Judgement is the Lord's
Amos 3:1-8
Psalm 139
I Corinthians 1:10-17
Matthew 4:12-23
Tim
Christoffersen
St. Anselm’s
January 17,
2002
Let
me ask a question. You are at a party talking with several friends and a person
none of you know comes up. That person has some odd mannerisms and dresses
a little differently. He leaves the group and one of your friends says to
you, "What was your impression of him?" Would you be tempted to
comment on the ways he was different than your friends and you?
At a human level we are sensitive to being judged, whether by our friends
or others. We also readily pass judgment on others. We moved to Alamo about
20 years ago from Berkeley. As we drove down our street to our home, I used
to make hostile comments. ‘ No one is ever outside except the gardeners.’
‘All the garage doors are always closed and you never see anyone even
through the window.’ ‘It’s like a ghost town.’ I was pretty
advanced in passing judgment on my new neighbors whom, for the most part,
I had not even met. I had them in one category and myself in another.
In the reading from Corinthians, Paul is addressing the divisions within the
local church that have arisen. One group says ‘we follow Paul’,
another says ‘we follow Peter’; another says ‘we follow Apollos’
and another says ‘we follow Christ’. Paul appeals to them to agree
with one another so that there may be no divisions among them. Does it make
you think of Baptists, Presbyterians and Roman Catholic?
There is a strong connection between categorizing or comparing and passing
judgment. At the scientific level, making categorizations is at the heart
of the scientific method and progress in science. The recent completion of
the human genome, the mapping of the entire DNA in the human species, is a
wonderful example of the power of the gift of discernment each of us has been
given.
But when we turn that power to the world of human interaction and human communities,
our capacity to make fine distinctions and categorize or divide humans and
communities into groups, we face the temptation to set ourselves up as judge
and to pass judgment on others and on ourselves.
In several verses just prior to the verses we heard today from Corinthians
today, Paul says,
"But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you
or by any human court. I do not even judge myself. I am not aware of anything
against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges
me. Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes,
who will bring to light the thing now hidden in darkness and will disclose
the purposes of the heart."
As many of you know, we returned from a trip to Burma two weeks ago. I would
like to share two encounters from that trip that speak to our tendency to
judge others and to judge ourselves.
Burma, or Myanmar as it is now called, is a country of 60 million people that
has India on the west border, China on the north border, and Thailand on the
east border. Burma is desperately poor and one of the most deeply Buddhist
countries in the world. The country is largely isolated from the rest of the
world by a military junta that came to power in 1962.
While visiting one of the largest monasteries where new monks are taught,
we had occasion to have an extensive discussion with a master monk who was
primarily responsible for teaching the one thousand student monks at this
monastery.
One theme emerged as we asked a myriad of questions that implicitly called
for opinions or classifications. He consistently answered in a manner that
avoided making classifications or opinions. He tended to talk about people
and the culture as a whole and found common spiritual ground between Buddhism
and Christianity, Islam and Jewish faiths. I found this frustrating but it
was also clear he avoided passing judgment in his responses. There was depth
and insight in his answers.
In the words from Corinthians, Paul said, "I do not even judge myself."
How often, I wonder, do many of us get down on ourselves or unnecessarily
damage our self-esteem? Our guide, Percy, was a mutual friend of someone I
have known for 30+ years from college days. Over the ten days Susan and I
and the two friends traveling with us came to know Percy and to share intimate
conversations with him.
Percy was in his 40’s and was an exceedingly generous and compassionate
man. After his education, he went to live in the villages and was kind of
a Peace Corp volunteer in his own country. Ten years later he came back to
Rangoon when he father died and his two sisters asked him to return and help
support the family. Percy remained single and supported a number of foster
children over the years in addition to his family. He also supported a number
of handicapped persons, including several with leprosy. On the trip, I noticed
that Percy regularly gave alms to the old and the handicapped. It was clear
to us that he was a deeply compassionate person yet he felt he was unworthy.
He felt that somehow he did not do enough. If I were to compare my compassion
and generosity to Percy, I suspect I would find myself lacking. But if I listen
to my own words today, I know it is not my place to judge.
The next time you are about to berate yourself or get down on a friend or
acquaintance for some behavior or action, try to recall to mind Jesus words
from the Sermon on the Mount:
"Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same manner you
judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be
measured to you."
Then say a short prayer thanking God for the gift of the powers of discernment
and let pass that opportunity to get down on yourself or pass judgment on
that friend or acquaintance. And speaking from my own personal experience,
I am still working on driving down my street and not making hostile comments
about closed garage doors and no one in the front yards except gardeners.
Amen.
