Culture wars--a perspective from the Gospel of Luke

In Matthew 23 verse 4, Jesus says “Do not be like the Pharisees; for they tie up heavy burdens (hard to carry) and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they will not lift a finger to move them.”

Let us not be like that. How do we act this way today? The Pharisees were teachers of the law, and so had a special responsibility to be kind and generous with their laws, instead of piling on impossible demands. Do these words apply to us modern Christians? Oh yes!! We are not excused from the Lord’s challenge. When do we lay heavy burdens on others, without lifting a finger to help them? If we lay a burden, will we help carry it?

When  a young woman becomes pregnant on an impulsive poor choice, discovers too late that her lover is abusive and indifferent to her, faces loss of her job and family if she carries the child through, and we tell her “abortion is a sin” we lay a heavy burden on her. A very heavy burden. Are we prepared to help her carry it? To help raise that child, to provide for this woman, to defend her from her accusers? Or are we sitting in our living room or kitchen, feeling self -righteous and morally upright because we have denounced a “pro choice” political candidate? Beware the leaven of the Pharisee!

When a young man or woman who is gay seeks to share their life in committed love, and wishes to have all of the recognition that society can afford to support and recognize that commitment, and we tell them gay marriage is a sin, we lay a heavy burden indeed. Are we prepared to share the burden? To help carry it? To join in solidarity, denying ourselves the advantages of marriage as well so as to be united with our gay brothers and sisters? To dedicate ourself to them as a family member then? If not, we share the leaven of the Pharisee when we condemn them to a marriage-less life but excuse ourselves from helping!

Whenever we enjoy our electricity, our car, our cheap and abundant meat and other food and our cheap gasoline, our low-priced consumer goods at the mall, we are laying a heavy burden on those who suffer from air pollution, on those whose food is too expensive because we must have our grain-fed meat on our table, on those who labor without a just wage because we must shop at the lowest-priced store in town, on those. Are we prepared to share that burden, to help carry it? To do with less so that they may have a lighter burden or at least to keep ourselves from forgetting?

When we send soldiers to die in a war, but are unwilling to make hard sacrifices that may render the war unnecessary, we lay a heavy burden on them and their families without lifting a finger to help. When we ask those soldiers to kill, but offer nothing to the victims of the war, keeping our own comforts unchanged, being untouched by the horrors they must carry their entire life now, we are laying down still more burdens.

Whenever we urge others to be more responsible, and to make sacrifices, while sitting back and doing nothing to help them, we lay a burden like the Pharisees.

It takes thought, it takes imagination, but most of all it takes personal sacrifice.

Until we make a personal sacrifice in solidarity to back up our morality, our morality is nothing but self-serving, hot air, and empty hypocrisy. It is finger pointing, it is sinful. Jesus had no patience, no tolerance, for this type of hypocrisy or this type of “morality”. In fact, in the entire Gospels he never condemned anyone, except the hypocrites who judged others. Let that give us pause in our loud morality. For as Christians today we practice it all the time, and we watch our politicians stand up and pronounce their hypocrisy and we never call them on it, instead we nod in agreement.

Let me spend less time focusing on “morality for other people,” that is, other people who should not have abortions, who should not get married, who should go off to war on my behalf, who must learn to live with less because I don’t want to think about the connections. Let me spend more time focusing on what morality demands of me personally, on what sacrifice in solidarity I will make to show that my morality is worth paying a personal price for. If a politician denounces abortion, but does not lift a finger to help women who are in a terrible predicament, his morality is empty and not worthy of support. When a politician makes a moral statement and applies it to him or herself, then we may want to listen. And in the meantime, let us all recall, before we denounce and set legal limits on others behavior, that the One who said “do not sin” also said, “do not judge.”