Trinity IV                                                                                                                                                           Forrest Burgett

Trinity Anglican Church                                                                                                                                      Given 06/20/10

“Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.  Judge not, and ye shall not be judged.”    (St. Luke vi.36.)

A wife asked her husband if she looked heavier in the blue or the green dress.  Being of sound mind and wishing to remain so, he answered, “You look great in both.  Pick the one that highlights your eyes”.

We all recognize certain situations where expressing brutally honest judgment is ill advised.  Even Jesus did not harp on people’s sins.  Instead, He encouraged them to improve their ways.  It is significant that Jesus never confused subjective personal opinions with real judgment about “matters of consequence”.  Our Gospel today is about judgment, condemnation, forgiveness and mercy about “matters of consequence”.

When we are told, “forgive and ye shall be forgiven”, Jesus is not telling the wives to forgive their husbands for wearing inappropriate socks.  As Janie always said, “You are not likely to change the man but you can change his clothes.

Our subject here is “matters of consequence”.  They are not opinions and they are not reflections of current trends.  They are serious matters based on an unchanging standard.  They require that we analyze and evaluate a situation and then compare our options to our God given unchanging standard.

Being created in the image of God, we have been given the capacity to judge, to condemn, to forgive and to show mercy.  Proper exercise of our judgment depends on our ability to match our decision to that unchanging standard.  We have many different standards in our lives.  Some are related to nature and the world around us.  Our judgment in these areas gets better as our understanding of the world increases.  Our unchanging standard – being related to the spiritual world – is not as readily observable in this life.  But we know our judgment in these areas also gets better as our understanding increases.  We apply whatever effort is necessary to increase our understanding of the physical world.  We can do no less with respect to the spiritual world.  The correct answers are not automatically created in our consciences.  The conscience must be trained just as we train our bodies to accomplish what we desire in the physical world.

Think about your drive home today.  You will judge the speed of oncoming cars before pulling out into the street.  You will evaluate the likelihood of other cars stopping before they enter your path.  You will estimate the distance needed to stop, based on the speed you are traveling and the conditions of the road.  These are real judgments that can have serious consequences.  In addition, you will probably decide what radio station or CD suits your mood and whether to get lunch on the way home.  While less serious in nature, these are judgments too.  Judgment is a God-given ability and we use it constantly if not always consciously.

You will hear the last part of our text today quoted frequently.  It is generally used when people attempt to explain their tolerance or indifference to controversial subjects.  Often, it is used to explain the discrepancy between their consciences and their lives.  Ask five people about abortion and at least one will say, “I couldn’t do it, but each person should control their own body.  Judge not, and ye shall not be judged”.  Ask five people about capital punishment and at least one will say, “I couldn’t make that decision, but it is necessary for society.  Judge not and ye shall not be judged”.  These are just two of many examples where the standards promoted by society conflict directly with our unchanging spiritual standards.

This phrase is often used to imply that judging should not and is not being done.  In reality, judging is occurring.  The person who has an abortion, the person who performs an abortion and the people who finance the operation have all made the judgment that abortion is appropriate - at least in their particular case.  In each individual case involving capital punishment, more than one judge and/or jury have made or verified a judgment.  It is an integral part of our nature and it is easier to quit eating than it is to quit judging.

This guideline on judgment is sometimes used to avoid real thinking about a subject.  We must remember the standards apply with or without conscious thought.  Others use it to ignore or destroy the standard by which judgment is to be made.  This is the more serious infraction.  This phrase was not intended to provide a way to ignore, eliminate or diminish the standards.

We are pretty good at acknowledging the standards of the physical world.  The standards of the spiritual aspects of our lives are not so clear.  And yet, our spiritual survival depends on observing, understanding and judging correctly with respect to these unchanging standards.  The standards are unchangeable because they were created whole and perfect.  It is only our understanding of them that is imperfect and subject to change.

This Gospel today is a revelation about how to apply those spiritual standards.  This phrase is telling us how to handle the tendency of man to sin.  It tells us how to deal with those who sin.  It tells us how to handle our own sin.  It says nothing about changing the standards.

“Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.  Judge not, and ye shall not be judged:  condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned:  forgive, and ye shall be forgiven”

 Every time we are merciful, we are imitating the life of Christ.  We are exercising our God-given nature.  Being merciful is not implying approval of the offender’s actions.  It is acknowledging the offender’s tendency to sin while remembering our own.  We are told to avoid condemning anyone for their sins and pray that we shall not be condemned for our own.  We are told to forgive and we shall be forgiven.

Consider this text in the light of Jesus’ many reminders.  “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”  “Love your neighbor as yourself.”  “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”  “Cast out first the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to pull out the mote that is in thy brother’s eye.”

We have a tendency to jump to judgment in those cases where it is really a matter of opinion.  We often refuse to judge those cases where it is a matter of a spiritual standard handed to us by God.  That tendency is easy to explain.  We have little to lose by preferring a green dress to a blue dress if we phrase our response in the right manner.  Our very salvation is at risk when our unchanging, God-given, spiritual standards are involved.  They are subtle and easily overlooked in our fast-paced world.  They are only observable as the fruit of good works.

We are told “every tree is known by its own fruit”.  “A good man, out of the good treasure of his heart, bringeth forth that which is good;  and an evil man, out of the evil treasure of his heart, bringeth forth that which is evil:  for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh”.  We must weigh carefully every word we utter.  Our speech and our judgment reflect what is in our hearts, souls and minds.  We know that God loves every one of use without exception.  But I’m sure He prefers “fruits of the spirit” to “religious nuts”.

Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

(St. Matthew  v. 16.)