First United Methodist Church, Birmingham, Michigan
Scripture: John 14:15-17
About a year ago, Will Willimon (my colleague at Duke) was invited to meet with several students studying to be attorneys. They wanted him to speak to the subject: “On Being a Lawyer and a Christian at the Same Time.” Which not everyone believes is possible. Including, perhaps, several of you. Some of you are thinking: “A Christian lawyer? Isn’t that the definition of an oxymoron….like ‘government service’ or ‘United Methodists’?”
It comes to mind that there was once a revolutionary who promised (as a primary plank in his platform) that when the insurrection was accomplished, his first act would be to kill all of the lawyers. Which, in his day, drew cheers. And which, in ours, draws laughs. I must confess to cracking a smile or two in response to jokes told at lawyers’ expense. Better than jokes about preachers, I figure. But my laughter does not honor my profession….or me, for that matter.
After meeting with Duke’s would-be attorneys, Willimon wrote: “I was truly touched by these young men and women as they spoke of their fears at going into the practice of law. For it is an awesome responsibility to have someone’s fate in your hands….or, more to the point, to have someone’s fate in your words. For that’s mostly what lawyers do. With words, lawyers plead the case of others.” Willimon then went on to add that his wife once spent a week on jury duty and came home saying: “I’m glad it’s over. But I did learn one thing. If you are ever called before the court, you had better get a good lawyer. I saw people who lost their cases, not because their case lacked merit, but purely because they had a lousy attorney.”
If you dissect her observation, you will find foundation for our admiration of attorneys (on one hand) and our vilification of attorneys (on the other). A good attorney can be the difference between guilt and innocence….between judgment and vindication….or between prison and freedom. A good attorney can level the playing field by bringing an adversary to his knees or a mighty system to theirs. A good attorney can also slice through miles of red tape, clarifying the obscure, while finding the perfect precedent that will inform and unravel your present predicament. Which is why money is no object when you need a really good one.
But her statement also suggests that in some courtrooms….in some cases….with some lawyers….skill may sway justice, and money may buy it. While not a pretty thought, it has occurred to me that the weaker my case, the better the attorney I might require, and the more I might be willing to pay to secure one. All the time, I hear people say: “I know how the system works.” And whether they do or not is secondary to the fact that they think they do…. perceptions, in this case, being almost as powerful as reality. The unfortunate thing is that however it works (“the system,” I mean), there are some of us who have more access to it than others.
For those who don’t much cotton to attorneys, the Bible (at first glance) would seem to support your disdain. The word “lawyer” does not occur early on in scripture. But the word “scribe” does. Scribes came into Israel’s story after the Exile, when the Jews began returning en masse from Babylon. With Ezra (“a ready scribe”) as father of their profession, they introduced a new set of sacred rules, brought from Babylon and known as the “Priestly Code.” Concerning the work of the scribes, a noted historian writes:
Punctilious in reverence for these new laws, they developed the faults of their own virtue and grew arrogant. Hungry for compliments, they became jealous of their seats as a special class of the Sanhedrin and domineering in the synagogues.
I didn’t write that. I merely quoted it. Surely you got it. What he is saying is that, over time, these scribes became royal pains in the “whatever.” Which opinion was not helped along by Jesus when, over 500 years later, he referred to some of them as “hypocrites….white-washed sepulchers (tombs)….offerings of vipers….blind guides….extortioners….impediments to those seeking the Kingdom….and disregarders of the weightier aspects of the law, while quibbling over measures of mint and other herbs.”
Eventually, we do get the word “lawyer” in scripture….nine times (to be exact)….six of them in Luke. The functions of a lawyer and a scribe were not dissimilar. It was a lawyer who asked Jesus the question which produced his famous answer (that the greatest commandment was “to love the Lord your God, with all your heart, soul, mind and strength”). And it was another question, put to Jesus by another lawyer, that elicited the priceless parable of the Good Samaritan. But it was with nit-picking lawyers in mind that Jesus said (Luke 11:47): “Woe unto you lawyers, for you load men with burdens that are hard to bear, while failing to touch their burdens with (even) one of your fingers.” In each New Testament instance but one, the reference to lawyers is unflattering, with most of those accusations coming from the lips of Jesus….so much so that a lawyer actually complains (Luke 11:45) that Jesus is insulting them. But it would appear that Joseph of Arimathaea was a lawyer (he being the one who donated his family tomb for Jesus’ burial). And concerning him, Luke records that he was “a good and righteous man” (Luke 23:50).
