Mission diminished

Matthew 23:23-26

   

            I am not sure what the fixation on minutia really does... for anyone. The focus on the truly less than important is something I have thought of as long as I have read his passage. I'd like to give you a few examples and thoughts.

           There was a young Presbyterian woman from Canada who happened to fall in love with a young Catholic boy who was in the American Military stationed near the boarder. In approaching marriage each sought the advice of their respective churches. Imagine the shock when the young man was told he would go to hell for marrying a Presbyterian (outside the church). Suddenly the man realized, he didn't want to be Catholic. 

            I had a mentor of sorts for a while. This religious man was assigned to me and very active in his church. He preached, taught, volunteered. One thing he taught was religious education to a group eighth graders. One of his self admitted classes involved a discussion of how some of the boys looked at Playboy. To this man, that was considered a mortal sin and he belted out such condemnation to these eighth graders.  Having gone through similar training, I had to ask myself "does he even know what a Mortal sin is?" If it is not self evident, it involves a grave matter, life and death. It is a serious and deliberate turning away from God and away from your good nature as God created you.  I can understand the immorality of pornography and how it can demean people. Is this what the eight grader is choosing when he looks? Is it more of a natural instinct? Another words, is it really a mortal sin? The focus (and erroneous focus) on such minutia is one of the things that keeps us all screwed up.

           One of the things that Pope Francis said when he was elected Pope was that the church perhaps focused too much on (on what I call minutia) what he said were important issues but certainly not the most important.  By spending so much time railing about hot button issues, however important to your faith, you diminish the true message of Christ which is really what any Christian church is all about. Case in point is the right to life. Abortion is the number one scourge of the land but respecting life in other forms seems to fall dramatically by the way side. Is that right? The mission becomes diminished.

         Lastly, when my husband and I first decided to live together, we had to deal with some practicalities of life and how each of us lived. All evidence pointed to me being a slob and we would be sharing some smaller quarters. Imagine two almost 50 somethings trying to move in together. Think The odd couple. I certainly could fixate on whether the toilet paper goes over or under, the tooth paste gets squeezed on the end or in the middle or that the dishes must be loaded in the dishwasher just so. To what point? What is the reason for moving in together? Was it love? Was it a commitment to share and make a new life? Is that the take home message or is how you squeeze the toothpaste? We are keenly aware of how blessed we are in having found each other and how graced we are to share the time we have. Toothpaste and toilet paper be damned!

           If you have the ability to look at a subject or situation and see what is truly important you have a true gift. If you don't have that gift it will be something that has to be worked at but it leads to a world of happiness and freedom from minutia. 

   

   

‘Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill, and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. It is these you ought to have practised without neglecting the others. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel!

‘Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup, so that the outside also may become clean.