Create in me a clean heart!

Mark 7: 1-23

Our Gospel lesson for today is a favorite among Barbecue connoisseurs and Bacon enthusiasts. Yes, even I think happily upon today’s Gospel lesson when I hover over my smoker, adjusting the temperature, placing just the right amount of wood chips into the smoke box, and generously spraying a thin glaze upon the slowly cooking meat. I cannot help but think, even out loud, “thank you for your insights, Jesus; this is delicious!” It’s a good thing that confession is good for the soul, however, because if that is all I can get out of the gospel today, then I have fallen into the same trap as the Pharisees. 

Today’s lesson is about the barriers that are drawn between you, me, us, all of us, and God. As protestants we have a tendency to lean all too legalistically in opposition towards legalism. We find so much fault in the legalism of the Hebrew scripture that we still often claim Jesus Christ comes to us in order to abolish the law. This isn’t just a claim made today but in scripture, and Jesus is all too aware when he clarifies; “I have come not to abolish but to fulfill the law” in Matthew’s Gospel which shares a variation of today’s gospel from Mark. 

So, in today’s Gospel, it most certainly seems that Jesus is clearing out some of the old practices of temple Judaism but I am not so sure he is clearing out the problem of legalistic Judaism as much as the problem of human inauthenticity. Second temple Judaism is in fact steeped in numerous traditions and legal codes. We find many of them in Leviticus and even Deuteronomy, today’s first lesson in fact is an example of this. And when we read these laws we can’t help but wonder where this could leave us, if it is the standard upon which we should be judged. 

My wife and I maintain a garden of squash, tomatoes, and corn; Guess what? Confession is good for the soul because yes, I am in violation of the law - Leviticus 19:19 “you shall not sow your field with two kinds of seed"

In fact my own fashion as I stand here before you is in gross violation of the law. Yes, my ever so fashionable polyester/cotton blend clerical shirt is declared unfit, especially for someone such as myself standing before you in this role. Again, Leviticus 19:19 “you shall put on a garment made of two different materials.”

Leviticus 10:9 seems to even proclaim that one of the most reverential forms of worship in our service is in fact… unlawful, “Drink no wine or strong drink, neither you nor your sons, when you enter the tent of meeting” the very sacrament of Holy Communion is forbidden according to the legal codes of Leviticus.

This list could go on and on and on, but that would also be missing the point today. My intention is not to discredit the manner in which we worship but to clarify the meaning of this text itself because the action is not what is being brought into question in today’s Gospel; it is the abuse of the action. Second temple rules and regulations were interpreted and presented to the people through religious lawyers and priests, who presented their interpretations of the legal codes as well as additions to those codes. This was not intended to oppress but to assist. Assisting the people of God to live lives that were worthy of being considered lives of God’s chosen people. To remain within the parameters of this chosen state, they were called to follow the legal codes prescribed so that they would remain clean. Clean in a manner less worthy of an Old Spice commercial  and more worthy of an audience with God. This was a method of purification of the body that constantly assured the purification of a person striving to be in God’s good favor because of a zest fully clean spiritual state.

What we see in much of Leviticus and Deuteronomy are spiritual disciplines meant to impact the fallen state of humanity due to sin. Methods for God’s chosen people to be called back to the righteousness of God’s favor. When we consider the tragedy that befell Israel time and again it is certainly understandable why this community would continuously strive for a state of cleanliness. There must have been little doubt within their own minds that their own uncleanliness had invited their own demise and certainly they wouldn’t want to revisit such tragedy.

Which leaves us to our Gospel lesson today and honestly, as a parent I can most certainly ask; Is washing your hands before sitting down to the table REALLY too much to ask? For Jesus it most certainly is, because this is not just a squirt of some antibacterial soap with a quick rinse under the faucet. This is a specific method of ritual purification, using a specific technique, with a specific amount of water, which was poured over the hands in a specific way, and this is all done not once but between each course offered at the table and at the conclusion of the meal as well. Certainly a bit extreme and it wasn’t just extreme to Jesus but many Jews of this period found these practices to be “too orthodox”. But I’m not so sure that Jesus confronts them due to the extreme methods of purification as much as he is confronting them on the results of such a practice. All of these practices served as spiritual surgical gloves and masks, prepared to protect the chosen from the uncleanliness and sin of the world as if an epidemic of sin had broken out without the possibility of a cure. And so instead of confronting the epidemic itself, Jesus points out that what has become the  common practice was to set things into categories; pure and impure. The problem is that no one realizes that the impurity lies within those declaring everything else to impure. 

