December 8, 2005 Mt 23:13-26
December 8, 2005 Matthew 23:13-26
Click here for today’s podcast!
Matthew 23:25-26 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup, so that the outside also may become clean.”
Have you seen the commercial for Clorox products used to clean a classroom of germs? The children ask questions like, ‘What is an immune system? What is e-coli?’ And then there’s the little boy who has his hands covered in mud and is making muddy hand prints on the side of a white wall and says ‘I’m never going to wash my hands!’ The camera pans over to the teacher who wipes the computer down with Clorox wipes.
How about our own children? When they’re babies we bathe them sometimes several times a day. Close your eyes and you can remember the sweet smell of a freshly bathed infant. Then, they grow to preschool age and then into teenagers and a bath or shower is a wrestling match. Bubble baths don’t work, threats sometimes work and then, when teenagers discover the opposite sex, that works. Being clean is important for us as Christians, especially, on Sunday morning.
How do you react to a person who looks like they haven’t taken a bath in months? Their clothes are shabby, torn and dirty. Do you want this person sitting next to you in the pew during worship? Would Jesus call you a blind hypocrite? That’s what Jesus called the scribes and Pharisees – the elders and leaders of the church.
Just because we are wearing our Sunday finest are we all really Christians? Jesus would say NO. Are all dirty people non-Christians? Jesus would again say NO. During the Advent season we are supposed to prepare ourselves for the birth of the Messiah. Just don’t wash your face, remember behind your ears and your neck.
I remember working in an office and on Friday when people were leaving they’d put their coffee mug in the sink. Some of the cups would sit for days. You’d look inside it and there would be hairy mold growing inside the cup. But to look at the outside you might think it was a clean mug; but that was a false impression. In this time of preparation for coming of our Lord Jesus; take the time to ponder the inside of your heart! Is it clean and shiny? Not really, we all have our small cobwebs, but we try our best to clean it daily. Or like the scribes and Pharisees is your heart mildewed with dark hairy things growing in it? Ask God to point out to you the places of your soul that needs a good scrubbing. Prepare – the time is at hand!
O God, forgive us for trying to shine on the outside and hide the dirt and sludge that is on the inside our souls. Thinking that if the world can only see our outward appearance we wouldn’t have to clean what we have hidden behind closed doors. This we ask in the name of our Lord and Savor, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Contributed by Rachel O’Dowd
Click here for today’s podcast!
Matthew 23:25-26 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup, so that the outside also may become clean.”
Have you seen the commercial for Clorox products used to clean a classroom of germs? The children ask questions like, ‘What is an immune system? What is e-coli?’ And then there’s the little boy who has his hands covered in mud and is making muddy hand prints on the side of a white wall and says ‘I’m never going to wash my hands!’ The camera pans over to the teacher who wipes the computer down with Clorox wipes.
How about our own children? When they’re babies we bathe them sometimes several times a day. Close your eyes and you can remember the sweet smell of a freshly bathed infant. Then, they grow to preschool age and then into teenagers and a bath or shower is a wrestling match. Bubble baths don’t work, threats sometimes work and then, when teenagers discover the opposite sex, that works. Being clean is important for us as Christians, especially, on Sunday morning.
How do you react to a person who looks like they haven’t taken a bath in months? Their clothes are shabby, torn and dirty. Do you want this person sitting next to you in the pew during worship? Would Jesus call you a blind hypocrite? That’s what Jesus called the scribes and Pharisees – the elders and leaders of the church.
Just because we are wearing our Sunday finest are we all really Christians? Jesus would say NO. Are all dirty people non-Christians? Jesus would again say NO. During the Advent season we are supposed to prepare ourselves for the birth of the Messiah. Just don’t wash your face, remember behind your ears and your neck.
I remember working in an office and on Friday when people were leaving they’d put their coffee mug in the sink. Some of the cups would sit for days. You’d look inside it and there would be hairy mold growing inside the cup. But to look at the outside you might think it was a clean mug; but that was a false impression. In this time of preparation for coming of our Lord Jesus; take the time to ponder the inside of your heart! Is it clean and shiny? Not really, we all have our small cobwebs, but we try our best to clean it daily. Or like the scribes and Pharisees is your heart mildewed with dark hairy things growing in it? Ask God to point out to you the places of your soul that needs a good scrubbing. Prepare – the time is at hand!
O God, forgive us for trying to shine on the outside and hide the dirt and sludge that is on the inside our souls. Thinking that if the world can only see our outward appearance we wouldn’t have to clean what we have hidden behind closed doors. This we ask in the name of our Lord and Savor, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Contributed by Rachel O’Dowd
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