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In the name of Jesus. Amen

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Two text to choose from.

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On one hand, we have that wonderful hymn of praise of Psalm 46.

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The Lord of hosts is with us.

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The god of Jacob is our fortress and as we were singing perhaps those

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thoughts of A Mighty Fortress roaring through your head.

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Aha almost like setting the ball up on a tee.

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And then Matthew 23.

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Woe to you scribes and Pharisees not once twice three times 4 times 5

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times but six times and if you were to throw in the next verse a

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seventh time.

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Which one to focus on this morning?

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Well, I know if it where my normal approach when I have the option

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I like to look to the Old Testament.

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And today seems like a day

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that would be great for doing that

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but as we think about it.

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Maybe we should look at one

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Ttat's more like a trip to the dentist office for a root canal.

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Matthew 23.

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You know, it's real easy when we come across a text like Jesus

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speaking these words to the Pharisees and the scribes to start to

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point the finger.

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Look at these guys.

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Look at what the responsibility was that they have been given and

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look at how utterly they are failing to live up to that task that

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God has set aside for them.

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For a moment

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I want to ask you to pause.

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To put yourself into this text and ask yourself this question.

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Do you think the scribes and Pharisees were intending to do this on

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purpose?

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Do you think that they took their time of being a student of the

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scriptures to look in there and say let me learn what God is revealing

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to me here so that I can now leave someone else astray.

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More than likely that was not their intent.

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More than likely they were looking at the scriptures being students of

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the scripture trying to find out what is God speaking to us here.

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What does God intend for us as his people?

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How do I teach that?

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How do I make this way known to others?

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And then the problems begin to creep in.

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Perhaps one of the problems that they would encounter would be that of

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prestige.

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It can be a little bit of a boost to the ego to have someone come to

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you and say, can you tell me how I should understand what God would

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say or what God would have me do in this situation. After a while you

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look at what God has said you speak that and overtime rather than the

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word of God the scriptures becoming the authority.

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You start to think I'm the one that has that authority. After all

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I'm the one that knows these scriptures.

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Which points us to the second problem perhaps, that have knowledge.

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Knowing what God says. Knowing it but perhaps not having it penetrate

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all the way to the heart.

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So we can ask ourselves if they were not doing this intentionally if

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their purpose was not to lead people astray.

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Then what were they missing?

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What were they missing as students of the scriptures and as teachers

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of the scriptures?

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Well will come back to that in a moment. But one of the things that is

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really easy to do when you come

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across a text like this is not only to see that Jesus is pointing a finger here

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but we can also want to point the finger.

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Yes.

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We can look here and see how bad the scribes and the

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Pharisees were doing. We can point out how they were missing the mark.

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We can point out how they were making it about things that they should

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not have been making it about.

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And then we can take that to its next logical context.

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Let's look around us at the world in which we live the church that we

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are a part of let's point out how others are missing that mark. Look at

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how they are not doing what they should.

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And so we find it easy to start to point the finger at those who

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perhaps misunderstand traditions.

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Who misunderstand history.

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Or we look around us in a day and age like today, November 3rd,

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election day here in the United States and find it really easy to

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point out how others are truly missing the mark. Maybe they should

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understand the proper relationship of God's Authority in the church

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and God's Authority in the state.

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And there may be a time and a place to appropriately point that

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finger.

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But to do so with humility. Always remembering that as the one who is

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pointing out the speck in another's eye.

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There is a log in our own.

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When we come across a text like this, one of the things that it can

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call for us to do is to have a time of self-reflection.

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Looking through each of these things that Jesus proclaims a woe to the

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Pharisees and scribes and then to ask ourselves.

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Where might I be doing this?

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Where might I be falling into the trap?

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This is humbling.

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This is painful to do this. In fact as I was looking over just the very first

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one about shutting the door on people.

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There were two instances in Ministry that came to mind for me.

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The first one will call her Rhoda.

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Rhoda was a lady who disagreed with practically everything I did.

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When I found myself sitting at voters meetings with her and I knew

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that she had a particular thing on her agenda.

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There were way too many times where I found myself hoping that the

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voters would choose the other option just to see her humbled.

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When she started to say I'm thinking of staying home on Sundays, I

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will admit there was the thought in my mind that went then I won't

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have to deal with you.

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What are you scribes and Pharisees for you shut the door.

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Am I doing that?

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Or Jane is a woman who had been through much in life who was

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struggling who was a broken person and who was living out that

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brokenness in many ways with her and with her children. Where there

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were times where it was easier just to see her walking through the

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building and go back to the office and close the door because I had

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something more important to do.

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Humbling opportunity for self-reflection when we look at words such as

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this. Now I will say there is a good appropriate time and place for

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this.

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I also would recommend don't do it very much because it can easily

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lead to beating yourself up, which is also not the best practice.

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Because in the end it comes back to the question.

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What were the scribes and Pharisees missing?

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What do we miss when we're pointing the fingers at others?

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What do we miss when we look through this and start to point in

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ourselves at what we may be missing?

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What is missing?

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What is the warning that we need to heed in a situation like this?

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And that might be where the appropriate question to ask ourselves is.

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What is it that the scriptures are given to point us toward?

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They point us toward God.

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And for the scribes and Pharisees that seems like as they were

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pointing not only to God but to the Messiah to the one that God had

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promised would come. And so when Jesus is speaking these words he is

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saying it because they are missing the one who has come the one to 

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whom 

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all the scriptures have pointed and they are completely missing him.

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He's standing in front of them. these students of the scriptures who

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are also the

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teachers of the scriptures should have been the ones who looked at

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Jesus and said there is the one who God has been preparing for us.

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Jesus is the one that they were missing.

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And for us

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whatever our role may be here at this place and as part of this

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community.

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We also as students of the scriptures

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need to be pointed back to that one

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who is the point of the scriptures.

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You search the scriptures because you believe that in them you have

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eternal life.

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They are that which point to me.

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So are these pointing

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back to Jesus for you this day.

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As you hear those words not only the great words from Psalm 46 because

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those are easy to see where they point to Jesus but even words like

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Jesus words here to the scribes and the Pharisees.

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Are they pointing you back to the one

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who has suffered for you?

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Are they pointing you back to the one who is the point of the

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scripture?

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The one who was crucified for you.

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The one who rose from the dead for you. The one who has ascended into

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heaven for you and who sits at the right hand with all of God's

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authority and power.

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On a day like today that's something we need to remember.

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Not only as we hear words like this, but also as we see people

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contesting for authority and power.

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To be reminded

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that God points us right back to Jesus.

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The Jesus who draws you to himself.

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May that be where these words point you this day. In His holy name.

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Amen.

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I invite you now to stand as you are able as we join in our office

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Canticle the Benedictus