Monday, August 31, 2009

RCL - Proper 17 B - 30 Aug 2009


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.