This is one of those mornings that the lectionary kind of acts as its own commentary, and as one considers the text, we need to ask who has understanding? Who are the Pharisees of this age? And who are the lawyers? And a rebuke against the prosperity gospel, for many who appear rich are standing on an unsteady pile of other people’s money, or got their seed cash by nefarious means.

Be not afraid when a man becomes rich, when the glory of his house increases. For when he dies he will carry nothing away; his glory will not go down after him. For though, while he lives, he counts himself blessed —and though you get praise when you do well for yourself— his soul will go to the generation of his fathers, who will never again see light.

Man in his pomp yet without understanding is like the beasts that perish.

(Psalm 49:16-20 ESV)

True wealth is not measured in the kilograms of gold or silver you have, or the number of your cattle, or the size of your toy chest. It is not measured by the number of letters after your name. It is instead a culture of righteousness, of connections.

Consider that the Pharisee is akin to the Puritan or Dominican — he wants people to live rightly. There is a truth within that: Jesus himself said that the Pharisees sat on the seat of Moses. They had their theology fairly together. And the lawyers made case-law, and case-law was binding the people in precedent, while the Pharisees made regulations (for the people’s’ “own good”) that equally enslaved.

While Jesus was speaking, a Pharisee asked him to dine with him, so he went in and reclined at table. The Pharisee was astonished to see that he did not first wash before dinner. And the Lord said to him, “Now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. You fools! Did not he who made the outside make the inside also? But give as alms those things that are within, and behold, everything is clean for you.

“But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and every herb, and neglect justice and the love of God. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the best seat in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces. Woe to you! For you are like unmarked graves, and people walk over them without knowing it.”

One of the lawyers answered him, “Teacher, in saying these things you insult us also.” And he said, “Woe to you lawyers also! For you load people with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers. Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets whom your fathers killed. So you are witnesses and you consent to the deeds of your fathers, for they killed them, and you build their tombs. Therefore also the Wisdom of God said, ‘I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and persecute,’ so that the blood of all the prophets, shed from the foundation of the world, may be charged against this generation, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, it will be required of this generation. Woe to you lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge. You did not enter yourselves, and you hindered those who were entering.”

(Luke 11:37-52 ESV)

How does this now work in this time? Well, our public religion is no longer Christian: I wish that it was. Instead it is a post modern syncretic blend of atheism and paganism. The modern activists, like the lawyers,, take away the key of knowledge. They do not want us to understand. They do not want us to love, to grieve, to feel shame, to repent, to fail (again) and (again) turn for salvation. They do not want to acknowledge a law: instead they want us to keep regulation upon regulation.

We may not tithe our herbs, but we are vegan and gluten-free.

We may not give to the poor, but we boycott and protest.

We may say there is no law, but we damn those who do not fit into the neat categories of our progressive plantation. For all must obey, all must be slaves.

I am speculating now, but I wonder if the Pharisees and Lawyers of Jesus time will damn us. If the cities Jesus said were under judgment in Galilee will say that they are more justified.

For this generation takes the words of Christ, and has decided that they are not to be spoken, not to be discussed, not to be proclaimed. They have proclaimed that all must be comfortable: we cannot confront, and instead we must remain under bondage in this life, with perdition to follow.

And this is within the church. For we have stopped preaching the law, we have stopped confronting, in the false hope that if we are therapeutic and understanding this will lead to salvation. This is not the case. Firstly, within therapy one organizes people to confront their own errors of thinking. Secondly, the law is needed for salvation: we need to understand, painfully and repeatedly, that we need the Spirit of God to do good, for if we listen to our own desires we will descend into a slothful decadence.

Which is very evident in this generation. If we love God, we will obey his commands. And in this time, that will make us stand out, and standing out, we will attract hatred.

So be it. There are more important things than the approval of those who want to enslave us.