That last phrase fits many of the attorneys (of both sexes) that it has been my privilege to know. Which leads me to question the stereotype. Back when I was beginning my ministry, it was the undertakers who were being scrutinized and vilified. I’ll never forget reading Jessica Mitford’s expose, The American Way of Death. After reading Mitford, it was hard to entertain a good thought about anybody in the funeral business. And I was going to have to spend 40 years with such people.
hich I have. And I have got to tell you that I have met some really great undertakers. The shysters and charlatans may be out there (along with the funeral directors who know just which guilt buttons to push in order to turn grief into greed). But only one or two have crossed my path.
Ditto for the bad attorneys. I am sure they exist. But not where I hang out. I tend to meet lawyers who know the law, know their clients, and hold both in respect. Sure, I’ve got horror stories. But who hasn’t? On balance, however, the lawyers I have met have leaned more toward the heroic than the horrific.
In one of John Grisham’s books, a young lawyer in a prestigious firm is jolted off course by a strange encounter with a homeless person. The homeless man threatens the lawyer with death. But the whole experience causes the young man to rearrange his priorities. Putting prospects of wealth on the back burner (perhaps permanently), he becomes a street lawyer….one whose only practice is to help the homeless. And while Grisham’s character may have been fictional, his story led another student to say: “You want to know why I entered law school? That’s why I entered law school. I want a life like that. I want to speak for those who have nobody to speak for them.”
Recently, in getting some insurance appraisals, I learned that one of the more valuable things in our house is a mint-condition copy of the 35th anniversary edition of To Kill a Mockingbird. Inscribed inside the cover is a personalized greeting by the author, Harper Lee. Harper Lee only wrote one book and To Kill a Mockingbird is it. She is still alive, quietly spending much of her time in Monroeville, Alabama. I do not know her. Nor have I ever met her. But, for several years, my friend was her pastor. This book was her gift, through him, to me.
I hope that every literature student is still required to read To Kill a Mockingbird. It is a great piece of writing and (with Gregory Peck in the starring role) made for a great movie. It takes place in the deep South, don’t you know. A small town. A violent crime in the small town. An arrest for the crime in that small town. And a trial for the crime in that small town. The trial, of course, involved an issue of color….a black man accused of raping a white girl. And Harper Lee’s hero was a quiet, single father of two….a lawyer named Atticus Finch. Now there was an attorney who spoke up for someone who didn’t have a chance of being heard.
But what you do not know….what nobody outside of a few in Alabama know….is that Harper Lee (in real life)….like Atticus Finch (in fictional life)….once came to the aid of my friend when it seemed that there was no one to speak for him. It was years ago, in the tumultuous years of the civil rights struggle. My friend was serving a rather significant church in Mississippi, where he was saying things….preaching things….which (in those days) needed to be said, but which were extremely difficult to hear.
His enemies figured that if they couldn’t shut him up, maybe they could drum him out. So they took a very small incident and blew it into something it never was, which led to his being brought up on charges (denominational charges) that were aimed at lifting his credentials and aborting his ministry. And given the politics that sometimes pervade even the highest echelons of the church, things were pretty well greased so as to have them go exactly that way.
Except that he demanded a trial….a church trial (we can do that, you know). But a trial takes preparation. And preparation takes time. Although you have plenty of time when you have been suspended from preaching. But a trial also takes dollars. And you do not have plenty of dollars when you have been suspended from preaching. What’s more, you need good counsel….even in a church trial. And good counsel takes even more money. So who paid the bill so that my friend could clear his name….regain his standing….and live to preach another quarter century in Mississippi, south Alabama and the panhandle region of Florida? Harper Lee paid it. That’s who paid it. And my friend said: “If it hadn’t been for the likes of her, I’d have spent the rest of my life selling shoes (or aluminum siding).”
What do you do when it’s your word against the police….your word against the authorities…. your word against an accuser….your word against some system, some principality, some power? What do you do when it’s you seated on one side and “the people” seated on the other side?