One of my favorite programs, based on a comic book of course, is “The Walking Dead”. The program depicts a post apocalyptic world that is plagued by zombies. The protagonist, Rick Grimes, strives to seek out hope in the zombie plagued world attempting to protect both his biological family and his new extended family of survivors. At the conclusion of the first season of the program, Rick leads the group of survivors to the Center for Disease Control  in Atlanta, in hopes that a lone scientist in a bunker below the CDC has discovered a cure for this plague. In the final scene of that first season, the scientist whispers into Rick’s ear the reality that has led the scientist to abandon all hope. Rick’s horrified reaction to the secret exchange was not only kept secret from the group until the end of the second season but the audience watching as well. It turns out that what the scientist discovered and shares with Rick, is that all of humanity is in fact infected with the zombie plague and will themselves be doomed to the same fate as all the zombies wandering the post apocalyptic world. 

I can’t help but wonder if the Pharisees displayed the same shocked look as Rick Grimes when Jesus informs them that the plague of uncleanliness is not something that they can protect themselves from because they themselves are in fact already spiritually unclean, spiritually infected. 

What we are being lead to in this Gospel is that the reality of religious tradition is not a bad thing in and of itself. It is meant to remind us of the story, it is meant to call us back towards God, it is meant to assure us of the promise received in Jesus the Christ. What it is not meant to do, is to be a method of condemnation or worse a method of masking ourselves from our own impurities, sin, and selfishness. As we once claimed in our order of confession and absolution; masking this would mean that “we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us”

It is in this moment that Jesus informs the Pharisees that they have indeed deceived themselves of their own impurity. If our use of tradition masks us from our own uncleanliness while instead condemning others for theirs, then we fail to understand the words of our seldom sung offertory hymn “Create in me a clean heart O’ God and renew a right spirit within me”. This is the nature of worship not to be called by the pastor, the priest, the rabbi, or the pharisee to the railing but to be personally drawn to God by the very words of Christ. Not to condemn other’s because they deny themselves the means of God’s grace but to invite- and with reverential and grateful hearts- ourselves be drawn and in turn lead others to the redemptive grace of God. But it is a natural tendency for us to be drawn in the direction of condemnation of other’s rather than invitation to the assurance we receive from outside ourselves.

~

This past Wednesday morning at 6:45 am accusations of uncleanliness were made by Vester Flanagan against previous employers and his one time coworkers. Flanagan, who used the on air name, Bryce Williams expressed his frustration with their perceived uncleanliness through a tragic act of violence that took the lives of Broadcaster Allison Parker and Cameraman Adam Ward while leaving Vicki Gardner, who was being interviewed at the time, hospitalized. And, he did it all over a live broadcast in Roanoke, as I am sure you are all aware. Vester Flanagan made allegations of grievance that his employers and coworkers were hostile towards him due to his race and sexuality, pointing out their alleged uncleanliness of bigotry and racism; all the while failing to recognize the spiral of uncleanliness he himself was falling into as he carried out his own act of uncleanliness, sin, and brokenness. 

Similarly, one of the sources of Flanagan’s frustration and anger was the mass shooting at Emmanuel AME Church in Charleston just a few months ago, on June 17th. The event ended similarly and with eerily similar motivations.The attack in that instance occurred at the hands of another individual who claimed grievances of uncleanliness at the hands of another. Roof claimed that his own opportunities had been limited because of the unclean and sinful agenda of those outside his own race which he alleged were “taking over the country” and “had to go”. Both of these men had formulated an agenda based on their own judgement of the uncleanliness of others. 

And let us just consider for a moment if their accusations were justified, regardless of how outlandish it may seem. Does that alleviate them of their own uncleanliness? What is worse, does my allegation of their uncleanliness alleviate me of my own?

And if I am to be a true witness to the Gospel of Christ, then who am I not to seek out the Dylan Roofs and Vester Flanagans of this world and call them BESIDE me, BESIDE US ALL as my brothers and sisters in Christ. Equally unclean, desperately unclean, seeking out the merciful grace and love of the only source of cleansing that can ever cleanse a soul as broken, sinful, and unclean as me! I cannot come before that font or this railing with a mask of cleanliness, God knows my uncleanliness far too well for it to be hidden. 

