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25th SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
Our lessons provide us with fitting examples of spiritual journey, faithful and
obedient living, and the call to authenticity. We are offered a sketch of Israel’s
journey of faith as they prepare to cross the Jordan, listen to Paul as he describes the
kind of life that he lived among those he sought to win to Christ, and we watch Jesus
speak to authentic vis-à-vis inauthentic religious practice. Enjoy these great and
saintly passages around which to model our own lives.
Joshua 3:1-17—Taking the First Step is Always the Hardest
God tells Joshua to lead the people across the Jordan River at its highest flood
stage—early spring. The cavalcade must have been striking—the Levites in the
front and half mile back the various tribes following. The scene suggests an appropriate
visual metaphor for the faith journey: taking that first step in faith—even when all
the facts aren’t in or all the data tested for veracity. The Levites had to enter the
water in faithful obedience and then God did what no one else could do—God opened the
way for Israel to pass through. Such is the way of faith-journeying . . .
1 Thessalonians 2:9-13—Leading by Example
In this passage, Paul recalls the care with which he had lived among these
pre-Christian Thessalonians on his first encounter with them. He quite willingly earned
his keep precisely so he would not cause hardship to those to whom he preached; he wanted
nothing to hinder his proclamation of the good news. So Paul placed his motives for coming
to them in full public view—by witness and walk. Such authenticity and careful living
continues to inform the deportment among those we live and offer pastoral care. We all are
called to walk in a way that honors the one who calls us to follow and proclaim good news.
Matthew 23:1-12—Servanthood in Profession and Practice
Matthew now moves us from direct conflict and discourse with the religious leaders to
indirect discourse about them. What had lain hidden from view, Jesus now shouts from the
rooftops. At issue is transparency of motive. The religious leaders are duplicitous and
inauthentic. "Do what they say, but not what they do" Jesus warns his listeners.
Not everything that looks like a banana, is yellow, and hangs in a bunch is a banana.
Beware, appearances can deceive. After giving some telltale clues of thinly veiled
hubris—enlarged phylacteries and long tassels—Jesus cuts to the chase and
teaches what he wants modeled among his disciples: servanthood in profession and practice.
