Date:
February 28, 2010, Second Sunday in Lent
Author: The Rev. Dr. James D. Kegel
GRACE TO YOU AND PEACE FROM GOD OUR FATHER AND THE LORD AND SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST, AMEN.
“I just wanna be a sheep, baa, baa, baa; I just wanna be a sheep baa, baa, baa
I pray the Lord my soul to keep; I just wanna be a sheep baa, baa, baa.”
The group of college students from Lutherwood is singing this song with our own children, a rousing song. The first stanza talks about hypocrites and who would want to be someone “not hip with it.” The third stanza talks about Sadduccees and who would want to be someone who is “so sad, ya see.” The second stanza deal with Pharisees and here is where I have my problem. The children and young people sing out loudly, “I don’t wanna be a Pharisee, I don’t wanna be a Pharisee, ‘Cause their not fair, ya see? I don’t wanna be a Phairsee, I just wanna be a sheep baa, baa, baa.” I think people are unfair to the Pharisees, you see. They are people trying to live out their faith in daily life, to love God with their heart and soul and mind and strength, even if sometimes they have a little trouble loving their neighbors as themselves.
At the time of Jesus, the Jewish people were made up of different parties with radically different positions. The Sadducees were the Temple party. They were the elite. They accepted the Torah but not the prophets and writings and their faith centered on the sacrificial system. The Sadducees did not believe in life after death but adhered to a Deuteronomic theology that believed good was rewarded in this life and evil punished. I suppose as the rich and powerful, they were living their reward in the here and now. Some were Hellenists who had made peace with the wider civilization; others were in an uneasy peace with the Roman occupiers. With the abolition of the monarchy, the high priests assumed religious rule. When Jesus upbraided the rich who oppressed the people of the land, it was against the Sadduccees that he preached. Jesus was not alone in condemning those who oppressed the poor. There are secular records which detail the heavy burdens which the high priests laid on the people. Jesus also opposed their theology. Of course there is resurrection. God is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. These men of faith are alive to God though dead to the world for God is a God of the living and not of the dead. There were other parties as well. The zealots sought a military triumph driving out the Romans. There were the Essenes and here there is some debate in scholarship—were they proto-monks living in the desert? We have a Dead Sea scrolls scholar here in Daniel Falk and I’ll let him talk about the Essenes. The controversies have even reached the popular press. The Smithsonian magazine last month described scholarly attacks that have reached a point of charging harassment in the courts. What is certain, though, is that after the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in AD 70, forty or so years after the death of Jesus there were really only two lasting parties in Judaism, the Pharisees who become rabbinic Judaism and the Christians who were experiencing rapid growth in the Gentile world at the same time as being put out of the synagogues. The conflict of the early Church was between two descendents of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, those who put the Law in the place of the Temple and those who put Jesus the Messiah in that same place.
Now I know my sermon title is controversial. Who would want to be a Pharisee? In Luke’s Gospel the Pharisees are Jesus opponents. The Pharisees and Scribes grumble and complain. They had a legitimate point, “This fellow Jesus welcomes sinner and eats with them.” We preach our sermons about the Good Samaritan and how that is an oxymoron, a contradiction in terms. No Jew at the time of Jesus would consider a Samaritan good because they did not accept the prophets or worship God on the mountain, Zion. Today we would rather question the idea of a good Pharisee. In our minds “Pharisees and Scribes” conjures up our worst stereotypes of legalists concerned only with the minutiae of the Law. Yet Luke also understands the gravity of the Pharisees’ concerns. They regarded their God-given calling to live according to the Law of Moses with utter seriousness. They believed the very survival of the Jewish faith depended on preserving their distinctive way of life in a time of Roman occupation and classical cultural imperialism. They were pietists and reformers who sought to renew the faith by applying biblical laws concerning ritual purity to all Jews and not only the priests and to every aspect of life not only temple worship. As Lutherans who believe in the priesthood of all believers, we see a counterpart in the Pharisees who were the ones who took seriously God's command that Israel be a priestly kingdom and a holy nation among the Gentiles. Religious obligations were not for the Levites or the sons of Aaron but all God’s people are called to follow the commandments and be part of the faithful community. What so bothered the Pharisees is Jesus’ attitude toward the Law. They confront Jesus and his disciples regarding Sabbath observance and table fellowship. By eating with tax collectors and sinners it seemed that Jesus felt strict observance of the Law did not matter and without observance, there would be no community of the faithful. He was dangerous to the religious and social order, even to the God’s blessing of Israel. In Jesus’ day the Pharisees were the good and upright people, those who took seriously what it meant to be a believer and a follower. Their calling was outwards observance, strict observance, as a sign of inward loyalty to God.
Now it would be easy for me to go on talking about the different parties in contemporary Israel—the secular Zionists, the ultra-orthodox, the modern Orthodox and the differences between them. But what I would like us to do is go to our Gospel text and look at just a half verse. Jesus is approached by some Pharisees who say to Jesus, “Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.” In our text study we talked about whether they were just trying to get rid of a trouble-maker or whether they respected Jesus as a pious Jew who knew his Scripture even if they disagreed on his interpretation. The text is really about Jesus’ mission to go to Jerusalem and suffer and die. He will be another in the line of God’s prophets who must be killed in Jerusalem. It also expresses Jesus’ real frustration that the multitudes have not been turning to him and accepted the Gospel that he came to proclaim. His way was not strict observance of the Law—although he does not deny the Law as God’s word and states that he does not intend to take away a jot or tittle of the Law. But his is the way of salvation to all who believe. He is the Messiah of Israel but more than that Lord of the nations and Son of God. All people, not just observant Jews, are welcome to come and follow—especially the tax-collectors and sinners, the outcast and unclean. But I would like to picture the Pharisees in this text as those who are sincere in following God and care about Jesus as a brother in the faith even when they disagree with him.
This past Wednesday we gathered here for the memorial service for Jim Dullea. He was part of our community at Central but was still a Roman Catholic. When I gathered with the family to plan the service, I had to smile and I said to Geri and the children, “I can see which parts of the service are Catholic and which are Lutheran.” The soloist sang “Ave Maria” and “Panis Angelicus” and the homily was delivered by Father Noel Hickie, a wonderful and personal message. The liturgy was out of our worship book and we sang “Children of the Heavenly Father” and “Beautiful Savior.” Father Hickie thanked us for inviting him to preach from our pulpit and one member said years ago she never would have believed that Lutherans and Catholics could express their one faith in just this way. Oh we have our disagreements—the power and primacy of the pope, the role of Mary and the saints, the relationship of faith and works. But we are in the same Christian family. We have one and the same Lord, faith, baptism. We seek to be faithful and love God with our hearts and minds and strength.
No, I don’t just want to be a Pharisee. That is wrong. I don’t want to be one who closes doors or narrows the path. I want to see the best in other people, to be faithful to God’s Word but also recognize that God can do new things and reach out to other people. I respect the Pharisees for holding fast to God’s commands and not neglected his Word or the preaching of it. But I just want to follow Jesus who makes room for sinners like me. If I could keep the Law, I wouldn’t need a Savior. But I cannot. Something greater than the Law and Prophets is Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of God, the Savior. Amen.
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