Tithing Mint and Cumin

The Rev. Whitworth Ferguson III
The First Presbyterian Church
Washingtonville, New York
November 21, 2004

Tithing Mint and Cumin
Ephesians 1:15-23
Matthew 23:1-15

Jesus lets the Pharisees have it.
He doesn’t mince words in this passage in Matthew.
In fact, Matthew devotes almost the entire chapter
to Jesus’ contempt for the religious leaders.
In the verses that follow the passage we heard,
Jesus utters seven prophetic messages against them,
warning them, “woe to you…”,
as he vilifies them for their hypocrisy.

Here they are, men whom the people hold in respect,
the leaders of the religious community of the people of God.
the teachers, the elders, the priests;
Those who spend their day immersed in Scripture,
learning the laws, interpreting the laws, teaching the people;
those whom ordinary men and women think
must have a very special relationship with God.

And then along comes the carpenter from Nazareth,
the itinerant prophet,
the dusty, wandering preacher and teacher,
accompanied by his rough-looking crowd.
And this carpenter has the nerve to confront these pious men;
he has the temerity to call them hypocrites,
blind guides, white-washed tombs.
He savages them right to their faces,
mocks them and tries his best to tear them down
as arrogant, puffed-up fools;
Men who were quick to tithe mint and cumin at the Temple,
but who ignore the more important tasks of
“seeking justice and mercy and faith.” (Matt 23:23)

Every era has its Pharisees,
its puffed-up leaders of religious communities
who are only too eager to tell us
exactly what is wrong with society and what is wrong with each of us.
Jesus would have no trouble finding Pharisees here and now.
The Falwells, the Robertsons, the Dobsons, and others like them,
men who want their places of honor,
and are quick to tell us of our vices
even as they are blind to their own.

In an essay I read the other day, the author,
one of the great preachers in the Presbyterian church, lamented that,
“much of contemporary Christianity … accentuates bitterness,
brings out meanness,
sanctions ignorance and bigotry,
divides those who [would otherwise] be brotherly,
and leads us from high possibilities to spiritual deterioration.” (276)
These contemporary Pharisees preach messages of judgment
mixed with divisiveness, setting themselves and those who follow them
on a loftier level those who are not part of their select group.

The fascinating thing about this particular essay
was that it was written in 1920s,
some 80 years ago, by Harry Emerson Fosdick.
The current times resemble the 1920s,
with fundamentalism strong and growing.
Mainline denominations like Presbyterianism,
Episcopalianism, Methodism, and Lutheranism
are accused of weak faith, inadequate faith,
and worse yet, liberal faith.

Fosdick’s most famous sermon was entitled “Shall the Fundamentalists Win?”,
which he preached from the pulpit of the First Presbyterian Church
in New York City back in 1922.
In it he condemned the practice of faith by the fundamentalists
that he saw as illiberal and intolerant,
closed-minded, and self-righteous.
One of the most divisive issues at that time was
the struggle over the teaching of evolution.
Do you remember from your high school history class
the famous Scopes Trial down in Tennessee, back in 1925,
when a high school teacher was accused of teaching scientific evolution? The state of Tennessee had on its books a law that said,
“it shall be unlawful for any teacher … to teach any theory
that denies the story of the Divine Creation of man
as taught in the Bible,
and to teach instead that man has descended
from a lower order of animals.”
Apparently the state legislators had never heard about the
importance of separating church and state!
The nation’s two finest lawyers, Clarence Darrow and
William Jennings Bryan battled over this issue in a small town courtroom
in the hazy heat of summer.
The Fundamentalists, represented by Bryan,
believed that nothing less than the fate of humanity was on the line.

The Bible of course does not purport to be a science book,
and the creationists overlooked the fact that there are two
rather different stories in chapters one and two of Genesis.
The lesson we are to take from the creation story is simple:
it is that God is the author of Creation,
The creation story is one attempt to try to understand
how this earth came to be, and how it was filled with water
and animals and fish and birds and humans,
and why the sky is filled with stars.
Over the past three thousand years, scientists, relying on their
God-given skills, have developed other theories about
the creation and development of life on this earth.
Whether God scooped up some clay to form the first human,
or we evolved from tiny one-cell creatures over hundreds of millions of years,
God is still the author, still the one who created humankind
and in God’s wisdom, he created humankind in his image.
Exactly how may ultimately be known only to God.

