Righteousness is one of those words we only seem to use at church. I mean there was the 80s surfer dude, like Sean Penn’s performance as Jeff Spicoli, saying “the waves were totally righteous,” and we talk about someone being self-righteous, that is believing themselves to be morally superior to others, but about the only time we talk about or hear about righteousness otherwise is in church. I’m not sure why that is, but today we’re going to be talking about righteousness, and in particular about what it means to be righteous according to the book of Proverbs in our penultimate message in this series, but first I’d like to do a little, of what is the word I’m looking for, oh, pandering by starting with one of the passages we heard from this morning which says that “gray hair is the crown of glory; it is gained in a righteous life.” And so, everyone who is trying to hide your grey hair, in doing so you are hiding your righteousness, or as Linda likes to say her wisdom highlights. Now, just because you have grey hair does not actually mean that you are either wise or righteous, because Proverbs also wants to say, as the immortal Buck Owens encapsulated in a song, there is no fool like and old fool.
Now righteousness means different things in different places in scripture. In the Hebrew scriptures, righteousness is something you earn by your behavior. But it is more than just virtue, or virtuous behavior. Instead it is tied directly to covenantal relationships. So, you can be righteous in your relationship with another human with whom you have entered into a covenant, which means honoring and preserving that covenant, but, in particular, righteousness refers to our covenantal relationship with God. One of the reasons God is referred to as righteous is because God is always faithful to the covenants that have been made with humanity. So, actions on our part that also maintain and honor God’s covenant are deemed righteous, and those that “corrupt and violate” the covenant are considered unrighteous. While obeying the law is considered the standard for righteousness, as we will see, it goes much farther than that, including injunctions made by the prophets as well as further instruction from God. So, righteousness on our part is a reminder that we are in a covenantal relationship with God, and that there is active engagement by both parties in that relationship, and it’s about our obligation to remain faithful and observant to that relationship. That’s why this about more than just ethics, but about the entirety of the relationship and how what we do preserves or breaks that covenant.
This idea of righteousness also extends into portions of the New Testament, in particular the gospels, such as when we are told that John the Baptist’s parents “live blamelessly according to all the commandments and regulations of the Lord”, thus making them righteous. Presumably the same thing is being said about Joseph of Arimathea who is said to be “a good and righteous man,” that is he is an observant Jew. In Luke’s gospel at the cross when the Roman soldier, played so well by John Wayne, says “surely this man was innocent,” the Greek word for innocent could also be translated as righteous, or holy, meaning he lived in right relationship with God. And, although Jesus does talk about righteousness, such as saying that the disciples’ righteousness must surpass that of the scribes and the Pharisees, he does not emphasize it as much as might be expected because of its emphasis in the Hebrew scriptures.
But, Paul makes a dramatic change to our understanding of righteousness, in particular in his letter to the Romans, of which I will begin a new Bible study starting tomorrow night if you would like to join. But, Paul argues that righteousness is not the result of what we do, because if it was then it would be something about which we could brag and take credit for, but instead righteousness is given to us, or as he says “reckoned” to us by God. So, righteousness is mediated not through our actions but instead through our faith. This is part of Paul’s argument that we are saved by faith alone, or at least that was Martin Luther’s interpretation of Paul that we hold onto as Protestants. It is God’s actions through the person of Jesus that brings righteousness to us, and we react to this action with faith, so that God then gives righteousness to us. Paul also argues that righteousness is found in conjunction with wisdom, which is what Proverbs is about, and so builds on this sense of understanding God’s wisdom for the world. So, a quick recap of a semester’s course. Righteousness in scripture can be the faithful observance of the law and to God’s covenantal relationship; and it can also be a gift from God for those who believe. For the sake of Proverbs, we are going to use that first, Jewish, understanding of righteousness as covenantal relationship.
That understanding of righteousness is important because if you noticed in the passages we heard this morning, which is only touching on those dealing with righteousness, which is a hugely important part of Proverbs, since it is part of having wisdom, they involve the things that we do. Now, some of this is simply the fact that what proverbs, nearly all of them, are about things to do or not do, they are based on action. But, some of this is also because of that understanding of righteousness being the things we do in order to maintain that covenantal relationship with God, and some of this is clearly tied up with salvation issues. “Be assured, the wicked will not go unpunished, but those who are righteous will escape…” Proverbs says.
Now we don’t have the time, or for me the inclination, to go into a Jewish understanding of the afterlife, but from a Christian understanding we would say that God knows our hearts, as well as our deeds, which flow from our hearts, and that there will be a final judgment. This follows on Proverbs reminding us that “The eyes of the Lord are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good.” But, when we remember that this is about covenantal relationships, this is not just about punishment. It’s about upholding our side of the agreement, in being faithful, and even some of the things that some view as the result of faithfulness, like material wealth, are, it turns out, not a get out of jail free card, as we hear “Riches do not profit in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death.” So it doesn’t matter how much money you have, what possessions you own, what positions of power or authority you’ve had, not how many friends you’ve had or how many home runs you hit, but about how you lived your life. Did you live a life of righteousness so that everything you did was pleasing to God and honored God’s name?
This week, Linda had a job interview and she and the person interviewing with were splitting the distance and meeting at a Starbucks in the Uptown area. As she was pulling into the parking lot, and I do have permission to tell this story by the way, she saw a parking space, and while there was a car a little closer to it, she was able to get their quicker and took the spot. She said that even as she was doing it she thought, I really hope the other person is not the one I’m supposed to be meeting. And, sure enough, he was, although she didn’t know that until after the interview when she saw him get into his car, and she wasn’t sure if he ever saw what car she was driving. Of course, when she told me that story, after I was done laughing, I said “may everything you do glorify God,” and Linda’s response was “glorify God, I didn’t even glorify myself.” She then asked me if she should apologize to the man for taking his place, and then I, in an a most-unrighteous moment, asked her if he knew she was the one to take his place. Linda said she didn’t think so, and so I told her not to bring it up then, unless he did. He didn’t, and she was offered the job. But, if we think about righteousness as being in right relationship with God and with others, then it turns out that its really, really hard to live lives of righteousness, because we’re alive.
