Musings on the Daily Lectionary

In today's gospel reading, Jesus tells anyone who will listen, "Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and to have the best seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets." The term "scribes" may sound something like a stenographer to us, but scribes were a highly educated, professional class of teachers and interpreters of the law. And so I suspect that Jesus' warning about such folks might well fit any sort of religious professionals. Thus it might also apply to those religious institutions that such religious professionals manage.

As a pastor, I have on occasion heard a conversation about the appropriate car for a pastor to drive. What general rule I can glean is that such vehicles shouldn't be overly ostentatious, but they should they should be befitting a respected professional. I can remember a time not so long ago when I thought of Lincoln Town Cars as a pastor's car. I recall this as I wonder about Jesus' apparent disdain for religious professionals.

I am convinced that there is no such thing as pure, unadulterated spirituality or faith. The practice of such things by necessity takes on forms that must be managed in some way. I believe that any spirituality that does not build community is a false one, and with community inevitably comes some sort of organization or institution. And therefore, "organized religion" (though in my experience it often seems hopelessly disorganized) is a necessity.

Yet there is no denying a tendency for such religious institutions to become self serving and to lose sight of their fundamental purposes. For the Church, this means there is always a tension between our following the commands of Jesus and our being corrupted as the Church becomes a vehicle for getting what we want. Even in the very best Church (or any other sort of religious enterprise) there is always a mix of good and bad, of God's work being done alongside greed, lust for power, and outright hypocrisy. There is no pure church, just as there is no pure synagogue, mosque, government, movement, cause, etc.

My theological tradition has long held that this situation requires regular change and reformation. Churches must be remade and refocused on their fundamental purposes. And I increasingly believe that a time of reformation is upon the Church, a time when we must carefully examine ourselves. It is a time when we must work to cast off all that makes us like those Jesus warns people about, and it is a time when we must hear anew the call to be faithful disciples who join together to be the body of Christ in and for the world.

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