“Courage to Look Deeper Inside” 2012

Isaiah 1:10-17 Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

Isaiah 1:10-17

10Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom! Listen to the teaching of our God, you people of Gomorrah! 11What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the Lord; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats. 12When you come to appear before me, who asked this from your hand? Trample my courts no more; 13bringing offerings is futile; incense is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath and calling of convocation— I cannot endure solemn assemblies with iniquity. 14Your new moons and your appointed festivals my soul hates; they have become a burden to me, I am weary of bearing them. 15When you stretch out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood. 16Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your doings from before my eyes; cease to do evil, 17learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.

Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

7Now 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 honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; 7in vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrines.’8You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.” 14Then 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.” 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.”

When I attended a worship service in Damascus, Syria,

we were firmly warned to keep a low profile

as we passed by the military police on every corner.

We got a feel for what it is

to be a Christian in a hostile Muslim city,

and it was a very different worship experience

then when we gather here for worship…

… and it made me look a little deeper

at my own faith commitments and practices.

When I went to Ghana, it was to study and learn about

Christian faith and practices in that culture and context,

so that I could consider

and reflect on how my culture and context

influences my faith and religious practices.

The question was, what is the essence of our Christian faith?

What is it that really matters, and what are the things

that seem normal, familiar and comfortable to us,

and that may help us practice and express our faith,

but are really not the essence of faith itself?

In Damascus, at the end of the worship service,

it was very important to greet and hug everyone there,

I suppose because we all knew, they were going back out

into a culture and city hostile to Christian faith.

That persecution and danger

clearly influenced how they expressed their faith.

In Ghana, worship always began with loud talking drums

and it was joyful with lots of music, movement and dance.

The African culture and their sense of community

wonderfully influenced the ways they expressed their faith…

… and compelled me to consider and question a bit deeper,

the nature of my expressions and practices of faith.

The challenge for us all,

is to recognize the styles and practices

that do help us worship and express our faith …

… and that they are not the same thing as our faith itself;

so we can avoid worshipping the container or box,

rather than the true God of Scripture & our faith.

Unfortunately, it’s easy for us to be distracted off true focus

and find ourselves thinking more about

how we worship, then who we worship;

or striving with all-out determination

toward the wrong goal and missing the point.

In the Old Testament, people offered sacrifices to God

as a way of expressing their faith and gratitude.

This wasn’t because God had some need to smell barbeque,

but it was always for the good and benefit of humankind.

The animals sacrificed on the alter were just a sign

that demonstrated the costliness of human sin

and pointed ahead

to the life and sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

It was a tangible expression of regret,

and a desire to restore their broken relationship with God.

The animal sacrifice was a way of expressing

their desire to respond to God’s mercy and blessings ----

-- and the point was always to foster a relationship with God

moving toward a closer walk in faithfulness with the Lord.

But by the time of the prophet Isaiah,

the focus has shifted away from their relationship with God

to more of a business transaction or paying off a debt.

It was almost a calculation,

how many animals are necessary to cover the cost of my sin?

It became less about regret or a contrite heart,

and more of a mechanical, external, religious ritual

that was intended to placate a distant and angry God.

Imagine how you would feel,

if you went all out for your child’s birthday party,

and after the cake, ice cream, balloons and presents,

the pony ride, clown, and their friends have gone home,

your little one takes out a checkbook and asks,

“so what do I owe you for all that?”

What an insult to set a price on your gift of love!

The prophet Isaiah warns the people of Israel

that they have deeply offended the Lord their God, vs. 10

Hear the word of the LORD, you rulers of Sodom!

Listen to the teaching of our God, you people of Gomorrah!

Now Sodom and Gomorrah were the two ancient cities,

whose sinful depravity so offended God's righteousness,

that God sent fire from the sky to consumed them

and purged them from the face of the earth…

… so for God to refer or compare you

to Sodom or Gomorrah is never a good thing to hear.

But they have cheapened the love of God as if it were

a commodity to be purchased by burning dead animals … vs. 11-12

I have had enough of burnt offerings … who asked this from your hand? Trample my courts no more; … incense is an abomination to me. I cannot endure your solemn assemblies … my soul hates; they have become a burden to me, I am weary of bearing them.

So what is the issue at stake?

It is their superficial religious play-acting

that missed the point, entirely;

and had mistaken the outward sign for the real thing.

The sacrifice of animals burned on the alter

was a worship practice and expression of faith — just a sign.

It was a means of faith, but not the true end or purpose,

which is, an authentic relationship with God.

* They needed to take a much deeper look inside.

In Mark, Jesus is dealing with the same issue,

of mistaking the sign for the real thing.

Religious authorities have come from Jerusalem

to check his credentials and try to embarrass him. vs. 5

So 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?”

Soon after the Babylonian Exile, a reform movement began

that called for Jews to separate themselves from

the corrupting influences of the surrounding culture

and be distinct as God’s chosen people,

by strictly following religious rituals…

… in fact, the word, “Pharisee”, means, “the separate ones”.

Originally, the ritual washing was only for the priests,

and only as they entered the tabernacle holy space…

… and was intended as a sign representing a clean heart

and to have an awareness of where they were going,

into the privileged, holy presence of God.

But over time, ritual washing became a way to exclude and separate

and their traditions came to signify and infer that

some were more loved and precious to God than others.

The washing had been a sign and expression of God’s grace,

that though a sinner,

yet the priest was welcome in the holy presence of God…

… but in the rigidity of their rules and traditions,

the Pharisees missed that point and the true focus…

… the gift of God’s grace,

a relationship with our God of limitless love and mercy.

But the truth is,

we may have a lot more in common with the Pharisees,

than we would like to admit.

We too can get distracted and lose our focus,

we too can become overzealous defenders of ritual & tradition…

… rather than allow free rein for Jesus to transform our hearts.

This is the point of the text:

Jesus came with a different vision and perspective of God,

a God whose grace is open and inviting,

who welcomes the sick, the sinner, outcasts and wounded;

who calls us to love

and destroy our enemies by making them our friends.

Jesus told stories about a God

who is like a good shepherd goes out the find the lost sheep,

or a father who rushes out to welcome back a wayward son.

Jesus described and announced the Kingdom of God, at hand,

by demonstrating grace, hope and acceptance,

by eating with notorious sinners, welcoming outcasts, and breaking down barriers between inside & outside

by ignoring human rules that excluded and rejected.

Friends, today we celebrate that Kingdom of God at hand,

that God is at work in our lives and ministries of our church,

and our gathering God calls us to His Table of Grace

to affirm and enact the love of Jesus Christ…

* … so don’t let this be an empty or meaningless ritual for you.

Here is our true comfort and hope -- that we belong to God.

Though God knows we are sinners and get lots of things wrong,

yet, Jesus is determined to love us, to show mercy …

… and give us the power to grow into that truth.

Psalm 42:1~2

As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God.

My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.