Known By Our Love”  2015

Deut. 10:12-21            Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

 

Deut. 10:12-21

So now, O Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you? Only to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments of the Lord your God and his decrees that I am commanding you today, for your own well-being. Although heaven and the heaven of heavens belong to the Lord your God, the earth with all that is in it, yet the Lord set his heart in love on your ancestors alone and chose you, their descendants after them, out of all the peoples, as it is today. Circumcise, then, the foreskin of your heart, and do not be stubborn any longer. For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who is not partial and takes no bribe, who executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and who loves the strangers, providing them food and clothing. You shall also love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. You shall fear the Lord your God; him alone you shall worship; to him you shall hold fast, and by his name you shall swear. He is your praise; he is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome things that your own eyes have seen.

 

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

Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him, they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them. (For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they thoroughly wash their hands, thus observing the tradition of the elders; and 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.) 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?” He 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; in vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrines.’ You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.” 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.” 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.”

 

As the Israelites moved into the Promised Land,

      and under King David and Solomon grew into a powerful nation,

                        it was assumed that God would always protect them,

                                    and that no matter what, the Temple in Jerusalem,

                                                the heart of Israel’s worship   could never fall.

 

So when the Temple was demolished by the conquering Babylonians,

            it created a severe theological problem and crisis.

                        How could God let this happen, and if not the Temple,

                                    what would be the core and heart of their religion?

 

In answer to that challenge, the focus of their religion shifted

            from Temple worship   to the traditions and rituals of Judaism.

 

Prophets explained that the destruction of the Babylonian exile

            happened because God was punishing the nation of Israel for not

                    remaining faithfully distinct from the Canaanite culture.

 

They had absorbed gods and idols of the pagan culture around them

            rather than being faithful and obedient to their God

                        who had rescued them from slavery and given them a home.

 

As a corrective against that which led to their exile,

            their focus became obeying every detail of religious tradition

                        which included an emphasis on ritual purity and washing –

-- not as a matter of hygiene,

        but as separate distinction from world and culture around them.

 

     In that context, ritual purity practices made perfect sense

            as a way to preserve Jewishness & traditions while in Babylon.

It was a symbolic reminder that they were chosen by God…

            … so that even amid the most commonplace thing such as eating,

                        we remember our God, and we remember who we are

                                    by following our religious rituals and traditions.

 

But then over the next few centuries, and back home in Israel,

            those rituals had taken on a different meaning and purpose.

Rather than a way to remain   separate and distinct while in Babylon,

            ritual purity was perceived as a measure or worthiness to God,

                        a way to exclude and separate from sinners and outcasts,

                                    and that obedience to religious rituals & traditions

                                        proceeded grace and acceptance by the Lord God.

 

*  That was the self-righteous and distorted perspective

            behind the conflict between Jesus and the religious leaders.

 

During the Babylonian captivity,

            it had been important not to take up with the gods of Babylon,

                        but remain separate and pure toward the God of Israel,

                                    and ritual helped maintain their connection with God.

 

     These religious leaders were not intentionally evil people,

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

                        probably more than we would like to admit.

 

            We can admire their sense of ethics, their religious fervor.

                        They tried their best to please God – with all-out effort…

… but such rituals were not necessarily appropriate for all times,

                 especially when they were used to exclude

                        the broken and wounded, the misfits and outcasts.

 

One time a man fell down into an open well.

            He tried again and again to climb up the slick walls

                        but each time he lost his grip and slipped back down.

                              He screamed and hollered for help, but no one heard him.

 

            His desperate and last resort effort was finally to pray:

                        O Lord, if you get me out of this well, out of this hole,

                                    for the rest of my life, I will devote every day

                                                to evangelism, to bringing others to Christ.

 

                   Almost as soon as he finished his prayer,

                        someone found him, dropped down a rope and rescued him.

And true to his word

            so that other could also experience rescue and salvation,

                 he spent the rest of his life pushing people into open wells.

 

Sometimes we assume that our religious experiences are universal,

            and that the process of an authentic spiritual journey

                        comes in one size, a constant for all people, for all time…

 

… and in Mark, Jesus disagrees with that assumption and assertion,

            for he saw the purity rituals and traditions of the Pharisees

                 being used to keep some people away from the promises of God.                    

 

Jesus had already done amazing miracles in God’s name,

            he had revealed incredible knowledge and insightful teaching,

                        but the religious authorities were ignoring all that.

They missed the point, in defense of their human traditions.

 

            Jesus rejected the idea that our external behavior

                        somehow made some people more loved and acceptable to God,

                                         or that we are even

                                                supposed to separate ourselves from others …

 

… because the message and truth of Jesus,

            is that there are no others,  no one is outside of God’s grace,

                 for all those we see as others    are actually our neighbors …

… as Jesus illustrated by the story of the Good Samaritan.

 

It’s not that our religious traditions,

            our customs, rituals and familiar ways of being Christian

                        are all wrong, or don’t matter or make any difference ---

 

-- but empowered by the Holy Spirit in us, we are invited

            to delve deeper, and to consider the “why” beneath and behind

                        what we do, say and what motivates what we feel and think…

            … and are there other ways to express and proclaim our faith?

