Is it time for some internal sweeping?

“But alas for you, scholars and Pharisees, hypocrites that you are! You lock up the realm of heaven in people’s faces.  For you do not go in yourselves, nor allow those who try to go in to do so.”  Matthew 23:13

This sounds an awful lot like “gatekeeping” to me.  Picking and choosing who is allowed into the gates… of the kin-dom of God… of the church… of success … of education… of wealth… 

The list goes on and on.  But by doing so, we are also closing the gate on ourselves.   In doing so, we refuse to go in ourselves. 

Sometimes I feel like there are some who like to dangle “the realm of heaven in people’s faces” as a way to manipulate, to get their followers to do or think what they want them to, in order to get to have the opportunity to ‘get into’ heaven.  

They work to convince their followers that there are “those” who aren’t worthy of the gates.  They separate friends and families, neighbors, into “us vs. them.”  Then they don’t even have to do the gatekeeping anymore!  Their followers do it for them. 

In verse 16, Jesus calls the scholars and Pharisees he is speaking to “blind guides”.  He basically says, that they are leading the people, astray.   They are teaching them that the wrong things are important.  Things like gold, wealth when what is really important is  “justice, compassion, and good faith. “  

Jesus uses the metaphor of a cup and dish.  How they clean the outside only.  Making it look clean, but when you look inside, you find it dirty – then he stops using the metaphor and says inside the scholars and Pharisees are filled with the results of greed and self-indulgence.    He says we need to clean our insides.  He compares them to a tomb that on the outside is beautiful but on the inside is filled with decay.  

He is calling us to be mindful of our hearts, what we carry there, what we place in them.  We need to turn inward and see what our soul looks like and work to “clean it,” to turn away from lawlessness, from greed, from self-centeredness.  To clean all that out and fill it instead with compassion, with justice, with good faith — with love.  

We need a mental broom as we turn inward, to sweep out all the garbage, all the hate, all the judgement, all the greed.  We need to sweep and dust until it is all swept away and then begin to fill our inward being, our heart, our soul with good things, with actions that Jesus called us to, basically, with good works, with compassion, with love, with an openness to receive all that Jesus has been teaching. 

When we find things getting muddled again, when we begin to feel that anger, that uncomfortable tightness, that fear.  When we find ourselves looking at others and not seeing a beloved child of God but someone beneath us, or someone we deem undeserving or different, we need to look for the love in it, the compassion in it, the justice in it, if it’s missing, then we need to do some cleaning and sweeping again.  

I think this is a daily event, just like brushing our teeth, we need to daily do an internal check and make sure that those cobwebs and dust bunnies of greed, of hate, of otherness aren’t gathering in our hearts and souls.  It’s a daily practice.  At minimum weekly.

Take a few moments to turn inward, close your eyes, quiet your mind, breathe deeply, look in the corner of your mind, is there a broom there waiting for you?  Pick it up and start sweeping, see what comes to mind as you do, what rises with the dust… do you see moments you could have been more compassionate?  Do you remember thoughts that weren’t as just as they should have been? Do you see moments when you could have offered a bit more love and patience?  Sweep them all away, and begin anew.  Let your mind, your heart, your soul be filled with love, with compassion, with joy.  Take a few more deep breaths, and open your eyes, taking that love, compassion and joy with you into this day.

Until next time…♥️