Meditations on Lent - #31
The Gospel lesson suggested for this day of Lent is John 7:40-53
It has been my experience that most of us want to be moral people. Sometimes, however, our ego strength is so weak – our sense of self-worth is so low – that we find ourselves compromising our core values to prove that we are worthwhile. There is no more poignant example of this than the fact that even in the Nazi death camps a licensed physician signed all the death certificates. Robert J. Lifton in his book The Nazi Doctors gives this example of the attempt of the Nazi regime to legitimize their cruel, immoral behavior. The doctors justified their behavior by making the state the physician and comparing the killing many people to amputating limbs to keep a person alive. As horrible as this was it does show the attempt by the regime and the physicians to convince themselves that they could be moral. We may like to think that we could never do something so horrible but a careful study of history reveals that every immoral activity, no matter how horrendous, began with small compromises to our values. We compromise because we are frightened, because we feel like we need approval from a certain group of people, or we need to prove our worth by getting a promotion or impressing someone. We may also convince ourselves that all people are cruel and we need to protect ourselves by hurting others before they hurt us.
In today’s Gospel lesson John recounts, a story of the guards coming back to the Temple and being confronted by the Chief Priests and Pharisees about not arresting Jesus. They reply that they have never heard a prophet speak this way. The Chief Priests and Pharisees then ask, “Has he deceived you too?”
Most of us desperately want to be moral people. Yet, we do not want our comfortable little haven disturbed. We convince ourselves that black people get arrested more because they break the law more. We convince ourselves that we as a country represent good and, often, even the will of God, while the South and Central American Countries are corrupt and poor managers. We discard our history of actions based on our self-interests because we do not have the self-esteem to face our own history. We label those fleeing violence and extreme poverty criminals, lazy people, or drug dealers to justify our cruel behavior. We need to hold on to our self-image as righteous, good people who mostly obey the God of our understanding. We ignore the prophets of today so that we do not have to be the one standing up for the shooting of an unarmed black man or the one confronting the politician getting wealthy by supporting a vested interest. We cheat a little on our taxes, do not stand up for the one being bullied, and do not tell our companions that a racist, sexist or homophobic joke is offensive. We tell ourselves that what women wear causes them to be raped; that selling weapons for profit to many different groups or countries or taking a large salary – more than we need – is moral even though the clerk or the janitor is not making a living wage.
We want to know that we are important; that we are worthwhile; that somehow others that we hurt cause us to be hurtful.
In this season of Lent we – as individuals and as religious organizations - are confronted with the challenge to accept Grace; to accept that we are worthwhile; that we do not have to have titles, money, positions, popularity, a large house or the approval of a clearly immoral/spiritually challenged political group. We are enough. We can hold fast to those core values which says all are sacred; all are equally worthwhile; all are the least of them; all are the called to love and be loved. This leap of faith will give us the faith and the clarity to stand up – not self-righteously but with love and humility. We do not need the guards to arrest him/her.
Written April 6, 2019
Jimmy F Pickett
coachpickett.org
The Gospel lesson suggested for this day of Lent is John 7:40-53
It has been my experience that most of us want to be moral people. Sometimes, however, our ego strength is so weak – our sense of self-worth is so low – that we find ourselves compromising our core values to prove that we are worthwhile. There is no more poignant example of this than the fact that even in the Nazi death camps a licensed physician signed all the death certificates. Robert J. Lifton in his book The Nazi Doctors gives this example of the attempt of the Nazi regime to legitimize their cruel, immoral behavior. The doctors justified their behavior by making the state the physician and comparing the killing many people to amputating limbs to keep a person alive. As horrible as this was it does show the attempt by the regime and the physicians to convince themselves that they could be moral. We may like to think that we could never do something so horrible but a careful study of history reveals that every immoral activity, no matter how horrendous, began with small compromises to our values. We compromise because we are frightened, because we feel like we need approval from a certain group of people, or we need to prove our worth by getting a promotion or impressing someone. We may also convince ourselves that all people are cruel and we need to protect ourselves by hurting others before they hurt us.
In today’s Gospel lesson John recounts, a story of the guards coming back to the Temple and being confronted by the Chief Priests and Pharisees about not arresting Jesus. They reply that they have never heard a prophet speak this way. The Chief Priests and Pharisees then ask, “Has he deceived you too?”
Most of us desperately want to be moral people. Yet, we do not want our comfortable little haven disturbed. We convince ourselves that black people get arrested more because they break the law more. We convince ourselves that we as a country represent good and, often, even the will of God, while the South and Central American Countries are corrupt and poor managers. We discard our history of actions based on our self-interests because we do not have the self-esteem to face our own history. We label those fleeing violence and extreme poverty criminals, lazy people, or drug dealers to justify our cruel behavior. We need to hold on to our self-image as righteous, good people who mostly obey the God of our understanding. We ignore the prophets of today so that we do not have to be the one standing up for the shooting of an unarmed black man or the one confronting the politician getting wealthy by supporting a vested interest. We cheat a little on our taxes, do not stand up for the one being bullied, and do not tell our companions that a racist, sexist or homophobic joke is offensive. We tell ourselves that what women wear causes them to be raped; that selling weapons for profit to many different groups or countries or taking a large salary – more than we need – is moral even though the clerk or the janitor is not making a living wage.
We want to know that we are important; that we are worthwhile; that somehow others that we hurt cause us to be hurtful.
In this season of Lent we – as individuals and as religious organizations - are confronted with the challenge to accept Grace; to accept that we are worthwhile; that we do not have to have titles, money, positions, popularity, a large house or the approval of a clearly immoral/spiritually challenged political group. We are enough. We can hold fast to those core values which says all are sacred; all are equally worthwhile; all are the least of them; all are the called to love and be loved. This leap of faith will give us the faith and the clarity to stand up – not self-righteously but with love and humility. We do not need the guards to arrest him/her.
Written April 6, 2019
Jimmy F Pickett
coachpickett.org
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