Can't Hide These Judgin' Eyes

One of the many perks of being a pastor is reserved parking at the Medical Center. There are six or seven spaces with big blue "clergy only" signs at the north end of the main parking lot. As I whipped into one of the empty clergy spots on my way to some visitation this morning, I couldn't help but notice the car one of my clerical colleagues had parked in the adjacent slot. A big black, shiny black, Mercedes S-320 with Ohio plates. Rich leather seats and polish walnut burl accents on the dashboard, I noticed as I got out of my blue, rusty blue, 1993 Ford Escort wagon.

I made my rounds and as I was on my way back to my clergy-only parking spot, I noticed that the S-320 with Ohio plates was still there. That's when the devil made his move. I began to wonder about Pastor Whoever and his big shiny black Mercedes S-320. And my rusty Escort. At first my heart filled with envy (coveting the Tenth Commandment calls it). Where in Ohio do they have churches that give their pastors shiny black Mercedes S-320s, and why don't Pennsylvania churches, specifically, Beaver, Pennsylvania, churches do the same?

But envy quickly turned to pharisaical judgmentalism. This was not a clergy Mercedes S-320. It probably belonged to some tax-collector or sinner who refused to observe the law of the parking lot. He'd have probably taken a handicap parking spot if there had been an open one when he drove into the lot. Instead, he took the next best thing, a "clergy-only" space.

Since there is no middle brother in the parable of the Prodigal, I guess I take my cues from the older brother, judging another for his wayward life and missing the Father's grace when I do.

Maybe the driver of the Mercedes is a pastor, faithful and obedient, living a simple life, but for the car his rich brother gave as a gift. Or perhaps the Mercedes belongs to the sick parishioner to whose spiritual care the pastor was gently tending. Or maybe they just pay better in Ohio.

Clearly, it was not my place to judge based on the little information I had. "Judge not, that you be not judged," Jesus said, "For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, `Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye."

Had he returned to his car before I returned to mine, maybe Pastor Whoever would have wondered about the 1993 Ford Escort next to his Mercedes. "Likely a lowlife taking a pastor's parking place with a rust bucket like that," he may have thought. "Or maybe they just don't pay pastors in Pennsylvania like they pay pastors back home in Ohio."

Sometimes when you pull up to the Mercedes S-320 in the parking space next to you, you should think, "nice car," and nothing more.