 

I heard preacher from Australia tell a story last week

            about a Texas rancher who was visiting a ranch in the Outback.

The Texan noticed that he didn’t see any fences anywhere,

            so he asked his host about it.

 

The Australian replied, “We don’t need to build fences.”

            The Texas rancher insisted that of course you need fences,

                        otherwise your cattle will wander off and get lost.

His host explained, “We don’t need to build fences,  we dig wells.

            The cattle don’t wander away from where they can drink water.”

 

The Pharisees did religion based on rules and rituals,

     that like fences were used to separate and exclude the unworthy,

                        to hold the Hebrew people in  and fence the gentiles out…

…in contrast, Jesus dug wells, inviting everyone to come and drink.

 

As you heard in the text last week, Jesus is the living water ---

            - and to follow Jesus isn’t about following rules and rituals,

                        but is drinking deeply from the fountain of living water.

 

            It is living an authentic and faithful life in the Spirit,

                        a life responding and reflecting God’s grace and love

                                    as it was revealed in the life and teaching of Jesus,

                                                that drew people to God without building a fence.

 

What the Lord really wants,  what God has always wanted,

            was to share a real relationship with his people, his children.

 

That has been God’s goal and intention all along the way,

            and so God calls us to respond to his love by obeying his voice,

                        so that it may go well with us,

                                    as we live in a growing relationship with our God.

 

A growing relationship – but how does faith grow and develop? …

      … I think it’s similar to the way that a crab grows and develops.

 

A crab’s skeleton is on the outside of its body;

            that exo-skeleton or shell is hard and rigid,

                        it is inflexible and it cannot grow larger or change;

                                                so how, how does a crab grow ?

 

As a crab’s body starts to grow and get larger and need more room,          

            its shell can’t get any bigger,

                        and eventually it will become too cramped to live & move.

 

            So when a crab has grown too large for its shell,

                        it cracks it open and the crab leaves its old shell.

It has to abandon that secure protective shell,

            leave the safety of that hard encasing,

                        and risk exposure, until a new shell can form.

 

Religious rules and traditions can function like a crab’s shell.

    The Pharisees had encased themselves in rules and ritual purity

              which shifted their focus  away from what matters most to God…

… as Jesus forcefully accuses: vs. 8;

             You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.

 

There is a great distinction between outward religious practices,

            and a growing devotion to God with love of Christ in our heart.

 

            We can be perfectly correct in all that we say and do;

                        even in our style worship, our theology, our doctrine,

                                    and still miss the point entirely à

                        if we are not open

                                    to God's ever-changing, new and continuing call.

 

When the religious leaders came from Jerusalem to see Jesus,

            they understood themselves to be ‘Keepers of the traditions’

                        and they wanted to use their rules of ritual purity

                                    to challenge Jesus, and his teaching authority.

 

            They considered Jesus to be, “religiously incorrect”,

                        - associating and eating  with tax collectors and sinners,

                                    spreading God grace to lowly strangers and outsiders.

 

In a move to embarrass Jesus, and to undermine his ministry: vs 5

          ... 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?"

 

God’s concern is not about eating with dirty or defiled hands,

            but in our having a dirty - defiled heart,

                        and a dirty - defiled heart is one that excludes others.

 

Our hands are made clean not by perfectly performed ritual washing,

      but by getting them dirty   while loving & serving our neighbors.

 

Jesus’ ministry was about breaking down wall and barriers,

            inviting, welcoming and including outcasts and strangers,

                        giving grace to the beloved and chosen children of God.     

 

            It was about bringing in   the rejected and wounded ones,

                        that the Pharisees wanted to exclude, reject and keep out.

 

            Jesus calls;  invites and includes us all,

                        substituting human rules for ritual purity and exclusion,

                               with living in faithful relations with God & neighbor.

 

The specific applications are these texts today,

       I picked up from learning more about crabs and Australian wells.

 

FIRST:

            like crabs trapped in restrictive inflexible shells,

                        we too may need to abandon our rigidity and assumptions;

    to risk being vulnerable, uncomfortably and open,

        and without our protective shells allowing others to come near.

 

SECOND:

            Without its shell,

                        a crab must find a protective place while so vulnerable,

                                    someplace  where it can be safe and secure from  harm.

 

                        The fact that restaurants feature soft shell crabs,

                                    suggests that some protective, and some safe places,

                                                are more protective and more safe than others. 

 

The church’s call and the command from Jesus

            is to follow and live his concern for strangers and outcasts,

                        to learn from, and faithfully obey the example of Jesus,

                                    of inviting, welcoming and including outsiders.

 

            The church has to be a place where people can drop their shells,

                        where they can be open and vulnerable,

                                    without being attacked or eaten by predators,

                                                and where we are constantly digging new wells.

 

            Our call is to be a safe protective place for soft shells;

                        a supportive place for people in trouble and in need,

                                    a place for people who have messed up their lives,

                                        a place of comfort for people who struggle and hurt,

               a secure place where all can experience God’s  mercy and love.