Plastic Men

What the Bible Says
Then, with the crowds listening, he turned to his disciples and said, “Beware of these teachers of religious law! For they like to parade around in flowing robes and love to receive respectful greetings as they walk in the marketplaces. And how they love the seats of honor in the synagogues and the head table at banquets. Yet they shamelessly cheat widows out of their property and then pretend to be pious by making long prayers in public. Because of this, they will be severely punished.” Luke 20:45-47

What My Mind Thinks
It’s interesting that Jesus unmasked the fake preachers in public and not in a private chat to his disciples. Jesus wanted the rank and file to overhear the private discussions of management because in Jesus’ mind there is no separation between clergy and the people. Jesus then and now wants to create dissatisfaction in followers of insincere spiritual leadership. He wants the average pew sitter to be able to distinguish between leaders who gather followers and shepherds who set sheep free to follow to the Good Shepherd. This passage is Jesus’ vaccination against spiritual abuse. If sheep take this warning to heart they will never be kidnapped by sheep rustlers.

Jesus says to sheep, “Beware of these teachers”. In other words, the relationship between Jesus and a Christian must never be tampered with. It can be coached, revived, corrected, encouraged, but no human being can slip in between the Shepherd and his sheep and interfere with that relationship. It is up to the sheep to beware of phonies and to protect their free access to hear Christ and follow him. Jesus isn’t suggesting that sheep should become cynical of all shepherds. Cynicism can sound wise but it is not the voice of God. Sheep need shepherds; that’s a given. They are not to be afraid o following them. Instead, like the Bereans checked their Bibles to be sure that Paul’s voice was God’s word, so too sheep need to turn to Jesus to be sure that they are being led well.

Of course this is not just a message to sheep, it is also a message to shepherds. What was so obvious in a Pharisees can be subtle in us. To put it in modern terms the Pharisees loved their suits and ties, the title of “Pastor”, and the front row seats. They acted like middlemen between givers and God taking a little commission for themselves. They felt hard done by for the hardships of ministry and motherly widows opened their nest eggs to give them the lifestyle they deserved as men of God. Ministry doesn’t offer much money, but there are perks that are even more toxic to the soul. On one hand there are needy people and on the other there are leaders with the time and ability to help. Sometimes the sheep can be too grateful and the shepherds can enjoy the nuzzling of the flock too much.

If a shepherd is to be useful to Christ he must put to death the feeling of being hard done by. Instead he should accept that he is a servant, that life is difficult and sometimes unfair, but he is a servant and that is his duty. He gives without thought of gain and nothing should pollute that purity of service.

Then suitcoats can be removed, sleeves rolled up so work can be done;

then the title of “Pastor” or “Reverend” can remind a leader to serve the people and not himself;

then the seats of honor can be surrendered to those in the back row who need them more than he does.

How My Heart Changes
Sincerity in ministry really matters to Jesus. He says he will “severely punish” frauds. So the challenge to the plastic pastor is not a passing comment. This really matters to Jesus.

It is time to melt down plastic toy leaders into something useful for the kingdom. If they could be molded into a cup or a basin that would be helpful. That must begin in me.

Every pastor needs to look in the mirror while he straightens his tie and ask himself, “Am I serving myself today or am I working with the Shepherd?” There are times I feel hard done by in ministry. That I must dispose of.

How My Spirit Prays
Father, today unwrap the plastic that can surround me. Let my ministry not mask my insincerity but flow from a pure heart. And help me to help other pastors step out of the cellophane of ministry so that they can move from plastic to warm flesh and blood with plenty of heart. Can you help me to help pastors find their way out of the display case and into the lives of their people. Amen.

My Dad worked full time until age 79 and displays well the humilty of age.

She replied, “In your Kingdom, please let my two sons sit in places of honor next to you, one on your right and the other on your left.” But Jesus answered by saying to them, “You don’t know what you are asking! Are you able to drink from the bitter cup of suffering I am about to drink?” “Oh yes,” they replied, “we are able!” Jesus told them, “You will indeed drink from my bitter cup. But I have no right to say who will sit on my right or my left. My Father has prepared those places for the ones he has chosen.” Matthew 21:21-23

Then one of the twenty-four elders asked me, “Who are these who are clothed in white? Where did they come from?” And I said to him, “Sir, you are the one who knows.” Revelation 7:13-14

I watched the movie this week, The Fog of War which features interviews with Robert MacNamara the Secretary of Defense under Kennedy and Johnson. The movie showcases candid interviews with MacNamara at the age of 85 with black and white flash backs from the age of 40 during the days of the Cuban Missile Crisis and Vietnam. Aside from all of the interesting history and politics, what I found gripping was the contrast between a young man wanting to get somewhere in life and an old man humbled by life.

The 40 year old had something of a smirk, a hidden agenda, a desire for power, a penchant to be right. The 80 year old seemed to have more questions, regrets and uncertainties.

I wonder if a similar humbling of age is happening here with John. In the gospels we read how the young man got his mother to put in a good word with Jesus for a box office seat at the coming of the kingdom. But now as an old man there is a humility in John. He is speaking to one of the 24 elders. I would assume that John would become one of those. Twelve of them would be heads of the tribes of Israel and the other 12 the apostles. So in a sense John is speaking to a colleague.

But his answer shows the change of heart that only a 90 year old can show well. “Sir, you are the one who knows.”

