Today’s Readings: Psalm 71; Genesis 44:18-34; Luke 6:39-49; Acts 19:29-41; Psalm 36
I spent much of the 1980’s and 1990’s getting incredibly worked up about the presence of the Religious Right. I took a great deal of pleasure back then in pointing out the rampant hypocrisy and shortcomings of many of their leaders (i.e. Jimmy Swaggart & the Bakers). You could certainly always count on me to let loose in tirades directed against Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson and James Dobson. Then a dramatic change occurred in me around the start of the 21st Century, and I quit opening my mouth against these folks. What happened? Well, I started opening my eyes and paying attention to folks' on the other end of the political and theological spectrum. I started to notice friends who railed about the evils of corporate pollution, for instance, fail to practice recycling in their own homes. I watched as colleagues criticized the government workforce for not being diverse enough – and yet they were totally oblivious to the fact that they had no friends of color in their own personal lives. I sat back and watched as folks spouted off about the importance of immigration reform - and then went out and hired illegal aliens to work in their own homes and small businesses. In other words, I learned that neither the Right nor the Left had a monopoly on things like hypocrisy and self-righteousness. All of this is to say that it took me a while to really understand what Jesus meant when he said, “It’s easy to see a smudge on your neighbor’s face and be oblivious to the ugly sneer on your own. Do you have the nerve to say, ‘Let me wash your face for you,’ when your own face is distorted by contempt? It’s this I-know-better-than-you mentality again, playing a holier-than-thou part instead of just living your own part” (Luke 6:41-42 – The Message). The longer I sat with Jesus’ words, the more I realized that anyone who professes to follow Jesus should spend the bulk of their time getting their own house in order before they even start thinking about trying to fix someone else's house. One of the funny things that has happened to me since I quit self-righteously spouting off against the Radical Right is that some folks have misinterpreted my silence and accused me of agreeing with them. I get a kick out of such thinking. Instead of getting insecure and attempting to rebut those accusations, I try to re-channel my energy into doing what Jesus said – into “living [my] own part”. I figure the rest will take care of itself. Today, I would encourage you to embrace Jesus’ call to live your own part and stop trying to manage other people’s parts. Til next time…
I spent much of the 1980’s and 1990’s getting incredibly worked up about the presence of the Religious Right. I took a great deal of pleasure back then in pointing out the rampant hypocrisy and shortcomings of many of their leaders (i.e. Jimmy Swaggart & the Bakers). You could certainly always count on me to let loose in tirades directed against Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson and James Dobson. Then a dramatic change occurred in me around the start of the 21st Century, and I quit opening my mouth against these folks. What happened? Well, I started opening my eyes and paying attention to folks' on the other end of the political and theological spectrum. I started to notice friends who railed about the evils of corporate pollution, for instance, fail to practice recycling in their own homes. I watched as colleagues criticized the government workforce for not being diverse enough – and yet they were totally oblivious to the fact that they had no friends of color in their own personal lives. I sat back and watched as folks spouted off about the importance of immigration reform - and then went out and hired illegal aliens to work in their own homes and small businesses. In other words, I learned that neither the Right nor the Left had a monopoly on things like hypocrisy and self-righteousness. All of this is to say that it took me a while to really understand what Jesus meant when he said, “It’s easy to see a smudge on your neighbor’s face and be oblivious to the ugly sneer on your own. Do you have the nerve to say, ‘Let me wash your face for you,’ when your own face is distorted by contempt? It’s this I-know-better-than-you mentality again, playing a holier-than-thou part instead of just living your own part” (Luke 6:41-42 – The Message). The longer I sat with Jesus’ words, the more I realized that anyone who professes to follow Jesus should spend the bulk of their time getting their own house in order before they even start thinking about trying to fix someone else's house. One of the funny things that has happened to me since I quit self-righteously spouting off against the Radical Right is that some folks have misinterpreted my silence and accused me of agreeing with them. I get a kick out of such thinking. Instead of getting insecure and attempting to rebut those accusations, I try to re-channel my energy into doing what Jesus said – into “living [my] own part”. I figure the rest will take care of itself. Today, I would encourage you to embrace Jesus’ call to live your own part and stop trying to manage other people’s parts. Til next time…
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