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St. George's Episcopal Church Roseburg, Oregon The Twenty-Fourth Sunday After Pentecost, Proper 26A 30 October 2005 Go To St. George's Home Page

Joshua 3:7-17
Psalm 107:1-7, 33-37
1 Thessalonians 2:9-13
Matthew 23:1-12
The Collect of the Day
From the Revised Common Lectionary as Adapted for Use by the Episcopal Church
and Authorized by the 74 th General Convention of the ECUSA

Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat; therefore, do whatever they teach you and follow it; but do not do as they do, for they do not practice what they teach. They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on the shoulders of others; but they themselves are unwilling to lift a finger to move them. They do all their deeds to be seen by others; for they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long. They love to have the place of honor at banquets and the best seats in the synagogues, and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and to have people call them rabbi. But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all students. And call no one your father on earth, for you have one Father – the one in heaven. Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Messiah. The greatest among you will be your servant. All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted. (Matthew 23:1-12)

The Toilet Paper Cake: A Lesson in Pride
The Rev. Dr. Bill Stroop, Rector

     Sandra was a member of a little church in a community not much larger than Roseburg. Due to budget cutbacks, changes in state funding, and shortfalls in Medicare reimbursements, the local hospital was in need of a cash infusion. So the area churches and some social service agencies pooled their resources and put together a huge fair. They hired a small carnival company to bring in a Ferris wheel and some other rides. And, as you might expect, all of the churches contributed food. There was booth after booth of pies, and table after table of cakes.

     Sandra had promised to bake a cake for the sale, but had forgotten until the morning of the event. Normally, she would prepare her locally famous angel food cake from scratch, whipping sugar, flour, egg whites, and vanilla into a tall and airy confection. But it was too late in the morning for that. So she prepared an angel food cake from a mix, and when she pulled it from the oven, the center had dropped flat.

     “Oh dear,” she thought, “there’s no time to bake another cake.”

     So she looked around the house for something to building up the center of the cake. She found what she was looking for in the bathroom. When she got back to the kitchen, she carefully carved out the fallen center of the cake and replaced it with – a roll of toilet paper. Once covered with icing, the cake looked perfect.

     Just before she left the house with her cake, she gave some money to her daughter, and gave her specific instructions to be at the fair the moment it opened, and to find the cake table, and buy the toilet paper cake.

     As Sandra set the faux cake on the table, many of the women complemented her on it.

     “Oh, Sandra, it is just beautiful! It is the best looking cake you’ve ever made!” one woman exclaimed. Sandra smiled, and wiped the little beads of sweat from her brow.

     When the fair opened, people came in the hundreds. The whole town and then some must have come at the same time. The food tables were swamped. When Sandra’s daughter came up to Sandra to buy the cake, Sandra looked down the table, and to her horror, saw that it had already been sold. There was nothing she could do. “Well, at least my name isn’t it!” she thought.

     The next day, Sandra was invited to a friend’s home to play bridge. After the game, a fancy lunch was served. And after lunch, and with great flourish, the hostess presented Sandra’s cake for dessert!

     Sandra panicked, and started to rise out of her chair to rush to the kitchen and tell her hostess about what had happened. But before she could get out of her chair, one of the other ladies said, “What a beautiful cake!”

     Sandra sat back down in her chair when she heard her the hostess, who was a prominent member of the largest church in town say, “Why thank you, I baked it myself.”

     Pride: one of the seven deadly sins. The twentieth theologian and champion of neo-orthodoxy, and the author of Moral Man and Immoral Society (1932) called “pride” the “basic sin” of human beings. Niebuhr recognized that human beings are physically part of this world but yet also capable of spiritually transcending it. He believed that human pride was what led human beings to betray the gospel of Jesus and the ethic of love as Jesus taught it. Pride, Niebuhr would say is what makes us twist the laws of life that Jesus commanded us to live into something that suits us, and our earthly needs, at the moment. It is dangerous and confusing to give these tentative and relative standards final and absolute religious sanction. It is pride carried to a sinful extreme, when in the name of God and our religion we judge, or condemn or, to put ourselves in the position of separating the so-called sheep from the so-called goats. When we do that, we turn our religion into a powerful and possibly hurtful weapon that will do more to stunt the growth of the Kingdom than enlarge it.

