Freeville/Homer Ave. UMC's - Tenth Sunday after Pentecost - 08/17/14 Sermon - “What's in your heart?"

Sunday 08/17/14 Freeville/Homer Ave UMC’s

Sermon Title: “What’s in your heart?”

Old Testament Scripture Lesson: Psalm 133

                                            

New Testament Scripture Lesson: Romans 11:1-2a, 29-32

Gospel Lesson: Mathew 15:(10-20), 21-28

Welcome once again, on this the Tenth Sunday after the Feast of Pentecost. Pentecost, the day that the Holy Spirit moved, and the Christian Church was officially born.

Well I have a question for us all here this morning. How many of us here, try to watch what we eat? How many of us like to make sure that we eat enough vegetables, and fruits, and etc.?

We all, I am sure have grown up being taught frameworks like the food pyramid, and other more up to date nutritional charts and regulations. In fact, in our public schools today, in many of our cafeterias, we still have the posters of athletes, or actors, or actresses, that have those milk mustaches that say, “Drink milk.”

As a culture, we have entire companies and industries dedicated to the manufacture of vitamins, of supplement pills, of healthy drinks, and etc. So yes, I would say that as a culture, we are very aware that what we put into our body is significant and important.

Further, our external bodies are something that are very important in general, in this culture. For example, our culture says that we need to keep clean. Our culture says that we should shower often, use a myriad of soaps, body washes, loofas, scrubby things, and etc.

So our external bodies and what we put into them, seems to be highly important in this culture. For many of us, if we showed up somewhere looking dirty, tattered, and if we ate food that was seen as unclean or improper, would we not be judged by some people?

What is so fascinating to me though, is that in the United States, we actually market our food to be stylish and to be something that will make us want to eat it. Whereas many people are just happy to have any food at all. While in our culture, many of us like clothes, and like to be well dressed, many people are happy to just have any clothes.

It would say that it is undeniable then, that we have many social norms and values about what we put into our bodies, what our bodies are expected to look like, and we also have norms and values about cleanliness.

In our gospel lesson from today though, Jesus challenged the social norms and beliefs of the world he lived in, in Ancient Israel. You see in the world that Jesus lived in, it was the custom of Jewish culture to wash ones’ hands prior to eating. For the person must look and be clean on the exterior of their body, as to be seen as acceptable, and to then begin to put food and drink in there body. In addition to that, the food the person ate needed to be kosher, or following the Jewish dietary laws. In this way, there were certain things that were not to be eaten at all. Some things were seen as unclean.

These dietary laws and customs are still enforced and are important in many Jewish communities today. In fact, I know some people that still follow the kosher dietary laws and customs. There is nothing wrong with following kosher dietary laws, but in the gospel reading from this morning, Jesus was saying don’t use the kosher dietary laws and customs to mask your unclean heart and soul. Don’t use them as a crutch.

You see then, the way you acted externally in Ancient Israel, the things you did externally, and the rituals that you undertook externally, were seen as very important. By following all of the laws and customs of the Old Testament, one would have externally done everything required in their minds to please God.

Yet in our culture, and in the culture of Ancient Israel, that had and have such a focus on the external, what about the internal? What about what is in our hearts and in our souls? What about was is inside of our bodies, inside our hearts, and inside our souls?

By this I mean, we get and take the vitamins, we drink the protein shakes, we try to eat right, we wash up for dinner, and etc., and etc. Is this all we do though? What about our interior of hearts and our souls?

The reading from Psalm 133 from this morning talks about how it is “very good and pleasant when kindred live together in unity!” Is real unity though, just what we all do externally? I mean can we be united just by having the right behaviors, or does our heart and our soul factor in to? Should our internal hearts and souls be a factor in our unity as brothers and sisters? I would hope so.

In the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Church in Rome, or the Romans, from this morning, he talked about disobedience. Specifically, that God does not reject us for disobedience, if we receive God’s grace and mercy internally. If we repent and ask God to fill us inside our hearts and our souls. So if we are doing everything externally that we think God wants us to, but if we do not seek God’s love and grace on the inside, in the heart, and in the soul, then what have we really accomplished?

In the gospel of Mathew from chapter 15 that preceded the scripture reading from this morning, was the story of Jesus eating with the Scribes and Pharisees, with dirty hands. You see Jesus intentionally sat down with filthy hands, and immediately the Scribes and Pharisees questioned him on this external dietary law or custom. Since his hands were dirty, he then was dirty, he then was unacceptable. He was not good enough.

Yet Jesus said that his hands were in fact dirty, but he told the Scribes and Pharisees that they were hypocrites, because their hearts and souls were dirty. By this, he meant that externally they seemed perfect, but internally he could see that they were broken, that they were sinners, and that they were far from God. Yet eating with unclean hands defiled a person, the Scribes and Pharisees proclaimed to Jesus. What good is the external though, if the internal is completely tarnished and ruined?

