Getting started At our church determining a sermon title is a Thursday morning obligation and, to be truthful, it is usually a hurried, not-too-completely-thought-through activity. So, backed into a corner and forced to say something, I wrote down ``the judging dilemma.'' Obviously our passage has a lot to do with ``judging'' and, just listening to the passage read, we think things like: ``of course, being judgmental is a bad thing.'' ``But wait, aren't there occasions when it is important to make judgments?'' ``Where is the line between `being judgmental' and a more `judicious discernment' `` It doesn't take too long to feel ourselves to be, when it comes to judging, on the horns of a dilemma.
I assume that all of us have felt ourselves to be, at various times in our lives, on all sides of the judgment question. It is an unpleasant experience to feel oneself to be unfairly judged. Some things we can move beyond rather quickly. A burly driver's raised digit makes a comment on our driving skills as he barrels by…that we can get over. Or an English teacher judges your paper to be a B when you thought you deserved an A. This we can overcome.
But when judgment is passed that reflects on our very personhood, these judgments penetrate and injure at a deeper level. Judgments rendered that aim at one's religious convictions, one's ethnicity, one's sexual orientation, or perhaps on one's social and intellectual statusthese are of a different degree of seriousness.
We've all felt judged but then too, we all know that we have been guilty of judging others. There's a certain satisfaction in lobbing, as it were, verbal grenades towards someone who is clearly beyond the pale. But it is usually a fleeting satisfaction because if our hearts are sensitive we are left with that ugly feeling inside that we have wronged another person, even if they didn't hear what we had to say.
``Judge not…'' Jesus says to not judge others. This verb can have a variety of nuances, ranging from ``to condemn'' all the way to a more pleasing ``to discern'' or ``to judge judicially.'' The clear and obvious meaning here is that Jesus is referring to a judgmental spirit, a critical and condemning attitude. Then Jesus offers a colorfully playful illustration to graphically make his point. Imagine the tiniest speck of sawdust nestled in the corner of your neighbor's eye. And then picture yourself with a veritable plank in your own eye. Isn't it abundantly obvious, before you can pay any attention to the speck in the other person's eye, you need to take care of the problem with your own eye? Jesus' word to us is, before you venture out to speak hard words to others, be very sure that your own house is in order. So what does this mean? Are we paralyzed? Can we not speak to things that really matter to us? We think of the prophet Nathan striding into King David's presence, telling a pointed story that enrages the king, and then dramatically pointing to the king, and in a voice dripping with righteous judgment saying ``you are the man!'' We remember the prophet Amos addressing the extravagant practices of the Israelite people with a voice full of sarcasm, ``you cows of Bashan…'' Jesus himself was no stranger to harsh, even judgmental, words. He addressed the Pharisees and Sadducees with the biting words ``you brood of vipers…'' (Mt. 3:7) He called people ``hypocrites.'' It is used right here in this passage! His words were judgmental enough, upsetting the authorities of his time so much that he was condemned to die. The passage makes the exaggerated point about taking the beam out of your own eye before you worry about the speck in the other person's eye. But, and this is important, we note that Jesus doesn't stop at ``take the log out of your own eye.'' Rather, he gives permission to go on, to not hold one's tongue concerning the speck in the neighbor's eye. Speaking the truth We know that life is full of times where we have to make judgments, or be judged. A normal day in any home where there are parents and children will contain its moments of judgment. You go to the workplace. Most will have the experience of having their work evaluated, judged, by others. Many of us will have the experience of evaluating, or judging the performance of others. These are important, necessary endeavors which demand that we learn to ``speak the truth'' and often we might add with Paul (Eph. 4:15) ``speak the truth in love.'' But of course in the maze of inter-personal relationships, somewhere in the chemistry of words, nuance, body language, and tonal inflection, miscommunication happens and one person's sincere attempt to speak lovingly and truthfully may be understood to be far too judgmental. Sometimes we just give up and prefer flight to the difficult work of the hard conversation. That's something that is commonly thought about in our own Mennonite circles. We are prone to listen, quietly listen, to each other for a long time, perhaps giving the silent impression that we agree, or perhaps not. Then suddenly we just check out, we leave, and the chance to talk about it evaporates. Some applications to consider Mother Teresa once said ``if you judge people you do not have time to love them.'' I'd like to think with you about some ways in which we might be actively involved, in the best possible ways, in being wise and discerning people, without falling into the pitfall of a judgmental spirit. I wrote Daryl Byler early this past week. Daryl is the director of MCC's Washington