Joshua 3:7-17; Matthew 23:1-12
November 5, 2017
I begin with the story of Viola Irene Desmond (July 6, 1914 – February 7, 1965). She was a successful black businesswoman who owned a hairdressing salon in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia in the 1940s. One day, in 1946, Desmond, who was then 32, had some time to spare while she was waiting to get her car fixed, so she decided to catch a movie at the Roseland Theatre in New Glasgow. She bought a ticket and sat down, only to be told by the usher that her ticket was for a seat in the balcony, not on the main floor. When Desmond said that she would buy a more expensive ticket, the usher “shook her head, No! You people have to sit in the upstairs section.” If it happened today the theatre might at first try to have it construed as a joke but it was no joke 60 years ago anymore than it would be considered today. Desmond knew she was being asked to move because she was black. All the other black people were up in the balcony. In no time at all, the police arrived and dragged her out of the theatre and into jail.
Desmond was eventually found guilty of not paying the one-cent difference in the cost of a balcony ticket from a main floor theatre ticket. She was fined $20 and the court costs of $6. She paid the fine, but she vowed to continue her struggle against such unfair rules. She refused to accept that being black meant she couldn’t sit where she wanted. Viola didn’t let this injustice go away. Together with the support of black community groups, she appealed the charge against her all the way to the Nova Scotia Supreme Court, where “the judges certainly didn’t want to talk about racial segregation. They said Desmond’s case had been fair and cancelled her appeal right there.” Among the many observers there was an interesting supporter, Desmond’s lawyer, Frederick Bissett, a white man from Halifax who donated his fees back to the black community. With these funds, the fight Desmond had started could continue. Vigorous further action by the community contributed to the repeal of segregation policies in Nova Scotia and in 1954 racial segregation was made illegal.
In 2010, Desmond was granted a posthumous pardon, the first to be granted in Canada. The government of Nova Scotia also apologized for prosecuting her for tax evasion, and acknowledged she was rightfully resisting racial discrimination. In 2016, the Bank of Canada announced that Desmond will be the first Canadian woman to be featured on the front of a banknote. She is slated to appear on the $10 bill next year.
Like Rosa Parks in the United State who refused to give up her bus seat in 1955 in Alabama, Desmond’s act of refusal awakened people to the unacceptable nature of racism. Desmond’s action is less well known to us even though she was a Canadian, however her act of resistance happened almost ten years earlier than Rosa Parks’ in the U.S. Desmond refused to move. She was sitting for justice to protest the refusal to move toward justice.
In today’s gospel reading, we hear a very challenging story. According to Matthew Jesus said, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat.” In the history of Israel, Moses is the symbol for liberation from slavery, of the alternative community from the lordship of Pharaoh and as the lawgiver of God. Thus, Moses was considered the vision of Israel. About two thousand years later the scribes and the Pharisees sat on Moses’ seat. They acted like a living Moses. In the synagogues they sat in the best seats.
But Jesus did not sit on Moses’ seat. Jesus challenged the scribes and Pharisees: “They do not practise what they teach. They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on the shoulders of others but they themselves are unwilling to lift a finger to move them.” They were like the Christian who speaks about love a lot but does not practise it.
Here we find a very different approach to the ministry of the scribes and the Pharisees compared to that of Jesus. While the scribes and the Pharisees sat in the front seats, I imagine Jesus probably sat in the back. While the scribes and the Pharisees tied up heavy burdens to lay on others’ shoulder, Jesus said, “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” While the scribes and the Pharisees liked to be greeted with respect in the market places, Jesus respected the ostracized from society such as the widow giving her small offering in the temple.
Two thousand years later there are little followers of the scribes and the Pharisees, but there are many followers of Jesus, including us. Why? Why did the scribes and the Pharisees fail to practise what they preached or believed? Why were the scribes and the Pharisees’ and Jesus’ approaches to ministry so different?
Both visions flowed out of the Torah, Moses’ Law, but they were quite different. The scribes and the Pharisees lived for their own interests in order to keep their high positions but Jesus lived according to God’s compassion for others. The scribes and the Pharisees believed God’s kingdom would come when they kept Moses’ law, specifically those laws keeping them separate from the poor people who were unclean because they could not afford to keep the law. But Jesus believed God’s kin-dom would come when he lived out God’s grace with the poor and the sinners who could not keep Moses’ law. Thus, Jesus often ate meals with outcasts. Jesus lived with the impoverished and ill people considered untouchable from the perspective of the scribes and the Pharisees.
Last Sunday was Reformation Sunday and Wednesday was All Saints’ Day. Five hundred years ago Martin Luther and other reformers challenged Christians to remind us that our journey towards God is not about meeting God’s requirements, but about realizing God’s grace in our ministry together. We call the people who lived and are living out this vision of God - “saints.”
This week’s scriptures, the work of the reformers and the celebration of All Saints’ Day all invite us to realize the need of the church to keep on being reformed and of our faith to be transformed. These stories and events were not and are not one-time solutions but challenges to keep on reflecting on and acting out Jesus’ ministry in our context. Many people are saying, and I agree, that this is a time of crisis for our church but we need to remember that, in the crisis of the wilderness as recorded in Joshua, the Hebrew people experienced God’s presence and God’s guidance.
In today’s story of Joshua, God is known on the journey in the wilderness. On the journey Joshua says, “By this you shall know that among you is the living God.” Joshua reminds the people that God is with them on their journey. God is encountered and known on the journey. The wilderness is a place where, of course, we experience fear and anxiety, where we erect one golden calf after another and where we long for the false security of Egypt. But on this journey in the wilderness the Hebrews and we today are nourished by God by water from the rock and bread from heaven. Here God journeys with us in a pillar of cloud by day and a column of fire by night.
On our journey we come to know that the destination is not a land promising security or even safety nor sitting on Moses’ seat to exercise power over others. It may not mean sitting in the “Whites Only” section to protest injustice, but the journey itself involves recognizing the presence of God and practising God’s compassion and grace in our midst. God is not simply the destination of requirements met, but the one who is known on the journey for liberating us from all kinds of bondage and toward the building of an inclusive and equal community. On our journey toward God we discover God revealing Godself on the way. We come together to build God’s loving community in our midst. When we seek to build God’s gracious and compassionate community we are all saints. So be it.
Hyuk Cho
About nine years ago, we left behind my first English-speaking pastoral charge and headed here to Acton to be with you. It was not an easy move: Our home, the church manse, was sitting on an almost one-acre lot with about ten mature maple trees. It had been a safe place for our two children to play and grow in and the church nurtured me into ministry in Canada. But on our life journey there are times to move on and we began our new journey in Acton and you welcomed us as a family.
