Monday, August 27, 2012

Gnaw on This: The Gospel for This Sunday


The Gospel isn't meant to be gulped down on a Sunday morning, but gnawed on through the week so it really becomes a part of us.
You've got to work at it ... like a dog with a good bone!
Here's the Gospel for this Sunday ... with some notes and more "food for thought"
14th Sunday After Pentecost - Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus, 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."

The Backstory - What's Going On Here?
We're back in the primary Gospel for this year -- Mark. We pick up in Chapter 7. Jesus has gathered his disciples and taught them in parables. He has calmed a storm, cast our demons and healed poeple. He was rejected by his own hometown in Nazareth and he sent out his disciples to spread the mission. This next section is highlighted by two feedings -- the feeding of the 4,000 (6:45-52) and the feeding of the 5,000 (8:1-10). In between the two, Jesus walks on water (freaking the disciples out!), he heals people ... and we have this passage where he tangles with the Pharisees about purity laws and ritual tradition.

What we see in the passages leading up to this point is Jesus gaining power. That is bound to make whomever has power nervous, and the Pharisees are the ones who have power. Jesus is showing he has power to feed, heal and even control the elements. But the Pharisees are the keeper of God's rulebook ... and so they use it to flex back.

A few things to chew on:

*The power of Jesus and the power of the Pharisees are an interesting comparison. Jesus' power breaks barriers -- he heals the sick, casts out demons, defies the laws of physics. The Pharisees' power establishes barriers -- purity laws, who is in and who is out. Neither in and of themselves is bad. The law was put in place to give the people a structure for living together and claiming their identity as God's people. That's not a bad thing. And certainly healing the sick, feeding people and casting out demons seems like a pretty good thing. Both believe they are acting out of the glory of God. The question Jesus poses is ... which honors God more?

*Whenever you have a passage chopped up like this, you have to ask "what did they take out and why?" In this case, the edits were probably just made for brevity, but they are still important. In v. 9-13, Jesus uses a specific example -- the Pharisees withholding financial support of their parents and holding the cash back in the name of dedicating it to God -- as an illustration of "honoring(God) with their lips, but their hearts are far from (God)." The omission of v. 16-20 is specifically about Jesus declaring all food clean. The first is about how the clever can use the letter of the law to circumvent the spirit of the law. The second is even wider-ranging, because -- as a precursor to[1] Acts 11:5-9 and Peter's vision of a sheet with unclean animals and the voice saying "Get up, Peter, kill and eat." -- it opens up access to God to Gentiles. This is a huge development!

Another View
You can't engineer a kiss
One of the craziest things we clergy every do is something called an "Instructed Eucharist." It's a teaching method where you go step by step through the Eucharist and at each step describe what we do and why we do it.

It's crazy because if there is ever an activity that cannot be dissected, where the whole has nothing to do with the sum of the parts ... it's the Eucharist.

My friend Peter Bunder, the episcopal chaplain at Purdue, described the craziness of the instructed Eucharist this way:

"We live in an age where you can engineer everything ... from putting potato chips in a bag to putting a man on the moon. We can dissect it, diagram it, and explain exactly how it works. But the Eucharist is not a process. The Eucharist is like a kiss.

"I suppose you could engineer a kiss ... wouldn't be much fun!"

Jesus' argument with the Pharisees is that they are trying to engineer a kiss. They are taking something amazing and mysterious. Something that, yeah, it's about lips pressed together, but the only thing that matters has nothing to do with the lips. It's all about what it represents that comes from inside.

I can't tell you how many times I get questions about liturgy where people ask "what is the right way to do this." Stand or kneel. Cross yourself or not. Reverence or stand still. And don't even get me started about what order the candles are supposed to be lit!

And my answer is always the same. There is no one right action. But there is a "right way to do it." Do with reverence. Do it with love. Do it with joy. Do it with meaning. Do it together as a community.

Do it like a kiss ... with passion and longing, wanting to enjoy it yourself but more than that wanting your lover to feel how much you love them too.

There is nothing worse than a kiss that "honors with the lips ... but your heart is far from me." It is empty and hollow. And we can always tell.

Jesus invites us into a relationship with God that is mad romance. Whether it is serving at the altar or serving at a dinner table. Visiting a friend in the hospital or helping a child with her homework.

No one will ever remember if you said or did everything according to Emily Post. They will remember how passionately you love and gave of yourself.

They will remember that they were kissed. And nothing honors God more.

Try This:
One of the first prayers we have at the beginning of the Eucharist is the Collect for Purity. It says:

"Almighty God, to you all hearts are open, all desires known, and from you no secrets are hid: Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love you, and worthily magnify your holy name; through Christ our Lord. Amen."

It's an amazing and terrifying prayer. We're asking God to seek out all the stuff that we'd rather keep hidden, even from ourselves. And then we're asking God to take away everything that would not honor God ... so that our worship of God might be the best it can be. We're asking God to take all that stuff in our hearts that really defiles -- and take it away.

God, make me the person you know we can be.

God, help even my thoughts, which seem to come quicker than I can control, only glorify you.

This week, begin each day by praying this prayer. Maybe write it on a card or print it out and keep it with you. Pull it out when you're about to deal with conflict or when you're feeling like saying an unkind word. Let this prayer remind you that the road to a pure heart is not through works but grace ... and that God's grace is your constant companion.

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