The Second Sunday of Advent: Prepare the Way

12/5

season of light

On the second Sunday of Advent, I was with the Beverley Church community again.  Here si my reflection.....

This is always one of my favorite Sundays of the year.  The Second Sunday of Advent.  The Sunday John the Baptist comes back to the stage again. But before we get to him, first a few words about Advent…Advent comes from the Latin to come…we’re talking about what’s to come…and specifically, we’re talking about the coming of Jesus.  And every year when  we enter Advent, we’re entering a season, a time of preparation for the celebration of 3 comings at the same time. 

First, there’s the very existential celebration of this year’s Christmas with who you will be with …family of origin or family of choice, friends, loved ones….the unique circumstances of this particular year as they are for each of us. And as we live in together as a community.   And as the world around us is inundated with the secular Christmas season, Advent can become for us a place for us of respite, of peace and refreshment for our soul. 

Second, we look back to the historic birth of Jesus, millennia ago, and try to make sense of God’s choice to enter into our world in human form. And what significance that might have for us today. 

And finally there is that coming yet to come, that so-called second coming when Jesus comes back to wrap things up, sing the 11 PM grad finale song  and pull the curtain down on this production.  But in a recent conversation with my friend Naim Atik from Jerusalem, he suggested that another way to translate this is not second coming, but Jesus comes again. Again because in fact, Jesus never has left us. He has been here  with us all along, amen, 

So now we’re ready for John. I want you too notice something….how very specific Luke is about time:

1In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, 2during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. 

He wants to be very specific.

Like hear this:

The first year of the Presidency of Joseph Biden, the last year of the mayorship of William De Blasio in the last month before the mayoralty of  Eric Adams in the year that Kathy Hochul succeeded Anthony Cuomo when Francis is Pope in Rome and Bob Brashear about to be installed as Moderator of New York City Presbytery (had to work that in) the word came to the people of Beverly in Brooklyn, See? Like that…

Now who was this John the Baptist? According to Luke, he was the son of Zechariah…Zechariah, a priest of the Jerusalem Temple.  That means John came from privilege, like being the son of a tell steeple preacher. From the heart of the religious establishment. This is the one who will head out to the desert, dressed like the most radical of hippies, and go way beyond vegan diet wise. 

I recently watched the new movie The Eyes of Tammy Faye.  It was the story of famous Tammy Faye Baker, wife and ministry partner of PTL Club founder televangelist Jim Baker. She of course famous for her make up and high gloss finish. Actually, she rocked a lot of boats by not simply accepting a woman’s role as “helpmate”, openly talking about what Christian couples could do to improve their sex lives to bringing an openly gay pastor on her show. The evangelical establishment was scandalized.

This was all before their empire came crashing down because of Jim's conviction for mail fraud and his hush money  sex scandal. But here’s what I’m getting to…several years ago, I had an encounter with their son Jay.  Turned off by what he had seen of religion, he walked away from it entirely. Got his hair punked out,  got some serious  tattoos and dived into the world of alternative culture.

Where I encountered him was in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, he had felt called to be a pastor of his own unique style and far from the Bible Belt in the urban wilderness he created the Revolution Church at Pete’s Candy Store preaching a gospel of love, non-judgment and acceptance. And social responsibility. He had special heart for young people who were runaways or throw aways or otherwise outcasts. And there’s a special place in his heart for the LGBTQ community who had surrounded his mom with so much  love as she was dying of cancer.

When I think of a modern-day John the Baptist, he’d look a lot like Jay Baker. 

So what was John the Baptist up to?  proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins…. Telling his community that it was time to turn around, go a new direction …and accept forgiveness. 

Quoting from Isaiah, he called the people to join him in the work of messianic preparation ….leveling the mountains, lifting up the valleys, making the way clear…serious accessibility…curb cuts and elevators and kneeling buses…that kind of smooth path ..like they say on the subway, this is an accessible station…the road to salvation is barrier free….

