Long-Enough Tassels

Long-Enough Tassels

Matthew 23:1-12

I filled out my self-evaluation this past week and submitted it to the district superintendent. This is an annual requirement for the pastors in our annual conference. I suspect many of you also have had to do this as a requirement of your employment. The form ministers in our conference are asked to fill out, however, probably asks different questions than most company’s forms.

This year’s form asked how I am Christ-centered, and how I have helped this congregation be Christ-centered. It asked what I have done in the past year with excellence. It asked what keeps me from being excellent in doing my work as a pastor, and how I expect to become excellent in the coming year.

If you couldn’t guess, Christ-centeredness and excellence are two of the 5 expectations of our pastors. The other expectations are collaboration, accountability, and fruitfulness, which I get to deal with in the church conference and year end reports.

I may have over-emphasized parts of the self-evaluation form, but that gets at the gist of it. And every year, filling out this form bothers me. It wants me to say that I am excellent at doing some part of my job, but instead it makes me think of Paul’s words in his first letter to the Corinthians: “Your boasting is not a good thing. Do you not know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough?”

I also suspect the form is sometimes used by the bishop to identify up-and-coming pastors who deserve to be at bigger churches. Or, at least, I think some of our pastors use this form to make their case that they should be at a bigger church because they are up-and-coming pastors. But that just makes me think of Paul’s words to the Philippians: “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves.”

So every year, I have this struggle on how to fill out this form. As a team player, I know the reason and the necessity for these forms. And after all these years, I have a pretty good idea what they actually want me to say on these forms, and how they want me to say it. But I still want to answer these questions in a way that is honest, Biblical, and not at all helpful to the district superintendent and the bishop when trying to evaluate what I do as a pastor.

To answer the question on Christ-centeredness and excellence I would quote Paul in his letter to the Galatians: “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

I would follow that up with these words of Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians: “And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.”

And then I might end it with Pauls’ words in his second letter to the Corinthians: “If I wanted to boast, I would be no fool in doing so, because I would be telling the truth. But I won't do it, because I don't want anyone to give me credit beyond what they can see in my life or hear in my message.”

This conflict I have with the self-evaluation form is the kind of problem that comes when one culture – the world of business – tries to intersect with another culture – the kingdom of God. One culture wants to maximize results and profitability; the other culture wants to transform the world into the reign of God. One culture depends on the skills and outcomes of individuals and teams doing their work with single-minded focus and excellence; the other culture depends on the grace of God working through persons who humble themselves so that Christ alone is revealed. What is good and necessary for success in one world may not be good and necessary in the other.

Sometimes, when one culture tries to interpret and judge another culture, the bias slips in and harm can be done that was not intended. And this is something we have to be careful about when we do missions, and evangelism, and worship – and even when reading the Bible. This is especially true for our reading today.

In the English translation of the Greek text of what Jesus likely said in Aramaic, Jesus mentions the phylacteries worn by the Pharisees. “Phylactery” is a Greek word for an amulet, which is considered a magical item that serves as protection against evil. And to some in the early church, it might seem as if the world of Judaism, with its funny looking boxes tied to the hands and foreheads, and tassels hanging from their clothing, was a world of magic and superstition.

But it is unlikely that Jesus called the items worn by the Pharisees a phylactery, because that would have been both offensive and racist. The Torah explicitly forbids the use of magical items, and both Jesus and the Pharisees would know that.

It is much more likely, approaching 100% certainty, that Jesus would have instead called attention to the tefillin, the commandment that calls the faithful to bind a remembrance of God to the hands and to the forehead. Some Jews took that to mean a figurative remembrance, but many took it literally, writing the tefillin on vellum and keeping it in small boxes that could be worn on the hands and on the forehead.

There are four places in the Torah that reference the tefillin. Consecrate to God all the first born males, human and animal. Celebrate the festival of unleavened bread. May this be like a sign on your hand, a reminder on your forehead. Sacrifice the first born animals, redeem the first born sons, remembering what God did for our people in the Passover. May this be like a sign on your hand, a reminder on your forehead. The Lord your God is one, love God with all your heart, soul and strength. May this be like a sign on your hand, a reminder on your forehead. Keep this commandment to love God, and you will be blessed. May this be like a sign on your hand, a reminder on your forehead.

Most Jews who took the tefillin literally wore the boxes during their daily prayers. The Pharisees took to wearing their tefillin as long as the sun was out, indicating that they were a people who were always mindful, always prayerful – unlike the rest of us.

The tassels Jesus mentioned are the Tzitzit (tsi-tsit), and they are more than just decorative fringe. While it works in Hebrew, but not in English, the number of threads and the number of knots in the tassels reminded them of words that had the same number of letters. There were to be four tassels at the corners of their clothing, to remind the observant Jew of their obligation to love God with all their body, with all their heart, with all their mind, and with all their soul.

Together, the tefillin and the tassels are important things to wear as a habit for spiritual formation. To use Methodist language, these items were a means of grace. They do not save or protect the wearer, but they help the person be mindful of who they are before God. They help the person be mindful of what God has done for them.

Jesus did not have an issue with wearing the tefillin and the tzitzit. Jesus did not have a problem with spiritual practices designed to help form the faith. What Jesus had a problem with was how the Pharisees had made these items the focus of their faith. What Jesus had a problem with was people literally wearing their faith on their sleeves, and memorizing it in their minds, but without it involving their hearts so that they would love their neighbors as part of their love for God.

The tefillin boxes of the Pharisees were larger than those worn by others. Their tzitzit were longer and more ornate than others. And this was because the Pharisees wanted you to know that theirs were bigger and better than yours.

They also wanted you to know that they gave more thoroughly than you. They wanted you to know they ate more carefully than you. They wanted you to know that they prayed more faithfully than you. They wanted you to know they were more observant in keeping the law than you. In summary, in their self-evaluation, they were excellent in every way before God, and therefore they were more blessed and loved by God than you. And for that reason they believed that they deserved the better dinners, the better parties, and the better respect than you.

Except, Jesus says, their evaluation form isn’t how we are measured by heaven. The kingdom of God on earth, like the kingdom of God in heaven, is not a meritocracy where some people are more valuable to God than others. The kingdom of God on earth, like the kingdom of God in heaven, has only one teacher about what it means to love God and to love our neighbors – and his name is Jesus. The kingdom of God on earth, like the kingdom of God in heaven, has only one Father, and that is God in heaven.

If you want to be evaluated on the greatness scale, the scale God uses starts with being humble and finds its fullest expression with service to others. Yes, you still need to practice disciplines to help form you as a disciple. Yes, you still need to remember that there is only one God. And yes, we still need to love God and our neighbors as completely as we are enabled by the Holy Spirit. Do this, Jesus says, and your tassels will be long enough.

Let us humble ourselves, setting aside any claim we may think we have that makes us an excellent member of the blessed. Let us simply pray to walk with Jesus, our teacher, our savior, and our friend.

UMH 430 “O Master, Let Me Walk With Thee”