Halloween is the ultimate holiday of “pretending.”
On Halloween we dress up and “pretend” to be someone or something other than ourselves.
On Halloween we “pretend” to believe that the people jumping out at us and scaring us in the “haunted houses” we paid $25 to get into are monsters and zombies.
On Halloween we happily “pretend” that the scariest stuff in life are those things that “go bump in the night.”
On Halloween we revel in “pretend” bumps instead of bumping into the terrifying realities of evil and cruelty that appear on any street, in any office, at any school, in broad daylight, on any given day — and that’s just a rundown of the terrors of the last two weeks.
Yesterday, the day after “All Hallows Eve,” is known in the liturgical calendar as “All Saints Day.” “All Saints” is a celebration and commemoration of those who were never about pretense, but who devoted their lives to expressing true faithfulness and genuine piety. The church lives, not by the majesty of its beliefs but by the manifestation of its manifold witness through the magnificence of its “communion of saints.”
Who are these “all saints?” The “all saints” are all the everyday, ordinary men and women who live lives of humility and service in Jesus’ name and for his sake. They never “dressed up” or “dressed down” in order to exhibit some “pretend” piety. They never paraded their piety in peacock plumage. Generation after generation of these “all saints” make up the great “Cloud of Witnesses” (the church had “The Cloud” before Microsoft) who make it possible for the historic Jesus of the first century to become the living Christ of the twenty-first century.
The community of “all saints” didn’t need to play “pretend.” Their lives witnessed to the living presence of Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit, who made them all into “transformers,” transformers of lives, transformers of hopes, transformers of dreams, transformers of the world they lived in.
Today, the day after “All Saints Day,” the gospel text is once again warning us about the poison of pretense, the mistake of wearing masks of piety. Jesus concludes his series of confrontations with various establishment groups of the religiously “large and in charge” the Herodians, the Scribes, the Pharisees with an especially pointed accusation aimed at the Pharisees.
The Pharisees were learned religious leaders who particularly focused on scrupulous adherence to Torah laws and to making that adherence an integral part of every observant Jew’s everyday life. After the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE it was this “home-based” devotion to the Torah that enabled Judaism to survive. Even though the “center” of their faith, the Temple, was destroyed, the local “satellites” of faith — synagogues and especially homes — made it possible for a living Torah-based life to thrive.
Jesus recognized both the genuine faith and the grand folly that was combined in the Pharisees’ religious system. On the one hand Jesus declared that the “scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat,” that is, in a place of recognized authority. Therefore the faithful should “do whatever they teach you and follow it” (v.3). The Pharisees knew the Law and knew what they were talking about. They should be honored for their place of authority in the standing order.
And yet, on the other hand, Jesus cautions the people not to “do as they do, for they do not practice what they teach” (v.3). In other words, Jesus clearly saw a disconnect between the “rules” of faith the religious authorities were imposing and the right relationships and lifestyles these authorities were living.
Jesus gave an “example” involving “phylacteries” and “fringes” — admittedly not your ordinary signs of excess in a 2014 neighborhood.
1) Phylacteries are leather boxes with long leather straps that are bound to the forehead and around the right arm and worn during a devout Jew’s daily prayers. Inside these leather boxes are written copies of various biblical verses (Exodus 13:1-16; Deuteronomy 6:4-9; 11:13-22).
2) The “fringes” Jesus speaks of here are traditional signs of faith attached to a garment worn by all observant Jews. These “fringes” show themselves no matter what else the individual is wearing. In sum, they subtly “advertise” the wearer’s faithfulness.
Jesus’ criticism is not about wearing phylacteries or fringes. It is about wearing Humvee-sized phylacteries and Ferrari fringes while living a Fiat-sized faith. Both phylacteries and fringes were traditions that had been established as signs of humility and faithfulness. But they had been “souped-up” and “super-sized” by some of the most auspicious and revered religious authorities, transforming humble holiness into Humvee holiness and Ferrari performances. Those wearing the over-sized phylacteries and falling down fringes were simply engaged in playing “pretend,” dressing up for a Halloween party, not living the life of one of the faithful, not embodying the daily witness of an “all saint.”
Jesus never paraded his identity. Even after his resurrection, the greatest event in the history of the world, he didn’t flaunt his power and presence. In fact, Jesus’ life and death were public, but his resurrection was private and almost secret. Even his public life was restrained and his personal style self-deprecating. Listen to these questions, astonishing in their chasteness:
“What things?” Luke 24:19
“Why do you call me good? Mark10:18
“Who made me judge over you?” Lk12:14
He repeatedly asked his disciples who they thought he was, what they thought he was doing, where did they think he came from, what were others saying of him. Jesus ate at the homes of the outcasts and the illegals. He washed the feet of his students. He hung out with the pariahs of his day lepers and prostitutes and tax collectors. Jesus had no interest in the appearance of righteousness, only the application of righteousness. Whereas other teachers were masters of abstraction, Jesus was a master of personalization. He knew people not by appearances or pretenses or by what they did. He knew individuals by name.