That’s what Advent is for us….a time of preparation, for getting ready,,,we should start our service with Prepare ye the word of the Lord from Godspell and finish with People Get Ready there’s a Train a Comin…

What dies that mean for us today? We live in a time of great stress and tension. The greatest income disparity since the 1920’s. A global pandemic that shows no sign of ending soon. Hurricanes on the coast, firenados in California, the greatest flowing stream of refugees and migrants the world over close to half our people don’t believe in democracy anymore. My oldest son said to me, dad, I’m not sure I believe in God, but if he was trying to gat our attention it would  look something like this…

But I also remember my friend Father Duffell who said, For most of us, reflecting  on our own death, our own mortality is apocalypse enough. If we take care of our own lives, God will take care of the rest…

Advent is a time of preparation. For the coming Kingdom (Kindom) of God. And we do that by stepping into and living in the kingdom that is already here. The community of those who  choose to gather in the name of Jesus. And practice then ministry of forgiveness of sins. There is a story about a man who asked his rabbi, Rabbi is it necessary to pray for forgiveness every day?  And his rabbi responded, No.not at all.  Only on the day before you die…

And so it’s time to get ready, to get prepared. The best Christmas gift we could give the coming baby Jesus …and each other…and ourselves..would be to truly live out a life of repentance and forgiveness of sins…beginning  with the one we have the most difficult  time forgiving, mainly ourselves.

In the very particular circumstances of this very particular year, let us prepare the way, let us prepare the way…

Let those with ears to heart, hear….

                                                                               *****

 1In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, 2during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. 3He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, 4as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah,

"The voice of one crying out in the wilderness:

'Prepare the way of the Lord,

make his paths straight.

5Every valley shall be filled,

and every mountain and hill shall be made low,

and the crooked shall be made straight,

and the rough ways made smooth;

6and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.'"

Thankfulness

11/26 

Farmers Market

My good friend Rabbi Steve Blane and I have a tradition of sahrign a Thanksgivign service together.  Here is this year's reflection

 Good shabbes chaverim…we’re here on the Friday after Thanksgiving. A day that has come to be known by the strange designation “Black Friday.” I understand the connection with businesses going into the black, but it’s still weird… I do remember that as a kid, this day marked the beginning of the Christmas shopping season. Do you remember when the stores waited until then to open their magical holiday window displays? I remember how my family would head to Pittsburgh’s South Hills Village Mall to start our Christmas shopping. And of course to the Jewish deli for hot pastrami or Reubens for lunch. Now we see the decorations go up the day after Halloween. Now Pittsburgh turns on the lights in early November and calls it “Sparkle Season” so as to be really inclusive, guess.

 Which leads me to what else is big this weekend. We’re right on the cusp of the first night of Hannukah which falls on the same Sunday as Christians begin Advent, that four week time of reflection and spiritual preparation leading up to Christmas…our sibling celebrations of glowing, growing LIGHT in the darkness. BUT…I’m not ready to let go of Thanksgiving yet…I’ve got leftovers! And warm memories of my family together yesterday. 

Did you know this is the 400th anniversary of the first Thanksgiving? The pilgrims were celebrating the fact that they had a successful enough harvest with enough laid away to get through the coming New England winter. Thanks to the Wappanaog Native Americans who had taught them how to grow corn and squash and harvest clams and fish and cranberries. (A decision they regret to this day!) By the way…we always associate orange and brown with Thanksgiving. For turkeys and pumpkins I guess. But orange now has a deeper meaning..it’s the color chosen by Native Americans to commemorate those who were forced into “Indian schools,” begun in Canada and now into the US. How they came together in that first Thanksgiving is more complicated than the story we tell but we’ll just leave it with the celebration tonight. My wife had grown up believing that Thanksgiving was started to give thanks to the Indians. She was really excited to share Thanksgiving with the family of the retired chief of the Pawnee Nation  our first Thanksgiving in Oklahoma. 

 So Thanksgiving is giving thanks. And that’s important. Walter Breuggeman, a Christian theologian ,says “Doxology is the beginning of resistance.” And Abraham Joshua Heschel said “It is gratefulness which makes the soul great.” Above all else, giving thanks is an affirmation that we are not alone. On the Upper West Side, the West Side Campaign Against Hunger just gave out over 1000 turkeys. Here in Harlem, where I live, neighbors in my building gave out 50 turkey dinners. The Harlem Lounge threw its doors open from noon to 4 for free dinners for all.

 But I want to get personal. In 1993, I lost my job…and my father…all in two weeks. I soon fell into depression feeling I was all alone. But a wise friend took me aside and said, “Look, you’ve got a roof over your head. You’ve got a family, friends and people who love you who will stand by you, not let you down. Start your day by giving thanks. It will get better from there.” And he was right, I did that. And no longer felt alone. And was soon on my way back. 

