Let us Pray - O God, light of the minds that know you, life of the souls that love you, and strength of the hearts that seek you - bless the words of my lips and the meditations of our hearts. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen
I spent considerable time last week considering the meaning of the gospel that we just heard. In particular I was concerned about the second half of the reading - that portion that deals with disciples rather heated discussion about who among them was greatest and with Jesus' response to their bickering and arguing: "Whoever wants to first must be last of all and servant of all."
I found myself making a common mistake in interpreting this scripture, a mistake that is easy to make because it is a comfortable mistake, the kind of mistake that in the long run lets us off God's hook.
The text seemed to say to me, as it as said to millions before me, that I should be beware of personal ambition, that I should not seek to put myself first, that true greatness lies not in self promotion, but in self-denial.
It said to me that greatness is not measured by the power and influence we obtain over other people, but by how we serve others.
In fact the meaning of the passage was so clear that I planned on speaking to you of each of us should strive for greatness in our own lives by striving to love and serve others to the very best of our ability - and I was going to sink the hook on that thought by challenging you to consider Christ's greatness - how his glory came to him not by his seeking to be first among all people, but by his self-giving upon the cross.
I think you will all agree that this is a good understanding of Jesus's words about what we should do if we want to be "the greatest among us", if we want to "be first"; yet, despite this instant reaction I had to today's gospel, I felt something was lacking in my grasp of the passage, and in particular with what Jesus said and did after he had gathered the disciples together and said: "Whoever wants to first must be last of all and servant of all."
Recall with me what happened next. It goes like this:
"And then Jesus took a little child and put it among them; and taking it in his arms, he said to them, 'Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me, welcomes not me, but the one who sent me."
Why, I wondered, did Jesus associate the act of receiving a little child in his name with being first in God's eyes? With being greatest?
After all - children are wonderful are they not?
We love them and care for them. Politicians and leaders of all kinds win votes by hugging and kissing babies and by receiving entire groups of young children at rallies and greeting and paying attention to our youth at various public events.
No one really has problems with children do they?
The more I thought about - the more I wondered - just what was going on that day in Palestine when Jesus spoke to his disciples about greatness and then used welcoming a child as an example of what it means to be great in the kingdom of God - as an example of what it means to welcome him.
You all know that Jesus normally turns things upside down when he speaks to people. He returns questions instead of answers to other people's inquires. He tells stories instead of giving the straight goods to people who try to pin him down. And above all - he defies conventional wisdom about how the world operates and suggests that we need to do things that are the exact opposite.
"They would save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their live for the sake of the Gospel will save it."
"They would be first, must be last of all and servant of all."
"Whoever receive a little child like this, receives Me."
How does that last statement, about what is a apparently a very natural kind of act, fit? Especially in a discussion of greatness?
Where is the upside down effort that Jesus normally demands of his disciples?
Where is the going of the second mile when someone forces you to walk one? The giving of the shirt when someone takes your jacket? The turning of the other cheek? The act of giving so that you might receive? And of dying so that you might live?
To me the passage only makes sense if children are somehow less important to us. It makes sense only if to receive a child is to somehow lower oneself in the world's eyes and to be considered foolish because of it.
And that is, of course, the case, or rather I should say, it was the case - in Palestine, and most of the world, during the time of Jesus.
Children were loved in the time of Jesus - as they are now - but they were not as important as they are today. More than half of them did not live to be adults. Many children were killed at birth (particularly girl children). Others were simply put out in the field to starve to death. In times of shortages of food, children were fed last. None of this was intended to be cruel. These were rather things people did because they felt they had to do them in order to survive. Moreover children had no rights. Parents could do to them whatever they thought necessary to make the children obedient or to force them to work for the family.
It was not a good time to be a child. Children, along with tax collectors and sinners were considered to be second-class citizens. They ranked last in the consideration accorded to persons - even lower than women. Children were chattel, and as nice as they are - as unproductive, as burdensome, as simply another mouth to be fed.
In some ways that attitude persists to our day - in some nations Girl children in certain countries are still killed shortly after they are born. Male children, if they become too numerous, also suffer the same fate. Does that sound horrible - unbelievable? Think about our own society - and about how children are most unwelcome in certain circles - how the unborn are often aborted because they are regarded as a hindrance, as a drain upon the emotional and economic health of upwardly mobile married couples rather than for any true and compelling medical or psychological reason....
"They would be first, must be last of all and servant of all." "Whoever receive a little child like this, receives Me."
In this light - Jesus' words about greatness and about welcoming a little child begin to make sense.
They make sense because, as usual, Jesus was calling his disciples to a radical new vision of what the Kingdom of God is all about - a radical new vision of how life can actually be.
What room is there in that kind of life, that kind of kingdom, for bickering about greatness, about status and prestige and power and knowledge.
