Sunday
08/30/15 Freeville/Homer Ave UMC’s
Sermon Title: “You ignore God’s
commandment while holding
on to rules created by humans”
Old Testament
Lesson: Psalm 45:1-2, 6-9
New Testament
Scripture: James 1:17-27
Gospel Lesson:
Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
My friends, my sisters and brothers, I want to welcome you
once again on this the Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost. On the day of
Pentecost, almost two-thousand years ago, the Holy Spirit moved like a mighty
fire, like a mighty wind, and the disciples and the earlier followers of Jesus
Christ, formally became the Christian Church. For on the day of Pentecost, the
church was born, as the disciples and the early Christians went out for the
first time, preaching the gospel, serving poor, and changing the world. As
Christians today, we are part of this legacy, as we continue to preach, to serve,
to love, and to change the world for Jesus Christ.
This morning however, I want to talk about rules. You know
those expectations, those behaviors, and those things that we are all supposed to
adhere to? For example, when we go to public pool, the rules might say, “No
running,” or no “Horse Play.” The rules in a classroom in a school might be, “raise
your hand if you wish to speak,” or “treat each other with love and respect.”
The rules in a job might be to “meet your deadlines,” or to “do what is asked
of you.” It would seem that all around us then, are rules, expectation, do’s,
and don’ts.
How many of us though, ever get tired of the rules? How
many of us sometimes think, can the rules ever be broken? Further, are there
some rules that just make so sense? Lastly, what if the current rules that we
have just aren’t working?
I
remember when used to be a social worker and an alternative instructor in
Ithaca. Some days, I would teach in the public library in Ithaca. After parking
my car and walking to the cross walk, I would then hit the button to cross the
street. Someday when I wanted to cross the street there were many people and
cars present, but once and awhile, there were few people and no cars.
Now let’s be clear on this brothers and sisters, in the
State of New York, jaywalking, or crossing the street without the go ahead from
the little crosswalk box is illegal. Yet after waiting some days for a few
minutes in Ithaca, and on the days when there were few cars and people, I
finally just thought, well this doesn’t make any sense! So I crossed the
street, and when I did, there were no cars, and few if any people. I probably
should have waited to cross the street, but there was nothing to wait for! Has
anyone here ever jaywalked across the street?
So I am not against the rules, the law, or anything like
that, but what if the rules in a given situation don’t make any sense? What if
you are in a car with someone and they suddenly lose consciousness? The hospital
let’s say in 10-miles away. The speed limit though, is let’s say 55-miles per
hour. So do you go the next 10-miles at 55-miles per hour, or do you go faster?
When can the rules be flexible? When can the rules be
thrown out all together?
Suppose that there was a complete shortage next month of
loaves of bread and grape juice? Would we cancel communion for next Sunday, or
do we substitute something else as the communion elements?
In fairness, as I said, I do believe in following laws,
rules, and etc., unlike my Grandpa Winkelman, who said that, “the only crime is
getting caught.”
I give all of these examples this morning to build up to
Gospel of Mark reading, that talks about eating with unclean hands, or
unpurified hands.
I remember when I was a child, having family meals on Sundays
sometimes. Or perhaps a family meal on a Friday, or a Saturday. We didn’t have to
wear suits and dresses to these meals, but there was rules. We had to eat
whatever we put on out plates, and I mean whatever. We were expected to wash
our hands, and in general to be clean at the table. We were expected to be
polite and to ask for something if we needed it. We usually would let everyone
know if we were getting up to leave or to use the bathroom.
This morning, our Gospel of Mark reading picks up in
chapter 7, saying, “The Pharisees and some legal experts from Jerusalem
gathered around Jesus” (Mark 7:1, CEB). Now at this point, Jesus and his
disciples are sitting and eating a meal. The gospel then goes on to say of the
Pharisees and the legal experts, “They saw some of his disciples eating food
with unclean hands. (They were eating without first ritually purifying their
hands through washing” (Mark 7:2, CEB). The next verse then says, “The
Pharisees and all the Jews don’t eat without first without washing their hands
carefully” (Mark 7:3, CEB). So this ritual washing was required for Jewish
people. Yet the point of the ritual washing of the hands was not to be better
than others, not to be a tool of power, but was supposed to be done to bring glory
to God.
Well I don’t about you, but when I wash my hands before
dinner, I do so to not make me ritualistically clean, but to make my hands
literally clean. So the indictment against Jesus and his disciples, is that
they were eating food, and hadn’t undergone the ritual washing required of them
in the Jewish law.
