On the Way to Wonder

John 18 does not dwell on Thursday evening of Passion Week, after the Last Supper, skipping the Garden of Gethsemane, but goes to the arrest and trial of Jesus. 

• Judas leads the mob to the place where he knows Jesus goes to pray, the Garden of Gethsemane, and identifies Jesus with a kiss.  What is truth for Judas, friendship or traitor?
•  Most of the disciples have fled but Peter actually has his moment of trial as he stands nearby at Jesus’ first trial before the High Priest.  Peter is recognized three times and three times denies his relationship with Jesus.  What is the truth governing Peter at that hour? 
• The High Priest takes Jesus to Pilate because the death sentence was sought but the leaders stand outside so as not to defile themselves by entering a Roman building.  What is the truth governing the religious leaders at that hour?
• Pilate questions Jesus and finds no fault in him but is disturbed when he hears the leaders claim that Jesus claims to be king of the Jews.  What is the truth to governing Pilate who asks Jesus, “What is truth?”
•  

That question has echoed through history not only in this story but in every trial since.  There seems to be perceived truth from events unfolding – Judas kisses, Peter denies, the High Priest acts, and Pilate questions.  But under these actions we see a deeper layer of truth.  The kiss is betrayal.  The denial turns Peter around to commitment as he deals with himself.  The High Priest sells out Jesus but does not save the Jews from dispersion and Pilate must live with a guilty conscience. 

         Jesus is the one who claims in John 14:6, “I am the way and the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.”  Eventually we must all decide what we think the truth about Jesus is and how we will respond to his claims on our lives.  Judas hung himself.  Peter repented and went on to be a leader in the early church.  Both Pilate and the High Priest died.  How will we respond?

         Perhaps our “trial” will not be as dramatic as Jesus before the leaders and Pilate but that does not mean it is any less real.  How we handle little things like traffic signals, owning up to mistakes we make, or even the use of little white lies to cover over our slips, all form our character and reputation.  Truth seems so impacted by our understanding and our values.  We see the argument in the news over masks and everything else.  It is a comfort that even though we do not see everything clearly that we know Jesus is ultimate truth that is real, living, and caring about us and we can go to him at any time.  He does not charge and he welcomes our questions.  Blessings as you seek to live a life of integrity!

Luke 22:1-46 starts the next iteration of our epic story, The Bible.  Our epic hero, God, is making his move against our epic villain, Satan.  He has incarnated as Jesus and entered the epic story of humanity.  Jesus’ last week of Jesus’ life is called Passion Week and forms over a quarter of each Gospel writer’s report.  The Jewish hierarchy is plotting the demise of Jesus.  It is Passover.  Jesus gathers with his disciples in an upper room in Jerusalem on Thursday evening to celebrate.  Several significant Christian rituals are based on this evenin

         Washing of feet.  Jesus puts on a towel and washes the feet of the disciples during the meal.  This act of humility is often reenacted on Maundy Thursday and is an earmark of diaconal orders within the church.  Service to others, especially those in need, has motivated hospitals, orphanages, homes for the mentally ill and elderly. 

         Communion.  Jesus breaks bread and gives it to his disciples and charges them to repeat this in memory of him.  Even as bread strengthens our bodies to face the challenges of life, we believe the presence of Christ in our lives strengthens us and gives us life.  Also he gave them wine, drink, and charged them to drink as if drinking his blood.  Blood carries oxygen and food to our bodies and keeps us alive even as God’s life flowing through us keeps us alive.  The bread and wine remind us of Christ’s nearness and strengthening.  For many it is sacramental as the ritual is preceded with confession and forgiveness of sin.

         He ends with the new mandate to love one another, even our enemies.  A new command was given and the promise of the Holy Spirit.  All these – washing feet, communion, and love are to mark the lives of Christians and are his last teachings as he faces Calvary.

         Two people stand out at the meal, Judas and Peter.  Jesus lets Judas know that Jesus knows what is about to happen.  Judas stays committed to the betrayal of trust.  Jesus lets Peter know that he is praying for Peter as he too will betray Jesus.  Peter does not understand, later remembers, and repents.  Even as Jesus faces into the events about to unfold he teaches, cares, and models.