 Nahum Ward Lev in his book on the Hebrew prophets, talks about the spiritual discipline of giving thanks. He recommends every night before you go to sleep, remembering all that happened over the course off the day for which you are thankful…especially what wasn’t expected. Whether it’s first thing in the morning, last thing at night or better both, it helps keep us grounded. Going. Thankfulness for all we have is a way of being, a way of living. Rabbi Heschel also said, “Our goal should be to live life in radical amazement [to] get up in the morning and look at the world in a way that takes nothing for granted. Everything is phenomenal; everything is incredible; never treat life casually. To be spiritual is to be amazed.” 

 The song I sang tonight was written in England in 1864. It came to the US in the depths of the Civil War. Somehow while the world seemed to be falling apart, people wanted to believe that there was still much to be thankful for. 

 God of all, to Thee we raise, this our hymn of grateful praise…

1 For the beauty of the earth, 
for the glory of the skies, 
for the love which from our birth 
over and around us lies. 

Refrain: 
God of all to you we raise 
this, our hymn of grateful praise. 

2 For the wonder of each hour 
of the day and of the night, 
hill and vale and tree and flower, 
sun and moon and stars of light, [Refrain ]

3 For the joy of human love, 
brother, sister, parent, child, 
friends on earth, and friends above, 
for all gentle thoughts and mild, [Refrain] 

4 For yourself, best gift divine, 
to the world so freely given, 
agent of God's grand design: 
peace on earth and joy in heaven. [Refrain]

Religion, Peace and Sanctuary

 10/16

Sanctuary and religion panel

The International Peace Bureau held its second "Congress" in Barcelona, Spain last week.  During the Congress, I was on a panel in a workshop on Religion, Peace and Sanctuary coordinated by Susan Smith of the Fellowship of Reconciliation and the Muslim Peace Fellowship. My colleague panelists were: 

 Maglaha Hamma,  Western Sahara Refugee and Activist@Nonviolence Association of the Western Sahara (NOVA); Runbir Serkepkani, Kurdish Activist @Christian Peacemaker Teams, Aegean Migrant Solidarity Program;   and Chrissy Stonebraker-Martinez, Co-director of the Inter-Religious Task Force on Central America and FOR-USA Co-Chair.

Following is my presentation....

My work in global just migration comes as part of my commitment as a person of faith to building a more just, humane, inclusive and sustainable world. 

Yesterday, many of us had a guided tour of the exhibit on the plaza of the history of violence in Central America and its impact on migration and asylum seeking.  That is where my story begins.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     Shortly after dawn, in October 1992, my friend John Fife and I went out to meet the student volunteers who would go out every morning to photograph that day’s harvest of mutilated bodies dumped after another night of terror  in the ongoing massacre, genocide of the poor carried out by the death squads of the US supported Salvadoran regime.  The photos had to be taken before sanitation crews removed the bodies for disposal. The photos would be kept at the diocese office and were the only way families could find out what had happened to their disappeared loved ones. 

We were there on behalf of the Presbyterian Church seeking to understand what was causing so many Salvadorans to risk their lives crossing the deadly Sonoran desert to come to the US. John was involved because one  morning there was a knock on  his door and someone was there seeking shelter. When he heard the story, John opened the doors of the church. And inspired by an ancient tradition whereby fugitives fleeing for their lives could claim respite and protection within the doors of the church, the Sanctuary Movement was born.

In the next year, I would go to Arizona and travel with John across the border to visit refugee detainees in a Nogales, Mexico jail, once even encountering  someone I had once met in a Salvadoran prison,  and then facilitate and accompany one of these “pilgrims” across the border to a safe haven on the other side. 

In 2007, I was visiting Berlin with a group of clergy from New York City.  We were meeting with Pastor Juergen Quandt at the Heilege Kruez church to learn of their work with asylum seekers. Pastor Juergen described how their work had begun by responding to Palestinian refugees from the Lebanese Civil War in the 80’s. I told him that it reminded me of the work that we had done with Central Americans doing those years and he responded, “that’s where we got the idea.” 

I knew that it was important for those involved in this work on both sides  of the ocean to meet one another. 

One year later, with the help of the Halbreich Foundation and the 

Fellowship of Reconciliation, and Stony Point Center, church asylum workers from Germany traveled to Arizona to meet with their colleagues from No Mas Muertos  and other groups involved in Sanctuary work. A year later a return visit to Germany would take place. We began to understand the parallels between the life threatening realities of the Sonoran desert and the Mediterranean Sea for those risking their lives seeking asylum.

After a few years’ hiatus, the resurgent world migration crisis led us to come together again, made easier by the emergent global communications technologies.  

