Banqueting on God

Matthew 23:1-7, 11-12

Now Jesus turned to address his disciples, along with the crowd that had gathered with them. “The religion scholars and Pharisees are competent teachers in God’s Law. You won’t go wrong in following their teachings on Moses. But be careful about following them. They talk a good line, but they don’t live it. They don’t take it into their hearts and live it out in their behavior. It’s all spit-and-polish veneer.

“Instead of giving you God’s Law as food and drink by which you can banquet on God, they package it in bundles of rules, loading you down like pack animals. They seem to take pleasure in watching you stagger under these loads, and wouldn’t think of lifting a finger to help. Their lives are perpetual fashion shows, embroidered prayer shawls one day and flowery prayers the next. They love to sit at the head table at church dinners, basking in the most prominent positions, preening in the radiance of public flattery, receiving honorary degrees, and getting called ‘Doctor’ and ‘Reverend.’

“Do you want to stand out? Then step down. Be a servant. If you puff yourself up, you’ll get the wind knocked out of you. But if you’re content to simply be yourself, your life will count for plenty.

This scripture is famously known for its idiom, “Practice what you preach.” I want to go in another direction and focus on the “spit-and-polish veneer” which is another way of saying these phonies are “all hat and no cattle!” As I have written before, Lent is this set-apart time in which we’re called to self-correct, repent, and try to align our inward soul-work with our outward behavior. It seems there is no honesty, humility and self-reflection in a spit-and-polish veneer.

Jesus goes on to say that once we’ve gotten over ourselves, we’re meant to lighten the burdens of others. He calls out the hypocrites—the religious authorities—for loading the Israelites down like pack mules with the weight of the law. They take pleasure in their people’s misery and don’t lift a finger to help. Jesus says they should be banqueting on God. That image! Banqueting on God is extraordinary!

This recalled a poem for me entitled, What is success? by Ralph Waldo Emerson. Long before I was called to the ministry, I had it taped to my dressing room mirror. The sentiment I would strive to live my life by was this: “to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.” This is exactly what the religious scholars and Pharisees care not to do. They are making life worse for their own people. It seems even for their own amusement.

This is sinful. We must not perpetuate this in our lives. Our own government is doing it. I keep reading about the continued cruelty and mistreatment of undocumented immigrants. Heart-rending stuff. It doesn’t seem to end. And now war.

Please my friends, let’s keep this in mind; to take on the mantle of taking care of, advocating for, providing for, praying for lives that can breathe easier because we live! It’s not impossible. It’s what God calls each of us to do—to banquet on our Lord.

Amen.

prayer

O God,
Let me not be afraid.
Let me not be afraid
to defend the sojourner and the stranger
because of the hate of the powerful;
Nor afraid to defend the poor and persecuted
because of the greed of the rich.
Let me not be afraid
to speak for the sidelined and the silenced
because of voices of fear;
Nor be afraid to follow Love
into places where love is seldom found.
Let courage rise in me like a dawn of hope
Breaking over the long night.
Let me not be afraid.
Amen.
—The Rt. Rev. Deon K. Johnson, Bishop of Missouri

Daily Lenten meditations each have a companion morning prayer video offered by the same clergy.  View the YouTube playlist to find this meditation’s companion video, or to watch others.