         We do not know how events will unfold this week.  We do not know how the Kabul evacuation will unfold, Ida, fires, oh my.  But I find it comforting that we do know that God is as close to us as the bread we eat and the fluids we drink.  He is praying for us as we step into our trials.  Helping and loving others is always a good choice.  Blessings as you step into this week!

First Reading: Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-9

¹So now, Israel, give heed to the statutes and ordinances that I am teaching you to observe, so that you may live to enter and occupy the land that the Lord, the God of your ancestors, is giving you. ²You must neither add anything to what I command you nor take away anything from it, but keep the commandments of the Lord your God with which I am charging you.
  ⁶You must observe them diligently, for this will show your wisdom and discernment to the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, “Surely this great nation is a wise and discerning people!” ⁷For what other great nation has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is whenever we call to him? ⁸And what other great nation has statutes and ordinances as just as this entire law that I am setting before you today?
  ⁹But take care and watch yourselves closely, so as neither to forget the things that your eyes have seen nor to let them slip from your mind all the days of your life; make them known to your children and your children’s children.

Psalm: Psalm 15

Second Reading: James 1:17-27

¹⁷Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. ¹⁸In fulfillment of his own purpose he gave us birth by the word of truth, so that we would become a kind of first fruits of his creatures.
  ¹⁹You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger; ²⁰for your anger does not produce God’s righteousness. ²¹Therefore rid yourselves of all sordidness and rank growth of wickedness, and welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your souls.
  ²²But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. ²³For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; ²⁴for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like. ²⁵But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act—they will be blessed in their doing.
  ²⁶If any think they are religious, and do not bridle their tongues but deceive their hearts, their religion is worthless. ²⁷Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

Gospel: Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

¹Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around [Jesus], 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.”
  ²¹For 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.”

CHILDREN’S SERMON

Share with your neighbor a tradition that has been passed down through your family that is important to you.

Let us pray:  Lord may the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in your sight, my Rock and my Redeemer.

Tradition!

         Today our text moves from Mark 6 and discussions about Jesus being the bread of life and eating his body and drinking his blood to Mark 7 and the Pharisees are cross examining Jesus about washing hands before eating.  The transition seems a bit abrupt but perhaps it is not.  The response to eating Jesus’ body and drinking his blood was revulsion and many of his followers left.  It is a tough teaching. So our text today shifts from that difficult teaching to the Pharisees and Scribes, teachers of the law, now observing how Jesus and his disciples eat.  This sounds like an interesting transition from the discussion of communion to a deeper explanation on abiding in Christ. 

         The Pharisees ask:

  “Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?”

The Law, the Ten Commandments, had grown into a whole legal system through the years as the Jews sought to please Jehovah.  They did not want to be sent into exile in Babylonia or Assyria again and go through all that humiliation, death, and disruption.  They wanted to please Jehovah.  They wanted to do it right and had pondered and legalized the implications of each commandment.  We want to please God too and so we try to do the “right thing” and hope the other guy will too.  Good is often seen as how

we do things and bad is the person who doesn’t do things the way we understand things should be done.  Even we live in this tension and disagreement about how laws are lived out. 

         Most of you have seen “Fiddler on the Roof.”  Can you hear Tevya answering his own question at the beginning of the movie as he points to the fiddler near the chimney of a house and whom he likens to the Jewish people balancing their lives as a persecuted minority in Russia. Tevya asks, “How do we keep our balance?  That I can tell you in one word.  Tradition.” “Because of our traditions every one of us knows who he is and what God expects him to do.”

         Our traditions express who we are and help us live out what we think God expects of us.  Traditions are part of our identity.  Laws are like our principles and traditions are how we live them out.  Baptism and communion are traditional identifying marks of Christians.  A dot on the forehead identifies a Hindu.  A turban identifies a Sikh.  Muslim women wear hijabs.  Muslims go to mosque on Fridays, Christians go to church on Sunday and Jews attend synagogue on Saturday.  We know Nike by the logo on the shoe and it sets expectations of what that shoe will be like.  We see the Golden Arches and look for a Big Mac.  Traditions and symbols identify us and help us navigate life successfully.