It is time to get down on the floor to play!
It is time to forget about is convenient or inconvenient, and relish the natural joy of a baby being goochy-goochy-gooed.
It is time to forget about what might drain the pocket book or make it fat and full, and to listen to a child speak about how wonderful it would be to share supper with the poor people down the street or over in that country over there.
The kingdom of a child has no real slaves or real princes - it has joy and delight and magic and power and everyone prospers - and all evil is vanquished. To receive a child is to receive a vision - if we have but eyes to see.
All this reminds me of a story.
Once upon a time these was a Squire who longed to be a knight. He wanted to serve his king and be the most honourable and noble knight who ever lived. At his knighting he was so overcome by dedication that he made a special oath. He vowed to bow his knees and lift his arms in homage to his king and him alone. This knight was give the task of guarding a city on the frontier of the kingdom. Every day he stood at attention by the gate of the city in full armour.
Years passed. One day as he was standing at attention guarding his post a peasant woman passed by with goods for the market. Her cart turned over spilling potatoes and carrots and onions everywhere. The woman hurried to get them all back in her cart. But the knight wouldn't help the poor woman. He just stood at attention lest he break his vow by bending his knees to help pick up the woman's goods.
Time passed and one day a man with one leg was passing by and his crutch broke. "Good knight, sir, reach down and help me up." But the knight would not stoop or lift a hand to help lest he break his vow.
Years and decades passed, the knight was getting old. One day his grandson came by and said, "Grandpa pick me up and take me to the fair." But he would not stoop lest he break his vow to the king
Finally after many, many, years the king came to visit and inspect the knight. As the king approached the knight just stood there at attention. The king inspected him as he stood there, but then he noticed that the knight was crying. You are one of the noblest knights I have ever seen why do you cry? Your majesty, I took a vow that I would bow and lift my arms in homage to you but I am unable to keep my vow. These years have done their work and the joint of my armour are rusted. I cannot lift my arms or bend my knees.
With the loving voice of a parent the King replied, "Perhaps if you had knelt to help all those who passed by, and lifted your arms to embrace all those who came to you, you would have been able to keep your vows to pay me homage today."
Jesus embraced a small child and said, "Whoever receives on such child receives me and the one who sent me." Most people would overlook a child, but not Jesus. If we want to receive the kingdom, we must receive the King. This king is not received by pomp and circumstance. He is received by humility and servitude - he is received by "self - forgetting.".
Being number one in God's kingdom is not about conquering or overcoming another. It is about putting others first. It is about the love of an almighty God who stoops to a sinful world to be beaten, mocked and killed so that a lost one like me might be found - so that a broken one like me might be made whole - so that a wanderer like me might have a home to go to.....
Greatness is achieved in Jesus's eyes, not just by the fact that we serve others, not just by the fact that we pour out our time and our talent for the sake of others. Greatness in the eyes of Jesus is found in the willingness of his disciples to receive, to accept, and indeed to really welcome those they would normally consider unreceivable, unacceptable, and unwelcome. To welcome others as a child welcomes others before he or she is taught to discriminate between friend and foe....
That is what Christ did when he lived and died for us and for the Creator above. He reversed the usual nature of things. He made that which was unholy, holy, that which was sinful - clean.
He welcomed us and he asks to welcome others - and that my friends is something far different than mere acts of sacrifice and of service, far different from acts of charity and being a person who is "civic minded".
What does Paul say about this?
"If I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. If I am last of all and serve all, but do not have love, my acts mean nothing."
Who do we find to be less than ourselves this day? Who in our family do we feel superior to? What brother or sister do we regard as somehow less acceptable than they ought to be? What relative do we turn away at the door because of some real, or some imagined offense? Who does our community scorn and reject? Who is looked down upon for reasons of class, or colour, or religion, or economics, or culture?
Who is greatest among us? Who is the one who has the presence of Christ in them? The one who bears God to our very doorstep and then knocks and asks if he or she can come in?
Let's get with the program people - lets hug the children, let's hug one another, let's hug God.
May those who have ears, hear.
May those who have eyes, see.
Blessed be God - day by day. Amen
Sunday, September 23, 2012
Sunday, September 16, 2012
Isaiah 50:4-9; Psalm 19; Mark 8:27-38
Bless thou, the words of my lips and the meditations of our hearts that they be of profit to us and acceptable to thee, oh our rock and our redeemer. Amen
If you have a bible with you today, I would ask you to turn to Mark, chapter Eight if you would like to follow along. We will look particularly at verses 31-35.
Most people react to the Cross of Jesus Christ in a negative fashion; they recognize the face of suffering and of death in the cross and so, even when they know about the Resurrection, they want to avoid all talk about the cross.
