Last week’s gospel ended with Jesus saying
not to judge,
so
we that won’t be judged.
This week the end of the Sermon on the
Plain
gives
us that pointed comparison
between
ignoring a log in our own eye
and
worrying over the tiny splinters in someone else’s eye.
Jesus’ meaning is clear: don’t judge!
But that does not mean we look the other
way when we see
injustice,
dishonesty, violence, hate, discrimination…
any
of the many evils that beset our world today.
We have to judge when something is wrong.
That’s how we learn to be good—by looking
at
our
own thoughts and our own words and our own actions
and
judging whether they are good or bad.
_______________________________________
I think I was in third grade
when
I stole a candy bar from Mr. Fligor’s grocery store.
I didn’t get caught.
I ate the Butterfinger.
And then I stewed about what I had done.
Thou shalt not steal.
I was sure I’d die that night and go
straight to hell.
The next morning I ran into the store,
plopped
my nickel on the counter, and ran out.
It was the last time I ever took anything
that wasn’t mine.
I had looked at my actions and judged
myself to be wrong.
I had, in grown-up language, discerned
that
I should not have stolen that candy bar, or anything else,
and
that I would pay for it and not do it ever again.
Over the years people have suggested
that
I didn’t need to tell the IRS
about
the free-lance income I get from writing and editing,
or
a stipend from presiding at a wedding,
or
a payment for jury duty, or for working at the polls.
But I report every bit of it.
The Butterfinger lesson taught me
that
we have to judge our own actions.
_______________________________________
We also have to judge the actions of other
people.
If we see someone do something we know is
wrong,
we
can’t ignore it.
I was working as a pastoral associate in a Michigan
parish
when
I heard the pastor yelling obscenities,
went
over to the office,
and
saw him throw a full box of envelopes at the secretary.
I had observed, in my time on his staff,
his
habit of temper tantrums and violent anger
at
both parishioners and staff.
I judged his actions, and I phoned the
diocese of Detroit
to
let them know that he needed help.
_______________________________________
There’s a big difference, though,
between
making judgments and being judgmental.
A judgmental person rushes to judgment
without reason,
forms
opinions about other people that condemn or disparage.
That “judgment without reason”
is
what Jesus saw in the religious leaders
who
looked down on the poor and the oppressed.
It’s judgmentalism that we see in racism,
nationalism,
misogyny,
homophobia, and classism.
It’s judgmentalism we hear when our
government officials
call
refugees and asylum seekers “criminals and terrorists.”
It’s judgmentalism that we have seen
when
our church’s hierarchy made accusations
against
victims who reported clergy sex abuse.
Those are the kinds of behavior
that
prompted Jesus to call judgmental people “hypocrites.”
_______________________________________
After we have taken the logs of
judgmentalism out of our own eyes,
after
we begin to see clearly enough
the
splinters in the eyes of others, what do we do?
Over the years too many people have just
turned to prayer,
giving
up the possibility of doing something
about
the evil they see.
They don’t want to make waves,
don’t
want to cause trouble for themselves.
We can’t do that.
Of course, we have to pray,
but
it’s prayer for right judgment and for discernment.
It’s also a prayer for courage and
strength,
as
Luke put it today,
to
speak out from the store of goodness in our hearts.
We have to keep on judging what’s right and
what’s not,
and
when we judge that it’s not right,
we
have to engage in the work for justice.
Just like Jesus said, and just like he did.
He showed us the way, and our job is to
follow.
Amen!
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