Some things never change. It appears that lawyers in Jesus’ day weren’t
any better than lawyers today! At least
in our gospel reading Jesus has nothing good to say to those who were gathered
at the Pharisee’s house for a meal.
It is tempting to imagine these
lawyers being like the personal injury lawyers we have today who advertise with
all their catchy ads and jingles. It’s
then easy to point a finger at them all.
But I remember being taught not to
point; especially because if you point one finger forward there are three
pointing back at me!
Unfortunately we cannot mock the
Pharisee and lawyers who were eating with Jesus that day and call them villains
and corrupt. For I suspect the dynamics
of our lives and their lives overlap.
Jesus tells both the Pharisees and the
lawyers that they are being deceptive – appearing good and clean and upright on
the surface, but hiding ugliness inside.
I think we can all understand that intelligent well educated people can
often find ways that appear moral, and are technically legal, to benefit at the
expense of others.
I think all of us want to think of
ourselves as good people who make good, moral, honorable choices. That’s good!
But like the Pharisees and lawyers, we live in systems that allow us to
think we are good and moral and honorable, when in reality a lot of the
consequences of our actions are unseen by us.
We’ve talked about this before and I
want to show you a video my teaching group used in confirmation camp last
year. It’s called the Story of
Electronics. While it’s made for kids,
and if I put my engineering thinking cap on I find it so fundamentally flawed
it makes my skin crawl, I still think it gets at a correct point.
I think this
video does a good job of reminding us that we think about only what we see – a product
in a store, a use by us for a limited time, and then what we consider to be
responsible disposal. We blind and
insulate ourselves from many truths.
This summer my
son Ben and I worked on his cycling merit badge for Boy Scouts. It requires at least 150 miles of
biking. And on those bike rides I was
reminded of a number of things I often take for granted. When driving in car I think nothing of coming
up on a hill. I just push the
accelerator down more, or the cruise control does it for me. That same hill takes on a very different
perspective when it’s your own body’s energy that’s got to get you to the top.
How much of our
transportation do we really achieve by our bodies’ own physical strength? Do we really have any idea whatsoever how
much energy our lives really consume?
One of our bike
rides was from Canandaigua to Geneva on Routes 5 & 20. Riding past the county landfill reminds you
of the incredible cubic yardage of waste we generate.
What is my life pattern? I go to a store. I buy something. I use it.
And when I’m done with it I put it in a garbage can. Every Sunday night I put the garbage can by
the curb outside my house. And every
Monday after work I come home and find the garbage can empty – it’s almost
miraculous. I’m totally insulated from
the before and after effects of my consumption.
And of course riding by the county
landfill on a bike means the smell is much more intense and lingers longer!
Few people think about what it takes
to get things to us and from us. Hot and
cold water just appear from a tap. Waste
water disappears down the drain. Only when
you have plumbing problems do you think about where it comes from and where it
goes. And only those with wells and
septic systems ever think about the water treatment facility that prepped the
water in the first place and sewage treatment plant at the end of the drain.
I suppose electricity is equally
magical. It just comes from the outlets
in our buildings and is controlled by switches in the walls.
My point in all of this is that we
have every bit as much opportunity to think we are good people – when we really
aren’t – as the Pharisees and lawyers around the table with Jesus that day.
What should we do? Escape from the world and live in an
off-the-grid self-supporting commune?
Hardly! It wouldn’t work, and running away from the
world’s problems doesn’t actually solve anything.
I think we do well to actually pay
attention to things. Think about where
the water comes from and where it goes.
Realize that products in stores have a past and a future. Realize that someone somewhere that you’ll
probably never meet made the clothes you are wearing right now. At the risk of being too vivid, someone made
the underwear that is touching you intimately yet you have no idea who it is!
Being aware of this stuff I think is
an important first step. Our culture
does an excellent job of keeping us blind about things that could make us feel
bad. That awareness alone will keep our
habits more in line with what God wants from us.
Before you buy something pray about
it. Before you throw something away,
pray about it. Thank God every time you
turn on the faucet and every time you flip a light switch. Realize how much of a bigger pattern your
decisions are. You will be living in more
complete enlightenment.
Jesus said, “Therefore consider whether
the light in you is not darkness. If
then your whole body is full of light, with no part of it in darkness, it will
be as full of light as when a lamp gives you light with its rays.”
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