Most people, in other words, react to the cross like the Apostle Peter reacted to Jesus when he spoke for the first time to the disciples about what was going to happen to him.
We hear those words in verse 31 of today's reading:
Jesus began to teach his disciples saying: "the son of man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again."
"What is this" - Peter must have thought. "A good man - an innocent man - a man of faithfulness - a man who is my friend - must suffer and then be killed!"
Peter felt that this was wrong! And so he argued with Jesus!
We read in verse 32 that he took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him - and while we do not know what he said, we can well imagine it - can't we?
Don't talk this way Jesus - it's wrong! No one who is good should have to suffer.
God rewards the righteous and punishes sinners, and you - you Jesus - you are not a sinner!
You are the Messiah - the promised saviour of Israel. You should not have to suffer, you should not be rejected and killed!
But Jesus - as we read in verse 33, looked at Peter and the other disciples and then he rebuked Peter, saying to him
You are not thinking like God, you are in fact speaking like Satan would speak - trying to get me to avoid what I must do, trying to corrupt me into thinking only of myself and my own survival.
And then - then as we see in verses 34 to 35 - Jesus turns back to the disciples and to the people assembled there with him and says:
If anyone would come after me, they must deny themselves and take up their crosses and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it.
How this must have been heard by the disciples is not recorded, their reaction is unknown, but we do know that the early church took these words of our Lord very seriously - so much so that it was believed from the very beginning - from the time of the stoning of Stephen - that if a person was killed because they were spreading the gospel of Jesus that they were blessed above all people, and that they would go straight to heaven and live forever with Christ, that they would have seats of honour at his side for they would have done as Christ himself did - offering their lives for the lives of others.
A new word was coined for these saints who were not only willing to die, but actually did die because of their faith in Jesus: it is the word MARTYR - which literally translates as the word "witness".
So many believers, during the first 200 years of the church's history wanted to be witnesses, martyrs for the faith, that the church passed a law saying that no one would be considered a martyr who actively sought their death - that seeking to die for Jesus was not the same as being killed because of one's faith in him!
Incredible isn't it? The church had to pass a law to stop people from taking up a cross and following Jesus to his death!
But what about today?
What do Jesus' words: "If anyone would come after me, they must deny themselves and take up their crosses and follow me", really mean for us who want to be his followers?
I believe that it is fair to say that most of us are not called upon to suffer and die for what we do in Christ's name today.
While in some parts of the world people are being killed because of their faith in Christ - because of their belief in the liberating word of God, most of us are not called upon to make this sacrifice.
So what does denying ourselves and taking up our crosses and following Jesus entail for us?
Well - it involves primarily how and why we make our daily choices.
It involves whether or not we choose things on the basis of what is convenient and easy and self-serving or on the basis of what is right and good and loving.
I want to use a single example to illustrate what it means to deny oneself, to do as 'the good news version' of the bible says, and "to forget oneself" and to take up the cross and follow Jesus.
I know of some children that are criticized a lot. It happens everywhere unfortunately - there is nothing unique about this situation.
The kids are looked down upon because of how they are dressed, which is not very well, and for what they have to eat, which is very plain by even the plainest standards, and for the home they live in, which is far from glorious; and because they cause trouble by fighting... and they do fight - with both fists and words.
While most people who are into this judgement game blame the parents for what the kids eat and what they wear and, depending on the age of the children, for how they behave, they still tend to avoid the kids and have their children avoid them.
Very few people stop to think that these kids need some special loving, and that the major reason they fight is because other children tease them - and that those children who tease them get their critical and unloving attitude from their parents - from the stray comments and remarks that they overhear their parents make about the kids and their family.
To forget oneself here and to follow Jesus is to give up judgement and to ask instead:
- what can I do to help these children
- what can I do to make things better,
- what can I do to nurture and care for these kids.
To take up one's cross here means to forget one's own opinions about things and about people, to forget one's own righteousness and goodness, and to do what Christ would have done, to do what he did on the way to the cross, and take into one's arms all the lost and lonely little ones and to bless them.
It is so simple - yet it can be even harder to do than to actually die for Jesus.
To die for Christ you see is relatively easy - the issues in the case of being told you will be killed if you continue to worship Jesus and to tell others about him are pretty clear.
But to simply be in a situation where we must choose either to follow Christ's example or not - the Christ who was rejected because he was good to prostitutes and tax collectors, and other sinners and outcasts, well that is often much harder.
We are kind of attached to our opinions - that's why so many of us spend so much time telling others what they are; and most people would rather choose to let others know who causes problems in the community and who should be avoided and who is not quite "up to snuff" than do anything loving for them. They would rather pass comment upon others than do even something as simple - and as transforming - as pass time in prayer for them.
It is so easy to slip into the ways of the world, into the ways of the those who walk in darkness.
