1.13.08 The Art of Non-Judgement
WESTMINSTER PULPIT
The Rev. Dr. David Thompson
January 13, 2008 “The Art of Non Judgment”
“I will build my church and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it” (Jesus)
Have you ever been in an organization where you know that someone is not pulling their weight and you can’t do anything about it? You might be in a multi-decked organization and someone above you in the company makes your life miserable. They go out of their way to annoy you and put you down. Their laziness and disloyalty to the company hampers your efforts.
I once knew a man who was an advertising manager. His advertising plans had to be approved by a man higher up who was jealous of him. After the manger had completed his creative writing, the man above would change words and phrases in such a manner that the advertisement was seriously weakened. And the man below could do nothing about it. He was close to retirement and he needed the job. His health was seriously affected by his sense of powerlessness. He eventually had a premature heart attack and died.
Many of us have been involved in volunteer groups where we count on someone doing a task but at the last minute they let us down. From time to time people come to me asking that the church roll be purged. These sincere folks say: “Let’s get rid of the folks who don’t show up and don’t contribute. They are a burden on the roll. What we need is commitment.”
In many churches there are a faithful few who do all the work. Statistics show that in most churches across the country 20% of the members give 80% of the gifts. That however does not necessarily indicate financial strength of that 20%. Whether they are rich or poor it does however most often reflect commitment to the church.
This is a real problem isn’t it? We all know just how frustrating it is to work with people who are not committed especially to something in which we deeply believe.
In Jesus’ day the Scribes and Pharisees were a dedicated pious lot who thought they knew exactly what God wanted. They knew the kind of people who were acceptable to God. They ran a very tight ship. They excommunicated people for the slightest reason. Discipline was very tight. There were rules for the Sabbath, rules for ritual cleansing, rules about women worshipping separately from the men, rules about the gentiles and how far they could come into the Temple, rules about lepers and outcasts, rules about prostitutes and foreign tax collectors.
A pious Jew could only walk so far on the Sabbath. If he had to walk farther than the prescribed limit then he had to drive a stick into the ground. That indicated that he was building a home and so he could walk another prescribed distance from his “home”. You couldn’t even scratch yourself on a Sabbath day. That was considered work.
The historical Jesus came into that situation breaking all the rules. He had to do with ungodly people; he loved tax collectors, donkey drivers, prostitutes, Samaritans, gentiles, Romans, pub owners, lepers and everyday common “sinners”. These folks listened to the liberating good news preached by Jesus that God cared for all people regardless of sex color or creed, whether they were slaves or wealthy landowners. Jesus loved everyone especially those who society despised.
When a woman was brought to Jesus for judgment regarding adultery he said: “Let the person who is without sin cast the first stone.” The pious people were horrified! The penalty for adultery according to the Hebrew Scriptures was death. Didn’t Jesus know that? What kind of a rabbi was this? His disciples did work on Saturday—they rubbed corn kernel in their hands. A good rabbi would never permit his followers to do that!
As Jesus’ support grew a lot of people got worried about the direction the movement was taking. The ministry was too wide. Surely Jesus should confine his ministry to the good people? Even his disciples felt the pressure. Christ would eat and drink wine with tax collectors and social outcasts. Surely he should take a strong stand against alcohol and condemn those who drank it—but no, he made even more of it when they ran out of it at a wedding. And it was good stuff too. How dare he?
The good people got upset. “John the Baptist, he doesn’t even touch liquor and Jesus you make more of the stuff at a wedding for people who have already drank enough. And this woman who is pouring ointment over you—don’t you know her reputation? And Judas your treasurer is robbing our treasury blind. Why on earth do you put up with Judas?”
“You see Jesus what we need is decisive action! Get rid of these people. You can’t run an organization like this!”
And Jesus told them a story…
It was about a man who sowed good seed in his field and after he had done so, a darnel weed was also sown by an enemy in the same field. Now when the crop germinated the darnel weed grew up side by side with the wheat. Jesus taught us that this was a picture of the world and the kingdom he was building in it. He said that I sow good seed and side by side with it there is a counter force also sowing weed seeds.
Jesus would say to us: “So do we get rid of the problem early on? Do we make my kingdom pure? Do we go down the route of the Scribes and Pharisees and run a tight ship of holy rules? No, let them grow side by side, because if we try and root out the weeds we will destroy the wheat as well for their roots are intertwined…”
It is very important that we understand that the Bible is a library of very different books by different authors. The collection was not agreed upon for 400 years of church history. All of the books are valuable in the collection, but it is vital to understand how to deal with the collection. As Christians the teachings about how to do this are the teachings of the Historical Jesus who taught us that the principle of love was the interpreter of the Scriptures. One of the books says that we must compare Scripture with Scripture in order to accomplish love as the interpreter of Scripture, not literalism or pious doctrines that won’t stand up like the doctrine of inerrancy. If that doctrine was true why would Jesus have corrected Scripture as he did? (Putting in place a teaching that Scripture was to be interpreted by the law of love cost Jesus his life.)