It is not in setting ourselves apart from the unclean and calling it tradition or clean that we experience God. It is not in directing our own variation of cheap law accusingly at others in which we can purify ourselves and declare ourselves clean.

It is in bringing ourselves, our unclean selves to God, authentically, hopefully, and even at times desperately in our own pain that we experience God. It is there that we find Jesus the Christ, and it is in that moment that we experience a true faith. 

Amen

Sources

Darabont, Frank. The Walking Dead: Season 1. AMC and Anchor Bay Entertainment, 2011.

Being a Window to Wisdom and Redemption

Dionysus

As we near the conclusion of Ephesians the author gives us some parting words of wisdom. This portion of our text offers contrasting ways of living for the believing community and the way of living for the unbelieving community. The author contrasts these two communities as light and darkness leading into our reading for today; proclaiming that ”once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light. Live as children of light—“ Take notice though, the audience is never asked to leave the darkness. The letter continues; contrasting the wise with the unwise, foolishness with the will of God, and being filled with drunkenness with being filled with the Spirit. 

One interpretation of today’s reading can easily lead us away from being in the world, closing off our community and shunning those who are outside of our beliefs and practices. But that was not the state of the first century church. In fact the drunkenness described is most likely a reference to the Roman cult of Dionysus. A cult that flourished in the communities where many Christians themselves lived. Dionysus was basically the god of the Delta Tau Chi fraternity of Faber College from National Lampoons Animal House. As you can imagine, even if you weren’t a devout follower that was probably a worship service a lot of people wanted to attend. But Dionysus is the god of more than just wine and parties, he is the Roman god of madness and recklessness. But at no time does the letter of Ephesians imply that we should leave the party. The author calls the church to stay at the party in the midst of the unwise, the foolish, and even the reckless living.

It’s not an easy thing to do in the first century world, it’s not an easy thing to live in the midst of today either. We most often attempt to use this particular reading as a means to justify leaving such circumstances, disassociating ourselves with those who differ from us. As my father once told me, “Be careful who you spend time with, if you sleep with dogs you’re bound to get fleas”.

But that’s not what we are hearing today. The church is being called in this letter to wade into the midst of an unbelieving world, a world that does not want their wisdom and rightfully so. Yes, you heard me right; the world doesn’t want our wisdom and it doesn’t need it, it didn’t then and it doesn’t now. 

One thing I have struggled with over these past few years is the source of wisdom. Dr Thomas Sowell once said, “It takes considerable knowledge to realize the extent of your own ignorance”.  I think Dr Sowell lays out the reason the world doesn’t want our wisdom right there; we don’t have any. The lesson for today is not drawing attention to our wisdom it is drawing attention to God’s wisdom, God’s will, God’s Spirit. Karl Barth, Martin Luther, John Calvin, Paul Tillich, and many many more great theologians had one thing in common, they all agreed that no matter how much we may think we know, we know very little because the true source of all wisdom is God through Jesus as the Christ. But that doesn’t really strike confidence in our hearts. Borrowing wisdom as we wade into a world that may in fact be hostile to us seems like borrowing someone else’s parachute while standing in front of an open airplane door thousands of feet off the ground. It doesn’t inspire confidence. We want to know we are prepared as we go out into the world with our own wisdom, our own knowledge, packing our own parachute, knowing without a doubt it will open. 

And here we find an element of trust in our lesson today, trust not in ourselves but the revelation of God through the life and ministry of Jesus the Christ. It is in the model of that life that we are filled with the Spirit and we find God’s will and wisdom. There is a catch though, it’s not the kind of wisdom that is going to get us to the final round of Jeopardy, but if you want to change the world, the broken world, the party we are called to wade into, it is the wisdom we are called to share. The problem is that this is not the kind of wisdom, will, or Spirit we really want to channel, and it’s  not just because of the persecution we could face for it. I think the biggest problem we find in this sharing is that we not only don’t want to do it, but our broken state draws us away from it. 

I remember the first time I heard the most succinct socratic method of argumentation expressed to me in my childhood years: “I’m rubber you’re glue whatever you say to me bounces off of me and sticks to you!” The first time I heard it about 30 years ago I couldn’t help but to marvel at such argumentative prose on the kindergarten playground. I used to wonder why every presidential debate wasn’t decided by the first candidate to utilize such a phrase, little did I realize thirty years later presidential debates would in fact be decided by such comebacks. In fact, how many of our own interactions, with not only the world but our own family and friends, ends with just this type of unreasonable, unwise, foolish, and yes, reckless means of communication. We have fulfilled our call to be in the world, but instead of modeling the example of Christian living that God has revealed through Jesus the Christ, we have consistently chosen to mirror the model of the world. ~

This past week tensions flared again in Ferguson, Missouri. During renewed protests in that city a young man was shot after he himself allegedly fired on police. In response to this shooting a group known as the Oath Keepers arrived in Ferguson armed with high powered rifles and tactical vests further antagonizing protestors. In Ferguson we have seen this cycle continue; outrage mirrors outrage. In the Central African Republic we have seen similar forms of mirroring. Christian villages have decimated Muslim villages only to be decimated themselves by Muslims in order to seek out retribution. The same has been true of the Sunni and Shiite allegiances of Iraq, the Kurds and the Turks, the Palestinians and the Israelis. Violence mirrors violence, hate mirrors hate, insults mirror insults, gossiping mirrors gossiping and all of these are expressions of the source of all negative mirroring. Retribution mirroring retribution is an endless cycle.

Oath Keepers in Ferguson 

Paul Tillich, in a sermon, spoke to this, referring to two forms of justice: retributive justice* and creative justice. Retributive justice* is a form justice that is deemed proportionate punishment to the crime committed, but the standards of what is proportionate is weighed heavily on the perception of the one rendering the judgement. When that judgement is rendered by an angry crowd or a solitary angry person can we say it is truly proportionate in the eyes of a reasonable person much less the reasonable God? The second form is creative justice which Tillich proposes is the form of justice that reunites, by love, what has been separated. But this concept is easier said than done, it is a pill easier to prescribe than to swallow one’s self. ~

A few weeks ago I received a phone call from a dear friend and Marine I fought alongside in Iraq. He had asked if I would serve as a reference for him, because at the age of 35 he has decided to leave everything behind and join the Peace Corps. Upon filling out his application he was asked to select the most desirable locations. 

#1- Indonesia

#2- North Africa

#3- Western Caribbean 

As you can imagine, the peace corps personnel who interviewed him were quite concerned when they glanced over his resume to discover he was a Marine Corps Infantry combat veteran who had served in Iraq. As the interview progressed and they discovered more about the combat operations in which we took part, they grew more concerned. Finally the question, the big white elephant in the room was brought to light when the interviewer said simply “Why were your top two choices Muslim countries?” to which my dear friend replied, “I loved the people in Iraq and I still love them. When I see what has happened all I want to do is figure out a way to work with and heal the wounds that have been inflicted between their culture and mine.”

My friend pictured on the far left

His application went from the bottom of the stack to the top and he will be leaving in March. I will miss my dear fried and brother for three long years, but I know and I am confident that he is going to not only mirror God’s creative justice in Indonesia but in his own life and his own healing as well. 

In the long run, mirroring Christ’s model for us, Christ’s wisdom, Christ’s Spirit, Christ’s will isn’t mirroring anything at all when you really think about it. Mirrors only show us what is behind us but God’s creative justice is a window. It is a window that shows us the way forward not backward like a mirror. Forward to God's redemption, God's reconciliation, God's renewal. A way forward into Christian living in God's wisdom, God's will, being filled with God's Spirit while still being in and walking in this world following the One who reveals God to us by the incarnation. It is a window into the redemption of a world that we can never heal without looking into God’s plan that God has for this broken creation. 

If you stare hard enough into that window you just might see a small hill in the distance with the sun sinking down behind it, and on the top of that hill if we look hard enough you can make out a solitary figure hanging on a cross. 

Amen. 

*Paul Tillich’s sermon is specifically centered on the difference between “Calculating Justice” and “Creative Justice" but for the sake of clarity and familiarity with terms, retributive justice is being contrasted here. If you would like to explore further regarding Tillich’s thoughts on creative, calculating, and retributive justice, he wrote about these dynamics in his work; Love, Power, and Justice. 

Sources

Landis, John. National Lampoon’s Animal House. Universal Studios, 2008.

Tillich, Paul, and Mary Ann Stenger. The New Being. Lincoln: Bison Books, 2005.