Look at ourselves first
In 1884 a young man died, and after the funeral his grieving parents decided to establish a memorial to him. With that in mind they met with Charles Eliot, the president of Harvard University. Eliot received the unpretentious couple into his office and asked what he could do. After they expressed their desire to fund a memorial, Eliot said, "Perhaps you have in mind a scholarship."
"We were thinking of something more substantial than that...perhaps a building," the woman replied. In a patronizing tone, Eliot brushed aside the idea as being too expensive and the couple departed. The next year, Eliot learned that this couple had gone elsewhere and established a $26 million memorial known today as Stanford University – one of the great rivals to Harvard…
Judging others is not an easy thing to do – we all know the saying ‘never judge a book by its cover’ but sometimes we do anyway ! But this evening’s gospel reading (Matthew 7) offers some fairly basic advice about judging others – don’t !
Instead that gospel passage urges us to look at ourselves first – but not in a self centred way, but in a way that challenges us to look at how we look to others and behave with others. Within that passage there are some really well known verses – ‘why do you see the speck in your neighbour’s eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye ?’ and ‘Ask, and it will be given to you; search and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you…’ and then at the end of the chapter the lesson about the wise man building his house upon the rock and the foolish man building his upon the sand….
In each of these stories Jesus is asking his listeners to look at themselves before trying to judge others…
And that is a lesson that the Church today could do well to listen to ! And perhaps even society as a whole ! Too often headlines seem to be made about the Church not about being successful, not about any positive actions being done or good news, life changing stories being told – too often the headlines are about decline and about arguments…
In the last week or so the issue of Women Bishops in the Church of England has made a lot of news – and this is an issue which will continue to divide people, but division within the Church must never be bitter, but constructive and involving debate – as Jesus spoke about judging he asked his listeners to exercise humility – to leave final judgement to him, and to work together, knowing that we are all children of God, loved equally by him….
And in the wider world history has shown that dogmatic ideologies are the things that have caused most trouble, when humility is actually a quality that could have literally saved lives….
It’s no great surprise I don’t think that all 3 of the things Jesus talks about in this reading have made good children’s songs and stories – there are songs about taking the log out of your own eye before seeing the speck that is in your brothers, and about asking, seeking and knocking the door, and of course about the wise man building his house upon the rock – and it is no surprise because children’s stories and songs very often get right to the heart of our faith and perhaps speak even more clearly to us as adults than most other passages and stories and songs…
The humility to recognise that people are different but all are children of God is an essential quality as we seek not to be judges but brothers and sisters in God’s kingdom…
Jesus says to be concerned about our own behaviour, not about that of other people – but, like much of God’s work, it’s not easy ! But Jesus also offers us some advice about that – after speaking about not judging people he then offers us the comfort of prayer – he suggests that in all things we turn to him – ask, search, knock – in other words just approach him and, as any loving parent would do, he will provide all we need…
Recently we went up to a party in Merthyr Tydfil (it was in a Church – we lead an exciting life !) and we had instructions from a friend how to get there – sadly we got confused ! We asked and that didn’t work too well as we got further away, we searched in the pouring rain which wasn’t much fun, but eventually we knocked on the right Church door and from it we could see the Pizza Hut restaurant we had stopped at for tea ! We were that close !
But what we had done was to over complicate incredibly simple instructions, and that is something that as adults we tend to do – in the gospels Jesus tells us to become like children and so often, this is advice that we could do well to listen to !
Because the wise man (or woman) will build their lives on the firm foundation of Jesus – they will be like the wise man who built his house upon the rock ! And there’s even a valuable lesson in this incredibly simple story because all of us know that we should build on firm foundations, but most of us occasionally get tempted to build on something softer, looking for the easy option or the quick fix.
The Soviet leader Kruschev used to tell of a time when there was a wave of petty theft in the Soviet Union. To curtail this the authorities put up guards around the factories. At one timber works in Leningrad, the guard knew all the workers very well.
The first evening, out came a man called Petrovic with a wheel barrow. One the wheel barrow, there was a great bulky sack with a suspicious looking object inside. The guard approached him and asked what was in the wheel barrow, and Petrovic replied, ‘just sawdust and shavings’… the guard didn’t believe him and asked him to empty the contents but all there was were sawdust and shavings, so Petrovic was allowed to leave with his wheel barrow and the contents.
When the same thing happened each night that week the guard became frustrated and finally his curiosity overcame his frustration – ‘Petrovic’ he said, ‘I know you – tell me what you’re smuggling out of here and I will let you go’. And Petrovic replied, ‘wheelbarrows my friend – I’ve been smuggling out wheelbarrows !’
