Obedience and Righteousness
There are two words in our readings for today that stuck in my head – obedience and righteousness. In our contemporary culture both of these words can have negative connotations, as self-determination and freedom of will are held in high regard in our society. Being obedient is accepting one’s submission to authority. Which can be negative or positive depending on the source of the authority. According to Roget’s Thesaurus some synonyms for obedience are: accordance, acquiescence, agreement, compliance, conformability, conformity, deference, docility, duteousness, dutifulness, duty, manageability, meekness, observance, orderliness, quietness, respect, reverence, servility, submission, subservience, tameness, tractability, willingness. We sometimes see traits like tractability and docility as signs of weakness or giving up or even depression.
Obedience. In Genesis God says to Abraham “…by your offspring shall all the nations of the earth gain blessing for themselves, because you have obeyed my voice.” Abraham obeyed God by his submission to God’s authority over him. He accepted and trusted God’s authority over him. He was obedient even to the very point of sacrificing his beloved long-awaited son Isaac. The antonyms or opposite of obedience are rebellion, bad behavior, disobedience, mischief, mutiny, and misbehavior. These are also some of the milder synonyms for the word sin. Is sin the opposite of obedience? I always think of sin as what stands between me and God – whatever actions, thoughts, attitudes, beliefs or feelings I have that prevent me from moving closer and closer to a full life in the Spirit. In the verses before our Gospel for today, Jesus says to his followers, “Whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me”. A person can’t wait until he or she is free of the cross, the weight of our own sin, to follow Jesus with obedience and submission. We carry our own cross for the sake of love for Jesus. My cross is not my obedience to Jesus Christ. My cross is my own sin; whatever separates me from God. So it’s confession time. I find that my pride is one of the feelings that stands between me and God. Part of being obedient to God for me is not standing on my pride – oh so hard to do. Especially at work when my expertise is challenged, I will argue for my stand, for my knowledge and skill, on behalf of my staff, AND I will argue because I NEED to be RIGHT!!! And sometimes God’s way lives on the other side of my need to be right. Pride goeth before a fall; I know it well. My second confession is that I also feel self-righteous sometimes about being a rebel. The diaconate can attract folks who feel called to the fringe of society, as our call is to serve the poor, hungry, imprisoned, lonely, aged, sick and all others who stand outside the community. Jesus was considered a rebel or insurgent for taking this kind of stand so I can feel a certain amount of self-righteousness about my call to the marginalized. But this very stance about my sense of my own call is a sin for me. My potential self-righteous attitude about taking care of the poor can undermine any good that may come. It is a sin that stands between me and true life in God. Pride and self-righteousness are my cross to take up and carry on the journey to full life in Christ.
What about the other word that stuck in my head this week? Righteousness. I just used it negatively as self-righteousness. St. Paul, in his Letter to the Romans, says “thanks be to God that you, having once been slaves of sin, have become obedient from the heart to the form of teaching to which you were entrusted, and that you, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.” Having once been a slave of sin, that is, submissive to my own pride, entrapped by my own self-righteousness, now I, by the grace of God, strive to become obedient from the heart to the form of teaching to which I was entrusted through my baptism – the teaching of Jesus. And that striving to be set free from sin by Jesus’ teaching, have become a slave of righteousness. Not a possessor of righteousness, but a slave to righteousness. Now when I looked up righteousness in the Thesaurus it was defined as devotion to a sinless life. Wikipedia says that righteousness is an attribute that implies that a person's actions are justified, and can have the connotation that the person has been "judged" or "reckoned" as leading a life that is pleasing to God. God “reckoned” Abraham’s faithful obedience to God as righteousness. And God asks the same slavery to right action and faith from us. Jesus says, in the verse just before our reading today in Matthew, that he who loses his life for Jesus’ sake will find it – giving up our lives we have justified ourselves and striving for a life justified by God.Jesus says, whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet's reward; and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of Jesus will receive the reward of the righteous… And that reward is being justified by God in our obedience. Sounds hard to me. And it is hard. For me it means not going to the stubborn place of pride when I’m challenged, but trusting that God will find a way to make things work. And it means not always having to be right, to be willing to listen to authority, not always having rebelliousness as my response to authority. Living in awareness of these attributes has become spiritual practice for me. It’s not easy for me. But when I can listen and not react, empty myself and not be full of pride, let go of my need to always be right - I feel something new, there is a new voice in my heart, and I know God is with me.
