Sunday, February 14

Do not judge, so that you may not be judged. For with the judgment you make you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get.

Matt. 7.1-2

We do a lot of thinking standing at the kitchen sink doing dishes and watching through the window as our Yard Babies, the birds and squirrels as we call them, go about their business of making livings eating the provisions we put out for them.

We mentioned this two years ago in our 2014 Devotions contribution. It is an excellent way to turn a chore into a thoughtful experience. Anyway, we thought of the above directive in Matthew while washing and watching when we recalled discussing a conversation we had with a friend who also feeds her birds and squirrels. That friend shared with us that she does not love all the critters that benefit from her generosity. On the contrary, the predator ‘feathered friends’, those that prefer birds to seeds as their regular fare, are not welcome in her yard and are driven away whenever possible.

Now, we too do not relish the more harsh realities of avian life, but we have decided that the predator too is simply making his or her living, just as the sparrows and jays and so on are making theirs. And so we have decided to look away when the occasional patrolling hawk pays a visit, trusting [judging] that such is the natural and proper order of life in their world and that we will refrain from judgmental, unjustified preventive action.

And then it was that the above Biblical passage entered the conversation. We did make a judgment, but it was not one of hypocrisy or of ignorance, the type of judgment which Christ was inveighing against. For it is not the case that we should not have opinions. Rather, our judgments should be the type we would like made of us: informed, caring, and justified by all known facts.

Would that all the differing factions warring, arguing and carrying on in our world would practice this Biblical injunction.

Grant, O God, that your holy and life-giving Spirit may so move every human heart, that barriers which divide us may crumble, suspicions disappear, and hatreds cease; that our divisions being healed, we may live in justice and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen (BCP, 1990 p.823 Book of Common Prayer)

Mary Kay and Paul Sparre