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In the receiving line
In our first 12 Steps for the Recovering Pharisee video, I talked about a women I have a tendency to judge as a pay back for an unfair judgment I think she made of me. At the end of the video, I expressed the conflict that even though I knew how to get out of judging her, the big question was whether I wanted to stop judging her, and at the moment, I had to admit I did not.
Here comes the judge
Step 1. We admit that our single most unmitigated pleasure is to judge other people.
We can do this almost without thinking. We can do this with our eyes closed. Someone cuts in front of us in line and we are suddenly an expert on where that guy buys his clothes, his poor color choices and the really bad haircut he got last time. “Must have cut it himself without a mirror.”
A cult-buster book
12 Steps for the Recovering Pharisee (like me) has impacted people more than any book I’ve written. Story after story reveals how people have been set free from legalism and the resulting bondage it creates — bondage to authoritarianism, to frustration over never making the grade, and to insecurity and fear. Fear is the big one — fear of punishment, fear of banishment, fear of not belonging, fear of living a lie and being found out. Fear is a powerful motivator, and a strong personality with manipulative skills can use legalism to literally enslave people.
12 Steps for the Recovering Pharisee (like me)
“How foolish can you be? After starting your new lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort?” (Galatians 3:3 NLT)
They’ll never see the light if all you preach is hate from a mountain top that you couldn’t climb. – from the song, “Pharisee” by Memphis May Fire
To one degree or another, we are all Pharisees.
The dictionary says: “Pharisees were at various times a political party, a social movement, and a school of thought in the Holy Land during the time of Second Temple Judaism.” We’re most interested in the “school of thought” part of that definition because that is the part of “Pharisee” that is still with us today. The Pharisees were legalists. They believed one was made righteous by following the law. Except that they reinterpreted the law away from the law of Moses to a long list of laborious, picky rules that only they could follow because only they bothered with it. It’s a convenient way of self-justification. You justify yourself by a set of rules that only you care about, thus enabling you to judge everyone else who doesn’t. The Pharisees worked hard at their righteousness, making them feel that they deserved their robes and their long phylacteries. They were sure that God was fortunate to have them on His team.
Living in the sun
In The Pigeon with the Ruby Collar, the prince, who because of war and upheaval has been shut up in a dungeon, has not seen the sun for years, and developed sun-sickness because of it. He cannot be exposed to the light of day lest it kill him. So he stays in his study with the shades drawn, writing books on government and war.
On the second landing
In The Pigeon with the Ruby Collar — a fairy tale Marti wrote in anticipation of the birth of our first grandchild, Jocelyn Anne — it comes to light that Princess Jocelyn Anne has magical healing powers. Because of this, many come from far and wide to receive her healing touch. Every evening she comes down from her room in the castle tower to meet and touch the people who have gathered during the day. By the time the Princess has seen the last person, she is pale and exhausted and has to be carried back up to her room in the tower by the King.
The gospel according to fairy tales
So, Marti wrote a fairy tale in anticipation of the birth of our first grandchild, and we are talking about it in the Catch this week. And just what do fairy tales have to do with truth and the lives we are attempting to lead in following Christ? Everything.
Next door, but far, far away
This last weekend, my wife, Marti, attended the baby shower for our daughter-in-law, Elizabeth; we are about to become grandparents for the first time. For one of her gifts, Marti wrote a fairy tale, The Pigeon with the Ruby Collar, in honor of the baby to be born, Jocelyn Anne. When talking about what I might use for the Catch this weekend, we thought of sharing the story with you. So the daily Catches this week will be related to the story, but will not require you to know the story to understand them.
John Fischer The Catch 