From the Daily Lectionary for Thursday in the Seventeenth Week after Pentecost
Luke 6:1-11
One Sabbath while Jesus was going through the cornfields, his disciples plucked some heads of grain, rubbed them in their hands, and ate them. But some of the Pharisees said, “Why are you doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?” Jesus answered, “Have you not read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He entered the house of God and took and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and gave some to his companions?” Then he said to them, “The Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”
On another Sabbath he entered the synagogue and taught, and there was a man there whose right hand was withered. The scribes and the Pharisees watched him to see whether he would cure on the Sabbath, so that they might find an accusation against him. Even though he knew what they were thinking, he said to the man who had the withered hand, “Come and stand here.” He got up and stood there. Then Jesus said to them, “I ask you, is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save life or to destroy it?” After looking around at all of them, he said to him, “Stretch out your hand.” He did so, and his hand was restored. But they were filled with fury and discussed with one another what they might do to Jesus.
We need institutions… churches, hospitals, schools, government. Institutions enable us to pool our collective wisdom and organize that wisdom into a system of best practices. Institutions reflect the culture, of course, for good and ill. In that regard they are subject to the seduction of power, control, and self-interest. Institutions, like the culture, have a tendency to become self-perpetuating, which becomes, at least, a distraction from the original purpose for which the institution was founded in the first place.
Institutions quite naturally have a life cycle. They fall apart and die; and then they have the opportunity to reassess their purpose, to search the collective soul, as it were, and begin anew. The Jesus movement of the first century was a voice that called out the institutional self-perpetuating self-interest of the day. Not only did the followers of Jesus critique the abusive system of governance by the Romans, they also leveled a scathing critique at the Temple establishment in particular, and towards Judaism in general. The religious establishment had become ossified, set in its ways. It had turned inward. It had abandoned its advocacy for the poor. It was complicit with the imperial order.
At its heart, the Jesus movement had the mind of reformers, not unlike Martin Luther and his followers in the late fifteenth century. This excerpt from Luke captures the tension between institutional dysfunction, namely, the corruption of the Temple leadership, and its true purpose.Jesus and his disciples are being critiqued by the Jewish leadership for not observing, by the letter of the law, the Sabbath. Jesus heals a man with a withered hand, and is upbraided by the Pharisees and Scribes for not properly observing the holiest day of the week. Jesus reminds the learned elite that the purpose of the institution is salvation, healing being the outward and visible sign. The Sabbath merely serves… the purpose, not the reverse. When the purpose is subverted in deference to the institution, then we are lost. We have erred from the path. Jesus states in Matthew’s Gospel, “The Sabbath was made for man… not man for the Sabbath.” The institution is merely the means to a larger purpose.
Jesus, however, doesn’t forsake the institution. Instead he calls for its reform. He calls on it to awake to its mission; to remember that God is about raising up all of dishonorable and low estate. He is offering a reality check; calling for the institution to remember its roots.
One of the hallmarks of post-modernity is the questioning of our institutions and their authority. That is not a bad thing. The present pandemonium has intensified such questioning. We see with a new-found clarity our own institutional dysfunction: The flaws in our for-profit healthcare system. Our country was founded by immigrants, and yet we are scapegoating those at our borders seeking a sustainable life. Our country and its government were founded upon the rule of law, and justice and equality for all people. We now see the rule of law being undermined; and we see the rampant injustice that infects our common life. Colleges and universities have priced themselves out of reach for the majority of those seeking an advanced education. Student debt is thwarting the emergence of a twenty-first century middle class. Even the church with its lofty mission of salvation, has acquiesced to self-perpetuation, opting for solace and comfort only, casting a blind eye to the public advocacy to which the Gospels call us.
In short, our institutions are dying, but that will open the way to reform and new life. We have to be present and aware of the process, and most of all, aware of what we are here for in the first place… and we have to speak and act as if our lives, and the lives of our neighbors, depend upon our words and actions. Because they do. We should allow our institutions a “good death,” and do all in our power and skill to remake them with integrity guided under the aegis of love. I believe the institutional pain we now feel are the birth pangs of a new way ahead. I pray that is true. I pray we have the courage to make it so.
A Prayer for the Church (BCP p. 816)
Gracious God, we pray for your holy Catholic Church. Fill it with all truth, in all truth with all peace. Where it is corrupt, purify it; where it is in error, direct it; where in any thing it is amiss, Reform it. Where it is right, strengthen it; where it is in want, provide for it; where it is divided, reunite it; for the sake of Jesus Christ your Son our Savior. Amen.