     In today’s gospel text, we hear Jesus’ warning to the Pharisees and scribes against pride of place and power. These religious leaders had the symbol of authority of the Temple: they sat on the seat of Moses, somewhat equivalent to occupying the chair of St. Peter in the modern Roman Catholic church. As religious leaders, Jesus expected them to fulfill the law. Jesus was thoroughly Jewish, and had great respect for the law. Matthew makes that clear early on in the gospel when Jesus says, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill” (Mt 5:17).

     What Jesus was upset about was that instead of interpreting the law and helping God’s people fulfill its requirements, the Pharisees added a number of interpretations which only increased the difficulty of fulfilling it. And, Jesus was clearly upset that the Pharisees were apparently meticulous in keeping those parts of the law that made them prominent and visible members of society. “According to the Pharisaic interpretation of the law, every true Jew was to wear at morning prayer small leather cases around the wrist and the forehead. These cases, called phylacteries, contained compartments in which were to be carried four portions of scripture, two passages from Exodus (Ex 13:1-10; 13:11-16) and two from Deuteronomy (6:4-9; 11:13-21). It was possible by enlarging the bands on these scriptures to demonstrate exemplary obedience to the law and consummate piety. In addition, the law required that four blue tassels (Hebrew, zizith), the ‘fringes’ referred to in today’s reading, to be worn at the four corners of the outer robe.”[1] Showing once again Jesus’ adherence to the law, Matthew says he wore them too (Mt. 9:20). Today, such tassels are present on the four corners of the prayer shawl. Jesus was probably commenting on the fact that some of them wore their fringes large and long “to win self-glory.”

     The Pharisees also expected to be given the principle seats of honor at meals – on the left and right of the host. They liked the front seats in the synagogue too. In Jesus’ world, the back seats were occupied by the children and other unimportant people. The most honored seats were the seats of the elders which faced the congregation, where the congregation could watch the devoted Pharisee’s attention to pious behavior. They preferred to be called “Rabbi,” and to be given greater respect than one gave one’s own parents. Matthew’s comment that no one should be called “Rabbi” is most likely an early reflection of the Christian church imposed backward on Jesus’ time.

     Last week, I spoke about “helper’s high.” Helper’s high is the pleasurable state that can apparently result from helping others. Some scientists propose that one of the reasons we might be motivated to help others is to feel good; to feel the helper’s high. But I cautioned that the motivation to help must stem from an inner desire to serve rather than a desire to be recognized for our efforts. The motivation ought to be love: love of God and love of one’s neighbor. This is the ethic of love that Niebuhr spoke of as well. And it is the same thing Matthew’s gospel speaks to.

     All too often – and especially in the church –we make an idol out of our religion, and then point to our idolatry to claim that we have got the inside track on God’s Truth.

     Episcopalians have been both the object of derision by other denominations and abusers of other denominations. Some of us have looked upon our reliance on reason, tradition, and scripture with a great deal of pride and as superior to those denominations that champion more forthright, moralistic views.

     Episcopalians have been looked down upon by other denominations because of our beginning under the reign of Henry VIII. Some forget that the religious reformation in England was really about personal involvement and spiritual commitment by putting the word of God – the Bible – into the language of the people, and by involving the people as active participants in the liturgy and in prayers of the church. I expect that the sensationalism of Henry’s lifestyle and the political reform of the English nation will always dominate the English reformation.

     There is a fine line between feeling good about one’s religion and feeling superior about it. And it is that line that Jesus expects all of us to find. It is good to pray. It is good to be helpful. It is good to attend church. But when feeling good about one’s religious practices becomes prideful, idolatry and prejudice are soon to follow.

     How can we avoid this trap? One way is by remembering our baptismal covenant to honor and respect all people. Another way is to look at ourselves with a healthy dose of humor. The Hill Billy Big Smith Band is not well known on the West Coast, but in the Ozarks of Missouri and Arkansas, the Springfield, Missouri based band of five cousins is adored for their variety and the breadth of instruments they play. Recently I heard a song that they recorded in 2002. I’m going to play that for you now. Listen to it in the humorous vein Big Smith intended.

“His Eye Is On The Baptist”*
Big Smith
Why should I feel discouraged?
Why should the troubles come?
Why should I let myself worry;
Thinking about my hope?

