August 30, 2015 --- The Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Mark 7:1-23

Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him, 2they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them.3(For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they thoroughly wash their hands,* thus observing the tradition of the elders; 4and they do not eat anything from the market unless they wash it;* and there are also many other traditions that they observe, the washing of cups, pots, and bronze kettles.*) 5So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, ‘Why do your disciples not live* according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?’ 6He said to them, ‘Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written,
“This people honours me with their lips,
   but their hearts are far from me;
7 in vain do they worship me,
   teaching human precepts as doctrines.”
8You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.’

9 Then he said to them, ‘You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition! 10For Moses said, “Honour your father and your mother”; and, “Whoever speaks evil of father or mother must surely die.” 11But you say that if anyone tells father or mother, “Whatever support you might have had from me is Corban” (that is, an offering to God*)— 12then you no longer permit doing anything for a father or mother, 13thus making void the word of God through your tradition that you have handed on. And you do many things like this.’

14 Then he called the crowd again and said to them, ‘Listen to me, all of you, and understand: 15there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.’*

17 When he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about the parable. 18He said to them, ‘Then do you also fail to understand? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile, 19since it enters, not the heart but the stomach, and goes out into the sewer?’ (Thus he declared all foods clean.) 20And he said, ‘It is what comes out of a person that defiles. 21For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, 22adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. 23All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.’ 

Then he called the crowd again and said to them, "Listen to me, all of you, and understand: there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile." 

·        How much is enough? It’s a simple enough question: When is the job done? How much is enough?

·        We’ve all had experience doing dishes, haven’t we? I would think so anyway. If you haven’t had any experience doing dishes, there will be a training seminar just after dinner at my house. The fee will be minimal; bring your own sponge.

·        So how do you know if the dishes are clean enough? For the Pharisees and the scribes, washing plates, cups, and other vessels as well as the hands, was vital but we don’t know how clean was “clean” for them.

·        They did speak to Jesus in a very condemning way about his disciple eating without washing. Jesus takes them to task for obeying their own wishes rather than God’s commandments, using the “Corban” tradition as an example. It seem that at the time a person could declare any and all support they might have given to their elderly parents as an offering to God, particularly for the Temple, and by that, stop supporting their parents. Remember that there was no Social Insurance or old age pension at this time. Widows, orphans, and what we’d now call “seniors” had to fend for themselves unless someone supported them. If no one would help them, the only real alternative was begging.

·        So the Pharisees and scribe of Jesus’ day were highly concerned with fulfilling many traditions such as washing, but were less concerned with the commandment regarding taking care of – or “honouring” parents.

·        There was no way that Jesus or his disciples could change the minds of their critics. They didn’t wash their hands and scrub away all the unclean influences they had encountered around them. And if they had washed their hands, had they washed them enough to no longer be defiled? Were they washed in the proper way?

·        This criticism could go beyond the simple observance of a law or tradition. It could become a way of asserting supremacy and control: you don’t wash and we do; you’re sinners and we’re not; God is not pleased with you and is quite pleased with us.

·        The criticism goes even further. Observance of the tradition allows lines to be drawn. It can be decided who is “in” and who is “out”, who is “good” and who is “evil”, who is “righteous” and who is “sinful.”

·        This simply proves what Jesus says to the crowd: there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile. It is not the hand or the plate that defiles, but the attitude that flows from within that defiles, despite any outward observance of a law or tradition. In this case, there is plenty of pride   along with self-righteousness and probably folly.

·        What then is the remedy? More striving? Working harder? If so, how much is enough? There is no way to know and there’s no way to be sure.

·        The remedy has to be elsewhere. The Scripture gives us answers. The Law was given to the people of Israel after they had left Egypt. There was no prerequisite behavior and no waiting until they had deserved the freedom from slavery. They were freed from slavery and then received the Law.

·        Jesus died for our sins before there was any question of deserving. The idea of deserving our salvation, of earning our salvation is uprooted by this. As Paul wrote in his letter to the Romans: But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8) God’s way is the way of grace, not of what is deserved or merited.

·        This is a joy to hear. Our salvation depends on the righteousness and grace of God, rather than our own righteousness, our own efforts, or our own merit. Our salvation is grace.

·        If we are told our relationship with God depends on how we wash our cups and pots, we are being told a falsehood. If we are told that the presence of the grace of God depends upon our actions, on who we associate with, on what words we use at prayer, and any number of things like that… then that is not grace.

·        So if Jesus says that it is what comes from within that defiles a person, what can we do in that light? What is there to do but respond to grace, repent, and turn again to the freely-given grace of God? Then what? Well, tell me if this sounds familiar: In the mercy of almighty God, Jesus Christ was given to die for us, and for his sake, God forgives us all our sins. …I therefore declare to you the entire forgiveness of all your sins…

·        No one is excluded from grace. No one is an exception to grace. No one deserves or can come to deserve grace. It is God’s gift.

