that gets thrown away and the good stuff that get put into the barn. That’s us – at least we are capable of growing both. Each of us is capable of petty sarcastic narcissistic immoral evil thoughts and behaviours and each of us has the capacity to be loving compassionate generous creative good thoughts and behaviours. No one is exempt, to be human, to have free choice means good and evil and all that comes along with it is part and parcel of being human. We get to choose good or evil, weeds or wheat, and it isn’t easy because we don’t always see those weeds growing – we don’t even know where they came from.
The story of the tax collector and the Pharisee praying describes the complexity of the problem. You have the tax collector, obviously not a good guy, in cahoots with the enemy; both Roman and Jewish, profiting off the labours of well, everyone he collects taxes from. He is despised and ostracized by many in the community.
On the other side you have the Pharisee, the good guy, trying to live the righteous life, following the laws, praying, he understands the importance of setting an example for others in the community.
And Jesus comes along and praises the tax collector calling him justified before God and we get it. We understand exactly what Jesus is saying. And it’s not just about prayer because how many times have you or I thought just like the Pharisee.
“God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.”
Of course we might say it a little differently: I am not like those people, those addicts, those skinheads, those antivaxxers. I am not arrogant like him, I am not aggressive like her, I am a good person, I am a good parent, I am a good neighbour, I make good decisions, I am righteous before God.
I wonder if Jesus would tell us the story of the log in our own eye preventing us from seeing the speck we would try to remove from another’s eye.
I wonder if Jesus would say slow down, what are you really saying about yourself and your relationship to other people.
I wonder if Jesus would say: “What have you learned from these COVID times and your dependency on hundreds of other people we are normally not aware of or care about?” Not just doctors and nurses but people who stock grocery store shelves, make PPE’s (I never even knew there were PPE’s before COVID) truck drivers, technicians, janitors and the people who make toilet paper- a whole array of people who make our lives safer, healthier, better.
Have we learned to be better human beings, more conscious of ourselves, and our connection to God as well as to others around the world and in our communities.
I wonder what Jesus would say to us.
I wonder what story he would tell us that would open our eyes and soften our hearts, and reveal to us the capacity we have to receive the grace and love he offers; for only then can we offer our own love and grace to others.
We are blessed to have the stories of Jesus, we are blessed to have Jesus’ life as an example in how to live into the Kin-dom of God, we are blessed so that we may be a blessing.
May it be so Amen