Let us pray:
Almighty God, whose beloved Son willingly endured the agony and shame of the cross for our redemption: Give us courage to take up our cross and follow him. Grant, Lord God, to all who have been baptized into the death and resurrection of your Son Jesus Christ, that as we strive to put away the old life of sin, so may we be renewed in the spirit of our minds, and live in righteousness and true holiness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Genesis 22:1
There are two words in our readings for today that stuck in my head – obedience and righteousness. In our contemporary culture both of these words can have negative connotations, as self-determination and freedom of will are held in high regard in our society. Being obedient is accepting one’s submission to authority. Which can be negative or positive depending on the source of the authority. According to Roget’s Thesaurus some synonyms for obedience are: accordance, acquiescence, agreement, compliance, conformability, conformity, deference, docility, duteousness, dutifulness, duty, manageability, meekness, observance, orderliness, quietness, respect, reverence, servility, submission, subservience, tameness, tractability, willingness. We sometimes see traits like tractability and docility as signs of weakness or giving up or even depression.
Obedience. In Genesis God says to Abraham “…by your offspring shall all the nations of the earth gain blessing for themselves, because you have obeyed my voice.” Abraham obeyed God by his submission to God’s authority over him. He accepted and trusted God’s authority over him. He was obedient even to the very point of sacrificing his beloved long-awaited son Isaac. The antonyms or opposite of obedience are rebellion, bad behavior, disobedience, mischief, mutiny, and misbehavior. These are also some of the milder synonyms for the word sin. Is sin the opposite of obedience? I always think of sin as what stands between me and God – whatever actions, thoughts, attitudes, beliefs or feelings I have that prevent me from moving closer and closer to a full life in the Spirit. In the verses before our Gospel for today, Jesus says to his followers, “Whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me”. A person can’t wait until he or she is free of the cross, the weight of our own sin, to follow Jesus with obedience and submission. We carry our own cross for the sake of love for Jesus. My cross is not my obedience to Jesus Christ. My cross is my own sin; whatever separates me from God. So it’s confession time. I find that my pride is one of the feelings that stands between me and God. Part of being obedient to God for me is not standing on my pride – oh so hard to do. Especially at work when my expertise is challenged, I will argue for my stand, for my knowledge and skill, on behalf of my staff, AND I will argue because I NEED to be RIGHT!!! And sometimes God’s way lives on the other side of my need to be right. Pride goeth before a fall; I know it well. My second confession is that I also feel self-righteous sometimes about being a rebel. The diaconate can attract folks who feel called to the fringe of society, as our call is to serve the poor, hungry, imprisoned, lonely, aged, sick and all others who stand outside the community. Jesus was considered a rebel or insurgent for taking this kind of stand so I can feel a certain amount of self-righteousness about my call to the marginalized. But this very stance about my sense of my own call is a sin for me. My potential self-righteous attitude about taking care of the poor can undermine any good that may come. It is a sin that stands between me and true life in God. Pride and self-righteousness are my cross to take up and carry on the journey to full life in Christ.
What about the other word that stuck in my head this week? Righteousness. I just used it negatively as self-righteousness. St. Paul, in his Letter to the Romans, says “thanks be to God that you, having once been slaves of sin, have become obedient from the heart to the form of teaching to which you were entrusted, and that you, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.” Having once been a slave of sin, that is, submissive to my own pride, entrapped by my own self-righteousness, now I, by the grace of God, strive to become obedient from the heart to the form of teaching to which I was entrusted through my baptism – the teaching of Jesus. And that striving to be set free from sin by Jesus’ teaching, have become a slave of righteousness. Not a possessor of righteousness, but a slave to righteousness. Now when I looked up righteousness in the Thesaurus it was defined as devotion to a sinless life. Wikipedia says that righteousness is an attribute that implies that a person's actions are justified, and can have the connotation that the person has been "judged" or "reckoned" as leading a life that is pleasing to God. God “reckoned” Abraham’s faithful obedience to God as righteousness. And God asks the same slavery to right action and faith from us. Jesus says, in the verse just before our reading today in Matthew, that he who loses his life for Jesus’ sake will find it – giving up our lives we have justified ourselves and striving for a life justified by God.Jesus says, whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet's reward; and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of Jesus will receive the reward of the righteous… And that reward is being justified by God in our obedience. Sounds hard to me. And it is hard. For me it means not going to the stubborn place of pride when I’m challenged, but trusting that God will find a way to make things work. And it means not always having to be right, to be willing to listen to authority, not always having rebelliousness as my response to authority. Living in awareness of these attributes has become spiritual practice for me. It’s not easy for me. But when I can listen and not react, empty myself and not be full of pride, let go of my need to always be right - I feel something new, there is a new voice in my heart, and I know God is with me.
Let us pray:
Almighty God, whose beloved Son willingly endured the agony and shame of the cross for our redemption: Give us courage to take up our cross and follow him. Grant, Lord God, to all who have been baptized into the death and resurrection of your Son Jesus Christ, that as we strive to put away the old life of sin, so may we be renewed in the spirit of our minds, and live in righteousness and true holiness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Genesis 22:1
Romans 6:12
Matthew 10:40
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