Jesus said: "But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you lock people out of the kingdom of heaven. For you do not go in yourselves, and when others are going in, you stop them. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cross sea and land to make a single convert, and you make the new convert twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.
"Woe to you, blind guides, who say, 'Whoever swears by the sanctuary is bound by nothing, but whoever swears by the gold of the sanctuary is bound by the oath.' You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold or the sanctuary that has made the gold sacred? And you say, 'Whoever swears by the altar is bound by nothing, but whoever swears by the gift that is on the altar is bound by the oath.' How blind you are! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred? So whoever swears by the altar, swears by it and by everything on it; and whoever swears by the sanctuary, swears by it and by the one who dwells in it; and whoever swears by heaven, swears by the throne of God and by the one who is seated upon it.
"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill, and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. It is these you ought to have practiced without neglecting the others. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel!
"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup, so that the outside also may become clean.
If we were ever to read a part of the Gospel that shatters the "kind and gentle Jesus" we learned about in Sunday School, this would be it. Here, Jesus is down right angry. Jesus does not mince words and tells the scribes and Pharisees exactly what he sees and calls it by name. The question for us is who or what do we hear being spoken to in this Gospel reading?
There is plenty of room to see Jesus speaking to the religious right here. It is quite simple to think of people preaching Biblical literalism as a way to keep others out of the reign of God if those they preach against do not become what they think they should become. For lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people unless we are willing to "change" our sexual orientation and/or gender identity/expression which is something that really cannot be changed, then religious right preachers tell us we are going to hell. Yet, in their thirst for power they tell absolute lies about LGBT people and those who support us. Just last week Tony Perkins told a whole bunch of mean lies about LGBT people in his testimony against Elena Kagan. The long list of untruths about LGBT people were brought by the missionaries of hate to Uganda. Over this past weekend we heard the terrible news that an LGBT activist associated with Bishop Christopher Senyonjo was brutally murdered.
What Jesus is doing here in his outburst to the Pharisees and scribes is calling them out for having placed rules and rubrics above people and the genuine worship of God, by God's people. The Pharisees have been indulging in their own glorification at the expanse of caring for the marginalized of society. The Church of our time can take a real lesson from this. In recent weeks and months we have seen the Roman Catholic church seeking to protect clericalism at the expense of those who have been injured by years of sexually violent abuse. We are seeing that the abuse is not just limited to one particular Diocese or Country, but in fact it is world wide spread. Those who believe in protecting the institution over the mission of the Gospel to be a church of hospitality and radical reconciliation, are willing to sanctify that history all too quickly, while those who have been abused are lied to and about are left wounded, with gay people being blamed for the church's unwillingness to face the reality of what is going on within and among their clergy.
Jesus is calling on all of us to recognize what Paul wrote to the Romans in today's Daily Office.
What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else? Who will bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written,
"For your sake we are being killed all day long;
we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered."
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
If all of us will learn to cling to love as our litmus test of what is or is not of God, then I do believe that there would be no justification for violence, prejudice and cruelty toward any group of people for any reason. If we all could learn to accept one another despite how different we all are, and realize that we have all been put here to love God, our neighbor and ourselves, there would be no reason to pass a law to "allow" marriage equality because we would respect the different ways that God has created different people to love.
Today, God calls us to embrace the outcast. God calls on us to love the unlovable. God invites us to know that God is deeply and madly in love with each one of us, and wants us to share that love with as many people as we possibly can. God does not call us to give from that which we do not have. Someone who is gay cannot love in quite the same way as someone who is straight can, because their ability to love other people comes from their sexual orientation. While it is true that not all love is genital love, but how we love other people in our own unique way does come from how God has gifted us within our sexual orientation. When people within the religious right seek to create laws and justify brutality because they reject different sexual orientations, they are carrying out terrible religious and spiritual violence. Every Christian has every business speaking up about how brutally wrong that is.
How is God calling us to live out God's love today? How are we responding to God's call?
O God, you have taught us to keep all your commandments by loving you and our neighbor: Grant us the grace of your Holy Spirit, that we may be devoted to your with our whole heart, and united to one another with pure affection; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Proper 9, Book of Common Prayer, Page 230-231).
O God, you made us in your own image and redeemed us through Jesus your Son: Look with compassion on the whole human family; take away the arrogance and hatred which infect our hearts; break down the walls that separate us; unite us in bonds of love; and work through our struggle and confusion to accomplish your purposes on earth; that, in your good time, all nations and races may serve you in harmony around your heavenly throne; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (Prayer for the Human Family, Book of Common Prayer, Page 815).
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