In 2016, our work group produced the International Sanctuary Declaration.  It had two main purposes:  the first was to arrive at a common set of principles for those engaged in this work. The other was to begin a process of advocacy that could result in internationally recognized protocols for just migration,. Here is the Declaration:

INTERNATIONAL SANCTUARY DECLARATION (English first, en español abajo)

We express our deep concern for the well-being of the refugee children, families and all migrants currently arriving at our borders, as well as those struggling to live within our borders. In response to the increased numbers of people around the world who are being forced to leave their home countries, and the simultaneous increase in punitive enforcement in many receiving countries, we affirm the following principles to guide and inspire our efforts to respond:

Compassionate Response: We care deeply about refugee children, families and all migrants, and we urge our countries to have open arms to protect them and preserve their human dignity. We reject detention of migrants as a violation of human rights and dignity.

Due Process: We advocate for fair and timely legal proceedings, competent legal representation, and due process for children, asylum seekers, and all migrants.

Family Unity: We uphold and respect the unity of families as a basic human right.

Restorative Justice: We desire revitalization and healing of our borderlands, not militarization. The only long-term solution is a holistic approach that prioritizes safety and opportunity for migrants and addresses root causes.

Civil Initiative: As long as our governments are not adequately addressing these humanitarian crises, citizens have the right and responsibility to respond with an approach that follows the mandate to provide sanctuary when needed and, above all, to love our neighbors.

Based on these principles, we covenant with one another to work together for just and humane response to all migrants both at our borders and within our countries. We call on our governments, and the governments of all countries receiving migrants in response to the current and ongoing international humanitarian and refugee crisis to embrace these principles.

Later that year the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church would endorse the statement as well as many other faith based organizations.  Another round of visits would begin in 2018 with representatives from our  expanding circle of colleagues.  Our last pre-covid visit took place in November 2019 to Tucson/Nogales, El Paso/Juarez and Stony Point, New York.  Today we have an ever expanding work group with participants from the US, Canada, Mexico, Europe and Africa who are involved in the front line of  just migration work. 

I come to this work as one who seeks to follow Jesus. My tradition finds inspiration in our commonly held Hebrew Scriptures…or Old Testament…and the Christian New Testament. Throughout the Five Books of the Torah, (Law, or better teaching) there is a constant call to care for the widow, the orphan and the stranger at your gate. (EG Deut.10:18). At the very center of the Torah with as many verses before as after is this verse, Leviticus 19:18

¹⁸You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbour as yourself: I am the Lord.

This is the verse that Jesus in Mark 12:31, (and Matthew 22:39)  would quote as the most important commandment, the essence of loving God is loving neighbor. 

…The most important commandment is to

30Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your 

soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’

 31The second is this ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.”

There are at least 18 variations of this quote in the Bible.

In my reformed tradition, we understand ourselves to have a responsibility for the stewardship of creation. That work is guided by a vision of shalom, a peace that is not simply the absence of violence but is a wholeness, including justice….

But for me, faith is not proof texting or assent to theological proposition but is a way of being, a life lived. 

So for me, this struggle for just immigration is a basic expression of faith. 

Not for me, However….it is more than an expression of faith, it is an expression of being human. The story of humanity is the story of people on the move. For us , there can be no distinction between so called economic refugees and asylum seekers.  All are people in motion, nearly all as a result of political policies beyond their control.  Everything from the texture of our hair to the color of our skin to the words we speak the food we eat and the religions we practice are the result of people in motion encountering one another. And coming together. There is no language, culture or religion that is pure;. The stream is everflowing and unique particularities come together only for their own season ready to make their own contribution to the stream. Which then flows on. 

On a spiritual level, for those of us who claim the identity of Christian, it could be argued that the whole Biblical narrative is one of people on the move, from Adam and Eve sent out of the Garden to the Hebrews fleeing Egypt to Babylonian exile to Jesus' family fleeing for their  lives to Paul's travels throughout the Mediterranean... The story of God's people is the story of hujmanity. We are all part of what AI Wei Wei has called the “human flow.”As part of humanity, we have a responsibility to see that the flow continues with as much compassion, humaneness and justice as possible. That is our calling, that is our work.  And for me, that is what it means to be faithful…..

 

 8/25

In October in Barcelona, there will be a major international conference on working for world peace. As part of that conference, there will be a panel on peace and religion. Last Wednesday, as a lead up to that conference, there was an. international webinar on peace and religion as it relates to the (new) sanctuary movement. What follows was my contribution to that webinar. 

