“You Can’t Please Everyone!”
Exodus 17: 1-7
Matthew 21: 23-27
First Presbyterian Church
The Reverend Dr. Bruce Archibald
November 13, 2011
OLD TESTAMENT LESSON: The Old Testament lesson for this morning takes us to the narrative of the Hebrew slaves and their escape from Egypt. Their hope was freedom and promise of a nation. Today’s lesson takes place early in the Exodus tradition and the people were beginning to form a trust with their leader, Moses. At the same time Moses was developing a relationship with God. What we are given is a portrait of a leader who was reluctant and unsure of himself. The Hebrew people were angered and frustrated at their predicament. You will notice that Moses shifted their dissatisfaction from himself to God. Moses responded: “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord?” Moses is learning that as a leader, YOU CAN’T PLEASE EVERYONE!
NEW TESTAMENT LESSON: The gospel of Matthew was written at a time when the new faith in Jesus had grown beyond the Jewish community and was beginning to develop an identity of its own. Prior to that, the early Christians were considered a cult of Judaism. Most of the recipients of Matthew were still Jews but there were a growing number of converts. Matthew wanted to explain the conflict between Jesus and the authorities within the Jewish community. So, when Matthew refers to “the Jews’ it helps to remembered that the author himself was a Jew. In the lesson for this morning, Jesus is in a controversy with the leaders of the temple. Jesus knew that he would not be able to please these leaders. He turned the question on them, asking a question that they would not answer. Jesus and the temple hierarchy knew: YOU CAN” PLEASE EVERYONE!
The challenge seems to be: how are we as Christians to love our neighbor in a contentious society. I remember my seventh grade teacher’s lesson that “you can’t please everyone.” I find that I really would like to be able to do just that. I, like most of you, would like to be liked and would rather have friends than enemies. Besides I am a retired pastor and pastors are expected to please everyone. Recently I was at a meeting with other clergy sitting at a table. There were two factions that definitely would cancel out each others vote on any issue. I was ignored even when I offered a smile. I found myself wanting to tell my estranged colleges, “Look, I’m a nice guy!” We are Christians and there is a belief that we are suppose to get along with other folks. Christian or not we are social beings and the stress in our lives is often related to interactions with others. We depend on people, need people and are frustrated by people. In today’s world it seems that there is little middle ground in which to compromise on any issue. Name any social or political issue and we hear more from the extremes then we do about the common ground (the economy, politics, right or life or right to choose, or issues of equality to name a few).
The biblical tradition of the Exodus was quite clear that poor ‘'lo Moses was constantly running into attacks from the very people he led away from slavery. God freed them but Moses was their leader. Moses was the contact between God and the people. So, when anything went wrong, guess who caught it. In turn, he went to God and tried to straighten out the problem and find a new strategy to please the folks, I guess you could say, Moses was an early “middle manager.” and that proved to not be an easy task. How do you organize a band of unprepared slaves, lead them into the desert, create a nation and meet the goals of upper management - God, well, you can’t please everyone, can you, Moses? But, he continued to respond to the demands of the people and to the covenant made with God. Still, after never pleasing everyone, a nation was formed. The promised land was made a reality.
Jesus of Nazareth knew, too, that one could not please everyone. But he continued to lead, teach, and heal. Jesus, in his time, was not really popular. When we read back from two centuries, we lose sight of the fact that our Lord made a lot of powerful enemies. The religious and political establishment of his day had him executed. In the lesson for this morning we read that the Chief Priests wanted to confront him. “By what authority do you do these things?” they wanted to know. That was a perfectly legitimate question: when the chief priest faced almost constant persecution from Rome. To have some unknown prophet going around talking about the Kingdom of God and in the face of Rome was dangerous. No wonder Jesus was questioned about his authority. He turned the question back to them asking about the authority of John the Baptist, a popular and powerful man that had just been executed by the king. The chief priests were unable to answer the question because they were afraid of the reaction from the followers of John. Neither they nor Jesus could please Rome, the King or the people. You know it is tough to be a leader, a middle manager or a chief priest? That goes for Ministers of Music too, Cindy.
I want to share with you the theory of management that Beth and I worked out years ago that has helped with professional frustrations. Accept that you can’t please everyone. Any decisions you will make, approximately 50% will not agree and 50% will. In reality only 5% on either side really care enough to do anything about it. So, the real problem is the 5% opposed. The question for management is what to do with the 5%? That can make the whole process a lot easier, doesn’t it? Except the 5% takes 80% of your energy.
Our culture depends on pleasing. Television programming is judged by ratings and commercial success. Therefore to be successful a TV program must appeal to the majority and that seems to be the lowest common denominator. Enter the reality TV, news nuts and some situation comedies. Political debate is a lost art because no politician is willing to take an unpopular position that may negatively distinguish themselves from their base. Personally, any one of us may be intimidated by titles placed on us by those who disagree with our beliefs. (Un-American, intellectual, conservative or liberal) The need to please permeates our lives. People seek out communities and social contexts where they can fit in. Some strive all their lives and never succeed. But we already know all this, don’t we?
What, then, is a Christian to do? How do we maintain our identity in a culture that no longer accepts our traditions? To many, our faith is believed to be just another relic that has seen its day. Even within the church there is conflict. Conservatives believe we are too liberal and surprisingly, liberals believe we are too conservative. So why bother to try and please anyone? Frankly, most of us are working hard enough just surviving. Still, we have a mission, a job to do and to be the Body of Christ.
What would happen if I/we, before we considered everyone else, asked: “What would please God?” Given the daily decisions of life and how to cope with our world? “What would please God?” When we turn to our scriptures we read that Jesus was asked similar questions. He quoted from his Hebrew tradition: “Love God completely and our neighbor as ourselves.” This is not a simple a task. How do we please God in all circumstances? We don’t do that well loving ourselves let alone our neighbors. We would like to believe that we can be like Jesus and we have been conditioned by faith communities to think we know how. When it comes right down to it - we don’t.
Let’s start all over again; challenge our presuppositions and our way of thinking before we accept that our situation is hopeless. Let’s begin by stating that Jesus served at God’s pleasure. God is the prime mover and the subject of our faith. We may not know how to please God but God chooses to be pleased. Some believe that to please God is the opposite or antithesis to pleasing others; or that to be a Christian is to be in opposition to our culture or be some sort of religious freak. On the contrary. To be a Christian is to lead, teach and heal actively living in our culture caring about our neighbors. We already know leaders do not please everyone. Moses didn’t. Jesus didn’t. But they changed the world by pleasing God; by grace, by love of all humankind.
It helps to be within the community that proclaims a need or desire to please God. For many of us that is our church. We invite others to lead, teach and heal with us sharing in the experience of wanting to please God and sharing that grace with all. Together men and women of faith are able to influence the greater community and help to create a safer and more just place in which to live. Here we learn more about loving ourselves and our neighbors.
Amen