No lights flash when you are in a situation where you must choose Christ or yourself. No bells ring when you are faced with either judging someone or by loving them.
It is easy to go along with what others are saying, or to let it go by for the sake of their so called friendship, it is easy to choose to save your own life - all you have to do is go with the flow.
The way of the cross is - by and large much harder - for it is a way that contradicts the easy way of the world, a way that often earns you the hatred of those who are evil, and calls upon you the hostility of those who do not like the light to shine upon their acts.
The way of choosing to deny oneself is difficult because our self is reluctant to die - reluctant to allow God to work in us and through us - reluctant to trust that God can and will work a wonderful work in us when we follow in his path.
This is the cross that most of us are called to carry each and every day. This is, for most of us, what is involved in denying oneself and choosing to follow the master: to give up our own opinions, our own selves, and, if need be, our friends, for the sake of caring for the children - both young and old - that others judge.
Do you see how this talk about denying oneself and picking up the cross and following Jesus works?
It is not about being the kind of martyr who was killed by the Roman authorities for speaking about Jesus. It is not even about going from door to door telling people about Jesus and asking them if they are saved - as did the evangelists and the apostles.
No, it's about being the kind of witness to the faith who strives to forget his or her opinion of who is bad and who is good, and instead strives to treat all people with love.
It is about being the kind of witness who risks the disapproval of his or her friends because he or she will not listen to their judgements, but instead seeks to bless those being criticized.
It is about giving to strangers and to people on welfare and to convicts the same kind of love you give to your coffee buddies and card partners and travelling companions.
It is about choosing to follow Jesus, knowing that you will have to change, that you will have to forget yourself and what is easiest for you and remember instead what is the good and true and loving thing to do..
But the marvel of it all is this - just as Jesus received a new and glorious life on account of his faithfulness, just as the Martyrs who were burned at the stake and fed to the lions in the Coliseum are seated at Christ's right hand, so those who forget themselves in the little ways I have described - those who pick up the cross of Christ and follow in his path - receive a new and glorious life, one in which the Son of Man is not ashamed of them - but rather shines brightly through them.
Thanks be to Christ - who denied himself, and picked up his cross, and followed in the path of God - the path that leads to resurrection and eternal life. Amen
If you have a bible with you today, I would ask you to turn to Mark, chapter Eight if you would like to follow along. We will look particularly at verses 31-35.
Most people react to the Cross of Jesus Christ in a negative fashion; they recognize the face of suffering and of death in the cross and so, even when they know about the Resurrection, they want to avoid all talk about the cross.
Most people, in other words, react to the cross like the Apostle Peter reacted to Jesus when he spoke for the first time to the disciples about what was going to happen to him.
We hear those words in verse 31 of today's reading:
Jesus began to teach his disciples saying: "the son of man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again."
"What is this" - Peter must have thought. "A good man - an innocent man - a man of faithfulness - a man who is my friend - must suffer and then be killed!"
Peter felt that this was wrong! And so he argued with Jesus!
We read in verse 32 that he took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him - and while we do not know what he said, we can well imagine it - can't we?
Don't talk this way Jesus - it's wrong! No one who is good should have to suffer.
God rewards the righteous and punishes sinners, and you - you Jesus - you are not a sinner!
You are the Messiah - the promised saviour of Israel. You should not have to suffer, you should not be rejected and killed!
But Jesus - as we read in verse 33, looked at Peter and the other disciples and then he rebuked Peter, saying to him
You are not thinking like God, you are in fact speaking like Satan would speak - trying to get me to avoid what I must do, trying to corrupt me into thinking only of myself and my own survival.
And then - then as we see in verses 34 to 35 - Jesus turns back to the disciples and to the people assembled there with him and says:
If anyone would come after me, they must deny themselves and take up their crosses and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it.
How this must have been heard by the disciples is not recorded, their reaction is unknown, but we do know that the early church took these words of our Lord very seriously - so much so that it was believed from the very beginning - from the time of the stoning of Stephen - that if a person was killed because they were spreading the gospel of Jesus that they were blessed above all people, and that they would go straight to heaven and live forever with Christ, that they would have seats of honour at his side for they would have done as Christ himself did - offering their lives for the lives of others.
A new word was coined for these saints who were not only willing to die, but actually did die because of their faith in Jesus: it is the word MARTYR - which literally translates as the word "witness".
So many believers, during the first 200 years of the church's history wanted to be witnesses, martyrs for the faith, that the church passed a law saying that no one would be considered a martyr who actively sought their death - that seeking to die for Jesus was not the same as being killed because of one's faith in him!
Incredible isn't it? The church had to pass a law to stop people from taking up a cross and following Jesus to his death!
But what about today?
What do Jesus' words: "If anyone would come after me, they must deny themselves and take up their crosses and follow me", really mean for us who want to be his followers?
