I’m sure that we can all think of a time when we, or someone we know, made a judgement about someone we saw in church, or elsewhere. That judgement can take many forms. Maybe it was made in a spoken statement, or at the very least, in a negative thought. It might have been about what someone was wearing, how their children were behaving, or any number of other issues. It is so common that this act of comparing ourselves, or others, to real or perceived standards, and then ranking ourselves to the people themselves, is seen to be a natural part of being human. Here’s an example: While there are schools or places of employment with uniforms or dress codes, plenty of other places open their doors with an “all are welcome” type of situation. Here is where perceived social norms come into play. When seeing others in an area with an open door policy, the thoughts of, “Nobody should go to a grocery store dressed like that.” can quickly turn to, “I’d never be seen out in public like that!” In this scenario, a person’s particular social norm is being tested, and their thought turns into how they “know better” and “do better.” Further, as we know, things get even “judgier” when we’re not just talking about clothing! So, what does this have to do with being a Christian? Well, as we’ll see, Jesus, and our scripture authors repeatedly tell us to remove these thoughts, words and attitudes from our lives—a theme that is repeated in all three of our readings this week. In them, we hear that we aren’t in a position to judge anyone, and that love should always be our motivation, in any human interaction.
To begin, in the Gospel (Luke 13:22–30), Jesus says to “strive to enter through the narrow gate,” warning that some who assume they’ll be first, will be last. This direct call to humility, not self-righteousness affirms that we aren’t the ones with the power to judge. Further, our First Reading (Isaiah 66:18–21) doubles down on this theme by stating that God’s kingdom includes people from the “nations of every language, ” because God “know(s) their works and their thoughts,” reminding us that we aren’t in a position to judge, because we can’t fully know every aspect of every situation, let alone the mind of God. Moreover, in our Second Reading (Hebrews 12:5–13), St. Paul affirms that it is God who discerns right from wrong, and then disciplines as needed. He goes on to explain, however, that God’s discipline is not given as punishment, but as loving correction. In our aforementioned scenario, we can see that we, as humans, are often punitive and motivated by a host of negative emotions. St.Paul reminds us that God’s motivation is always love.
When we weave all of these threads together, we can go back to the examples that I mentioned previously. Maybe the “poorly dressed” person is dealing with a family crisis at that moment, or maybe the adults in the home are working extra hours, so mustering up clean clothes on a Sunday morning is a miracle in itself. Maybe the parents are feeling overwhelmed and they didn’t have someone to model effective parenting skills for them. Maybe. Maybe. We do not know. Jesus, in our Gospel, urges us to stop looking outward, and to look inward instead, helping us to stay on our right path without judging others on theirs. Yes, we are called to model upright behavior and strive for ideals. There are places, like church, where a certain way of dressing is “expected,” but how can we open our doors to those seeking a worshipping community without some expectation of finding some folks that don’t already know the norms of our community? We can’t, so it helps us to remember that, in all things, the answer is found in focusing on our own actions. If we model the behavior that we’d like to see, others may see the good in what we do, and choose to follow our example. Compassion, not exclusivity, reflects God’s heart, and ourreadings show us that that is the ideal that we are called to. So, we ask ourselves: How can I walk the narrow path with more compassion and less comparison?