The real question then, is what is more important, making sure that everything we do externally is perfect, or making sure our interior is well kept? This was the point of why Jesus did what he did in the gospel reading from this morning.

So I am not advocating that you stop trying to eat healthy, stop showering, and etc., but I am saying that our souls, that our hearts, are what matter the most to Jesus, to God.

In the gospel reading from this morning, Jesus tells the crowd after eating with the Scribes and Pharisees, “it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but it is was comes out of the mouth that defiles.” Then the disciples asked Jesus if the Pharisees were very offended by what he had said and done. Jesus then basically tells the disciples, not to worry about the Pharisees, as they are “blind guides of the blind.” We have often heard it as, “the blind leading the blind.”

What Jesus was telling his disciples, the crowd that had gathered, and is telling us here today, is that if we are so focused on the external culture, laws, and norms, we can completely miss the internal portion of our lives. What God desires above all, is our hearts and our souls. Salvation is found, my brothers and sisters, with clean and repentant hearts, not clean hands.

The Apostle Peter however, was still confused by what Jesus was saying, and he then said to Jesus, “Explain this parable to us.” Jesus then asks the question, “Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth enters the stomach, and goes out into the sewer?” Jesus then says, “But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this is what defiles. For out of the heart come evil intentions, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile.”

So I don’t think Jesus was saying that there is anything wrong with the Jewish hand washing ritual before eating, but that this in and of itself isn’t what faith is. That what you believe in your heart and soul, what you believe inside, is far more important than what you believe and do outside. Jesus said, faith is the thing that really matters.

I am still going to wash my hands for dinner tonight, but I am going to do it to be clean externally, not because it will give me salvation.

After this portion of the gospel reading for this morning, Jesus then went to the district of Tyre and Sidon. At this point, a Canaanite woman shouted for Jesus to have mercy on her. She said that her daughter was tormented by a demon. As she kept shouting, Jesus did not answer her. So she kept shouting, and finally his disciples said to Jesus, “Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us.” Jesus then says, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house or Israel.” The woman then knelt before Jesus and said, “Lord, help me.” Jesus then said to the woman, “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” The woman then said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall for their masters’ table.” Jesus then said, “Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” The gospel reading then concludes by saying, “And her daughter was healed instantly.”

Jesus wanted to know that this woman really had real internal faith in her heart and in her soul. Due to this, Jesus healed her daughter, not because the woman’s hands were clean, not because she wore the right clothes, not because she ate the right food, but because internally she had great faith.

The external my brothers and sisters, is not enough to save us, it is not truly what Jesus desires most. I mean after all, in the story of Jesus’ crucifixion, did Pontius Pilate really think that just washing his hands with water in front of everyone would excuse him from his sins, from his part in Jesus’ crucifixion. No, our faith is much deeper than just the washing of one’s hands.

With all of this said though, I found myself this week continuing to be taken by the events in the Middle East, by what is going in Missouri with the young man that was killed there, and yes with the death of Robin Williams.

Maybe this is just my own opinion, but I think that Robin Williams was one of the funniest people who ever lived. His family and close friends have been all over the news this week. They talked about what a great person he was. That Robin always was concerned for others, that he made others laugh, and that everyone just loved him.

By the standards of our society he had great happiness and completeness. You see he had fame, wealth, love, possessions, respect, and much more. Whenever I saw Robin Williams on television, I would laugh so hard that I would cry.

I remember coming home this past Monday night from a Trustees meeting, and when I came back to the parsonage, I turned on the news, as I was looking for updates on what had been happening in Iraq, and in Israel/Palestine. Yet the headline said, “Robin Williams dead at 63.”

Then the news said his death was suspected to be a suicide. That Robin Williams had been suffering from crippling and debilitating depression. For anyone that has done any research on Robin Williams, you will find that he battled depression his whole life.

So why do mention the very unfortunate passing of a great comedian, actor, and person like Robin Williams here this morning? Here is why, while he always did everything externally to seem happy, to seem together, and to seem like everything was good, at times he was broken internally.

You see brothers and sisters, our society is so focused on the external, yet some people that we think have everything, that we think have happiness, are the most broken.

So eating food with dirty hands? I think that there is much more to worry about in this life than that. The real question that Jesus asks us though, is how is it with our hearts and our souls? Do we have trust and peace in him?

 The external things of this culture and this world will not make us happy, only when we deeply cultivate the internal life, the heart, and the soul can we truly know God more fully. So while we probably should wash our hands before we eat, this is not what is the most important to Jesus.

This week then, I challenge us all, I challenge myself, to look at the brokenness we have in the interiors of our hearts and in our souls, and let’s doing something about that. Reach out to a brother or sister, pray, read scripture, go to the doctor, and or etc. If we know of others who are broken inside, let us do something for them to. For we can find God with broken and dirty bodies, but we can’t find God if we cling to our broken and dirty hearts and souls. Only when we are clean and repentant inside, can we truly find Jesus, can we truly find God. Amen.