·        The story of that gift is something worth sharing. That surely is Good News.

The Tenth Sunday after Pentecost --- 2 August 2015

John 6:24-35

24 So when the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum looking for Jesus. 25 When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, "Rabbi, when did you come here?" 26 Jesus answered them, "Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. 27 Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For it is on him that God the Father has set his seal." 28 Then they said to him, "What must we do to perform the works of God?" 29 Jesus answered them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent." 30 So they said to him, "What sign are you going to give us then, so that we may see it and believe you? What work are you performing? 31 Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, "He gave them bread from heaven to eat.' " 32 Then Jesus said to them, "Very truly, I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world." 34 They said to him, "Sir, give us this bread always." 35 Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.

Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.

·        Do you ever find it interesting that so many expression of faith have to do with eating? Among Christians, there is Holy Communion, an action we all hold in common even though the understanding might differ from one person to the next, let alone one denomination to the next. For the Jewish people, the Passover meal is extremely important, since they hold that in this meal they celebrate the Exodus and the freedom of all Jews, even to those living today.

·        Some of the meals have a religious significance built in. Others take on a kind of religious significance in that they are important for the unity of the group or congregation. In this, I’m thinking of our own congregation’s “pot-luck” meals and things like the pancake supper on Shrove Tuesday.

·        It should come as no real surprise that meals take such a prominent place in the Gospels. Jesus seems to be constantly attending a supper with this person or a meal with that one… eating with “sinners” in particular. It might not be surprising that Jesus uses “meal-time” references, especially in this portion of John’s Gospel. This section of the Gospel is referred to as the “Bread of Life discourse.” It goes on for quite a few verses and uses the feeding of the 5000 as a jumping off point. We’ll be reading it over the next few weeks in our worship.

·        Jesus says some things and makes claims that might be hard to beat. To say that anyone who feasts on the bread of life will never hunger or thirst anymore is a big thing to say. John uses the words “comes to me” and “believes in me” rather than a more “meal-time” word to say what he is about. The further we read, the more it becomes clear that Jesus is not talking about the loaves and fish he multiplied a short time ago. In fact, that miracle appear to be a prelude to what he has to say here.

·        When the crowd comes to see Jesus again, he says that they are more interested in filling their belly with loaves than in understanding who Jesus is and what he is about. You’ll remember that this is the reason that the crowd wanted to make Jesus the king; they could then have all the bread they’d ever want! They stop at the sign and ignore the substance.

·        They ask "What must we do to perform the works of God?" What Jesus just spoke of is right in front of them and they can’t see it. They want to know how to multiply the loaves for themselves, doing the “Work of God.”

·        Instead of teaching them the way to do such a thing, Jesus answered them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent." They have missed the real meaning of the event and the real meaning of the abundance of loaves and fish. It does not mean a “free lunch”; it means the Kingdom of God has come near. I wonder if the people referred to as “the crowd” wanted the Kingdom of God to come, but had very fixed expectations as to what it would look like, how it would come, and who would be part of it. It might seem that at least some of them were only interested in the meal; still some of them would be concerned with the coming of the Kingdom. As we’ll see later, there were those among the crowd who were willing to see the Kingdom in Jesus.

·        If the true work of God is as Jesus said, to believe in the one God has sent, then John’s terms “come to me” and “believe in me” make more sense than any meal-time words. The references to the “Bread of Life” are far more evocative and poetic and, in truth, all of them apply.

·        You know that there are people who eat to live and there are people who live to eat. In the case of the Gospel passage, Jesus invites us to come to him, to believe in him, and to eat of the bread that endures for eternal life. This is not empty food but the food that give life and life eternal.

·        It is not simply the food we are talking about here. It is the meaning behind the food. In my seminary days, I was taught that a sacrament is a sign that accomplishes what it signifies. Baptism, then, is both a sign of the salvation of God coming to us and the ordinary way that the salvation of God comes to us, particularly in a way that is experienced. Communion is the way that eternal life Jesus speaks of in calling himself “the Bread of Life” is communicated to us is a very tangible manner. Faith is needed to see the real meaning, but that meaning does not depend on our faith. If everything depended on our faith, it would not be a gift of God.

·        This is how the work of God is done in us, that we believe in him whom he (God) has sent. This is the grace of God – undeserved and unwarranted, yet ours none-the-less.

·        So we come to the Lord’s table today for the Lord’s Supper, a communal meal that has a far deeper meaning than simply the eating and the drinking. As we eat and drink together, we look beyond the bread and the wine to the one who is the Bread of Life, the true bread from heaven, the food that endures to eternal life and fulfills our real hunger for meaning and our deep thirst for the holy.

Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.

(I'm going on holiday, so there will not be any entries on this blog until I return at the end of August. God be with you all until then... and after, too!)