13 Pentecost, Year B

“SPIRITUAL HOLINESS AND WHOLENESS”
A sermon by The Rev. Gene Tucker, given at: Trinity Church, Mt. Vernon, Illinois; Sunday, August 30, 2009
Proper 17 -- Deuteronomy 4: 1 – 9; Psalm 15; Ephesians 6: 10 – 20; Mark 7: 1 – 8, 14 – 15, 21 – 23

(Explanatory note: This sermon was given, using a piece of typing paper as an illustration. On the front side of the paper was written “God’s word, God’s will, God’s love,” and on the back side were written a number of words, including, “holiness”, “righteousness”, “Law (Torah)”, “cleanliness”, “tradition”, etc. These words were divided by lines which were drawn on the paper, and which separated the words. The lines criss-crossed the paper. Everyone in the congregation had a copy of this piece of paper. I began by taking a pair of scissors, and began cutting along the criss-crossed lines to cut out each word, one-by-one, that appeared on the back side of the paper.)

You have before you today a copy of a piece of paper, written on both sides. On the one side of the paper, you’ll find the words, “God’s will, God’s word, God’s love”, and on the other side, a series of words, written among some lines that criss-cross the paper, separating the words.

I have a pair of scissors, and am going to begin cutting along the lines. I’ll cut out each word.

As I go, I want to be very, very careful to cut right along the lines. And, I’ve learned that, if I practice enough, someday I might just be able to cut along the lines with these scissors with such a fine, clean cut, that it will look just like a paper cutter did the work. I know that it will take many, many years of diligent practice to achieve that goal, particularly given my poor small motor skills (which have borne the brunt of many jokes in my family down through the years!).

Excellence in carrying out this task is extremely important. I want to be able to cut each word out so that it is perfect.

Perfection was one of the main goals of the Pharisees and the Scribes, and we can see that in the description that Mark provides us as an aside in our reading today. They were seeking perfection in every area of life.

(I begin to cut one word out.)

So, let’s begin.

I think I’ll begin with the word “Cleanliness”, because that word is at the essence of the interchange that took place between Jesus and His principle adversaries, the Pharisees and the Scribes.

Obviously, the Pharisees and the Scribes were seeking perfection in the cleanliness that was vital to life.

Notice that I’ve deviated a little from the line here and there. Obviously, I haven’t done very well, because my line wavers a little bit. I’m going to need a whole lot more practice cutting the paper to get the lines perfectly straight.

Now that I’m done, if I think I’ve done a good enough job, I might just take a straight pin and pin this piece of paper on my chasuble. I can wear it like a badge of honor, or like some display for others to see, so that they will know that I value “cleanliness” very, very highly.

(In so doing, I would be following in the footsteps of the Pharisees and the Scribes, for we read in today’s gospel that they scrupulously observed various rites which involved cleaning their hands, their food utensils, and so forth. In order to maintain our health, we need to eat with clean hands, and we need to use clean cooking pots, dishes and silverware. So, cleanliness is extremely important. In fact – at this very moment – I can’t think of a better or more important value to proclaim to the world!)

Now, let’s turn to another important value….

Looking at my paper, my eye catches the word “holiness”. That’s an important value, too. So let me cut out that word, too. Maybe I could attach that to my vestments to proclaim to the world that God wants His people to be a holy people. That value was very, very important to the Pharisees and the Scribes, as well.

Now, let’s see if we can find another one to cut out….How about “Law”, or as it’s called in Hebrew, Torah. For these two groups (and for the priestly caste, the Sadducees, as well), this was the source of all that God wanted His people to know about how to live holy, clean lives.

So, we’ll cut that one out, as well. Maybe it wouldn’t be a bad thing to put that on as well. It would be sort of like the bumper stickers that you see that say, “God said it, I believe it, that settles it”.

Now, if you’ve been following me, turn your papers over, and notice what’s happened to the other side of the paper…I’ve made mincemeat out of the side that says,
God’s will, God’s word, God’s love”, haven’t I?

Perhaps by now, you see the point of this illustration:

The Pharisees and the Scribes were making mincemeat out of the overall picture of God’s will, God’s word, and particularly God’s love. They did so by observing scrupulously the various minute, little details of the Law. But they also added traditions of their own, and it is this point that Jesus makes very forcefully when He says to them, “You abandon the commandment of God, and hold to human tradition.”

