Final Sermon for the Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost Year B September 1, 2024
Finding the Heart in God’s Commandments
(Mark 7:1-18, 14-15, 21-23; James 1:1-27)
Welcome back to the Gospel of Mark, but what a rather odd place to land…
We land right in the middle of an argument about washing our hands before eating…
How many times did our mothers ask us, “Have you washed your hands?”
And how many times have we asked our own children the same thing…
it’s one of those rituals ingrained in our identity…
we wash our hands before we eat
But is this passage really about washing our hands before eating?
Well, yes…and no…
As usual something deeper is going on…
What’s happening here is this: the scribes and Pharisees are not just questioning the washing of hands, it’s about the authority and tradition behind the ritual.
Jesus tells all 3 groups… the scribes and Pharisees, the ever present crowd, and his disciples- the same truth, telling it to each group in a slightly different way.
What is the message that Jesus delivers?
Jesus says this, “our very selves are corrupted and made unholy NOT by what we take in but by the corrosion of our human heart.”
This passage builds upon itself, allowing us to have a fuller understanding of what we must do to prepare ourselves and our hearts for the kingdom of God.
The major factor is not what we eat but how we live, how we treat others
Mark is affirming that the order of God's kingdom trumps all other orders and is shifting the focus from questions of ritual purity to preparation for God’s kingdom.
The question of defiled hands is not an innocent question…
the scribes and Pharisees are actually accusing Jesus of breaking the Law…
asking by what authority he believes himself to be above the rituals and traditions of the Law
In other words, just who does Jesus think he is flouting the traditions of the elders…?
Jesus, rebuking them with a passage from Isaiah that accuses the Pharisees and scribes of abandoning God’s commandments for human traditions.
Jesus challenges them to show how their traditions are contributing to the fulfillment of their mission…
And isn’t that our failing too?
I’m pretty sure we don’t see ourselves as being as fussy about traditions as the scribes, and Pharisees who opposed Jesus…but is this really true?
What opposition arises when we start tinkering with some of our traditions?
For me, it was about communion. When I grew up in the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, you went to confirmation and became a member of the congregation before you could receive Holy Communion. But when we joined the ELCA church when my daughters were in middle school, all their friends were already receiving communion and they wanted to receive it too. But it was hard for me, would God approve of them receiving Holy Communion before they were confirmed. But I relented, they went to first communion classes and everything was ok.
Or perhaps changing the order of worship to enhance worship for a younger generation?
Or changing from familiar hymns to unfamiliar hymns?
What if we went back to requiring women to wear hats and men to wear suits?
Going back to communion- what if we changed the frequency and went back to once a month or once a quarter, the way we celebrated it when I was growing up
Or what if one Sunday each month instead of holding a worship service we went into the community providing services for local people in need?
Would we be upset to see these changes taking place?
would we become defensive and plot to get rid of the troublemaker…
even if that happened to be your pastor…?
This is what’s happening to Jesus-
the scribes and Pharisees are plotting to get rid of him… questioning his authority to interpret the Law in a new more radical way.
Jesus is trying to get the Pharisees and scribes to understand that it isn’t so much about the way we practice our traditions and rituals, it’s more about whywe practice them, what is in our heart guiding our traditions and rituals.
Shifting to James we find good practical instruction on what it means to be followers of Jesus, co-workers in the kingdom.
Today’s lesson helps us learn to be doers of God’s work through obedience to God, not through the rituals of organized religion.
James forces us to look at how and why we live our lives so we can begin to understand the truth.
The truth that being disciples involves more than just hearing God’s word…
being a disciple involves living God’s word through love and service to others.
First and foremost, James states that “every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift…comes down from above.”
This is freeing!
James is saying:
not just some generous acts,
not just Christian acts,
not just heroic acts…
but ALL generous acts, all good gifts come from above, from God the Father.
This frees us from the MISCONCEPTION that only Christians can do good.
Or that it’s our job to cure the evils and ills of the world without any other help.
This frees us from judging others and their motives…
God’s goodness is available for everyone…
Anyone can do good, generous deeds in the world,
and these deeds come from God regardless of the faith or lack of faith of the doer.
We find these generous acts of goodness and giving include small things.
Nowhere is a generous act defined as something that costs a lot,
Risks our life,
or brings public attention.
Most generous acts of goodness occur because we are aware of the person in need, present in the moment, and we offer our help.
It can be something as simple as saying “thank you” or as complex as risking our lives for someone else and their safety.
Second: sometimes what is important isn’t what’s said, it’s what’s left out.
In James we are encouraged to always be present in the world,
our homes… our workplaces… the places we volunteer… our schools… our communities, at play, anywhere we find ourselves…
God is at work healing the world and we are his helpers.
Generous acts can be done anywhere, anytime…
This frees us to live out God’s love… to be disciples every day of our lives!
Not just on Sundays or on certain days of the month, but every day!
In James we grasp we should always be doing God’s work, loving others, serving others, helping to heal the brokenness of the world caused by sin.
Third, we’re called to be doers not merely hearers of the Word.
Yes! It’s important to hear the Word of God, but it’s equally important to do God’s work.
We don’t just occupy pews, we’re called to be active in the world,
Helping to heal the world’s wounds, dry the tears, and support God’s creation.
If we only pay lip service to our God and don’t act on what we hear in God’s Word, then we deceive ourselves and others when we call ourselves Christians.
Following Jesus is how we begin to change from having hearts that are decayed and depraved -looking out only for ourselves…
into hearts that are healthy, that look at the world seeking to serve and love others.
So what tradition is so important that it doesn’t matter whether it helps us achieve God’s mission because it preserves our sense of the orderliness of the world… lifts up our identity… and therefore cannot be touched?
What changes might we make that would put God’s mission before our human traditions and rituals?
Jesus said, “For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person."
The good news is Jesus takes our broken, corroded heart and makes it new.
Jesus takes our obsession with our self- turning our eyes outward to the needs of the world,
Jesus clearly sees the ugliness and darkness of our human hearts and yet he does not turn away.
Jesus sees through all the roles we play, the masks we wear and still loves us
Jesus shows us how to prepare our hearts and lives for the kingdom of God. Amen