Studies show that the fear of speaking in public is the number one phobia in America. And wouldn’t it be harder still, if the speech you needed to make had better be the best speech of your life, given that it must be made in your own defense. You’d be looking for a spokesperson…a mouthpiece….an advocate. Of course you would.
And what if it were to the highest court that you were called….the one presided over by “he who sitteth upon the throne”?
I talked to a man the other day who has had life throw him a succession of wicked curve balls. And he can’t hit curve balls. He’s down. Really down. If I were that down, I might even be out. But he’s still got some fight left in him. Just the other day, he said to me (right out of the blue): “You’re a smart man. Tell me what I did to tick God off.” And “tick” wasn’t the verb he used. But it will suffice.
What I said in response was stupid and evasive. I mumbled something about “it not working that way”….that God wouldn’t take it out on him, no matter how God felt about him. To which he said: “But you don’t know God like I do. God’s got a mean streak. You don’t want to get on the wrong side of God’s good nature.”
And while I don’t like to think that way, I can’t altogether prove him wrong. Because scripture can’t conclusively prove him wrong. Except, there is this. Scripture says (I John 2:1): “If any sin (and who doesn’t?), we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” Which I take to mean that Jesus is going to speak up for us….stand in there for us….probably even go to bat for us. I know that’s graphic imagery, court room imagery and (to some degree) uncomfortable imagery. But no less a theologian than John Calvin once pointed out that, whereas in one place of the New Testament Jesus is said to be sitting at God’s right hand, in another place we are told that Jesus is not sitting but standing….as if springing to his feet, saying: “I rise to speak on behalf of Billy Ritter.”
The word for “advocate” in I John 2:1 is “paraclete”….which is the same Greek word that Jesus uses in the gospel of John, when he promises the Holy Spirit to those who remain after he is gone. You remember the speech. It is during his farewell dinner. “I’m going,” he says. “You’re staying. But don’t let it turn you into quivering blobs of jelly. You will not be alone. I will send you another paraclete.”
And nobody seems to know how to translate that. Which is why, depending upon the translator, you occasionally see words like “comforter” and “helper.” But in the New Revised Standard Version (the translation I read from this morning), the word “paraclete” becomes “advocate.” Current scholars think that “comforter” is far too soft a word….too wussy a word….too much like: “There, there now, everything’s going to be all right.” But even God knows it isn’t always going to be all right. Which would seem to require something a little stronger than “comforter.”
“I will send you the Spirit….the paraclete….who will not only stand by you but stand for you. The Spirit will be your advocate. You will not have to go out there alone….in there alone….or even up there alone.”
School starts next week. Which means that another year is beginning at Albion College. Where there will be a lot of kids I know….either because they go to church here, or because they live nearby and (through you) came to my attention. It’s been that way for a number of years now.
I am both an Albion graduate and a 20-year Trustee. I think I know the kind of kid who can succeed there. And I very much want those who can succeed there to go there. It’s something of a second calling of mine to see that it happens. Over the years, I have never missed on a kid I have recommended. And in most cases, it’s been easy getting them enrolled. But here and there, there’s been a hitch at first…..grade point, not quite up to snuff….test scores, not quite up to snuff….family finances, not quite up to snuff. But if I believe a kid should go (and if that kid wants to go), I take up the kid’s case….become the kid’s advocate….and wedge the door open, holding my body against it, so that the school is forced to look at them. In fact, to the newest Vice President of Enrollment (a wonderful guy, by the way), I recently said: “Until I blow it with one kid, I want you to move heaven and earth on my word.” So far, they have.
But that’s nothing. If the scriptures are to be believed, you and I have a friend in higher places than the Vice President’s office at Albion. As someone once said to me: “Ritter, always get yourself an attorney who knows the judge.”
Note: I am indebted to William Willimon’s Pentecost sermon (2000) entitled “Our Advocate.” For detailed understanding of the words “scribe,” “lawyer,” and “paraclete,” I drew from a variety of sources including a trio of commentaries, the Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, Richardson’s Theological Word Book, and a very helpful article on “Professions in the Bible” found in Encyclopedia of Bible Life by Madeleine and J. Lane Miller. I am also aware that the suggestion to “kill all the lawyers” was first made by William Shakespeare (
