Judge, Jury and Executioner

Matthew 7:1-6

The key word and idea of this section of the Sermon on the Mount is judging. Jesus uses a pretty ridiculous word picture to describe the absurdity of comparing ourselves to others: trying to pick a speck of sawdust out of someone's eye while we are blinded by a 2x4 in our own. He also uses two other word pictures: giving a dog a sacred object and showing pearls to pigs. I think what he is saying there is even when our motives are good, we must be careful who we hold accountable and who we confront because it might be wasted effort on our part. That person may ignore our good advice and loving confrontation and, because their pride is injured, turn on the confronter to destroy him or her.
Jesus does seem to take a bit of an abrupt turn here in his sermon. His two main points so far have been that in order to have a righteousness that surpasses that of the Pharisees, a citizen of the kingdom of heaven must keep not just the letter of the Law but the spirit of the Law and must not do her acts of righteousness to receive praise from humans. I guess this still fits under the main point: to have a righteousness that surpasses that of the Pharisees, we must not judge on purely external matters and I must not compare myself against anyone else. My standard of righteousness is Christ.
There is an interesting phrase in this part of Christ's sermon: "you will be judged with the measure you use." When I look at my own heart, so much of my judging flows from my own insecurity, guilt and short coming. I am scared that someone might find out about x in my life and feel guilty for having x in my life so I quickly and forcefully focus everyone's attention on x in someone else's life. I've seen this over and over again: the preacher who speaks most loudly against adultery is caught in an affair. The preacher who focuses his wrath against the same gender attracted is found out to be hiring homosexual prostitutes. However, I can't condemn these men too much because I see the same tendency toward self-protectionist judgement in myself. I am holding others to a different standard than I am willing to meet. Jesus makes it clear that I will be held to at least the same standard.

God is blasphemed because of me?

Romans 2:17-24

I know I should be doing observe, interpret, apply but this passage hits me right in the gut! I think it should do the same for all Christians, especially those in North America. We have become arrogant in regard to our relationship to God and the revelation of himself that he has given to us just as the Jews that Paul was writing to had become arrogant. They relied on the fact that God had given them the law and saw themselves as superior because of that. We rely on the fact that we have a "proper" interpretation of Scripture and we have become arrogant - as if we somehow merited God's special attention. We are smug in our relationship with God and believe that we are the moral compass of the nation and the world but we are unwilling to listen to our own teaching and unwilling (and, quite frankly, unable) to live up to the standard that we impose on the rest of society. We stand up on our self-built pedestal and look down our long, pious noses and condemn people for the very acts we are committing (and congratulate and applaud ourselves for doing it).
We preach against stealing and yet we still steal - this one really hurts because I was the one that did the sermon on stealing a year or two ago and yet I still find myself stealing in creative ways. We condemn those who commit adultery and sit in front of our computers and unite our selves in mind and spirit with virtual, photo shopped, airbrushed images. We puff out our chests because we don't worship false gods and then prostrate ourselves before money, possessions and sports heroes. We brag about being Christians (literally "little Christs") and then act nothing like Christ.
Here is the damning indictment against us: "God's name is blasphemed among the people because of you." I am the reason that people don't trust God. I am the reason that people don't repent.
O God, I am so sorry for the way that I have treated your name and the way that I have represented you to the people. I am so sorry for the way that we, who take your name on ourselves, have dragged it through the mud and brought dishonour to you.