For Jesus, the blind weren’t just blind, and the demon possessed weren’t just demon possessed, and the lepers weren’t just lepers. For Jesus each one was a valuable person, a child of God. This is what scandalized those with their Humvee holiness and Ferrari rituals: for Jesus, sinners were never just sinners, they were people to love.
“I have come not to be served, but to serve.” If Jesus was so self‑deprecating and self-effacing, what’s our excuse for not being humble? In a world where people are famous for being famous, the fame of the famous defames and defaces all of us, making it hard to be humble.
We all have our own phylacteries and fringes. You ask, what passes as a giant box of words taped to my head or a spew of cascading fringes alongside my coat in today’s world? How are we continuing to “play pretend” after Halloween in our All Saint’s Day churches?
In every one of our churches there is still a “size factor.” Have you heard of the “3 B’s” — budgets, buildings, baptisms — with the implicit questions that go with each individual “B” — How Much? How Big? How Many? The bigger the parking lot, the bigger the sanctuary, the bigger the operating budget, the bigger the building project, we “pretend” that we have the bigger spiritual footprint.
Not always so. Sometimes it is the smallest congregation, doing the most elementary missions, that are making the most difference in a community. Big churches that run big programs, organize inter-church sports leagues, send members to Catalyst conventions, are no more important than small town or rural churches that offer to drive a few preschoolers home after dark through sketchy neighborhoods or feed them supper. Big fringes, small fringes — it doesn’t matter. Fringes don’t matter. What matters is if the thread that ties the fringes to the garment binds faith to the heart and soul of the body.
There are two things we all know about “profiling.” First, it is illegal and it is wrong. Second, it is what each of us instinctually does every day. We all judge those we encounter on some “gut level” regardless of what we believe and hope and pray for. We like the UPS guy. We cannot stand the checker on Aisle 6 at the grocery store. We know there is some kind of problem with the guy who wears shorts and a fuzzy fur hat as he wanders the neighborhood every day. We make judgments. That is good. We make judgments. That is bad.
The Pharisees “judged” all those who failed to live up to their Torah standards as moral failures, inferior spiritually and unsuccessful citizens. Jesus challenged those assumptions. Jesus dared us to look beyond our instinct to “profile” and instead to seek out a relationship, a true connection, with those who did not have long enough fringes, big enough bank accounts, or normal enough looking lives. Jesus expects his disciples to give each person the grace of acceptance that divine love demands.
The church is not to be a “pretend” place, full of “pretend” people wearing their pretend clothes and pretend faces. No one in the sanctuary this morning has over-sized phylacteries and extra-long fringes. No one is better than anyone else. We are only gathered together here because of our faith in Christ, and because of the sacrifice of Christ which makes us all equal.
Jesus was famous for not looking on the outward surfaces. In Mark 12: 14 it says “They came to him and said, “Teacher, we know that you are a man of integrity. You aren’t swayed by others, because you pay no attention to who they are; but you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth.” The original Greek for “you pay no attention to who they are” or “you do not look on the outward appearance” translates literally “you do not look on the face” or “you do not look at faces.” In other words, Jesus does not look on the surface. Jesus does not look on faces — at face values, at face lifts, “on the face of it.” Jesus looks on the heart. Jesus looks behind the face at the deeper truths of the heart.
We have a God who doesn’t look on outward appearances (1 Samuel 16:7; John 7:24, 2 Cor.5:12). Jesus looked beyond the face to the heart. We don’t need a church of Humvee holiness, but of heart holiness, or humble holiness.
Each one of the three great monotheistic faiths has holy sites. But there is a difference between what makes a site “holy.” For Jews and Muslims, holy sites are places that are sanctified by a sacred event and recorded in their Scriptures.
Christians have a different understanding of “pilgrimage.” Christians have always gone on pilgrimages, not to where something important happened in the history of the faith, but where Jesus walked or great saints lived and died and performed their miracles. In other words, Christian pilgrimages tried to enter into the presence of holiness and to touch the saints, even their dead bodies, even taking away with them “relics” which made every day a pilgrimage.
This week, I challenge you to take a pilgrimage. We have our own “All Saints.” The “All Saints” are the “All Stars” of this church. This week I invite you to enter their presence, touch them, and give thanks to God for them by praying over them a prayer of gratitude and thanksgiving. We don’t “beatify saints.” Pope John Paul II beatified 592 men and women between 1979 and 1994. But we can beautify them with our prayers and attention, letting them know that they are on our “All Saints” list for this church.
Will you join me and take an “All Saints” pilgrimage this week?