The Heart of the Matter

8/29

Good Shepherd Faith

my friend Chris Kim

For the first time since the pandemic began, I am back at Good Shepherd Faith to preach. They are meeting in their or basement, joint service English and Korean. Masks, no congregational singing. Covid protections in place. I am finally admitting we are still living in Coronavirusworld. (My friend Chris Kim translates for me...) 

Here is my reflection for the service, trying to get to the heart of the matter. 

Well here we are.  Last Saturday was supposed to be the big “Welcome back” celebration.  Covid-19 was supposed to be on the run and we well on the way to “normal life.” Well the weather cancelled the concert but we are nowhere near “back to normal.” The Delta variant has us all uncertain as we try and figure out what’s next. 

I did my annual Shakespeare in the park. But it’s all online lotteries and virtual stand by lines and IDs and proofs of vaccination and masks…"Broadway is back”…but I went the other night and same thing…IDs, vax cards, masks….we are a long ways from ‘back’…and the road uncertain…

Scenes from Afghanistan feel, like Yogi used to say, “deja vu all over again…”. People desperately hanging on to copters and planes as the country has fallen to the Taliban…20 years…and…and…

Here we are.

In today’s gospel, Jesus is talking to three audiences. There are “the scribes and pharisees” who “came from Jerusalem,” the ever-present crowd and Jesus’ disciples. 

What’s on the table is a question about ritual purity, following rules, or traditions, and ultimately authority. And it’s not necessarily an attempt to trick Jesus.  The Pharisees in particular have not yet made up their mind. They may well be seriously trying to find out where Jesus stands on these issues, since it appears that his disciples are inconsistent in these matters. 

While his answers are focused to each group, the message is the same, it’s not what we take in that matters so much as the content of our hearts. Not what we consume, but how. 

As annoying as kosher might seem to us from outside the Jewish tradition, as mysterious as some of these rules might seem, the basic purpose of kosher is as a guard against mindless consumption.  It is about being mindful, conscious and intentional about what and how we consume. An Orthodox Jewish person has a blessing for everything that is taken in, even a glass of water. (Though we are learning in our world that even a glass of water may indeed be precious…)

Just a a side note, always pay attention to Mark’s details. He is always intentional about what he includes. Note that our scribes and Pharisees come from Jerusalem. That is where he will go to fulfill his destiny, his crucifixion and death, the cross. These questioners come from that place to where he is already headed.

‘

And they won’t eat anything from the market without washing it. What comes from the market is unclean. Yet in the previous chapter, Mark has told us that  the market is where the sick are, the poor and needy. those in need of healing. It is not just unclean food that these authorities want to avoid, it is unclean people as well.  And for Jesus, no people are unclean,

And so he calls out their hypocrisy. They obey the rules and miss the heart of the matter. When Bill Clinton said he “did not have sex with that woman,” he was using a precise definition but sure did not go to the heart of the matter. (Like it depends on what the meaning of what is is...) When I coached kid’s soccer and was teaching the out of bounds rule, I always tried to teach them to go to the heart of the matter. The disciples, as always are slow to catch on.

When I hear Jesus speaking to the Pharisees, he could  just as well be talking to the Biblical literalists of today. 

Once in a church I worked at, a young man came out as gay. The church was very confused and of different minds until one elder said, “Friends, I know how we think we know how we understand the Bible. But this young man is one of ours. Sometimes you just have to set principle aside and do what’s right.”

By his going to the heart of what “defiles,” Jesus was making a radical new understanding.

His point is an important one…the source of evil does not come from outside ourselves.  It is not the devil or  satan or republicans or democrats socialism or capitalism or Qanon or….the source of evil comes from inside the human heart. Inside ourselves. And it is what comes out that defines who we are, not what goes in.

Take a look at that list again….

"For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, 22adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. 23All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.

If you come to think of it, each of those is a form of mindless, self obsessed consumption.  Consuming without regard for the other.

The question is…who are we in this story? Self satisfied scribes and pharisees? Curious crowd? Confused disciples? What is Jesus’ message for you today?

What come out is important. I know the old saying “sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me..” Well yes, but not. It’s not that simple. Words do a lot of damage. 

It’s true on the personal level…that we say to each other can really hurt. 

On an institutional level, nothing is worse in a church than gossip, talking behind peoples’ backs. It corrodes us, eats away at is from the inside. Religious  Jews have a practice of lashan harah, that is not speaking ill of another on the sabbath. To do so breaks the spirit of sabbath. What of we had a rule of not speaking ill of each other once we enter the church doors, even if  only on Sundays?

And on a national level, words can inspire compassion and courage. And they can also destroy faith in our system, lead to invasions of the capital, distrust of science to the detriment of the greater good and public healthy and safety. 

Yes…what goes out is important…

It’s what’s in the heart that matters. And we may have gone too far here. I had dinner with two (progressive) college professors the other night both of whom are seriously concerned about the loss of free inquiry on campus. People parse every word carefully just ready to pounce if something's not precisely right. Careers are damaged. 

In Pittsburgh last week I read the story of a lifelong peace advocate, founder of the Thomas Merton Center, one of the Plowshares 8 who went to jail with Daniel Berrigan in the struggle against nuclear proliferation. She naively said something not quite right and the new generation of activists removed her from the board and removed any mention of her from the website. 

Go to the heart friends, go to the heart…and perhaps that’s our true sermon title today…the heart of the matter…

Who are we in this story? How do we move past culture and tradition to the heart of God’s law? Let those with ears to hear, hear…..

Amen

1Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him, 2they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them. 3(For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they thoroughly wash their hands, thus observing the tradition of the elders; 4and 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.) 5So 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?" 6He 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; 7in vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrines.' 8You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition."

14Then he called the crowd again and said to them, "Listen to me, all of you, and understand: 15there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile."

21"For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, 22adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. 23All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person."