September 3, 2006 Text: Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23 Preacher: Pastor Seitz
Today’s Gospel text presents Jesus in a very common situation. He is being challenged by “Pharisees and teachers of the Law.” They gathered around Jesus. They sat and watched the disciples and some were eating without washing their hands.The Pharisees and teachers of the Law ask: Why don’t your disciples live according to the traditions of the church instead of eating with unclean hands?
Jesus gives a very strong answer, “you hypocrites! You have let go of the commands of God and are holding onto the traditions of men.”
Jesus is being challenged by his peers and his elders because he is not living according to what they expect. In their eyes, nothing is more important than the traditions of the church and the Laws when it comes to how one is supposed to conduct oneself while following God.
Those of you who know me may not be surprised to learn that while at seminary I was called up to the Dean’s office, once. I had a good idea at the time what it was regarding because there was something going on at the seminary apartments where I lived.
Wherever I live I get to know some of the homeless community on a first name basis. I like to talk to people when they ask for change and find out who they are because I feel a little personal contact and understanding can go a lot farther than some spare change sometimes.
I went to seminary in Berkeley, California and there was a fairly large community of young people who were homeless living there. One young man’s name was Andrew. He had lived in Berkeley, on the streets, since he was 16. He was probably 18 when I met him.
As often happens to homeless people, he caught a serious cold that turned into pneumonia. He went to the hospital and they released him into some of his friend’s care. They were homeless too so they called me. Andrew had pneumonia, could he stay with me for a few days while he takes his medicine and gets well enough to stand again?
So Andrew stayed in my seminary-owned apartment with my roommate’s consent, just until he could make it on his own again. It was not long before out neighbors started complaining that the person locked up in Tim’s apartment could get everyone else sick. I made no effort to send Andrew away before he was well enough and just when it looked like things were settling down, I received a notice that the Dean wished to see me.
So I went to the Dean and he asked me if I was housing a young homeless person in my apartment. I answered, yes. Well your neighbors are concerned that you will get sick and that they will get sick. They are concerned for your safety. What exactly to do you think you are doing with a sick homeless person on your couch?
I answered him with one of those classic one-liners that you always wish you could think of in a situation like this. I answered, “I am doing exactly what the book we came here to study has told me to do.”
In the lesson from Deuteronomy today, God warns the people after, after admonishing them to obey the Law, only be careful and watch yourselves closely so that you don’t forget the things your have seen nor let them slip from your heart.
The truth is that Law is for experience – if it is not true or good in experience than what good is it?
In James Chapter. 1 from the 2nd lesson today, we are given direction which should still be central to our teaching today. “Brothers and sisters, everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for peoples anger does not bring about the righteous life God desires for us.”
How many Christians are quoting this scripture in their arguments and complaints? Just watch the “Christian” portrayed on T.V, nearly every televangelist is angry. Most denominations today are defined by what we disagree with. Name any hot topic: war, abortion, homosexuality, etc. Seems like anything controversial in society there are Christians lining up to do their part and voice their anger and disapproval.
Jesus cuts through the argument with these words “Listen to me everyone and understand this. Nothing outside a man makes him ‘unclean’ by going into him. Rather, it is what comes out of a man that makes him unclean.”
We are not unclean because we have dirty hands and eat! Woe to you who sit in judgment of others for their shortcomings while the habit of sitting around and judging others is the greatest shortcoming of all.
God tells His people in the 1st lesson, Follow my Laws in order to serve me – but do not forget your experiences so you remember why the Laws exist. In the 2nd Lesson, James tells us – Do not merely listen to the Word and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.
In the Gospel Jesus reminds us that there is danger in defending the Law if it leads you to forget who we are and what the Law is for. The Law is to guide us and, as James states, “But the man who looks intently into the perfect Law that gives freedom – and does not forget – will be blessed.”
As James says, the Law is designed to give us freedom.
My other favorite story about this topic took place not long ago in my previous call. I welcomed a couple of new members to the church. They were an older married couple, an old blues musician and his wife—also a musician. They invited me to play with them. Eventually they asked me to perform with them in a bar.
Between sets some members from the church that had come to listen were giving me a hard time. “It’s hard to believe that our very own man of the cloth is playing drums in blues band. Pastor, I wonder what Jesus would make of this?”
There was a man sitting alone at the only table near our group. When he heard the name Jesus, he said, “Jesus!? If Jesus was here he wouldn’t want anything to do with a guy like me!”
So I dropped down into the chair next to him and said, “No way, Brother! If Jesus walked in here right now you are exactly the guy that Jesus would be hanging with.”
When this story was retold at a congregational meeting people complained that their pastor was hanging out in a bar and inviting other members to come and setting a poor example for our youth.
The disciples needed to eat more than they needed to worry about what the teachers and the Pharisees thought about their hands. The homeless young man needed a place to get well more than my neighbors at the Seminary needed to feel comfortable about housing a sick stranger. And the guy in the bar needed to hear that Jesus loves him more than my parishioners needed to certain that their pastor was not going to the bar.
The Gospel leads us to go out and serve anyone, anywhere, at any time. The Law reminds us we are forgiven along the way. We are called to live lives of service more than lives of obedience to the Law and traditions of the church. That in fact is what the Gospel is all about.
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