I believe that it is fair to say that most of us are not called upon to suffer and die for what we do in Christ's name today.
While in some parts of the world people are being killed because of their faith in Christ - because of their belief in the liberating word of God, most of us are not called upon to make this sacrifice.
So what does denying ourselves and taking up our crosses and following Jesus entail for us?
Well - it involves primarily how and why we make our daily choices.
It involves whether or not we choose things on the basis of what is convenient and easy and self-serving or on the basis of what is right and good and loving.
I want to use a single example to illustrate what it means to deny oneself, to do as 'the good news version' of the bible says, and "to forget oneself" and to take up the cross and follow Jesus.
I know of some children that are criticized a lot. It happens everywhere unfortunately - there is nothing unique about this situation.
The kids are looked down upon because of how they are dressed, which is not very well, and for what they have to eat, which is very plain by even the plainest standards, and for the home they live in, which is far from glorious; and because they cause trouble by fighting... and they do fight - with both fists and words.
While most people who are into this judgement game blame the parents for what the kids eat and what they wear and, depending on the age of the children, for how they behave, they still tend to avoid the kids and have their children avoid them.
Very few people stop to think that these kids need some special loving, and that the major reason they fight is because other children tease them - and that those children who tease them get their critical and unloving attitude from their parents - from the stray comments and remarks that they overhear their parents make about the kids and their family.
To forget oneself here and to follow Jesus is to give up judgement and to ask instead:
- what can I do to help these children
- what can I do to make things better,
- what can I do to nurture and care for these kids.
To take up one's cross here means to forget one's own opinions about things and about people, to forget one's own righteousness and goodness, and to do what Christ would have done, to do what he did on the way to the cross, and take into one's arms all the lost and lonely little ones and to bless them.
It is so simple - yet it can be even harder to do than to actually die for Jesus.
To die for Christ you see is relatively easy - the issues in the case of being told you will be killed if you continue to worship Jesus and to tell others about him are pretty clear.
But to simply be in a situation where we must choose either to follow Christ's example or not - the Christ who was rejected because he was good to prostitutes and tax collectors, and other sinners and outcasts, well that is often much harder.
We are kind of attached to our opinions - that's why so many of us spend so much time telling others what they are; and most people would rather choose to let others know who causes problems in the community and who should be avoided and who is not quite "up to snuff" than do anything loving for them. They would rather pass comment upon others than do even something as simple - and as transforming - as pass time in prayer for them.
It is so easy to slip into the ways of the world, into the ways of the those who walk in darkness.
No lights flash when you are in a situation where you must choose Christ or yourself. No bells ring when you are faced with either judging someone or by loving them.
It is easy to go along with what others are saying, or to let it go by for the sake of their so called friendship, it is easy to choose to save your own life - all you have to do is go with the flow.
The way of the cross is - by and large much harder - for it is a way that contradicts the easy way of the world, a way that often earns you the hatred of those who are evil, and calls upon you the hostility of those who do not like the light to shine upon their acts.
The way of choosing to deny oneself is difficult because our self is reluctant to die - reluctant to allow God to work in us and through us - reluctant to trust that God can and will work a wonderful work in us when we follow in his path.
This is the cross that most of us are called to carry each and every day. This is, for most of us, what is involved in denying oneself and choosing to follow the master: to give up our own opinions, our own selves, and, if need be, our friends, for the sake of caring for the children - both young and old - that others judge.
Do you see how this talk about denying oneself and picking up the cross and following Jesus works?
It is not about being the kind of martyr who was killed by the Roman authorities for speaking about Jesus. It is not even about going from door to door telling people about Jesus and asking them if they are saved - as did the evangelists and the apostles.
No, it's about being the kind of witness to the faith who strives to forget his or her opinion of who is bad and who is good, and instead strives to treat all people with love.
It is about being the kind of witness who risks the disapproval of his or her friends because he or she will not listen to their judgements, but instead seeks to bless those being criticized.
It is about giving to strangers and to people on welfare and to convicts the same kind of love you give to your coffee buddies and card partners and travelling companions.
It is about choosing to follow Jesus, knowing that you will have to change, that you will have to forget yourself and what is easiest for you and remember instead what is the good and true and loving thing to do..
But the marvel of it all is this - just as Jesus received a new and glorious life on account of his faithfulness, just as the Martyrs who were burned at the stake and fed to the lions in the Coliseum are seated at Christ's right hand, so those who forget themselves in the little ways I have described - those who pick up the cross of Christ and follow in his path - receive a new and glorious life, one in which the Son of Man is not ashamed of them - but rather shines brightly through them.