What had happened? How could these upright, devout people go so far off the mark?

After all, weren’t their motives the most pure imaginable? Weren’t their extreme measures to comply with all of these wonderful values commendable? (Don’t you wish you had as much discipline as the Pharisees and the Scribes had? Wouldn’t it be wonderful to apply that sort of discipline to some of the more problematic parts of our lives, like, say, our dietary habits?)

Yes, the answer is probably, “Yes, their motives were quite commendable. Yes, their diligence is admirable.”

Well, then, how did they go wrong?

For an answer to that question, let’s return to our piece of paper for an illustration of the answer.

For even though it’s now a cut-up piece of paper, we can grasp the sense of what they were doing.

You see, the Pharisees and the Scribes were looking only at the side of the paper that had all the specific values on it, the values of holiness, cleanliness, righteousness and purity. And, more importantly, they thought that, by their own actions, they could carry out all of those values by themselves.

What they forgot is that, in order to be successful at living the life of God, they were going to need God’s help, and particularly God’s love. They needed to turn the piece of paper over and to focus on God’s will, God’s word and God’s love as the beginning point of their life with God.

They forgot that – given their humanness – there was no way they could cut along the lines of life perfectly. They themselves possessed many, many imperfections that made an intimate relationship with God impossible. They had forgotten that the starting point in any relationship with God is the admission that we fall short of His standards of perfection, and therefore, we are in deep, deep need of His forgiveness and His love.

Only then can we begin to achieve the standards of holiness, cleanliness, purity and righteousness that God demands of His people.

Down through time, God’s people have failed to hold in tension the reality of God’s will, God’s word and God’s love with the values of the spiritual life, values involving holiness, righteousness, purity and Holy Scripture (for Christians, Scripture consists of the Old Testament – the Law of Moses, the prophets, and so forth, and also the New Testament).

We can see the imbalance that results from a failure to hold these two aspects of the Christian life together….

If God’s people think that they possess God’s will, God’s word and God’s love, but forget that God wants His people to be a holy, pure people, then we can slip into licentiousness and wickedness. (Notice that Jesus condemns such behavior in today’s text.) That was the result for an early Christian heresy called Gnosticism. The Gnostics maintained that they alone possessed a secret knowledge of God that allowed them to discount the physical reality of living out the Christian life. In its extreme forms, Gnosticism allowed all sorts of licentious living, including gluttony and sexual orgies. For the Gnostics, since they believed that the physical life was only an illusion, and since they (alone) possessed such a superior, special knowledge of God, then whatever people did in their everyday, physical lives was of no importance.

Jesus – in today’s text – affirms the importance of the interior life of God. See that He says, “All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”

But in addressing the interior life of God, our walk with God, Jesus is also condemning the other extreme, the extreme that makes outward, visible, tangible behavior the main – or only - standard by which a holy life can be assessed.

Time and again, we have seen God’s people resort to the sort of legalism that characterized the Pharisees and the Scribes. (In actuality, the portrait that the gospels paint of these two groups isn’t at all flattering!). Some churches have focused so strongly on rigid moral codes, on codified rules of living, that their members have become modern-day Pharisees, people who live cold, heartless lives of religious superiority. In extreme cases, such people wear their righteousness like a badge of honor. In actuality, such displays are really badges of shame and often, hate.

The older I get, the more I believe that the hardest thing to do in walking the walk of God, along with God, is to remember that I am a “sinner saved by grace”. For it is God’s grace and God’s love that has redeemed me from a life of irregular behavior that falls far short of God’s standards of holiness. Only through the presence of the Holy Spirit can I even begin to live out the Christian life of holiness, of righteousness, of purity, that God demands. For, you see, that side of the Christian life is extremely important, too.

As people with whom we associate in our daily lives see God’s love, poured into our hearts and then expressed in our attitudes, actions and words, as they see these attitudes, actions and words mingle with a life which strives for holiness, purity and righteousness, then the power of God to transform and to empower will be manifest in all its ability to change lives.

May God sweep away our self righteousness, our smugness, and our pride, so that we may recall God’s saving acts and God’s love toward us, that people everywhere may see that it is God’s power, working in us, that can do more than we can ask or imagine.

AMEN.