         Let’s look at a couple examples.  The President of the United States says the fourth Thursday of November we go to our house of worship and thank God for the harvest.  We call it Thanksgiving.  It is a holiday but traditions have grown up around this and every holiday.  I thought I understood what Thanksgiving dinner is like…the turkey, sweet potatoes, rolls, cranberry sauce, mixed veggies and of course pumpkin pie.  You can fill out the list.  The matriarch, me, shows off her skills as the family gathers.  You can imagine my shock when we arrived in Kenya and turkeys had to be bought through connections or bred.  The thanksgiving that stands out in my memory was when we gathered at a station in the “bush” with friends and there were two Americans, a Canadian, and a European woman supervising the cooking of the turkey! That silly bird did not come out of the oven til 10 pm. It was corn fed and had an inch of fat all over it.  It was a disaster.  But then there came that inevitable day when my daughter-in-laws took over cooking the Thanksgiving feast and I, the matriarch, sat on the porch.  I cried.  I had no longer had that way of experiencing myself and had to face the label of “old.”  This past year with Covid has been very disruptive for Christians who have had to adjust to worshiping at home and not in community.  It’s just not the same and we become discumbuberated.  Traditions are important and unintentionally impact our experience of reality.  The Pharisees are aghast when the disciples don’t wash their hands.  If Jesus is a rabbi then surely he taught them the law! Today many are aghast when asked to wear masks in public.

         Tevya asks, “How do we keep our balance” on the roof?  Our traditions are not an end but a means to an end, to keep our balance.  The law identifies us but it has a purpose – to help us keep our balance in life. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus explains that the Law says “do not kill” BUT if we do not kill with our hands but if we kill in our hearts, we are still murderers and have broken the law.  Keeping our balance is a matter of actions but also a matter of intentions.  We may be here in church on Sunday because it is a tradition but if we are at odds with the person next to us in the pew or gossiping about the person on the other side of the church or critiquing the sermon, our intentions cancel the value of the tradition.  We loose the blessing and are off balance.

         The Jewish body of laws like washing hands was a body of interpretations of the law but had become “musts” in the minds of the Pharisees and Scribes.  It is possible for our traditions to become “laws” themselves and guidelines for understanding reality.  If someone doesn’t show for Thanksgiving, we wonder if something tragic has happened or if we are being snubbed.  My husband suggested we read the Christmas story in Swahili before opening presents.  We had a family riot.  NO DAD, that is not how Christmas morning is done!  The tradition is an outward expression of an inward experience of who I am.

         Jesus confronts his critics:  “⁸You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.”

         Jesus turns to the critics and points to the problem.   They are talking about the traditions, but they have lost focus on its purpose.  He refers back to Isaiah 29:13 where God is talking to Jerusalem about their hollow lip service and superficial adherence to God while all the time their hearts are far away.  God will humble them so their hearts seek God and then he will restore them and bless them.  Laws can become traditions that help us express ourselves but if we live into those traditions with false hearts, we have gained nothing and probably lost our balance on that rooftop.  We become hypocrites.  We are people full of hot air.  We go through the motions but we get no results.  We fail to embrace the purpose of the tradition.

         Food is eaten to strengthen our bodies, not our souls.  We eat, our body uses what it needs, and we poop out the unneeded.  The problem is not the food.  The problem is not the tradition.  The problem is the heart.  Over eating at Thanksgiving makes us sick.  Gossiping about who’s at the meal creates tension.  Not going to church causes loneliness.  Our “rules” for achieving the good life and being in sync with God impact our experiences. We might almost say that the heart and the soul are very closely tied together.  It is not just a cognitive, mental understanding of events but how we interpret, absorb, and decide to respond to events.  When the heart is blind, we loose balance.