Thanks be to Christ - who denied himself, and picked up his cross, and followed in the path of God - the path that leads to resurrection and eternal life. Amen
Sunday, September 2, 2012
Deuteronomy 4:1-9; Psalm 15; James 1:17-27; Mark 7:1-8,14-23
Let us Pray - Lord God, Creator and Maker of us all, You who Redeem us and Sustain us: speak in the calming of our minds and in the longings of our hearts, by the words of my lips and in the thoughts that we form. Speak, O Lord, for your servants listen. Amen.
Earlier this past week I read a little joke which I would like to share with you today. It goes like this:
A father is in church with three of his young children, including his six year old daughter. As was the family custom, they sat in the very front row so that the children could properly witness the service.
During this particular service, the pastor was doing a baptism of a tiny infant. The little six year old girl was quite taken by this, observing that he was saying something and pouring water over the little one's head.
With a puzzled look on her face, the little girl turned to her father and asked, "Daddy, why is he brainwashing that little baby?"
When I read that story I happened to be thinking of today's scripture readings - that part where Jesus says to his disciples: "Nothing outside a man can make him 'unclean' by going into him. Rather, it is what comes out of a man that makes him 'unclean.'" and it struck me that there was something quite profound about the little girl's question; that indeed what is required by each of us is that we allow our brains to be washed - our brains and our hearts as well.
Today's readings speak about laws and regulations and about purity of heart, mind, and soul. About what makes for cleanliness in the eyes of God and what does not.
Some Pharisees and teachers of the law who had come from Jerusalem gather around Jesus. They are interested to know what it is that he is teaching. They noticed that some of his disciples were eating their food with hands that were ritually unclean, that is they had not washed them in the way the Pharisees said people should, and they complained to Jesus about this saying:
"Why don't your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with 'unclean' hands?"
The Scripture goes on to say that the Pharisees had many rules about such things, about what was the proper way to prepare food, to wash cups and pots and bowls and indeed one's very self if one was to be regarded as "clean" in the eyes of God.
Jesus responds to them in what seems to be an unduly harsh manner - calling them hypocrites and telling them that they worship God in vain because they follow the traditions of men instead of the laws of God.
I said that it seems to be an unduly harsh response because the important thing to understand about the rules and traditions of the elders that are mentioned in today's Gospel reading is that each rule, each tradition, was devised to help people be in closer relationship to God. To keep them pure and holy in his sight.
Ritual cleanliness and traditions about what one could or could not do on the Sabbath, or who one could or could not talk to or associate with, or what one could or could not eat or touch were devised for the good of the people, for the good of their relationship with God as individuals and as a called and chosen people, a called and chosen community of faith.
Each such rule - each such tradition was based upon Biblical passages, just as today, in some churches, regulations about divorce, advice about how you should raise your children, and information about how women should be subject to their husbands, are based on Biblical passages.
The difference between the rules and traditions of today's elders and the elders of Jesus' time is only this - the traditions of our modern day elders are based on New Testament passages instead of Old.
The traditions of Christianity do not require us, as the traditions of the Pharisees required the Jews, to worry about how we wash before eat, nor do they prohibit us from walking over a mile on the Sabbath, but they can be just as restrictive, and ultimately just as meaningless as those kinds of rules were in Jesus' time.
Some of today's traditions claim that a person is not a true Christian if they do not believe in the literal wording of the Bible, or if they have not had a particular kind of "born again" experience, or if they do not speak in tongues.
Some state that a person is unclean if they associate with unbelievers, or if they take a drink, or if they do not believe that God did not create the world and all that is in it in six days and nights some thousands of years ago.
I said that Jesus seemed unduly harsh in his response to the pharisee's criticism of his disciples, but - perhaps - after having thought about in the terms I have just outlined to you - maybe not. Perhaps Jesus was not harsh enough!
The net effect of the traditions of the elders in the day of Jesus, and the traditions that are found today in so many churches today, is to misdirect people - to misdirect them by turning righteousness - by turning cleanliness - by turning holiness - into matters of how well we adhere to the external rules and understandings of our faith rather than to the law that God writes upon hearts that are open to him.
How is your heart?? Are you trying to conform the laws and the traditions of our faith - but inwardly are empty??
Suze Orman, financial planner and author of "The Courage to be Rich", tells of her successful career that went through a period when it was unsuccessful.
During that time she struggled to save face, to maintain an image of success. She continued to entertain her friends at fine restaurants and to drive her luxury car to keep up the image of a successful professional. The truth was that every dinner, every car payment, every tank of gas was taking her deeper into debt.
Many people who believe in God are like Suze. They look good. They keep up the appearances. But inwardly they are impoverished - and the more they try to conform on the outside to what is supposed to come from inside the worse off they get - and in the end those around them are worse off as well.
What defiles a person are the unclean things that originate from within a person, not those that come to us from without.
What defiles a person is not what it is we eat, nor who it is that we eat with, rather it is our anger, our pride, our refusal to listen to others, our sense of superiority, our sense of our own righteousness.
And what makes a person pure and holy is not who or what we avoid in the outer world - though there are things that we should avoid, but whether or not we allow our insides - our hearts and our minds and our souls to be washed in the love of God. And having been washed, to bring forth from inside us those things that Paul calls the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control.
I want you all to take special note of that today.
The things that are good, those good things that come from within us are the fruit of the spirit that is within us.
Our acts of goodness and love arise out of what we allow God to do within us.
Our gentleness, our faithfulness, our kindness grow not according to our attempts to keep some eternal law about how we should be faithful, kind or gentle, but rather they grow out of the word that is implanted within our hearts and minds by God.
And joy and peace and self control, things that are the marks of holiness and purity, come about not through constant striving to follow some regulations that are meant to help us be that way, but through meditating upon what it is that God has done for us - and is doing for us - and allowing God to direct our steps with all this in mind.
"Every good and perfect gift is from above," writes James, "coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. God chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of first fruits of all He created".
Holiness, purity, cleanliness is a gift from above. One that we should aspire to.
But in aspiring to it we need to remember that it has nothing to do with that which is without us and everything to do with that which is within us.
And that which is within us can only be changed by the power of God's word at work within our lives - it can only be changed as we take that word inside us and allowing it to rule us.
"Do not merely listen to the word", James writes, "and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it - he will be blessed in what he does"
What we need to learn is that the word that is heard in this church, the word that God has given us in the Scriptures, the word that God puts into our hearts so that may meditate on it day and night, must be lived out.
This can occur only if we welcome the word, if we let it take root and then allow it to prompt us to action.
If we don't then like some of the pharisees and scribes who gathered to hear Jesus we will end up being critics of those who are seeking to follow him faithfully - rather than helpers, rather than friends, rather than brothers and sisters who seek to build one another up in love.
We need to allow a place for God to work in our hearts, a place where we in fact listen to God - as well as ask things of God, a place where we listen and then we allow God to direct our actions, our deeds, in the world beyond us.
It is God who makes us holy and it is God who wants us to be holy.
Receive His word into your hearts each and every day. Listen for it as you worship with your brothers and sisters, and then, putting aside those emotions and feelings and thoughts that would lead you astray, and praying in everything that God will lead you and help let God's word come forth from within you and shine about you in acts of love and compassion, and in deeds of patience, understanding, and mercy.
Blessed be the name of the one who washes our hearts and our minds and makes us acceptable in God's sight, both now and forevermore. Amen.
Earlier this past week I read a little joke which I would like to share with you today. It goes like this:
A father is in church with three of his young children, including his six year old daughter. As was the family custom, they sat in the very front row so that the children could properly witness the service.
During this particular service, the pastor was doing a baptism of a tiny infant. The little six year old girl was quite taken by this, observing that he was saying something and pouring water over the little one's head.
With a puzzled look on her face, the little girl turned to her father and asked, "Daddy, why is he brainwashing that little baby?"
When I read that story I happened to be thinking of today's scripture readings - that part where Jesus says to his disciples: "Nothing outside a man can make him 'unclean' by going into him. Rather, it is what comes out of a man that makes him 'unclean.'" and it struck me that there was something quite profound about the little girl's question; that indeed what is required by each of us is that we allow our brains to be washed - our brains and our hearts as well.
Today's readings speak about laws and regulations and about purity of heart, mind, and soul. About what makes for cleanliness in the eyes of God and what does not.
Some Pharisees and teachers of the law who had come from Jerusalem gather around Jesus. They are interested to know what it is that he is teaching. They noticed that some of his disciples were eating their food with hands that were ritually unclean, that is they had not washed them in the way the Pharisees said people should, and they complained to Jesus about this saying:
"Why don't your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with 'unclean' hands?"
The Scripture goes on to say that the Pharisees had many rules about such things, about what was the proper way to prepare food, to wash cups and pots and bowls and indeed one's very self if one was to be regarded as "clean" in the eyes of God.
Jesus responds to them in what seems to be an unduly harsh manner - calling them hypocrites and telling them that they worship God in vain because they follow the traditions of men instead of the laws of God.
I said that it seems to be an unduly harsh response because the important thing to understand about the rules and traditions of the elders that are mentioned in today's Gospel reading is that each rule, each tradition, was devised to help people be in closer relationship to God. To keep them pure and holy in his sight.
Ritual cleanliness and traditions about what one could or could not do on the Sabbath, or who one could or could not talk to or associate with, or what one could or could not eat or touch were devised for the good of the people, for the good of their relationship with God as individuals and as a called and chosen people, a called and chosen community of faith.
Each such rule - each such tradition was based upon Biblical passages, just as today, in some churches, regulations about divorce, advice about how you should raise your children, and information about how women should be subject to their husbands, are based on Biblical passages.
The difference between the rules and traditions of today's elders and the elders of Jesus' time is only this - the traditions of our modern day elders are based on New Testament passages instead of Old.
The traditions of Christianity do not require us, as the traditions of the Pharisees required the Jews, to worry about how we wash before eat, nor do they prohibit us from walking over a mile on the Sabbath, but they can be just as restrictive, and ultimately just as meaningless as those kinds of rules were in Jesus' time.
Some of today's traditions claim that a person is not a true Christian if they do not believe in the literal wording of the Bible, or if they have not had a particular kind of "born again" experience, or if they do not speak in tongues.
Some state that a person is unclean if they associate with unbelievers, or if they take a drink, or if they do not believe that God did not create the world and all that is in it in six days and nights some thousands of years ago.
I said that Jesus seemed unduly harsh in his response to the pharisee's criticism of his disciples, but - perhaps - after having thought about in the terms I have just outlined to you - maybe not. Perhaps Jesus was not harsh enough!
The net effect of the traditions of the elders in the day of Jesus, and the traditions that are found today in so many churches today, is to misdirect people - to misdirect them by turning righteousness - by turning cleanliness - by turning holiness - into matters of how well we adhere to the external rules and understandings of our faith rather than to the law that God writes upon hearts that are open to him.
How is your heart?? Are you trying to conform the laws and the traditions of our faith - but inwardly are empty??
Suze Orman, financial planner and author of "The Courage to be Rich", tells of her successful career that went through a period when it was unsuccessful.
During that time she struggled to save face, to maintain an image of success. She continued to entertain her friends at fine restaurants and to drive her luxury car to keep up the image of a successful professional. The truth was that every dinner, every car payment, every tank of gas was taking her deeper into debt.
Many people who believe in God are like Suze. They look good. They keep up the appearances. But inwardly they are impoverished - and the more they try to conform on the outside to what is supposed to come from inside the worse off they get - and in the end those around them are worse off as well.
What defiles a person are the unclean things that originate from within a person, not those that come to us from without.
What defiles a person is not what it is we eat, nor who it is that we eat with, rather it is our anger, our pride, our refusal to listen to others, our sense of superiority, our sense of our own righteousness.
And what makes a person pure and holy is not who or what we avoid in the outer world - though there are things that we should avoid, but whether or not we allow our insides - our hearts and our minds and our souls to be washed in the love of God. And having been washed, to bring forth from inside us those things that Paul calls the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control.
I want you all to take special note of that today.
The things that are good, those good things that come from within us are the fruit of the spirit that is within us.
Our acts of goodness and love arise out of what we allow God to do within us.
Our gentleness, our faithfulness, our kindness grow not according to our attempts to keep some eternal law about how we should be faithful, kind or gentle, but rather they grow out of the word that is implanted within our hearts and minds by God.
And joy and peace and self control, things that are the marks of holiness and purity, come about not through constant striving to follow some regulations that are meant to help us be that way, but through meditating upon what it is that God has done for us - and is doing for us - and allowing God to direct our steps with all this in mind.
"Every good and perfect gift is from above," writes James, "coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. God chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of first fruits of all He created".
Holiness, purity, cleanliness is a gift from above. One that we should aspire to.
But in aspiring to it we need to remember that it has nothing to do with that which is without us and everything to do with that which is within us.
And that which is within us can only be changed by the power of God's word at work within our lives - it can only be changed as we take that word inside us and allowing it to rule us.
"Do not merely listen to the word", James writes, "and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it - he will be blessed in what he does"
What we need to learn is that the word that is heard in this church, the word that God has given us in the Scriptures, the word that God puts into our hearts so that may meditate on it day and night, must be lived out.
This can occur only if we welcome the word, if we let it take root and then allow it to prompt us to action.
If we don't then like some of the pharisees and scribes who gathered to hear Jesus we will end up being critics of those who are seeking to follow him faithfully - rather than helpers, rather than friends, rather than brothers and sisters who seek to build one another up in love.
We need to allow a place for God to work in our hearts, a place where we in fact listen to God - as well as ask things of God, a place where we listen and then we allow God to direct our actions, our deeds, in the world beyond us.
It is God who makes us holy and it is God who wants us to be holy.
Receive His word into your hearts each and every day. Listen for it as you worship with your brothers and sisters, and then, putting aside those emotions and feelings and thoughts that would lead you astray, and praying in everything that God will lead you and help let God's word come forth from within you and shine about you in acts of love and compassion, and in deeds of patience, understanding, and mercy.
Blessed be the name of the one who washes our hearts and our minds and makes us acceptable in God's sight, both now and forevermore. Amen.
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