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· 4 viewsA call to be the Church Rather than just look like the Church.
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Esse quam videri (trouble in the world):
Esse quam videri (trouble in the world):
If you’re from North Carolina, if you’ve lived here long enough or if you have taken a long look at the North Carolina state seal, the these words are probably very familiar.
As a fourth grader living in South Carolina, I was required to take South Carolina history and one of the things that I learned was their State motto: While I breath I Hope. My parents being proud North Carolinians, made sure that in addition to knowing the South Carolina motto that I knew these three Latin words as well.
I will have to admit, that as a fourth grader the motto of South Carolina seemed much more straight forward, it didn’t require a great amount of interpretation. As a 4th grader the motto of south Carolina was inspirational and it didn’t require a great amount of interpretation I felt like it was okay if South Carolina had one thing that was better than NC.
But as I have gotten older I have thought quite a git about those three Latin words esse quam videri—> to be rather than to seem... And as I have gotten older and considered those words I’ve realized that there is quite a bit to unpack in our state motto.
To be rather than to seem... those are words that you have to spend time with contemplate for a minute, those are words that you begin to understand after you have lived for awhile, those are words that you understand when family and friends have let you down. To be rather than to seem... are words you begin to understand when you have placed your trust in the wrong kind of people, when you felt someone would live into the nobility of his vision and his ideas but ended up being more talk than action.
To be rather than to seem are words we begin to understand when we recognize difficult moments in our own lives, moments when we fell short of honoring our obligations, moments when we made promises that we weren’t able to keep, moments when being who we should be turns out to be a daunting task.
Moments when being who we should be turns out to be a difficult task.
Trouble in the Text:
Trouble in the Text:
Throughout chapter 11 and 12 of Marks Gospel, Christ is wrestling with this very issue. The people of Jerusalem seem like they are ready for a messiah but they aren’t really ready for Jesus. Scribes, priests, Pharisees and Sadducees act and appear like they are holy, but the reality turns out to be quite different, most of them are really serving themselves and protecting their powerful positions. A Place that was reserved for prayer and worship is turned into a marketplace where travelers and pilgrims on holy journeys are exploited and cheated. A fig tree that is supposed to bear fruit offers none.
To be rather than to seem is at the heart
To be rather than to seem is the big question at the heart of what Christ has to say as he begins his last occasion of public teaching.
Christ doesn’t worry about metaphors or figurative language as he begins to describe the scribes of of the day—> he simply tells the truth in the most straight forward language possible.
Jesus tells all who can hear him, beware of the scribes...
> their appearance
- they appear holy because of their long prayers and their distinguished greetings.
- they want people to see them as they sit in the places of honor in the synagogues and at the banquets of the day.
> The reality is disturbing… The seem holy, They speak like they are holy, but they don’t act like they are holy
-they devour the houses of the widows, the widows couldn’t pay back the loans of their deceased husbands—> so they took the widows’ houses
-they were supposed to care for the vulnerable, the widow, the orphan and the sojourner, but they developed a system that oppressed them.
The scribes were called upon to set an example, their duty was to demonstrate justice, they were tasked with setting an example of how to live according to God’s law and they were called to be administrators of God’s people and judge fairly, in a way that was sensitive to the most vulnerable people in their society.
The scribes were called upon to be good stewards, using their privileged position for the good of the society as whole.
Jesus makes it clear that this task of justice, this obligation of caring for the vulnerable was not something they seemed to care about.
They wanted the prestige that came with their position but not the responsibility that came with their position.
They wanted to seem important, they wanted to seem like people that should be respected and, but their lives and the way they executed the duties their positions did not match the actual commands of God’s law, in the end the challenge of living in the high standards set by the law God gave to Moses proved too much.
They were willing to receive the respect of people in the market place...
They were willing to occupy the place of prominence in the synagogues and at the banquets...
But it was a decaying facade...
They were content to seem like they were important, but they weren’t willing to actually do the hard work of being important, the hard work of taking care of suffering people, the hard work of inspiring people not just to hear the words of God but to do the words of God.