Well Respected Men About Town

Matthew 23:5-7

They do all their deeds to be seen by others; for they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long. They love to have the place of honor at banquets and the best seats in the synagogues, and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and to have people call them rabbi.

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'Cause he gets up in the morning,
And he goes to work at nine,
And he comes back home at five-thirty,
Gets the same train every time.
'Cause his world is built 'round punctuality,
It never fails.

And he's oh, so good,
And he's oh, so fine,
And he's oh, so healthy,
In his body and his mind.
He's a well respected man about town,
Doing the best things so conservatively.

"Well Respected Man About Town" by The Kinks

There is something noble to be said for doing the right things the right way. It's a principle of business popularized by W. Edwards Deming in his business dealings in Japan after World War II. At this time "Made in Japan" meant shoddy where today it means high and consistent in quality. It was Deming who brought this mindset to the Japanese, after his concepts were rejected by American business.

If there is one thing wrong with doing the right things the right way it's that it allows for only slight incremental improvement. It doesn't move toward great leaps of innovation. While both are important, it would be like making cars a little more cost effective while Star Trek transporters are being invented and developed. No matter how much more improved the car becomes, it will become nothing when transporting takes hold.

The Pharisees knew their faith. The Pharisees knew the ways of the Law and the Prophets. The Pharisees were the Sons of Moses. They were the heirs of Abraham. Their God was the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. In this, they took to the trappings of their station. They make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long. They love to have the place of honor at banquets and the best seats in the synagogues, and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and to have people call them rabbi.

Their world built on everything that was oh so good and oh so right was about to come to an end. Their faith that never fails built on punctuality of ritual cleanliness and blood sacrifice was about to become obsolete. They built their faith on the trappings and requirements of God, not on God's own self. They kept the law without keeping the one who created the Law.

God was about to reveal something new and their faith would not recognize it. This is something we face daily. God revealed himself new in Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus who was the Messiah. We are empowered by the Holy Spirit to see and participate in God's work on earth. We must take this seriously. Not because God is changing, but because God continues to create. Through the Holy Spirit we recognize how God reveals himself everyday. If like the Pharisees we hold the law like a gate post, we will never follow the guide posts God places along the way. This is the way of new life in Christ.

The Losses We Mourn

Psalm 30: 8-12

To you, O LORD, I cried,
and to the LORD I made supplication:
“What profit is there in my death,
if I go down to the Pit?
Will the dust praise you?
Will it tell of your faithfulness?
Hear, O LORD, and be gracious to me!
O LORD, be my helper!”

You have turned my mourning into dancing;
you have taken off my sackcloth
and clothed me with joy,
so that my soul may praise you and not be silent.
O LORD my God, I will give thanks to you forever.

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They put a parking lot on a piece of land
Where the supermarket used to stand.
Before that they put up a bowling alley
On the site that used to be the local Palais.
That's where the big bands used to come and play.
My sister went there on a Saturday.

Come dancing,
All her boyfriends used to come and call.
Why not come dancing, it's only natural?

"Come Dancing" by The Kinks

Nostalgia, mourning's seductive cousin. The song is the story of a young man who plays in a band remembering his version of "the day the music died," the day the local dance hall was dozed.

We all mourn this life, we all mourn differently. I call nostalgia mourning's seductive cousin because we still miss what we have lost, but nostalgia lacks the sense of dread that comes with other mourning. Since the dread, the sadness isn't present, we might hang onto those memories longer than is healthy. Mourning is an important thing, it's an important stage, but when it's more than a stage it can take hold of our lives and fail to let go.

Mourning itself is neither good nor bad. It needs to be experienced until its conclusion. They say we never "get over" some mourning, like the death of a loved one. But rather than "getting over it," this mourning is something we can get past or beyond, not get over. Mourning is a journey, one that we must never quit moving through. When we stop moving through the grief it becomes a stumbling block.

Nostalgia on the other hand is mourning that we enjoy so much we don't try to move beyond. Sometimes it becomes a fond memory, other times it becomes its own stumbling block.

The singer laments "the day they knocked down the Palais, part of my childhood died, just died." We all have that moment. It may be a school getting knocked down, it may be the spooky house in town burning, it may be when the corner soda fountain/drug store closed because the Mega-Pharmacy opened on the edge of town; it doesn't matter. We hall have these moments in our lives.

The girl mourns her youth being lost, the boy mourns his childhood. Psalm 30 puts this lament into cosmic perspective with praise for God's redemption, O LORD, you brought up my soul from Sheol, restored me to life from among those gone down to the Pit.

Psalm 30 doesn't shame mourning, on the contrary, it celebrates mourning as one more thing that the Lord redeems. The Lord takes our sackcloth and clothes us with joy. The Lord turns our mourning into dancing and for this we give thanks and share joy forever.

No, if you are mourning a loss today, you may not feel clothed in joy. Your mourning isn't dancing, not yet. It can take a long, long time. But know, the Lord can take those longings and make them into a salve for your soul. Then there is joy. Then we will share the Lord's faithfulness.