A Reflection for Advent II All Saints’ Episcopal Church,
Southern Shores, NC
December 4, 2016 Thomas E. Wilson,
Rector
Repenting Advent Ad Hominems
This is
the second Sunday in Advent, and the Candle we lit on the wreath is the one
that is a symbol of peace. Paul writes in his letter to the Romans', the passage
for today: "May the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant you to
live in harmony with one another." One of my definitions of peace is
"to live in harmony." Harmony is not about tolerance of other people,
but about the awareness that we are all singing the same song and it is the
myriad of voices that provides the depth. One of the things I enjoy about our
choir is how they are able to look past each other’s foibles when they are
working together because they have a vision put before them by Steve, the
organist/choir director, and they care for each other. While each member has a
healthy ego, they don’t squabble over who gets the most attention. Warren Judge
used to have a motto: “It doesn't matter who gets the credit as long as it gets
done." Love is not a feeling you have, but what you do with the life that
you have.
Years ago
I really liked this Gospel lesson because it allowed me to attack certain
groups of privileged people. It was fun to parade as the righteous rebel and
stick it to all those “other” people, using scripture to back me up. I picked
and chose my targets carefully as I was soft on
the sins of lust, gluttony, and sloth (those closest to me), but hard on
those exhibiting any of the rest of the seven deadly sins - wrath, greed, envy,
and pride - sins which I in my delusion, mistakenly thought were not part of my
repertoire. I wanted God to beat them up, if not in this life, at least
in the next. My theology seemed more in tune with the character Maude who kept
saying, “God will get you for that, Arthur!”
Yet, though I was a radical, I was rather
conservative in my theology, so I was always trying to steer a comprehensive
path between the radical and conservative. That comprehensive path, rejecting
the either-or false choices, not middle of the road, but instead choosing
“both/and” is what the author of Matthew usually tries to do in his Gospel.
However, in today’s Gospel passage, Matthew deviates from that plan when he
remembers the Sadducees and Pharisees attacked by John the Baptizer with all
sorts of spleen and vigor. Matthew, raised as a good Jew, follows Jesus, and in
today’s lesson, rejects what he considers the too conservative elements of
these Jewish traditions, those establishment figures of the day who looked down
on the early Christian movement with which John was allied. Matthew,
remembering John, returned their distain and accused them of corruption and
hypocrisy.
I have
come to the point of my life where I am a Priest in a religious establishment
which would make me a good candidate for being a Sadducee, and I have a lot of
rules in my life which I find helpful and which I want other people to follow,
which make me an aspiring Pharisee. I would suggest that Matthew, as John,
seems to be more than a little unfair by using ad hominem attacks, where
a person is smeared for being a member of a certain group, as we saw being
displayed in the last election cycle.
Yet, I
realize that All Saints’ is full of people who are prominent in the community
doing good things but could be attacked for not doing more by those who find
fault with us for not being more radical, thereby being modern day Sadducees
and Pharisees. We are not perfect and we will always be vulnerable to attacks
by people using ad hominem arguments.
Advent is
a time when we are all called to repent. Now repent does not mean to cower in
shame for not being perfect. Repent means to take a look at our lives and stop
what doesn’t seem to work in building a loving healthy relationship with God
and our neighbors. “Repenting” means to take the time to be honest with
ourselves.
In ancient Rome when a general would come back from
a victory, there would be held a parade of triumph with him riding in a chariot
where he could hear all the accolades of praise. Yet there would always be a slave standing
behind the general holding the laurel crown over his head and repeating the
phrase, “Remember that you are only a man.”
Carl Jung in Visions
Seminar wrote: “Only those people who can really touch bottom can be human.
Therefore Meister Eckhart says that one should not repent too much of one’s
sins because it might keep one away from grace. One is only confronted with the
spiritual experience when one is absolutely human.”
I was
asked to do a Clergy Wellness survey, and one question was “How often do you
have the thought that if you could live your life over, you would change
things?” Now a perfect person would say
that they would never change a thing, but I am not perfect. I love where I am
and who I am with, but my life is strewn with mistakes and bad choices and hurt
people which I regret. Yet all of this has made me who I am. I would not be the
person I am if I had not messed up so often. I am a deeply flawed human being,
but I am a beloved of God.
Marin
Luther spent the first part of his religious life being ashamed of all his
failings. He would hear the words of judgment by Matthew’s John the Baptizer
and realize that he was like the Sadducees and Pharisees, praised by the people
and yet deep down a hypocrite. Of these failings and that shame he said:
"I was myself more than once driven to the very abyss of despair so that I
wished I had never been created. Love God? I hated him!" One writer
relates: “He wore Johann (von Staupitz, his confessor) out, trying to remember
every sin that his mind would try to cover up. On at least one occasion, he
confessed for six hours straight.” Von Staupitz tried to keep telling him to
lighten up on himself and remember God’s grace. It is only when it finally
sinks in to Martin that he is a human who needs God’s grace that he starts to
change his theology. He learned how to love himself as God loved him. I wish I
could say that Martin was more loving with other people, but we each do what we
can and we are all works in progress. I need to repent, so I am in no place to judge others and have no right to
do so. That’s a job for someone with a higher pay grade than any of us.
Repenting
Advent Ad Hominems
Years ago I used to not like you
Sneering at whatever your kind
my giving traits to you assigned,
you reminded me of one I knew.
But the one I saw was a shadow
who I wanted to keep so hidden
that could never again be bidden
to act like a Curly, Larry or Moe.
A stooge I wanted to laugh at
and claim we did never share
the same DNA matched pair.
Insults rebound with a splat
of metaphorical custard pie
landing on me who let it fly.
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