Psalm 52: 8,9; Luke 10: 40,41, 42

Who we are and who we ought to be

What is the problem that we run into our texts?  We start with one verse in Psalm 52 where the author says” I am like an olive tree…” describing it color and good qualities. The author is identifying with the olive tree.  It is true, in the Middle East the olive tree is of huge importance, but it is by no means a perfect tree.  There are limitations to its usefulness.  For one thing, it only produces olives and not oranges, lemons or figs.  The same is true of us humans. We are capable of producing certain benefits, but we are useless when it comes to others.  We wish we could do everything well and people rarely come close.  This is not only true of our abilities, but also of our accomplishments. There is always that one thing we weren’t able to do any given day.  There is always a gap between who we are and who we think we should be.  The way we get peace with that is by comparing ourselves to other people who perform even worse. But the problem remains: we may be like a great olive tree, but that’s all we are.  We are always stuck with the reality that we will always be disappointing God and, as a result, ourselves also.

In another form we find that reality in the Gospel of Luke.  Jesus is visiting Mary and Martha.  Mary sits at His feet and has full attention for Him, while Martha is so busy doing all the work of being good hostess that she forgets to focus on Jesus.  Jesus criticizes her for this.  The text says she is “distracted by her many tasks.”  The discussion starts out with Martha’s complaint of having to do everything alone.  Martha thinks Mary should be helpful like her and Jesus thinks that Martha could be more like Mary and pay attention to his teaching.  But in the end Mary cannot be Martha and Martha cannot be Mary completely.  In one way or another they both fall short. There is a gap between who they are and who they know they ought to be. Friends, this something you and I are always struggling with, this gap between who we are and who we should be, no matter how hard we try.  Lots of times this is a real moral issue for us: we feel guilty or even ashamed.  Something ails us.  One way we deal with this in our society, is to get counseling.  It can be very helpful..  One of the associate professors at our oldest son Daniel’s school, historian and Psychologist Philip Cushman wrote a book a number of years ago about the “cultural history of psychotherapy.” Its main title is: “Construction the Self, Constructing America.” (On p. 7) he writes: “Notice that I am treating psychotherapy as a cultural artifact that can be interpreted, rather than a universal healing technology that has already brought  a…”cure” to earthlings. As a matter of fact, nothing has a cured the human race, and nothing is about to.”  I think therapists of all kinds have come to this conclusion. Much of the treatment is more about coping and adjusting than about curing.  Psychotherapy is a lot more realistic these days. He also writes on (on page 9):”We have no way of developing shared moral understandings that would help us cooperate in using our newfound power for the betterment of human kind.” So even though therapists can make the world a better place, there is no moral compass necessarily other than trying to relieve suffering.  Each therapist has to operate from his or her own.

On his dedication page Cushman mentions Szmul Zygielbojm who fought in the Warsaw ghetto uprising, served on the parliament of exiled Polish government, was imprisoned, and then miraculously made his way to England to persuade the Western Allies to intervene against the genocide. But no one listened. On May 12, 1943, in protest and despair, he committed suicide on the steps of 10 Downing Street, the British Prime Minister’s residence, at 48.  Friends, is this an extreme example of a person who was caught in the gap between who he was and who he should be, between what he could accomplish and what he should accomplish?

Friends, we find a hint of the Christian answer to this gap, this discrepancy between who we are and who we ought to be in our lectionary reading from Colossians found on the front of your program.

Paul writes:” :”And you who were once estranged and hostile in mind…. He has now reconciled…., so as to present you holy and blameless and irreproachable before Him.” 

The text is reminding us of what Jesus came to do: to reconcile us with God, so that we would be “blameless and irreproachable.”  What does this mean? It means that there is a cure for our despair. The burden we carry because of our disappointment in ourselves is taken on by Jesus. Yes, we still have to try to be our best, but we have to let go of our burden. Jesus’ message is: “let me carry that burden. Let go of that guilt.  I have taken that on.  Your shortcomings are not held against you.  What I will look at is your heart.”  It is a message of great comfort: our limitations and flaws are not held against us. Jesus is at peace with them. So should we be. Thanks be to God!