While I am not a minority,
a Catholic or a Jew.
No, I’m a Southern Baptist,
and I’m much better than you.

I’m a Southern Baptist,
and I’m much better than you.

I see because I’m perfect.
I see because I’m true.
Oh, I’m a Southern Baptist,
and I’m lots better than you.

     Yes, the song is irreverent, but by its very irreverence, it allows us to laugh – however embarrassed – at our own arrogance. It points out the very truth about all religious denominations that Jesus pointed to 2000 years ago. Religion is serious and hard work. But let’s work hard to not take ourselves too seriously. God’s grace is there for us all. Let’s let God do God’s work for us all.

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Joshua 3:7-17

The LORD said to Joshua, “This day I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, so that they may know that I will be with you as I was with Moses. You are the one who shall command the priests who bear the ark of the covenant, ‘When you come to the edge of the waters of the Jordan, you shall stand still in the Jordan.’” Joshua then said to the Israelites, “Draw near and hear the words of the LORD your God.” Joshua said, “By this you shall know that among you is the living God who without fail will drive out from before you the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites, and Jebusites: the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth is going to pass before you into the Jordan. So now select twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one from each tribe. When the soles of the feet of the priests who bear the ark of the LORD, the Lord of all the earth, rest in the waters of the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan flowing from above shall be cut off; they shall stand in a single heap.” When the people set out from their tents to cross over the Jordan, the priests bearing the ark of the covenant were in front of the people. Now the Jordan overflows all its banks throughout the time of harvest. So when those who bore the ark had come to the Jordan, and the feet of the priests bearing the ark were dipped in the edge of the water, the waters flowing from above stood still, rising up in a single heap far off at Adam, the city that is beside Zarethan, while those flowing toward the sea of the Arabah, the Dead Sea, were wholly cut off. Then the people crossed over opposite Jericho. While all Israel were crossing over on dry ground, the priests who bore the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan, until the entire nation finished crossing over the Jordan.

Psalm 107:1-7, 33-37

1 O give thanks to the LORD, for he is good;
for his steadfast love endures forever.

2 Let the redeemed of the LORD say so,
those he redeemed from trouble

3 and gathered in from the lands,
from the east and from the west,
from the north and from the south.

4 Some wandered in desert wastes,
finding no way to an inhabited town;

5 hungry and thirsty,
their soul fainted within them.

6 Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble,
and he delivered them from their distress;

7 he led them by a straight way,
until they reached an inhabited town.

33 He turns rivers into a desert,
springs of water into thirsty ground,

34 a fruitful land into a salty waste,
because of the wickedness of its inhabitants.

35 He turns a desert into pools of water,
a parched land into springs of water.

36 And there he lets the hungry live,
and they establish a town to live in;

37 they sow fields, and plant vineyards,
and get a fruitful yield.

1 Thessalonians 2:9-13

You remember our labor and toil, brothers and sisters; we worked night and day, so that we might not burden any of you while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God. You are witnesses, and God also, how pure, upright, and blameless our conduct was toward you believers. As you know, we dealt with each one of you like a father with his children, urging and encouraging you and pleading that you lead a life worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory. We also constantly give thanks to God for this, that when you received the word of God that you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human word but as what it really is, God’s word, which is also at work in you believers.

Matthew 23:1-12

Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat; therefore, do whatever they teach you and follow it; but do not do as they do, for they do not practice what they teach. They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on the shoulders of others; but they themselves are unwilling to lift a finger to move them. They do all their deeds to be seen by others; for they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long. They love to have the place of honor at banquets and the best seats in the synagogues, and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and to have people call them rabbi. But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all students. And call no one your father on earth, for you have one Father – the one in heaven. Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Messiah. The greatest among you will be your servant. All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted.

The Collect of the Day

Almighty and merciful God, it is only by your gift that your faithful people offer you true and laudable service: Grant that we may run without stumbling to obtain your heavenly promises; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

* Inclusion of this song is not meant to be derogatory in any way toward Southern Baptists. It is only included as an example from popular culture of the use of humor to expose pridefulness.
[1] H. King Oehmig, Ed-In-Chief. “Humble Yourself – Proper 26 for Year A.” Synthesis18(11) October 30, 2005. Boyds, MD:Sedgewick Publishing Co.

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Copyright © 2005, William G. Stroop - All Rights Reserved.
28 October 2005

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