Office. The Washington Office is very small, and located very close to the Capitol. Daryl and others in the office write and speak, expressing strong viewpoints emanating from an Anabaptist/Mennonite understanding of Christian faith, and trying to reflect how that impacts public policy. Daryl's right in the middle of this dilemma of judging and discerning. Obviously people of faith, and certainly Mennonites, can hold varying viewpoints on the issues the Washington Office tackles. Daryl thinks about these things a lot. You may recall that a couple years ago Daryl went on an extended fast, forty days total, prior to the beginning of the Iraq war. Out of that experience he wrote the following in an ``open letter'' to his children. He said: I began this time of fasting feeling angry..perhaps in part ``righteous anger'', but not altogether so! As my children, you have unfortunately too often seen this anger over the yearsthe frustration of many ``great causes'' on which I have worked. As the fast progressed I found my anger giving way to a profound sense of sadness about the direction our country seems to be headed and my own complicity in that hurtful path. If peace and justice work is to have integrity, it must begin with being transformed. I think this idea of personal (and corporate) transformation being necessary, prior to the work ``out there'' reflects the spirit of Jesus' words ``take the log out of your own eye before you attend to the speck in your neighbor's eye.'' This transformation, this rejuvenation of the heart, speaks to the way in which we approach others, be they sisters and brothers in our own congregation, or beyond, or to political leaders. It is critical that we recognize our own shortcomings, our own failings that we in a sense all stand on the same groundnone is without fault or blame. A ``spirit of gentleness,'' which Paul speaks of in Galatians, should set the tone of our speech. It is also important to be informed, to gather information, and to wade into the murky waters of determining fact from fiction. Deciding who to listen to and what to believe is no small task. I read an interesting article the other day reflecting on communications deregulation and the influence of talk radio. When you think of all the different radio stations, the plethora of cable tv outlets, and all the on-line blots, there's a lot of information out there. But more information doesn't necessarily make it easier to figure out what is truth. To be honest, we are likely all inclined to believe the sources we are most likely to agree with in the first place. But another important part of ``judging'' is to participate in a studied process of community discernment. When we try to discern or judge a path we are helped if we listen to our community, if we hear more than just our own voice. The community provides in effect a counter-balance, and helps us to leave to the side our own personal biases. Doesn't attending to the log in your own eye before looking for the speck in your neighbor's eye also imply that the goal of the encounter is restoration, growth, and grace? I think of the VORP process with its goal to ``make things right.'' What can be done so that relationships are restored, and so that the equilibrium between people is balanced again? You have surely followed the growing political rhetoric in our country, and the intersection of Christian people with the political process. It seems that Christians are more and more aggressive about connecting their faith to public policy. Mennonites are not immune to this. The Washington Office is one place where this happens. Here Mennonite theology and the on-the-ground experiences of MCC people around the world are brought to bear on public policy. Often this is in the form of storythis is what we have seen and heard, this is the impact of this particular policy on friends of ours. It is thorny when we find ourselves full of negative, judgmental thoughts about other Christians, particularly if one takes the challenge of Christian unity seriously. And I do. This has somehow seemed, in my own experience, easier the farther I get from the United States. But what does one do right here with a neighbor in our own land claims Christ but the implications for them seem so far different from what it means for you, especially politically? What is judging, what is just good community discernment? Where is the line? For me it is at the point where we deny, or denigrate, or imply superiority in our own brand of Christianity over another'sthis attitude or tone is over the line. We should not disparage the faith of another, or deny their sincerity. We have these dynamics in our own congregation. Some of us will vote Republican, some Democrat, some Green. We hold different views on homosexuality. We hold different views on the war in Iraq. We will have different views on the role of unions, on environmental issues, on the legacy of Cesar Chavez, on the capitalist economic system, on immigration policy, and more. I believe we can and should approach these and other issues from a position rooted in our faith. But we should not demean or call into question the faith of another just because they do not come out at the same place we do. I hope that as a congregation we can be a place populated with transformed people, people very conscious of our own shortcomings and willing to deal with them, and then available too to offer a discerning word to the brother or sister down the aisle. Amen.