My work in international just migration comes as part of my commitment as a person of faith to building  a more just, humane, inclusive and sustainable world. 

Shortly after dawn, in October 1992, in San Salvador, my friend John Fife and I went out to meet the student volunteers who would go out every morning to photograph that day’s harvest of mutilated bodies dumped after another night of terror  in the ongoing massacre, genocide of the poor carried out by the death squads of the US supported Salvadoran regime.  The photos had to be taken before sanitation crews removed the bodies for disposal. The photos would be kept at the diocese office and were the only way families could find out what had happened to disappeared loved ones. 

We were there on behalf of the Presbyterian Church seeking to understand what was causing so many Salvadorans to risk their lives crossing the deadly Sonoran desert to come to the US. John was involved because one  morning there was a knock on  his door and someone was there seeking shelter. When he heard the story, John opened the doors of the church. And inspired by an ancient tradition whereby fugitives fleeing for their lives could claim respite and protection within the doors of the church, the Sanctuary Movement was born.

In the next year, I would go to Arizona and travel with John across the border to visit refugee detainees in a Nogales, Mexico jail, once even encountering  someone I had  met in a Salvadoran prison,  and then facilitate and accompany one of these “pilgrims” across the border to a safe haven on the other side. 

In 2007, I was visiting Berlin with a group of clergy from New York City.  We were meeting with Pastor Juergen Quandt at the Heilege Kruz church to learn of their work with asylum seekers. Pastor Juergen described how their work had begun by responding to Palestinian refugees from the Lebanese Civil War in the 80’s. I told him that it reminded me of the work that we had done with Central Americans during those years and he responded, “that’s where we got the idea.” 

I knew that it was important for those involved in this work on both sides  of the ocean to meet one another. 

One year later, with the help of the Halbreich Foundation and the 

Fellowship of Reconciliation, and Stony Point Center, church asylum workers from Germany traveled to Arizona to meet with their colleagues from No Mas Muertos  and other groups involved in Sanctuary work. A year later a return visit to Germany would take place. We began to understand the parallels between the life threatening realities of the Sonoran desert and the Mediterranean Sea for those risking their lives seeking asylum.

After a few years’ hiatus, the resurgent world migration crisis led us to come together again, made easier by the emergent global communications technologies.  

In 2016, our work group produced the International Sanctuary Declaration.  It had two main purposes:  the first was to arrive at a common set of principles for those engaged in this work. The other was to begin a process of advocacy that could result in internationally recognized protocols for just migration,. 

Later that year the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church would endorse the statement as well as many other faith based organizations. Today we have an ever expanding work group with participants from the US, Canada, Mexico, Europe and Africa who are involved in the front line of  just migration work. 

Another round of visits would begin in 2018 with representatives from our  expanding circle of colleagues.  Our last pre-covid visit taking place in November 2019 to Tucson/Nogales, El Paso/Juarez and Stony Point, New York.

I come to this work as one who seeks to follow Jesus. My tradition finds inspiration in our commonly held Hebrew Scriptures…or Old Testament…and the Christian New Testament. Throughout the Five Books of the Torah, (Law, or better teaching) there is a constant call to care for the widow, the orphan and the stranger at your gate. (E.g.  Deut.10:18). At the very center of the Torah with as many verses before as after is this verse, Leviticus 19:18

¹⁸You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.

This is the verse that Jesus in Mark 12:31, (and Matthew 22:39)  would quote as the most important commandment, the essence of loving God is loving neighbor. 

…The most important commandment is to

30Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your 

soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’

 31The second is this ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.”

There are at least 18 variations of this quote in the Bible.

In my reformed tradition, we understand ourselves to have a responsibility for the stewardship of creation. That work is guided by a vision of shalom, a peace that is not simply the absence of violence but is a wholeness, including justice….

But for me, faith is not proof texting or assent to theological proposition but is a way of being, a life lived. 

So then, this struggle for just immigration is a basic expression of faith. 

However….it is more than an expression of faith, it is an expression of being human. The story of humanity is the story of people on the move. Everything from the texture of our hair to the color of our skin to the words we speak the food we eat and the religions we practice are the result of people in motion encountering one another. And coming together. There is no language, culture or religion that is pure;. The stream is everflowing and unique particularities come together only for their own season ready to make their own contribution to the stream. Which then flows on. We are all part of what AI Wei Wei has called the “human flow.”As part of humanity, we have a responsibility to see that the flow continues with as much compassion, humaneness and justice as possible. That is our calling, that is our work.

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."