Back in the 1920s, Fundamentalists were quick to shout out
that it was more important to know “the Rock of Ages than the ages of rock.”
No faithful person would dispute that.
But I find my own understanding of the Rock of Ages increases
as I know more about the ages of rock.
When I gaze on the vastness of the universe,
and learn more about gluons, bosons,
quarks and black holes,
I am in awe of God’s creativeness, God’s majesty.
I find no difficulty in balancing science and evolution with faith.
Evolution is remarkable in its elegance, intricacy, and its beauty.
It is remarkable in how it ties all species together,
ties everything together as all coming from God’s hand.
And yet today there are still angry, even militant Fundamentalists
who lobby aggressively to remove science books from school rooms
as they demand that we teach that God created the world in 6 days.

For 500 years our denomination has been part of the Reformed tradition.
A central tenet of our faith is that we are part of a church reformed,
yet always reforming.
We are all learning, always seeking to add to our knowledge,
always seeking to add to our understanding.
And always at the feet of the only one who possesses truth:
our Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus said as much to the Pharisee leaders in our lesson
“you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher;
…nor are you to be called instructors,
for you have one instructor…” (Matt 23:10)

We are to come to our faith with open minds,
broad minds, accepting minds;
not closed or fixed on a set of rules and ways of thinking
given us by religious leaders.
Jesus provides us with the model of an open mind:
He uses a Roman soldier, a Samaritan woman, lepers,
and even a vile tax collector as examples of faith.
Yet, he never once praises the religious establishment;
On the contrary, he condemns them,
condemns them as misguided hypocrites,
scolds and nags,
men eager to point out the speck in another’s eye,
while ignoring the logs in their own eyes.

William Sloane Coffin, another great Presbyterian preacher,
reminds us that after Jesus cured Bartimaeus of his blindness,
Jesus didn’t tell him, “Now, don’t go ogling attractive young women.”
Nor did Jesus tell the man whose withered hand he restored
“Don’t use that hand to steal.”
When Jesus finally looks up at the adulterous woman,
the woman who had been caught in the act,
the woman who had without question broken the Levitical code,
the code which called for her death,
he simply said, “Neither do I condemn you.
Go your way and sin no more.” (John 8:11)

Writing 80 years ago, Fosdick condemned the
“fundamentalist passion to enforce orthodox unanimity in the churches –
… this general and widespread distaste for intellectual individuality
and independence, and this eager desire
to make up other peoples’ minds for them.”
Fosdick wondered, “When will the churches learn that intolerance…
is evidence of weakness.”

The church that Kelly and Alex joined today in their baptisms
is the church of Jesus Christ,
the church universal, the holy catholic,
catholic with a small “c”, church.
It is the church of all believers in Jesus Christ.
It is a church without dogma, without institutions
It is church with one head, and only one head: our Lord Jesus Christ.
It is a church grounded in love,
a church founded on acceptance,
a church in which all are welcome,
a church in which judgment belongs to no one but our Lord.

This church has to be tolerant,
it has to be accepting,
it cannot be judgmental, if it is to be the church that reflects our Lord,
reflects, as Paul put it, “the fullness of him who fills all in all.”
For we know that Jesus stand at the door of this church
with his “big carpenter hands” stretched out wide, welcoming all.
He imposes no test;
He simply says, “follow me.”

Every era has its Pharisees and we have ours.
They seemed to have turned up the volume on their diatribes lately,
Our task as thoughtful people is to recognize them and turn away from them,
so that we can focus on learning the lessons of Jesus Christ,
so we can live the gospel.

Fosdick reminds us that it was not lack of religion
that caused Jesus’ death on the cross,
it was simply bad religion, a bad approach to faith in God.
It was a focus on tithing mint and cumin,
while justice and mercy and faith were overlooked.
When you stand before the judgment seat,
do you think God will ask you whether you worked diligently
to put prayer back into school,
or will he simply ask you why you weren’t more diligent
about prayer in your own life?

Another great preacher once said that the true church of Jesus Christ
is the one where all recognize that we humans are at our worst
“when we are persuaded of our superior virtue
and crusade against the vice of others.
And we are at our best when we claim kinship with all humanity,
glad and thankful that there is more mercy in God
than there is sin in us.” (WSCoffin, 58)
In this season of thanksgiving,
let us be thankful that God has given us this wonderful creation,
and has filled our lives with blessings,
Let us be thankful that he has called us to faith
and given us the church as the body of Christ.
Let us be thankful that he has given us forgiveness for our sins
in his Son Jesus the Christ.
Let us be thankful for all our blessings,
and let us be ever thankful indeed that “there is more mercy in God
through Jesus Christ than there is sin in us.”
Amen.