         Today we would not struggle with washing hands but like our Thanksgiving traditions, like our church traditions, any challenge to our traditions are challenges to our hearts. How we will respond?  I’m going to step out on a ledge and share something on my heart.  Refugees are fleeing horrible chaos in their own countries due to political or economic or gang issues.  They are fleeing to our borders and whether we want it or not, we are going to be in contact with people who do not wash their hands like the elders taught us.  This is a big block to sharing faith and fellowship.  Bethany understands that challenge as we have had street people and homeless on the edges of our property – in my time!  Now we watch the television or listen to the radio and realize “other” people are coming.  I think this passage today may be calling us as we respond to the “different person” to evaluate our faith, our hearts.  Cross-cultural encounters are painful and require prayer, forgiveness, and going the extra mile.

         Perhaps that is a bit dramatic.   But we shall see how this all unfolds.  On a more normal level we might ponder how do we respond when we interact with our child’s spouse who does tradition so differently than our family tradition?  When the guy in the car ahead of us goes through the yellow light or if the person cuts us off in traffic what words come to our mouth?  Or perhaps we are triggered by the person who does not mask, endangering my young unvaccinated grandchild.  The newscasters spend a lot of time weighing in on all the opinions on this.  None of these are easy issues with easy answers but they do draw reactions from our heart and provide an opportunity for us to reflect on our faith.  As outward forms of expression are challenged, our inward expression of ourselves is challenged.  Jesus reminds us that what goes on outside cannot defile us as “this too will pass.”

         I think Jesus is telling us that traditions are not the problem and the conflict is not the problem.  The different traditions are bound to clash.  What we need to be aware of is the response of our heart, what comes out of us.  Will we respond with racial slurs, fear and closed hearts, with hatred and strict rules?

            ²¹For 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.”

How we respond to conflicts of traditions is a challenge to our faith.

  “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.”

         So let us get back to my original theory.  Might Jesus be responding to the exodus of the people who were offended by his teaching about eating his body and drinking his blood?  Many stopped following him because he was talking about something that offended their dietary “rules.”  The text today seems to be saying, it is not the dietary rules when broken that defile us.  Eating with dirty hands, drinking blood (we might call it gravy), or eventually a new tradition of communion will develop and will not defile our bodies.  The issue is what happens in our hearts.  What is important is our relationship with Jesus.

         Do we come to the communion table to get our card ticked, to fulfill tradition demands, or do we come for a genuine encounter with the God we believe is present and active?  That does not mean each communion is a big emotional experience but it does mean we are bowing at the altar of God and meeting with him personally about our lives.  He knows who we are and how desperately we are trying to keep our balance through our traditions that express us.  Ultimately we are that person created by God and interacting with him in the experiences of our life.

         I like to say that in the mysterious handshake between us and the unseen God who is known through Jesus, in those times when we don’t remember who we are, can’t express who we are, may even be ashamed of who we are and may fear who we are — God is there holding on to us just as we are.  Communion reminds us that he will build us with his body so our bodies can go through tough times.  His blood will be nourishing and life giving so we have the strength to be more than we thought we could be, to be our better selves.  He is here today, that close to us and that involved with us.  As our traditions are challenged and we feel wobbly on the roof of our lives, God will be there helping us keep our balance and play our violin.  That is something for which to rejoice!  Amen!

14^th Sunday after Pentecost

First Reading: Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-9

¹So now, Israel, give heed to the statutes and ordinances that I am teaching you to observe, so that you may live to enter and occupy the land that the Lord, the God of your ancestors, is giving you. ²You must neither add anything to what I command you nor take away anything from it, but keep the commandments of the Lord your God with which I am charging you.
  ⁶You must observe them diligently, for this will show your wisdom and discernment to the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, “Surely this great nation is a wise and discerning people!” ⁷For what other great nation has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is whenever we call to him? ⁸And what other great nation has statutes and ordinances as just as this entire law that I am setting before you today?
  ⁹But take care and watch yourselves closely, so as neither to forget the things that your eyes have seen nor to let them slip from your mind all the days of your life; make them known to your children and your children’s children.

