Do We ever Reach the Top?

Wesley United Methodist Church 23rd day after Pentecost "Do we ever Reach the top" Matthew 23:1-12 October 31, 1999 Halloween was not one of my favorite holidays as a child. I remember that in the firts grade I was told that halloween was the day that all of the monsters and dead people would come alive and come out of the ground. I can reember having visions of Frankenstien, and the werewolf and all types of monsters coming out to scare me on my way home from school. (we knew nothing of freddy kruger at that time). I have always been incredibly sceamish when it comes to monsters. I remember watching a scary movie, and not being able to sleep for a month bec amonst ourselves in our own lives. It happens when we accuse others of being the devil in the midst of our church. Christ was trying to tell us that it is so very easy for any religoin or religious pratice t turn into act of pride and self rightouness. And it is easy to focus on ourselves in the midst of Christian practice. But you know what, that is like cleaing a cup on teh outside, and forgetting about the germs on the inside. Only total faith in christ makes us clean from the inside out. To use a phrase from a governer of Masssachuseet, The devil is here amongst us, and I suspect that she might be here for much longer than the rest of halloween. She will be here as long as we continue to judge one another and accuse another. And to rely upon ourselves and what we do to judge thea ctions of others. Yet Christ is here too. an he will be here much longer and he is much stronger. Call no one your teacher, for Christ is your teacher. And Christ all that Christ asks is that we be true to ourselves. To sometimes be wrong, to be free to admit that we are al sinnners in need of grace. To true always means to be free. Free to live in the love of Christ. ind no thrill in bring scared. Since I have been an adult, I have vowed no “ ³, µ, {u{ 6 P l }  ‘ “ . < ¹ ¬ - 7 – ô à : á ; ˜ v v ¬ v G¬ Ù „! 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I remember watching a scary movie, and not being able to sleep for a month becuase I would think that the monster was in my bed looking at me. I must have been in jr high school or even high school when I saw star wars, my biggest fear in life was that Darth Vader was going to come through the door and get me. I just find no thrill in bring scared. Since I have been an adult, I have vowed not to watch scary movies. I dont take any chances anymore. I guess in our world of rational explanations, we all know that there is no such thing as goblins, and witches and ghost. Last night however, I did watch a very scary movie indeed. I thought that it was an appropriate thing to be shown for a Halloween season. Because it was a story of devils, witches and ghost alive in the community. It was a true story, a story which took place right here in America. It was a story of the salem witch hunts. And I must say that I was afraid after watching it, not because of the eveil spirits in the movie, but because of the fact that it was true. and I could see that the story was true even here for us today. The devil is alive and amongst us, as the pastor of salem told his people. The gospel lesson for today speaks also of that devil, alive and well in his community. Commentaries on this text in Matthew 23, says that this is one of the strongest comdemnations that Jesus gives in all of his teaching. His anger shows very clearly in his words. As the people have gathered to hear his word, Jesus comdemns the religous leaders of the day, the pharisees. Now you have to understand that this was a very bold move. The pharisees were the most respected, most religious, most honored people in his community. Pharisees has inherited a very rich heritage as the keepers of the law. Moses handed the law of God down to Joshua, who handed it to the prophets, who handed it down to the pharisees, or the keepers of the law. These men become the center of jewish society, it was as if they held the keys of the kingdom, given directly to them from God himself. And even though Jesus respects them. He attacks them for being hypocrites. They are not who they appear to be. They make rules for others, yet do not follow those rules for themselves. They make religion a burden and not a joy. Jesus places the evil of these people in thier need to be recognized and appreciated for what they are not doing. the jews themselves have noted that there were six types of oh pharisees. One type was called the God fearing pharisee, that was one who truly loved god and studied God's law out of love and respect. There were others who were the shoulder pharisee, that was one who did good deeds so that he could put a lin on his shoulder so that others could see what type of person hw was, there was the wait a little while pharisee, one who knew what was right, but could always find a rational reason of why he did not have to do htat yet, there was the humpbaked pharisee, the one who considered himself to be so good that he could not afford to look from the ground, less someone would accuse him of doing sometn=hing wrong,, and there was the ever-resckining pharisee, one who did good deeds so that he could argue with god, whenever he was accused of somethingm, he had the proof that he was really a good person. you don't know anyone who does any of those things now do you? I don't know about you, but I guess I could say that I have done all of those things at one time or another. The modern word that we might use for these type of people , would be hypocrite. A hypocrite is someone who is