Readings: James 1: 17-27, Mark 7: 1-8, 14-15, 21-23
Let us pray: May the words of my mouth and the meditations
of our hearts be acceptable in your sight O God our rock and our
sustainer. Amen.
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.’
If there was ever
a challenging verse in the bible to our way of living – this is it!
We win no points for
following doctrinal rules for their own sake – for that is human tradition; but
we are to be held accountable for the stuff that we do, the things we say, the
silences we keep – for it is God’s command that what comes from the hearts is
that which honours or dishonours God.
What goes in the
mouth heads for the stomach, through the body to its eventual destination - that which comes from the heart through our
mouths, out actions, our inaction, has the capacity to build up or destroy.
A story: there was a woman who believed that the act
of going to church each Sunday and living a moral life was what God required of
her. Faithfully for years she turned up
each week, listened and sang and prayed.
Then she went home, content in her commitment to her faith, her God and
her rules of living. On her way home
each Sunday, though, she muttered under her breath at the family that set up
their stall selling flowers and vegetables.
So wrong on a Sunday, so demeaning for the neighbourhood, such a blatant
display of money at all costs – breaking the rules. And so one day she said so. Loud and clear. Turns out the family were raising money for
the local night shelter for women – they couldn’t afford to give from their own
purses, life was very tight, but this way they offered the produce of their
land to help build the life of those in need.
Who was defiling who here?
It is fairly
obvious to us all, I suspect, that rules, doctrine, rituals alone, followed
without love and grace, separated from the teachings and life of Jesus, will
take on a shallow and hurtful face very quickly. Even more, they might convince us that it is
all that God requires of us – attendance at church, tithing, not swearing,
modesty and moral living.
Not so, say our
readings today. Being ‘religious’ is not
enough, says the writer of James, if we are not also ‘doers’! Following rules
about how we prepare food that goes into our mouths is neither here nor there,
says Jesus, if our hearts are not set on the way of Christ. Our behaviour, our words, our actions, our
inactions; that which comes out from us, cannot be disconnected from our
beliefs, our doctrine, our faith. For
that disconnect is downright hypocritical and deserves to be ridiculed.
Let us think for a
moment of the ways in which our words, our actions can diminish or build
up. Think of the ways in which the words
and actions of others have destroyed us, or made us whole. We have an enormous power in us to direct the
lives of those around us. We have an
enormous responsibility to be aware of the impact of our words and actions on
others, to take seriously the living of our faith every day.
And it seems
appropriate at this seasonal time of new beginnings, budding growth, to ask
ourselves afresh, are we the signs of God’s new creation, new life in this
place through our actions, our words, our behaviour? Are we taking responsibility for the
potential we all have to both be creative and be destructive? Do we know ourselves well enough to know when
we are being hurtful and do something about it?
Do we also sometimes not say the words of support and care because we
are afraid they might be misinterpreted or leave us open to ongoing
conversation? And, conversely, are we recognising when someone’s behaviour to
us is unhelpfully hurtful and, with respect, challenging that behaviour. There
are few of us that are confident enough in our selves and of our abilities not
to be easily hurt by words that diminish us.
In fact is that not the entry into bullying and abuse where unkind words
and demoralising accusations are piled upon us until we lose all sense of self
worth.
Now we are not a
people who go around bullying and abusing – let’s get that straight – in fact
we are quite the opposite – you would have to go a long way to find a more
supportive and encouraging community.
But it doesn’t mean we are perfect - we can hurt each other,
intentionally or otherwise, we can withhold grace or be less than generous with
our interpretations, our support, our language.
We are human after all but as Christians this is something we are called
to account on and so we need to be aware of and work to make better.
But then the
writer of James intimates that there is more to our life in God than simply
refraining from hurting. We are to build
up too. Everything we do, say and are is to be for the purpose of building up
relationships, community, kingdom. Again
we won’t always get that right either – but we are to try nonetheless.
How is this to be
lived out in our church? There are a
couple of things I would like to touch on.
One is our
pastoral care for each other. It is a
particular strength of some of us and for others it is scary territory. Why is that?
Beyond the natural empathy, is this possibly one of the instances where
our human traditions have eclipsed what needs to come from the heart? We have established a theory of pastoral
care, have separated it from the everyday, and don’t think we can measure up –
but surely the care that comes from the heart, to love one another, to build up
relationship and each other is the care that God is asking us to share with our
travellers on the road – and with those standing on the margins. Care for others is not an elected role folks,
it is deep with in each one of us. Every time I feel inadequate in my pastoral
encounters, I remember, eventually, that it is not about me but about the
presence of God in my heart that will bring healing and comfort and new
beginnings. They are not my words,
carefully constructed, but God speaking impulsively and caringly from the heart
of belonging. In that understanding the
awkward hug, the difficult discussion, the sense of inadequacy to fix things
takes on a purpose beyond our understanding.
The second thing I
wanted to touch on came out of the Study Group’s discussion on Wednesday night
as we explored the Moderator’s Andrew Norton’s White Paper, and will be part of
our work at the Parish Council retreat day on Saturday. Are we a faith community that feels in some
sense bullied into isolation - thinks it is best to do it alone? Are we allowing the sense of dismissal,
diminishing from others – wider church, a secular community, dynamically
alternative way of the world – are we allowing that to muffle our voice, bind
our actions, even turn us inwards on ourselves.
Is the balance we have between doctrine and works, ritual and heart,
rules and radical faith one that prevents or encourages us to journey together
one in a way that honours God and lives out Jesus teachings?
Andrew thinks the
divisions in our church and the energy focussed on those divisions have
decimated our sense of oneness as the body of Christ, that we therefore can no
longer speak as a body, and be respectively heard, on any of the issues of
justice and poverty and other public square issues when our only concern
appears to be the defining of sexual morality. What were those words from
Isaiah again ‘in vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts as
doctrine….’[1]
Have we shut down,
afraid to speak out, flinching from the expected blows of unkind words before
they are spoken and avoiding contacts that may reject us and our beliefs. Is our safety and our well being out of
kilter with our hearts belief that, as the people of God, we are to be builders
of new beginnings for all people.
Here’s a thing: when we do venture out, to each other and to
the world we live in, we find we may actually be welcomed, those of us who come
with our God-convicted hearts on our sleeves, rather than human precepts as our
armour!
Something to
reflect on – and with this I finish: Our
God is a God of purpose – ‘That we are to be generosity grounded in the
character of God and embodied in the mission of Jesus’[2]. May this speak to our purpose as the people
of God. Amen.
Margaret Garland
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