Holy Cross Monastery, West Park, NY
Br. Scott Borden, OHC
RCL - Proper 17B - 30 August 2009
Song of Solomon 2:8-13
James 1:17-27
Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
The Crucifix Cross in the Monastic Enclosure at Holy Cross Monastery
Originally Uploaded by Cloister Walk
Today’s Gospel reading from Mark asks us to take a close look at the way we
live our faith. If Jesus were talking about people who were unfaithful, it
would be easier to hear and ignore this passage. But this is a dispute among
faithful people. The Pharisees were not unfaithful - they were extremely
devout, extremely faithful, just like the disciples. The problems lies in
the way they express their faith.
This passage combined with the letter of James forms a powerful and urgent
message for those of us today who are faithful and devout.
In Mark, Jesus calls us to listen. Jesus is emphatic: “Listen to me, all of
you, and understand...” That should get our attention...
James gives us some very clear instruction on what it means to listen. “Be
quick to listen, slow to speak... be doers of the word... be not hearers who
forget, but doers who act.”
Here is a different translation of James - from Good as New: “Do you think
you’re religious? If you don’t know when to shut up, you’re fooling
yourself. Your religion’s a fake. True religion, what the Loving God
recognizes as genuine, involves caring for all who are suffering hardship,
and not falling for popular prejudices.”
In the living church today there are many who are quick to speak; quick to
judge; quick to condemn; quick to exclude. I can spot those people from
miles, even oceans, away.
It’s a bit trickier when I’m the one too quick to speak, to judge, to
condemn, to exclude. Once we’ve got our mouths running, listening becomes
much more difficult - even for me...
Hearing God’s word is a call to action. We are not passive listeners. James
is quite direct. Hearing God’s word and not acting is like admiring
ourselves in the mirror...
The direction of our action must be love. James tells us that our anger does
not produce God’s righteousness. In my experience, our anger, my anger,
produces self-righteousness. How easy it is for me to spot
self-righteousness in others... how much harder to spot my own
self-righteousness. And yet its there - and it is not Godly. My anger does
not produce righteousness. This is a humbling reality.
Its not that we don’t get angry. Certainly there are many things in this
world that should make us angry. Certainly Jesus got angry. Anger can
motivate us to action, but it can not direct our action. Love must direct
our action.
James tells us to care for the orphans and widows in their distress.
We don’t live with so many widows and orphans these days - and being an
orphan or widow doesn’t mean now what it meant to James. James lived In a
world where family was everything. In that world being an orphan meant being
nothing. Being a widow meant not only being nothing because your family ties
had ended, but worse: being damaged goods, less than nothing...
In today’s world, James might call us, for example, to care for the homeless
mentally ill, or the illegal immigrants - they might have a similar status
to the orphans and widows of James’ day.
With this letter of James ringing in our ears what happens when we go back
to Mark?
It’s a fairly standard set up in Mark - Pharisees are yammering away: “Your
disciples do not love God because they do not keep God’s law... they do not
(insert offense here)...” This time the offense is “they do not wash their
hands before the eat.” (I had a 4th grade teacher who would have quite liked
these particular Pharisees...)
So Jesus tells us how we defile ourselves - not with what we eat, not by
failing to follow rituals, but with what we think... with what is in our
heart.
This is a familiar, well-trodden path. So why do I think the message is so
urgent today?
We wrestle with Pharisees all the time. They are the people who know how
everything ought to be done and are happy to tell us... Some of us easily
spot them among our conservative brothers and sisters. We hear them yelling
that the revisionists are not washing their metaphorical hands - you can
pick from any number of controversies.
Its harder for me to spot the Pharisees among the liberals - that’s my
prejudice - but they are there.
And when I examine my heart, what do you know? There is my own personal
Pharisee. And my personal Pharisee really does know exactly how everything
ought to be done to please God. That is why this message is urgent.
Informing the Pharisee is a code of some sort: A code that defines what God
does and doesn’t like - a holiness code. The duty of the Pharisee is to
clarify the code, to fanatically follow the code, and at every opportunity
to impose the code on others. This is what my personal Pharisee does... each
of us has a Pharisee within urging us on this path.
And we all know how much use Jesus has for Pharisees...
A holiness code is useful in two different ways. First and most important it
lets me know I’m in; I’m up to code; I’m right with God. And second, it lets
me know who else is in and, more excitingly, who else is out. This is very
powerful information.
But again, we all know how much use Jesus has for Pharisees... for holiness
codes...
Yet here in our own Anglican communion, in our own Episcopal Church, we have
people deciding who is in communion and who is not; who follows the code and
who does not; who is clean and who is unclean.
And we all know how much use Jesus has for this.
Jesus gives us no permission to judge who is worthy; No permission to
exclude; No permission to set up barriers; No permission to love the sinner,
but hate the sin... Jesus gives us no permission to develop a holiness code.
Its safe to say that Jesus has no more use for Christian Pharisees than any
other Pharisees. Jesus has no use for my own personal Pharisee.
The more we listen to our Pharisees the less we can hear Jesus... the less
we can be hearers and doers of the word.
And here is what that leads to: We can have an overtly theological debate
about the sanctity of marriage and family while at the same time allowing
children in our own country to go without basic vaccines, without proper
nutrition... These children are our family. We can accept that many of our
senior brothers and sisters have to choose between food and life-sustaining
medication. These seniors are our family.
We honor God with our lips, but not in our hearts.
To hear God’s word is to act on it - we can’t be hearers without being
doers. Who are our widows and orphans? God help us to stop looking at
ourselves in the mirror and to be doers of the word. Let us pray that God
will help us abandon human tradition and hold to God.