Psalm: Psalm 15

 ¹Lord, who may dwell in your tabernacle?
  Who may abide upon your holy hill?
 ²Those who lead a blameless life and do what is right,
  who speak the truth from their heart;
 ³they do not slander with the tongue, they do no evil to their friends;
  they do not cast discredit upon a neighbor.
 ⁴In their sight the wicked are rejected, but they honor those         who fear the Lord.
  They have sworn upon their health and do not take back their word.
 ⁵They do not give their money in hope of gain, nor do they take bribes   against the innocent.  Those who do these things shall never        be overthrown.

Second Reading: James 1:17-27

¹⁷Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. ¹⁸In fulfillment of his own purpose he gave us birth by the word of truth, so that we would become a kind of first fruits of his creatures.
  ¹⁹You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger; ²⁰for your anger does not produce God’s righteousness. ²¹Therefore rid yourselves of all sordidness and rank growth of wickedness, and welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your souls.
  ²²But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. ²³For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; ²⁴for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like. ²⁵But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act—they will be blessed in their doing.
  ²⁶If any think they are religious, and do not bridle their tongues but deceive their hearts, their religion is worthless. ²⁷Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

Gospel: Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

¹Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around [Jesus], 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.”
  ²¹For 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.”

CHILDREN’S SERMON

Share with your neighbor a tradition that has been passed down through your family that is important to you.

Let us pray:  Lord may the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in your sight, my Rock and my Redeemer.

Tradition!

         Today our text moves from Mark 6 and discussions about Jesus being the bread of life and eating his body and drinking his blood to Mark 7 and the Pharisees are cross examining Jesus about washing hands before eating.  The transition seems a bit abrupt but perhaps it is not.  The response to eating Jesus’ body and drinking his blood was revulsion and many of his followers left.  It is a tough teaching. So our text today shifts from that difficult teaching to the Pharisees and Scribes, teachers of the law, now observing how Jesus and his disciples eat.  This sounds like an interesting transition from the discussion of communion to a deeper explanation on abiding in Christ. 

         The Pharisees ask:

  “Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?”

The Law, the Ten Commandments, had grown into a whole legal system through the years as the Jews sought to please Jehovah.  They did not want to be sent into exile in Babylonia or Assyria again and go through all that humiliation, death, and disruption.  They wanted to please Jehovah.  They wanted to do it right and had pondered and legalized the implications of each commandment.  We want to please God too and so we try to do the “right thing” and hope the other guy will too.  Good is often seen as how

we do things and bad is the person who doesn’t do things the way we understand things should be done.  Even we live in this tension and disagreement about how laws are lived out. 

         Most of you have seen “Fiddler on the Roof.”  Can you hear Tevya answering his own question at the beginning of the movie as he points to the fiddler near the chimney of a house and whom he likens to the Jewish people balancing their lives as a persecuted minority in Russia. Tevya asks, “How do we keep our balance?  That I can tell you in one word.  Tradition.” “Because of our traditions every one of us knows who he is and what God expects him to do.”

         Our traditions express who we are and help us live out what we think God expects of us.  Traditions are part of our identity.  Laws are like our principles and traditions are how we live them out.  Baptism and communion are traditional identifying marks of Christians.  A dot on the forehead identifies a Hindu.  A turban identifies a Sikh.  Muslim women wear hijabs.  Muslims go to mosque on Fridays, Christians go to church on Sunday and Jews attend synagogue on Saturday.  We know Nike by the logo on the shoe and it sets expectations of what that shoe will be like.  We see the Golden Arches and look for a Big Mac.  Traditions and symbols identify us and help us navigate life successfully.

