In today's reading from John, Jesus' arrest is drawing near. In the midst of these deteriorating conditions, we hear this, "Nevertheless many, even of the authorities, believed in him. But because of the Pharisees they did not confess it, for fear that they would be put out of the synagogue; for they loved human glory more than the glory that comes from God."
Pharisees tossing folks out of the synagogue was not really an issue during the lifetime of Jesus, but it was a very pressing issue at the time John's gospel is written. After Jerusalem and the Temple were destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE, Priestly Judaism basically disappeared. In the struggle to control Judaism that ensued, the followers of Jesus (who considered themselves Jews) found themselves in competition with the Pharisees. The Pharisees (forerunners of modern rabbinical Judaism) were the much larger group, and in the manner typical of internal religious disputes, they insisted the Jesus followers drop their messianic claims for Jesus or risk expulsion. Apparently many Christians decided to keep their faith private so they would not be kicked out. And John's gospel is written, in part, to address these Christians and call them to bold, public faith.
Fast forward to our day, and I'm not in any danger from Pharisees for being too public about my faith. Nevertheless, there are other sorts of pressures that encourage me not to be too obvious about following Jesus. I suspect that many pastors feel a significant amount of pressure not to emphasize teachings of Jesus that make people uncomfortable or that challenge the prevailing cultural norms. And we've somehow managed to make following Jesus fully compatible with acquiring wealth and possessions no matter the cost to the environment or to those who labor under horrible conditions to produce our inexpensive food and clothes.
As a pastor, I'm as captive as the next person to our culture of success and consumerism. We pastors almost always receive "calls" to bigger churches with larger salaries. And our salaries are often the biggest single items in our church's budgets, budgets that often struggle to dedicate significant percentages of our monies to mission.
Many have noted that serving as a pastor is a difficult job that enjoys little of the status it once did. And certainly it does not pay at the same levels of many other similarly educated professionals. Yet despite these real difficulties, it strikes me that I want to serve as a pastor without it being really costly, without it including a cross. And it is very easy to hear John's gospel speaking of me when it says, "for they loved human glory more than the glory that comes from God."
If you happen to be a member of my congregation, don't worry that something dramatic is going to happen on Sunday. To be honest, I'm not at all sure how to address this captivity of Church and pastors to the prevailing culture, this fear we have of faithfully articulating what Jesus says and, even more, actually doing what he says. But we surely need to have some serious conversations in our congregations about what it actually means to be a follower of Jesus.
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