SolLuna, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Clean the Cup

12/9
Matthew 23:13-26

“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."

Rituals follow meaning.

Religion follows a search for meaning.

Regulations are servants of both.

Teachers of the law, the prophets, the writings, and of our rituals and religious traditions are also servants of the greater meaning. They are called to be ministers of ultimate concern and messengers of God.

God's spokespeople were never appointed to lock people out of the Kingdom of God or destroy their lives and potential. And yet, it happens today and happened in Jesus' time.

We can play games with language and law and get around the truth to which they direct us. We can, but we should not.

We can pick out some peripheral matter of disputation or element of our scripture and make an idol of it. When we do so, we are often in danger of neglecting the weightier matters.

Yes, Jesus does weigh in to say some things are weightier than others. And he identifies them:

Justice!
Mercy!
Faith!

Without these our cups are shiny on the outside and filthy on the inside.

Justice, mercy, and faith are inside jobs. They cleanse and transform us from the inside, inside our hearts and lives and inside our communities.

Jesus does not come to obliterate our rituals and religion. He wants to bring it back to center, anchored in its meaning, and focused on its truth.

Advent is a perfect season for remembering and reexamining the core values of our faith and recommitting to them.