Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States - Lutheran Seminary's God Pause "Moved by the Promise" for Monday, 27 October 2014 - Matthew 23:1-12

Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States - Lutheran Seminary's God Pause "Moved by the Promise" for Monday, 27 October 2014 - Matthew 23: Religious Fashion Shows
1-3 Now Jesus turned to address his disciples, along with the crowd that had gathered with them. “The religion scholars and Pharisees are competent teachers in God’s Law. You won’t go wrong in following their teachings on Moses. But be careful about following them. They talk a good line, but they don’t live it. They don’t take it into their hearts and live it out in their behavior. It’s all spit-and-polish veneer.
4-7 “Instead of giving you God’s Law as food and drink by which you can banquet on God, they package it in bundles of rules, loading you down like pack animals. They seem to take pleasure in watching you stagger under these loads, and wouldn’t think of lifting a finger to help. Their lives are perpetual fashion shows, embroidered prayer shawls one day and flowery prayers the next. They love to sit at the head table at church dinners, basking in the most prominent positions, preening in the radiance of public flattery, receiving honorary degrees, and getting called ‘Doctor’ and ‘Reverend.’
8-10 “Don’t let people do that to you, put you on a pedestal like that. You all have a single Teacher, and you are all classmates. Don’t set people up as experts over your life, letting them tell you what to do. Save that authority for God; let him tell you what to do. No one else should carry the title of ‘Father’; you have only one Father, and he’s in heaven. And don’t let people maneuver you into taking charge of them. There is only one Life-Leader for you and them—Christ.
11-12 “Do you want to stand out? Then step down. Be a servant. If you puff yourself up, you’ll get the wind knocked out of you. But if you’re content to simply be yourself, your life will count for plenty.(The Message)
This is the week of preparing for the celebration of All Saints Sunday. The alternate lessons assigned for this festival will be mined for what they say about the characteristics of a saint. Jesus, in Matthew's gospel, describes what a saint is not: "They do not practice what they teach."
I was seventeen when I left home to work as a section hand at the Minnesota Transfer Railroad Yards. I had worked in a grocery store and woolen mill, but I had never worked in an environment like this. I checked into my gang shack on Monday morning and realized that I would be paired with Leon, who lived in a boxcar and seldom smiled or spoke. I would be setting the spike for Leon's first swing. (He needed only two swings to tuck in the tie plate.) Frank walked bow legged to ease the pain of his VD. Stan was from Switzerland and carried his belongings in a small canvas bag. There were eight of us who made up our section gang in the summer of 1953. I drank left-handed from the dipper when I noticed that everyone else chewed tobacco and was right handed.
Jim was our boss and he barked out his orders with a creative choice of adjectives and adverbs. He was a seasoned veteran of the railroad world, but he always came to work on Monday mornings with a hangover. Whatever shape Jim was in and whatever his vocabulary, we all knew that he was the one who determined whether or not we would get a paycheck. But he was a "straw boss." He ordered us around, but he never so much as lifted up a pick or spade or helped set a tie or rail. I was only a green seventeen year old, but I knew why the railroad was in trouble. Straw bosses had no vision. They lived only to survive.
Jesus spoke these words to his followers shortly before he was executed, and he urged them to not model their lives after the religious "straw bosses." "The greatest among you will be your servant." A saint is known by her or his actions and not by words.
Lord Jesus, we all know saints whose actions have affirmed us, set paths of service for us, and modeled what it means to be directed by you who went to the cross for us. Help us to live as those you have redeemed to be saints. In your name we pray. Amen.
Hub Nelson
Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church, 
Edina, Minn. (Retired) 
Master of Divinity , 1962
Matthew 23:1 Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples,
2 "The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat;
3 therefore, do whatever they teach you and follow it; but do not do as they do, for they do not practice what they teach.
4 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
5 They do all their deeds to be seen by others; for they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long.
6 They love to have the place of honor at banquets and the best seats in the synagogues,
7 and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and to have people call them rabbi.
8 But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all students.
9 And call no one your father on earth, for you have one Father—the one in heaven.
10 Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Messiah.
11 The greatest among you will be your servant.
12 All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted.(The New Revised Standard Version)
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