Casting Pearls

There is a saying in our church that "once a Deacon, always a Deacon".  When a person is first ordained, it is as a Deacon.  For some, that is as far as they get in the process - it is what they are called to.  For others, it is only the first step to becoming a priest or even bishop.  However, you don't "graduate" from being a Deacon.  You aren't exactly trading one title and role for another - once you are a Deacon, you are always a Deacon.  Pope Francis recently showed this in a very real way when, while washing others' feet on Maundy Thursday, he wore his stole in the style of a Deacon.

(For those of you who don't know the difference, a Deacon  wears his stole diagonally, like the guy on the left, below.  A priest wears his down both sides.  And apparently, according to this picture, bishops get to stop cutting their hair and get a cool hat.)

Anyway, one of the cool things about being a youth minister is that "once a youth minister, aways a youth minister".  The kids I had in youth group, whether it was 5 or 18 years ago, are still "my kids" and I know to many of them, I'm still their youth minister even though many of them are adults now and I'm now a priest, not a youth minister.

Recently, one of my former youth asked me a question about a bible passage that I did not have an easy answer for, so I thought I'd share it with you all.  He asked about the meaning of Matthew 7:6 - "Do not give dogs what is holy; and do not throw your pearls before swine, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you".

[caption id="attachment_469" align="aligncenter" width="491"] But they look so cute![/caption]

One of the interesting things about this verse is that it does not show up at all in the Lectionary for readings on Sunday at all - meaning that, chances are, you won't ever hear it preached on in a liturgical church.  While the Sermon on the Mount (of which this is a part) is also found in Luke, this verse is not.  We do hear the preceding verses (which deal with not judging the speck in other's eyes when you have a log in your own) but from Luke, not Matthew in Year C at Epiphany 8.

 

[caption id="attachment_456" align="alignleft" width="154"] Um... What?[/caption]

(If all of that went over your head, don't worry about it.  The main thing to get out of it is that this verse is something that is not likely to get preached on in most liturgical churches.  I'll try to explain the rest some other time as to not get too bogged down here!)

 

So, to finally get to the question... What does this mean?  What is Jesus telling us here?  Well, my Google-Fu got me nowhere on this question.  At least, nowhere I liked.  The prevailing opinion out there seems to be along the lines of "don't share Holy Stuff with people who won't appreciate it".  To me, that sounds counter-intuitive to what we're called to do as Christians.  I saw a post on a website that boiled it down to basically "Don't Feed The Trolls" - meaning that there are some people who are never going to listen to the gospel and respond to it without mocking you or rejecting you, so don't waste your time on them.

I found a similar, but slightly more satisfying answer in my HUGE commentary book from my bookcase (seriously, this thing is big and I have to admit I have no idea where I got it).  It says "When a disciple is confronted by such a person who rejects the good news and seeks only to pass judgment Jesus now advises: do not get into a dispute with them, for they lack understanding and will only use what you say to attack you."  I guess that sounds reasonable, but I think about people that I know who act this way and I wonder if Jesus wants me to stop wasting my time on them?  That doesn't sound right.

When I looked up what the early church Fathers had to say about this verse, I found something that both makes sense to me and doesn't, almost equally.  In the Didache (a first century book that has teachings of the disciples and an outline of how to "do church") says this, regarding communion:

 But let no one eat or drink of this Eucharistic thanksgiving, except those who have been baptized into the name of the Lord;  For concerning this also the Lord has said: Give not that which is holy to the dogs.

Now, growing up Catholic, I get this.  Non-Catholics were not allowed to participate in Communion and as a priest I have a very high view of the Eucharist and believe that it should be handled very differently after consecration than before.  After all, it is the Body of Christ.  Part of me wonders though why we would withhold the Body of Christ from anyone.  A FaceBook friend shared this with me from the Orthodox Study Bible:

According to the Fathers, dogs are those so immersed in evil that they show no hope of change, while swine are those who habitually live immoral and impure lives. The pearls are the inner mysteries of the Christian faith, including Christ's teachings and the great sacraments. These holy things are restricted from the immoral and unrepentant, not to protect the holy things themselves, for Christ needs no protection. Rather, we protect the faithless people from the condemnation that would result from holding Gods mysteries in contempt.

But what if the Body of Christ is exactly what they need?  Sometimes I feel like Calvin:



So, then I read the verses before and after this verse to see if I could get the context of it.  (its amazing how often people DON'T do this!)  In the latter part of Chapter 6, after teaching the Lord's Prayer, Jesus tells people not to worry about themselves so much - to rely on God for things more and not to stress out about every little thing.  Then, he widens that area and tells people not to worry about OTHERS so much.  Stop judging your brother's little problem when you have massive ones of your own. Then he says the bit about dogs and pigs and goes right into reassuring people that God has our best interests at heart.

I heard Rob Bell talk about this once and I'm going to sort of paraphrase him and hope I don't misquote him, but if I remember it right what he said something along the lines of this: Lets say you have a friend or family member who maybe isn't a Christian and they are struggling with something sinful.  To us, as Christians, it might be easy to look at their problem and say, "I know how to fix you - You just need Jesus!"  And you know what?  You might be ultimately right.  But a lot of people don't want or need to hear this.  What they "need" (especially if they don't see what they're doing as sinful) is a friend.  How many of us have heard, from well meaning people at one time or the other, that if you don't change your ways "YOU'RE GOING TO HELL!"  Man, I'll tell you, growing up in a small town with more baptist churches than restaurants, I heard it a lot.  And guess what?  They were throwing their "pearls" at me and I could have cared less.  Everyone comes to faith differently, but I am of the opinion that this approach rarely has lasting results.

So, to wrap it all up - what do I think?  Man, I don't know.  I don't think giving up on people is the right thing, even if they're antagonistic.  Cramming Jesus down their throats isn't helpful either.  I respect the idea that some things should be revered and not given willy-nilly to non-believers, but I also think that sometimes God's grace is exactly what they need.  If we look at the verses right after this verse, Jesus verifies this - that God wants to give us good things.  Some people will choose to ignore those things, but guess what?  We're called to love them exactly the same.  Maybe we should just stick to that.