The problem before us today is the problem of who is acceptable. That is what the rules were all about—and on this matter as to who is acceptable and what to do about it in the church Jesus stands almost alone as an extremely controversial teacher.
The apostles struggled all the time with this brilliant teaching of Jesus. For instance St. Paul struggled with the matter of circumcision. What was he to do with those folks who were not circumcised? St Peter had trouble with what foods were right to eat. What do you do with folks who eat pork and convert when it was banned for Jews? Some folks in the early church taught that the church should withdraw from the world and many religious groups feel that they have to withdraw from the world or the established church in order to be pure and they try to set up a tight ship culture of Holy people.
But our Founder Jesus Christ had an entirely different model. He repeated himself time and time again on this matter. For instance he also told a parable of the Seine Net which was cast into the sea and brought up all kinds of different fish. I was at a wharf in Cape Cod one summer. In the holds of the fishing boats were all kinds of fish. They were not sorted until they arrived at the plant at the very end of the process.
Jesus made two points for his church to remember if it is to be faithful to his teachings. He would say to us today, “People of Westminster you are not to judge one another. You cannot discern people’s hearts. People’s hearts are only known to God. Stop making distinctions as to who is acceptable, who is moral or immoral, who has got the truth and who hasn’t, who is committed and who is not. That is God’s work! If you try and do this you will uproot the wheat along with the tares.” Jesus would say to us, “that we will damage the kingdom more than we will fix it. At the end of time God will judge the secrets of the hearts of human beings. Do not get into the condemnation business of other people. That is not your job.”
But you say, “Jesus we can’t run an organization like this! We need discipline. We have got to make the church succeed in the world. We will never do this if we don’t get the weeds out and get dedicated people who believe the right things! We will be much more effective if we do!”
“But that’s not my Kingdom,” says the Historical Jesus. “That is not what I had in mind for you to do. I want you to do one thing. Sow good seed! The Sermon on the Mount is the good seed. Practice that! Sow that! Some will fall on stony ground, some on poor ground with shallow soil, some will fall amongst thorns and some will fall on good soil and grow along with the weed seeds. Your job is to sow the seed. Your job is to cast the net wide!”
Your job is not to fish for just one kind of fish. Cast your net wide—as wide as the world. You don’t know what fish I want. There are all kinds of people who are acceptable to me that will not be acceptable to you. And side by side with your efforts to seed my kingdom there will be counter forces sowing seeds as well. Let them all grow—leave them to God. You see a kingdom that is this wide cannot possibly be controlled by you…”
Jesus would say to us: “At Westminster, you as my servants can learn the art of non judgment and if you are in leadership I know just how hard this will be for you to do. I was judged all the time when I was giving leadership. The Scribes and Pharisees were on my case all the time. As leaders in the church, as session members and deacons and pastors you will get judged all the time, and it won’t be pleasant. But as leaders you can learn from me not to do unto others what has been done to you, no matter how much you are tempted. Non judgment is a lifelong art. I teach my followers ‘Judge not that you be not judged.’ And this is one of my messages that is not often heard in the church. It is tough to follow but if you are to be my church, together we can learn this art. And when you model it as leaders it will catch on both in the church and the world for which I gave my life.”
Christ’s way of the second mile, loving the enemy, turning the other cheek, giving and receiving forgiveness and letting the tares grow amongst the wheat is a very strange way to run any organization—but there is a reason. There is a goal for Westminster and any church of the historical Jesus worthy of his trust in us. That goal is love. Any other way of running the church destroys the church.
That doesn’t mean we can’t encourage commitment. As Norman Vincent Peale once said; “Don’t fire a man out of the business, fire him into it!” Encourage good people to join your committee on the basis of their gifts. Let them run to their strengths! If people are dropping off from your area of concern consider finding out why. They may be a different kind of fish than we have thought acceptable to God, they may be hurt and upset and in need of our love, they may not be “dead wood” at all but people who are willing to commit, if they are truly loved. As St. Paul said; “There is nothing too hard for love…” Have we really tried loving that difficult person rather than judging them? Which way is the way of Jesus?
“Whatever you do,” said Jesus, “don’t root them out. When you have gone the second mile, forgiven seventy time seven and done all you know how to do to change your own behavior and insensitivities, and nothing seems to work, leave them to me.
For the church is not finally your responsibility. It’s mine.
“I shall build my church and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it!”
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