Do I have to wait until age has lacerated my face with wrinkles and sucked the color out of my hair? I would like to have some of that same meekness today.

Father, while I grow older let me let me become less certain of myself and more confident with you.

Like a fallen tree now driftwood, there is a disarming beauty about our lives humbled before the Lord. I found this tree on the shores of Fraser Island. I would not want to be surfing while it was tossing in the swell!

Scripture
Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem thirty-one years. He did what was right in the eyes of the LORD and walked in the ways of his father David, not turning aside to the right or to the left. In the eighth year of his reign, while he was still young, he began to seek the God of his father David. In his twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of high places, Asherah poles, carved idols and cast images. In the eighteenth year of Josiah’s reign, to purify the land and the temple, he sent Shaphan son of Azaliah and Maaseiah the ruler of the city, with Joah son of Joahaz, the recorder, to repair the temple of the LORD his God.

While they were bringing out the money that had been taken into the temple of the LORD, Hilkiah the priest found the Book of the Law of the LORD that had been given through Moses. Hilkiah said to Shaphan the secretary, “I have found the Book of the Law in the temple of the LORD.” He gave it to Shaphan. Then Shaphan took the book to the king and reported to him: “Your officials are doing everything that has been committed to them. They have paid out the money that was in the temple of the LORD and have entrusted it to the supervisors and workers.” Then Shaphan the secretary informed the king, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.” And Shaphan read from it in the presence of the king. When the king heard the words of the Law, he tore his robes.

Tell the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the LORD, ‘This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says concerning the words you heard: Because your heart was responsive and you humbled yourself before God when you heard what he spoke against this place and its people, and because you humbled yourself before me and tore your robes and wept in my presence, I have heard you, declares the LORD. 2 Chronicles 34:1-8; 14-19; 26-27

Observation
I put more of the Scripture reading today because this is an 18 year long segment of a leader’s life. It can’t be summarized in just a verse.

Just before Josiah got his two front teeth, he had become king at the tender age of eight. Of course he only played king while others ruled for him. Just 8 years later, in the middle of an outbreak of teenage acne, ripples of gossip chattered the royal court. The teenager was on a religious kick, reading dusty books, talking to toothless grandfathers, and praying to the God everyone in the land knew was as old fashioned as the robes from David’s day. Everyone agreed that though it was shocking the fad certainly would pass.

But it didn’t. Now sporting a fuzzy beard the athletic twentysomething king was in everyone’s eyes a religious fanatic. He was tearing down the most cherished shrines of the nation and doing a refurbishment of the old Temple building. The walls were stained with pigeon droppings, gold was peeling off of cedar panels, awnings were sagging, and decades of religious junk crowded every walkway and storeroom.

All the while God didn’t say a word. We have no record of how heaven felt while the boy turned teenager and then into a man. There’s not even a prophetic hint of how the Lord looked on the clouds of dust every time another pagan shrine was toppled. Heaven is silent until the Bible book was found, read and the king was on his face in torn clothes. During the days of his father, King Manasseh, Bible books disappeared. But one was hidden in the Temple for safekeeping, probably inside of a wall. When the money box was pried loose, out tumbled the real treasure. The book was probably Deuteronomy. Watered with the voice of Shaphan the secretary, the dusty words of Moses sprang to life. There was the word of God in plain speech about everyday life.

There is something about the Word of God when it comes alive and touches everyday life. The Holy Spirit leaps out of history into our modern world and shows us on one hand how little has changed with human beings while on the other how much must change for us to live lives pleasing to the Lord.

King Josiah tore his tailor-made suit to shreds. His crown rolled down the throne stairs and the royal nose was pressed onto the cold stone pavement. Wails not heard since the days of David ricocheted through the palace. And then, for the first time in 18 years of silence, God spoke.

This says something about the life that gets God’s attention. The 16-year-old seeking God was a start. The 20-year-old working hard for honorable ends was a good continuation. But it was the 26-year-old young man with his face on the ground, divested of his position in life, weeping in view of all he lead that brought God out into the open.

Isaiah, the prophet sawn in half while hiding in a hallow oak log by Josiah’s own father, summed it up just a few years before:

The high and lofty one who lives in eternity, the Holy One, says this: “I live in the high and holy place with those whose spirits are contrite and humble. I restore the crushed spirit of the humble and revive the courage of those with repentant hearts.” Isaiah 57:15

I will bless those who have humble and contrite hearts, who tremble at my word. Isaiah 66:2

Josiah’s great-grandfather put it well:

It is good for a man to bear the yoke while he is young. Let him sit alone in silence, for the LORD has laid it on him. Let him bury his face in the dust—there may yet be hope. Lamentations 3:27-29

Application
There is nothing in my life that impresses God. My yearnings for him do not impress, my works for him do not turn his head. It is when I am disarmingly honest with my shortcomings that God responds to me. Isn’t it odd that we exert so much effort impressing others and pleasing the Lord, but that what he seeks most is what I don’t want others to know about me. It wasn’t a king in regal robes taking action that pleased the Lord. It was a man with a ripped shirt and an accessible heart who interested him most.

Prayer
Father, I’m sitting in Starbucks at the moment, so I don’t think it is appropriate that I rip my shirt. But know that in my heart I am on my knees. I’m in a phase of life where there is an allurement to impress others. But you simply want me face down with nothing to offer but frayed edges. Father, see me as I am and use me as only you can do. Amen.