But just as wisdom begins with bowing down to God, of being in awe and wonder of God, and turning our lives over to God, where that also leads is to a position of humility. “When pride comes, then comes disgrace,” which we still know as pride goes before the fall, “but wisdom is with the humble.” As soon as you start to think of yourself as better than others, and this is not about being proud of what you do or accomplish, or downplaying your gifts and graces, but instead thinking that what you do is superior to others, then you are on the path to destruction. Pope Gregory the Great, who is responsible for the propagation of the seven deadly sins, said that the sin of pride was the worst of the sins because pride would not only cause us to forget about God, or think that we didn’t need God, and it is pride that leads to all other sins, because it is pride that leads us away from even thinking about others.
And if we take care to what we are told about those who are righteous, it is about how they treat others. Not those who are like them, or even more powerful, or wealthier than them, those who might be able to help them in life, but instead how they treat those who are in need or don’t have a voice, and remember that proverbs is written for wealthy young men and those who will be future leaders of Israel. “The righteous know the needs of their animals, but the mercy of the wicked is cruel.” While animals can communicate their needs somewhat, for the most part, they are voiceless, and so the righteous know their needs, they give voice to them in order to be able to take care of them. They don’t see them simply as a means to and ends, but as things deserving good treatment, as ends, in and of themselves. This is made more explicit later on, when we are told “if you close your ear to the cry of the poor, you will cry out and not be heard.” We hear several times in scripture of people crying out to God, and of God listening and responding to their cries, and often, of bringing down those who were oppressing them, with the biggest being rescuing them from slavery in Egypt. But here, we are told that if we hope to have our cried listened to, that we must also listen to the cries of others who cry out. It’s like that to be forgiven we must forgive. To have our cries heard by God, we must hear the cries of those less fortunate then us.
But, it’s more than just listening to their cries, it’s also about doing something about it. “Speak out for those who cannot speak, for the rights of the destitute, speak out, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy.” Give voice to the voiceless, speak out on their behalf, and judge rightly on their behalf. There are lots of cries about injustice taking place in our streets, not justice injustice against individuals, but also laws, systems and institutions that are unjust, and we must listen to those cries. It doesn’t mean you have to initially agree with what they are saying, but listen to them and hear the words of truth that are contained in their cries, and then speak out against those injustices. Just because it doesn’t affect you doesn’t mean it’s not a problem, or that it is not a reality for them. Which then leads into what I think is an injunction that we need to hear in this day and age because I think it is one of the major shortfalls we see around us everyone, and of which neatly all of us are guilty.
“One who justifies the wicked and one who condemns the righteous,” Proverbs says, “are both alike an abomination to the Lord.” There is a tendency to attack people in other groups for things we don’t like, but to defend the same behavior in our own group, because they are ours, or more directly, they are us. When Alex Rodriguez, was playing for the Yankees, Red Sox fans were always quick to call him our for cheating, and to similarly attack the Yankees, because of his past steroid use. And I would add rightly so, but they conveniently ignored the fact that David Ortiz, their big hitter and most popular player, had also failed a steroid test and their cheered lustily for them. A republic congressman was recorded saying this week about the president, “sure he’s a blankety blank” although he said an actual word, “but he’s our blankety blank.” We justify the actions on our side of the aisle, justifying the wicked, while calling out others because they are on the other team, which can be condemning the righteous. If we want to get past the partisan gridlock we are in, we have to learn to praise those on the opposite team when they do well, and more importantly we have to call out those on our own team when they do wrong, not to try and defend them. Praise when praise is due, on all sides, and criticize on all sides when criticism is due. Don’t allow tribalism to overcome our injunction to do the right thing.
That leads into the final point, which builds on this idea, and that is “Do not rejoice when your enemies fall, and do not let your heart be glad when they stumble, or else the Lord will see it and be displeased, and turn away his anger from them.” Just like the last one, this one is hard. I love days when the Yankees win and the Red Sox lose. Now I don’t root for injuries or anything, I just want them to get the snot beat out of them, and I have been known the gloat every know and then, but it’s wrong. Jesus tells us to pray for our enemies, not because it’s easy, but because it’s hard, and when we begin to pray for them what we discover is that we are changed, our attitude towards them begins to change. How we see them, and how we see ourselves is transformed. Now, what this proverb actually says is that if we gloat when bad things happen to them, that God might stop having bad things happen to them. I’m not sure that’s the best reason not to gloat about their downfall, but if that’s what you need to tell yourself in order to do the right thing, then maybe that’s what needs to happen. But a better place to be is simply to see them as a brother or sister, as a beloved child of God, and to leave it at that.
Righteousness is about living in right relationship with God and living in right relationship with each other. It’s not about what we believe or don’t believe, but about what we do and what we don’t do. Are we practicing gentleness and forgiveness, are we showing love and kindness, patience and self-control, are we offering joy and peace, are we being faithful, which you may have noticed are the fruits of the Spirit. When we exhibit faithfulness to God, then we will exhibit faithfulness to the world, and will practice righteousness. We don’t do it because it’s easy, but we do it because it’s hard. But there are two paths we can follow, the path of righteousness and wisdom, or the path of wickedness and folly. The choice is ours. May we practice and live righteousness. I pray that it will be so my brothers and sisters. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment