How should we
worship God? The controversy in today’s gospel lesson centers around the
questions of what worship is and what
religion is about. The people of Israel
had been told “You shall be a holy people, consecrated to God.” The Scribes and Pharisees took this
commandment very seriously.
When the
religious leaders asked Jesus, “Why don’t your disciples observe the tradition
of the elders?” they were speaking of the interpretations
and amendments that had developed over the years... literally thousands of rules which regulated
every possible human situation.
The laws
concerning ritual cleanliness and dietary restrictions were a part of this
“tradition of the Elders.” In the eyes
of the Pharisees and the scribes, failure to practice this ritual of ceremonial
cleanliness wasn’t a matter of poor personal hygiene or bad manners. It was a matter of life and death, because
ritual washing was their way of trying to make themselves clean and acceptable
in the sight of God.
When they
asked Jesus why his disciples didn’t live according to the tradition of the
Elders, he answered by quoting the prophet Isaiah’s message from God: “This people honors me with their lips, but
their hearts are far from me.” He told
them that they were passing off human ideas as God’s commandments.
Now, the
Pharisees were people who took their religion very seriously. I believe they sincerely wanted to serve God
faithfully. They tried very hard to be
acceptable in God’s eyes. But they were
looking for lists of rules and regulations and for rituals that would give them
certainty in their religious lives.
“Why don’t your disciples live according to
the tradition of the elders?”
Let’s back
up a minute and remember the context of this encounter.
Just before Mark tells how Jesus fed 5,000 people… and walked on the
water… and healed the sick.
The Kingdom of God is breaking out around
them, and the Pharisees don’t seem to notice.
The sick are being healed. The
hungry are being fed. Good news is being
preached to the poor. These are the
things that Isaiah had prophesied that would be signs of the coming of the
Messiah, but the Pharisees and scribes want to talk about hand washing and tradition.
An event
had broken into the midst of time and space that was truly a moment of GRACE. Not only couldn’t the Pharisees and scribes see
it-- but kept asking the wrong QUESTIONS.
They’re asking, “How can we protect our tradition? How can we get folk to do things our way?
Too often
in the church, we ask the wrong questions.
“How do we keep everybody happy?”
“How do we avoid conflict?” “How do we
recruit new members?” “How will we survive?” “How do we make everybody follow our rules?”
In the
meantime, there are people inside and outside the church--people with broken hearts…
broken dreams…
and broken lives. People who are lonely. People who need to be restored to community. People who need to be fed…and healed…and loved.
Now, the
process of spiritual growth is hard.
Sometimes it can be downright scary.
So it’s no wonder that sometimes we, like the Pharisees, feel safer clinging
to rules or traditions or familiar ways of doing things.
I believe
each of us has a longing somewhere, deep within ourselves—a longing to grow
closer to God. But, at times, each of us
also has to fight
against our own resistance to growth. It’s a human tendency to cling to the old ways
of doing things and our old ways of
looking at the world—to take the easy path…or at least the path that’s most
familiar.
Jesus
accused the religious authorities of being “hypocrites.” The Greek word Mark uses for hypocrite has
a revealing history. It literally means an actor—a person who acts
out a set dialog or script.
In accusing
the Pharisees of being hypocrites, Jesus was inviting them to put down the mask
of outward appearances. In giving them a
list of things that can defile people, things which come from within,
Jesus was challenging them to examine their own hearts honestly, and to pay attention
to what’s really important. We have been
set apart as a holy people for a holy purpose:
to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, and mind, and to love
our neighbor as ourselves.
It’s
much easier to point a finger at the sins of others than to look inward at the
things that can defile. Yet today’s
gospel lesson makes it clear that we need to pay attention to where our hearts are.
But what does that look like?
In the epistle lesson we heard today, James fleshes out Jesus’
summary of the Law and giving some specific ways we need to live into “the
perfect law of liberty.”
If we are to love our neighbors, then we need to be
engaged with them, relating to them, and caring for them. That long list of
vices Jesus quotes defile us because they all divide us-- from God and from
each other, our neighbors.
What does it mean for us to be holy, and "undefiled"?
James offers an interesting definition in his letter: "Religion that is pure and undefiled
before God, the Father, is this: to care for widows and orphans in their
distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world."[1] James teaches that religious practice is judged on what we
do. Widows and orphans were the most
vulnerable members of ancient societies; they had no means of support, no means
of getting any, and no one to look out for them. Caring for them means to attend to the needs
of the poorest of the poor, those whom nobody else cares about or feels
responsible for. That is true religion,
true holy conduct. That is what we have
been set apart to do.
We know God partly through our traditions. But we worship the one true God, the God of
ever-ongoing creation… and new possibilities.
God overcomes sin and death with new life.Jesus came proclaiming that the Kingdom of God is near, calling people to repent, to change. If we believe Jesus when he says the Kingdom of God is here, if we follow Jesus in our actions, then we need to prayerfully consider how some of our traditions might exclude new people who might otherwise find this a nurturing faith-home. How might we need to change some traditions so that we can reach out with wider arms to more people who need to know God’s love? What do we need to hang onto, and what do we need to give up, to move further into the new life God calls us into?
In Jesus Christ, we have the perfect example of a person who is holy and whole. The gospels tell us that Jesus went about preaching good news to the poor and release to the captives. He taught by word and deed. He blessed the children. He healed the sick and ministered to the brokenhearted. He ate with outcasts…forgave sinners…and called all to repent and believe the good news of God’s love and forgiveness.
The world tries to set limits on what we believe is
possible and sets boundaries that set us
apart from “them.” But Christ came
breaking down the dividing walls and showing us that there is no such thing as
a hopeless case. There is nobody outside
the circle of God’s love. In Christ, there
are no “others”—only neighbors. Because God loves our neighbors, we are
commanded to love them too.
I like the way one of my colleagues puts it: Our hands are made clean and holy, not by
washing them, but by getting them dirty. Our hands have been set apart to reach out
into the dirtiness of the world’s injustices and impurities on Christ’s behalf,
to touch with compassion those considered untouchable or unclean by our social
mores, cultural divisions, or political commitments. [2]
As Teresa of Avila famously put it, "Christ has no
body now on earth but yours… no hands but yours… no feet but yours. Yours are the eyes through which God’s compassion
will look upon the world. Yours are the
feet with which God will go about doing good.
Yours are the hands with which God will bless others now."
God has fully revealed
God’s love for us in Jesus. In response to
that love, God wants us our love in return.
We are called to worship God through our total devotion…and through our
ministry to all
God’s children in need, as we love as Christ loves. God’s way is a tradition of self-giving love.So… in the midst of the daily struggles and questions we face every day, may our hearts be in the right place. May our hearts become more and more open to God’s love and life.
Amen.
Rev. Fran Hayes, Pastor
Littlefield Presbyterian Church
Dearborn, Michigan
August 30, 2015
[1]
James 1:27
[2]
I’m indebted here to the Rev. J. C. Austin, in
“Dirtiness is next to Godliness,” (Madison Avenue Pulpit, 2003), a
sermon posted at www.goodpreacher.com
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