WE ARE PHARAOH AND PHARISEE

Almighty and everlasting God, who in the Paschal mystery has established the new covenant of reconciliation: Grant that all who have been reborn into the fellowship of Christ’s body may show forth in their lives what they profess by their faith; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

                                                 ~ Collect of the Day, Second Sunday of Easter,

                                        Book of Common Prayer, p. 172-73

            As Christians observe the Great Fifty Days of Easter, it is time to reflect on the work that Christ has done for us on the Cross, giving us new life, reconciling us with God, and showing us what it means to be created in the image of God and how power and status are rightly used.  It is an opportunity, too, to consider where we fit into Easter story and its antecedent, the Exodus story.  In both of these stories, God breaks into the history of the world to free those who are prisoners and to help those who are unable to help themselves. 

            I think most of us, if we imagine ourselves in the Exodus story, imagine we are among the Israelites, laboring and yearning for freedom.  When we hear the Easter story, and the gospel stories generally, we like to think of ourselves as among the disciples.  In both cases, we are among the chosen.  To be sure, both the Israelites and the disciples are flawed in their ability to hear what God is telling them and to do His will, and we identify with those shortcomings and struggles, but they are, nevertheless, the ones in relationship with God. 

But in many ways Christians today are more closely aligned with Pharaoh and the Pharisees.  We do not hear the cries of those we oppress; we believe we are entitled to oppress certain others because of our God-like status as bearers of God’s image; and we believe that our particular status before God means we do not need to be concerned with those not in our favored group.  Like Pharaoh and Pharisee, if we do not open our eyes, our ears, and our hearts, we will pay a price.

In the Exodus story, Moses seeks freedom for his people, but Pharaoh refuses.  Moses returns time and again, each time warning of a new plague if Pharaoh will not free the Hebrews. Pharaoh, however, hardens his heart and the plagues come, each one worse than the last. Pharaoh would not hear the cries of the Israelites, and he would not let them go, both because he benefitted from their misery and because he did not believe their misery mattered. He let greed, vanity, and pride rule his heart.  In the end, the entire nation of Egypt and Pharaoh himself suffered great devastation because of that greed, vanity, and pride, and Pharaoh learned he was not so powerful after all.

Tissot, Moses Speaks to Pharaoh

Today, we Christians are like Pharaoh.  We will not hear the cries of God’s creatures in factory farms, circuses, labs, canned hunts, steel leg traps, puppy mills, or other places of misery.  We harden our hearts because we benefit from the misery of the animals and the animals’ misery does not matter to us.  We let greed, vanity, and pride harden our hearts.  And, just as Moses warned Pharaoh of plagues to come if Pharaoh would not show mercy to those in his power, so we are now being warned by doctors and scientists of plagues coming our way if we do not cease our merciless exploitation of others.  Here are just some of the “plagues” we are bringing on ourselves, in particular through our failure to demand an end to factory farming:

·         Obesity

·         Heart disease

·         Diabetes

·         Certain cancers

·         Antibiotic-resistant “superbugs”

·         Water pollution

·         Air pollution

·         Climate change

·         Inefficient use of scarce natural resources

·         Food scarcity

Farm Sanctuary’s web site has more information here,  as does my post, 10 Reasons For Church Leaders To Care About Factory Farming.  Will we listen to the warnings coming to us from scientists, environmentalists, biologist, and health professionals, or will we continue to harden our hearts until we, as a species, suffer a great catastrophe, as the Egyptians suffered the loss of their first born sons? 

In the Easter story, the Pharisees are threatened by the man from Galilee who teaches that strict adherence to the letter of law is not enough and that status as one of God’s chosen does not justify lack of compassion for those outside the circle.  He tells them that while they were so busy following the letter of the law, they missed the purpose of the law entirely.  They take pride in their religiosity; they take pride in their place in society; they grill the prophet on how many times they are to forgive those who wrong them, who is their “neighbor” to whom they have an obligation, and when it is permissible to heal another in need.  With every question, every test, they seek to draw their circle of obligation as small as possible.   

Gustav Dore, Dispute of Jesus and the Pharisees

But Christ insists that the law requires the circle of obligation to be widened to include even the most despised in the community – and even those well outside the community, those the Pharisees deem of no account.  He teaches that reaching out to help those in need is always permissible, and that religious traditions that perverted the law of God are to be rooted out.  The Pharisees are unable to hear what God is saying to them and they act, bringing in the power of Empire, to protect their status and the status quo. 

We are like the Pharisees because, with them, we rely on perceived superior status as human beings to tell ourselves we are entitled to disregard the suffering of those outside our circle, the animals.  We look to the God’s word to narrow rather than expand our understanding of who our neighbor is, and to whom we owe mercy.  We do not want to make changes in the way we live; we are comfortable.  With the Pharisees, we fail to hear the Word of God regarding our obligations to those at our mercy.  We stand with those who bring the power of wealth and influence to protect the systems that harm the animals and make criminals of those who would speak for the voiceless, protecting our “status” and the status quo.

Let us, instead, look at the new birth of reconciliation we have been given and seek to reconcile ourselves with the rest of God’s kingdom as we grow in reconciliation with God, and let us begin to fulfill the task of loving care he gave us at creation.  Let us, in the daily choices we make about what to eat, what to wear, what products to use, and what entertainment to support, show forth our faith in a God of love, mercy, and compassion, a God who breaks into history to free those who are suffering.