playacting. They are not who they appear to be. The story of the salem witch hunts is a story of hypocrisy that literally destroyed a community. I have heard the story of the salem witch hunts from many different perspectives throughout the years. And every time I hear it I learn something new about the characters of that town. Basically, this took place Massachusetts, in the sevententh or early eighteenth century in a Christian community. The story become important in history, because a group of girls banded together and claimed that they had saw the devil in their community. It got to the point that whenever something seemed to be going on in the community that raised the suspision of people, these girls would accuse someone of woeking with the devil to make it happen. A judge was soon called in to send these people to trial, many were hanged based in the accusations of these girls. For those who have not heard of the story, it is important in history, because the real devil was not a spirit controlling the actions of others. It was this communities need to blame and hold accountable others for their own thoughts and feelings. As many people have looked back on those who were accused, it becomes obvious that there were very serious things going on in the lives of these girls. Things which today, we would probably suggest that the girls get guildance, love and support from someone to help them deal with the difficult issues of death, sickness and being taken advantage of. IT seems interesting that the people that they accused, were all people who in some way were different from the rest of the community. Either they were of another race, from another country, someone who had just moved into the community. And in many cases, those who were killed were those who these girls just didn't like because of something that had been done. The thing that was so scary for me, was that this was all done in the name of christianity. The main accuser in the stpry called herself the hand of God. But it became obvious that she was taking revenge on anyone that she felt hurt her feelings. It is easy too look at a movie and to see the wrong of others. Yet that is going on still today. For we all like to judge. We can all look at our neighbor and see fault. We all play christianity as a game in some way. We look at each other and think that our faith is true while, those who are not like us are really hypocrites and making a pact with the devil. In Matthew, that is why Christ makes such a strong comdenmation. And his comedemantion is not against the pharisees, it is against those who were listening to him. Jesus stood there to accuse his own folloewers. He is accusing those in Salem who felt that they had the hand of God to assess the faith of others. Christ is standing here accusing you and me also. He accusses us because he knows that to judge the action of another is human nature. we have all saw teh devil in the actions of another person. That person who might be a Christian just like us. Christ's word for us, to always remember that we are forever students. Jesus tells the crowd to call no one rabbi. In jwiehs society, a rabbbi is considered to be the teacher, a father of society. Rabbis tended to command a lot of respect becaue they would tell others, that even though your parents are imporatnt becuase they gave you life, a teacher is important becuase he/she gives you eternal life. For Christians, There is never a time in our lives when we know everything there is to know about being a Christian. Jesus tells us there there will never be a time when we will be knowlegable enough to be called teacher. The only place to get eternal life is through Christ. There will never be a time when one of us will be called father, we are all sisters and brothers with a heavenly father. The most imporatant lesson on Christ words for us today is that there is no finger of God among us. There is no one with the total answer, no one who is totally right. Our power as a church, the body of Christ, is in our ability to be a community. To respect one another, the hold one another accountable, to take responsibility for who we are withour needed to find our devils in other people. We get our being out of being a part of the community. We are not set apart from the community, we are not set above the community. We are one with the community. It is the community that makes us one with Christ. Christ tells is that he is our one teacher. And if we are to learn the ways of Christ then we will be truly free. We are free, because we no longer have to carry the burden of being right. We can be true to one another and to ourselves and admit our faults and our blames. We don't have to use the church as a place to play act, but as a place to come in a time of need. As a watched the salem witch trials, there was a scene where one of the men was asked to tell a lie and say that he had indeed made a pact with the devil. He was to sign a statement that would be tacked to the church walls for all so see. He signed the pact, yet he took it back. They tried him to convince him to do the right thing. They knew that it was a lie, yet they wanted him to live, so that he could take care of his family. He told him that the statement had his name on it, and that he had to be true t his name. So he tore it up. He and many other innocent people were killed by a good Christian community for standing by his faith. He was killed by saying the Lord's prayer. You know sitting here in church it is wasy to judge the wrong in this story. Yet we ignore the fact that it is happening today, C o m p O b j