Sometimes the obvious is right there in front of us but we don’t believe it or can’t see it…
May we never over complicate things in our lives – but look at ourselves and at Jesus, and then at a world all around us full of potential brothers and sisters in Christ who, with all their differences, help to make up God’s wonderful kingdom. AMEN
"We were thinking of something more substantial than that...perhaps a building," the woman replied. In a patronizing tone, Eliot brushed aside the idea as being too expensive and the couple departed. The next year, Eliot learned that this couple had gone elsewhere and established a $26 million memorial known today as Stanford University – one of the great rivals to Harvard…
Judging others is not an easy thing to do – we all know the saying ‘never judge a book by its cover’ but sometimes we do anyway ! But this evening’s gospel reading (Matthew 7) offers some fairly basic advice about judging others – don’t !
Instead that gospel passage urges us to look at ourselves first – but not in a self centred way, but in a way that challenges us to look at how we look to others and behave with others. Within that passage there are some really well known verses – ‘why do you see the speck in your neighbour’s eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye ?’ and ‘Ask, and it will be given to you; search and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you…’ and then at the end of the chapter the lesson about the wise man building his house upon the rock and the foolish man building his upon the sand….
In each of these stories Jesus is asking his listeners to look at themselves before trying to judge others…
And that is a lesson that the Church today could do well to listen to ! And perhaps even society as a whole ! Too often headlines seem to be made about the Church not about being successful, not about any positive actions being done or good news, life changing stories being told – too often the headlines are about decline and about arguments…
In the last week or so the issue of Women Bishops in the Church of England has made a lot of news – and this is an issue which will continue to divide people, but division within the Church must never be bitter, but constructive and involving debate – as Jesus spoke about judging he asked his listeners to exercise humility – to leave final judgement to him, and to work together, knowing that we are all children of God, loved equally by him….
And in the wider world history has shown that dogmatic ideologies are the things that have caused most trouble, when humility is actually a quality that could have literally saved lives….
It’s no great surprise I don’t think that all 3 of the things Jesus talks about in this reading have made good children’s songs and stories – there are songs about taking the log out of your own eye before seeing the speck that is in your brothers, and about asking, seeking and knocking the door, and of course about the wise man building his house upon the rock – and it is no surprise because children’s stories and songs very often get right to the heart of our faith and perhaps speak even more clearly to us as adults than most other passages and stories and songs…
The humility to recognise that people are different but all are children of God is an essential quality as we seek not to be judges but brothers and sisters in God’s kingdom…
Jesus says to be concerned about our own behaviour, not about that of other people – but, like much of God’s work, it’s not easy ! But Jesus also offers us some advice about that – after speaking about not judging people he then offers us the comfort of prayer – he suggests that in all things we turn to him – ask, search, knock – in other words just approach him and, as any loving parent would do, he will provide all we need…
Recently we went up to a party in Merthyr Tydfil (it was in a Church – we lead an exciting life !) and we had instructions from a friend how to get there – sadly we got confused ! We asked and that didn’t work too well as we got further away, we searched in the pouring rain which wasn’t much fun, but eventually we knocked on the right Church door and from it we could see the Pizza Hut restaurant we had stopped at for tea ! We were that close !
But what we had done was to over complicate incredibly simple instructions, and that is something that as adults we tend to do – in the gospels Jesus tells us to become like children and so often, this is advice that we could do well to listen to !
Because the wise man (or woman) will build their lives on the firm foundation of Jesus – they will be like the wise man who built his house upon the rock ! And there’s even a valuable lesson in this incredibly simple story because all of us know that we should build on firm foundations, but most of us occasionally get tempted to build on something softer, looking for the easy option or the quick fix.
The Soviet leader Kruschev used to tell of a time when there was a wave of petty theft in the Soviet Union. To curtail this the authorities put up guards around the factories. At one timber works in Leningrad, the guard knew all the workers very well.
The first evening, out came a man called Petrovic with a wheel barrow. One the wheel barrow, there was a great bulky sack with a suspicious looking object inside. The guard approached him and asked what was in the wheel barrow, and Petrovic replied, ‘just sawdust and shavings’… the guard didn’t believe him and asked him to empty the contents but all there was were sawdust and shavings, so Petrovic was allowed to leave with his wheel barrow and the contents.
When the same thing happened each night that week the guard became frustrated and finally his curiosity overcame his frustration – ‘Petrovic’ he said, ‘I know you – tell me what you’re smuggling out of here and I will let you go’. And Petrovic replied, ‘wheelbarrows my friend – I’ve been smuggling out wheelbarrows !’
Sometimes the obvious is right there in front of us but we don’t believe it or can’t see it…
May we never over complicate things in our lives – but look at ourselves and at Jesus, and then at a world all around us full of potential brothers and sisters in Christ who, with all their differences, help to make up God’s wonderful kingdom. AMEN
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