It would seem to me that the Pharisees and the legal
experts were nit-picking then, as you would think that Jesus and disciples
would be called to the carpet for something much bigger than not ritualistically
washing their hands. Yet this is important in the Jewish Law, as ritual
cleaning and washing mattered. As we can think of Pontius Pilate washing his
hands of Jesus Christ’s crucifixion and death, in Matthew 27:24. I mean was Pontius
Pilate innocent of not stopping Christ’s death, simply because he ritualistically
washed his hands? No, I do think so.
Well let me give you a little bit more on why this hand
washing or cleansing ritual was so important. In says in Mark 7:4, “Upon
returning from the marketplace, they don’t eat without first immersing themselves.
They observe many other rules that have been handed down, such as the washing
of cups, jugs, pans, and sleeping mats)” (Mark 7:4, CEB). Mark 7:5 then says, “So
the Pharisees and legal experts asked Jesus, “Why are your disciples not living
according to the rules handed down by the elders but instead eat food with ritually
unclean hands?” (Mark 7:5, CEB).
So the very first thing that the Pharisees and the legal
experts noticed, was that Jesus’s disciples didn’t follow the Jewish ritual
cleaning laws. They might not have even known the disciples, or known why the
disciples didn’t ritually wash their hands, but rules were rules. Rule can also
never be broken right? Further this rule of ritual hand washing was not used to
exploit or call others out on the carpet, it was used to glorify almighty God.
Well Jesus then replies by discussing the prophet Isaiah.
Jesus says, “Isaiah really knew what he was talking about when he prophesied
about you hypocrites. He wrote, This
people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far away from me. Their
worship of me is empty since they teach instructions that are human words.”
(Mark 7:6-7, CEB).
Jesus was then building up to his main point, that we can do
the right things externally or with our bodies, that our lips can say the right
things, but what about what is in our hearts and our souls? What is more
important, the internal parts of person’s heart and soul, or there external
body and hands? What is better, clean hands, or clean souls? Further, do we
call people out on their hands, when we have sin and filth in our hearts and in
our souls?
Jesus then says, what the title of my sermon is today, from
Mark 7:8, “You ignore God’s commandment while holding on to rules created by
humans and handed down to you” (Mark 7:8, CEB). So Jesus was saying, you are
correct, my disciples do not have clean hands, but are you raising this point
to glorify God, or to glorify yourself?
To emphasize his point, Jesus then said in Mark 7:14, “Listen
to me, all of you, and understand. Nothing outside of a person can enter and
contaminate a person in God’s sight; rather, the things that come out of a
person contaminate the person” (Mark 7:14b-15, CEB).
The crux of Jesus’ point, then comes in Mark 7:21, which
says, “It’s from the inside, from the human heart, that evil thoughts come:
sexual sins, thefts, murders, adultery, greed, evil actions, deceit,
unrestrained immorality, envy, insults, arrogance, and foolishness. All these evil
things come from the inside and contaminate a person in God’s sight” (Mark
7:21-23, CEB). So do we look at the hands of a person, or do we look at the
heart and the soul of a person?
I
want to share a very short story with you, about judging others. This story is
called Father Joseph, and it is by author unknown. Here is how it goes: “A member of a monastic order once
committed a fault. A council was called to determine the punishment, but when
the monks assembled it was noticed that Father Joseph was not among them. The superior
sent someone to say to him, “Come, for everyone is waiting for you.”
“So Father Joseph got up and went.
He took a leaking jug, filled it with water, and carried it with him. When the
others saw this they asked, “What is this, father?”
“The old man said to them, “My sins
run out behind me, and I do not see them, and today I am coming to judge the
error of another?”
Well it comes down to this friends,
brothers and sisters, when have we been the Pharisees and the legal experts?
When have we been overly critical of someone’s hands, or some of their lesser
behaviors, while completely and totally overlooking there heart and there soul.
You see when we create rules and laws as people, as individuals, and as a
church, we have to be careful to decipher whether or not we are judging someone
merely based on if their hands were clean or not. For when we do this, we lose
God. When we do this, the church suffers. When we do this, we fail to be all
that Jesus Christ called us to be.
Maybe we can all learn something from the
Father Joseph character, from the story that I just told. Maybe we can learn
that the Christian faith, and the Christian life is first and foremost rooted
in God’s grace, God’s forgiveness, and God’s love. That the Christian faith is
about God entering into our world, and our mess, in the form of Jesus Christ,
so that we might better learn to love, heal, and forgive. As a people, and as a
church then, are we doing all that we are doing with grace, forgiveness, healing,
and love? Or, are we doing what we are doing with judgement, power, control, and
anger?
Friend, sisters and brothers, to me,
the Gospel of Jesus Christ couldn’t be any easier. A Gospel that Christ died
for, so that we may be forgiven. So that we have salvation, and life abundantly.
Love God, and love each other, Jesus said. It is hard to do that though, when
we just can’t get past a person’s dirty hands. Amen.
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