20 August 2016 - motivated

[ Today's Readings ]

We are all prone to vanity. We need the LORD's help to not succumb to such motivations.

All their works are performed to be seen.
They widen their phylacteries and lengthen their tassels.
They love places of honor at banquets, seats of honor in synagogues,
greetings in marketplaces, and the salutation ‘Rabbi.’

Aren't our own works performed to be seen? Isn't half the reason we act like a good person so others will see us that way? When we think a particularly sagely thought doesn't it reward us precisely because others might think it wise?

We need to stop feeding into that system.  We need to stop being so impressed with the cult of personality surrounding other people. If we value their works and wisdom so strongly then of course we will also be motivated to reproduce it in ourselves.

As for you, do not be called ‘Rabbi.’
You have but one teacher, and you are all brothers.
Call no one on earth your father;
you have but one Father in heaven.
Do not be called ‘Master’;
you have but one master, the Christ.
The greatest among you must be your servant.
Whoever exalts himself will be humbled;

We need to be disentangled from a system that rewards virtue with fame and thus tames virtue. We still want to surround ourselves with good teachers. But even if they are very impressive we must remember that those gifts come from God. We want good fathers in families and churches but we recognize that the authority and honor due to those position is due precisely because they receive their mandate from the one Father in heaven.

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named (see Ephesians 3:14-15).

When we internalize this truth we ourselves won't take the title of master to build up our pride and our ego. Even if we teach others we are not like the scribes and Pharisees who do it just to show how great they are but can do nothing to help others put it into practice. Instead, our love is genuine, able to actually reach past our own pride in order to actually help and impact others.

Then we see that all true manifestations of love are the LORD himself at work. When we strip ourselves of our vain and prideful motivations we begin to see his glory shine through us.

And I saw that the temple was filled with the glory of the LORD.
Then I heard someone speaking to me from the temple,
while the man stood beside me.
The voice said to me: 
Son of man, this is where my throne shall be,
this is where I will set the soles of my feet;
here I will dwell among the children of Israel forever.

We know that we don't earn the LORD's presence in the temple. We don't earn it in our hearts and in our lives. But this is exactly where he wants to shine. So we must let him!

The LORD himself will give his benefits;
our land shall yield its increase.
Justice shall walk before him, 
and salvation, along the way of his steps.