         Let’s look at a couple examples.  The President of the United States says the fourth Thursday of November we go to our house of worship and thank God for the harvest.  We call it Thanksgiving.  It is a holiday but traditions have grown up around this and every holiday.  I thought I understood what Thanksgiving dinner is like…the turkey, sweet potatoes, rolls, cranberry sauce, mixed veggies and of course pumpkin pie.  You can fill out the list.  The matriarch, me, shows off her skills as the family gathers.  You can imagine my shock when we arrived in Kenya and turkeys had to be bought through connections or bred.  The thanksgiving that stands out in my memory was when we gathered at a station in the “bush” with friends and there were two Americans, a Canadian, and a European woman supervising the cooking of the turkey! That silly bird did not come out of the oven til 10 pm. It was corn fed and had an inch of fat all over it.  It was a disaster.  But then there came that inevitable day when my daughter-in-laws took over cooking the Thanksgiving feast and I, the matriarch, sat on the porch.  I cried.  I had no longer had that way of experiencing myself and had to face the label of “old.”  This past year with Covid has been very disruptive for Christians who have had to adjust to worshiping at home and not in community.  It’s just not the same and we become discumbuberated.  Traditions are important and unintentionally impact our experience of reality.  The Pharisees are aghast when the disciples don’t wash their hands.  If Jesus is a rabbi then surely he taught them the law! Today many are aghast when asked to wear masks in public.

         Tevya asks, “How do we keep our balance” on the roof?  Our traditions are not an end but a means to an end, to keep our balance.  The law identifies us but it has a purpose – to help us keep our balance in life. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus explains that the Law says “do not kill” BUT if we do not kill with our hands but if we kill in our hearts, we are still murderers and have broken the law.  Keeping our balance is a matter of actions but also a matter of intentions.  We may be here in church on Sunday because it is a tradition but if we are at odds with the person next to us in the pew or gossiping about the person on the other side of the church or critiquing the sermon, our intentions cancel the value of the tradition.  We loose the blessing and are off balance.

         The Jewish body of laws like washing hands was a body of interpretations of the law but had become “musts” in the minds of the Pharisees and Scribes.  It is possible for our traditions to become “laws” themselves and guidelines for understanding reality.  If someone doesn’t show for Thanksgiving, we wonder if something tragic has happened or if we are being snubbed.  My husband suggested we read the Christmas story in Swahili before opening presents.  We had a family riot.  NO DAD, that is not how Christmas morning is done!  The tradition is an outward expression of an inward experience of who I am.

         Jesus confronts his critics:  “⁸You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.”

         Jesus turns to the critics and points to the problem.   They are talking about the traditions, but they have lost focus on its purpose.  He refers back to Isaiah 29:13 where God is talking to Jerusalem about their hollow lip service and superficial adherence to God while all the time their hearts are far away.  God will humble them so their hearts seek God and then he will restore them and bless them.  Laws can become traditions that help us express ourselves but if we live into those traditions with false hearts, we have gained nothing and probably lost our balance on that rooftop.  We become hypocrites.  We are people full of hot air.  We go through the motions but we get no results.  We fail to embrace the purpose of the tradition.

         Food is eaten to strengthen our bodies, not our souls.  We eat, our body uses what it needs, and we poop out the unneeded.  The problem is not the food.  The problem is not the tradition.  The problem is the heart.  Over eating at Thanksgiving makes us sick.  Gossiping about who’s at the meal creates tension.  Not going to church causes loneliness.  Our “rules” for achieving the good life and being in sync with God impact our experiences. We might almost say that the heart and the soul are very closely tied together.  It is not just a cognitive, mental understanding of events but how we interpret, absorb, and decide to respond to events.  When the heart is blind, we loose balance.

         Today we would not struggle with washing hands but like our Thanksgiving traditions, like our church traditions, any challenge to our traditions are challenges to our hearts. How we will respond?  I’m going to step out on a ledge and share something on my heart.  Refugees are fleeing horrible chaos in their own countries due to political or economic or gang issues.  They are fleeing to our borders and whether we want it or not, we are going to be in contact with people who do not wash their hands like the elders taught us.  This is a big block to sharing faith and fellowship.  Bethany understands that challenge as we have had street people and homeless on the edges of our property – in my time!  Now we watch the television or listen to the radio and realize “other” people are coming.  I think this passage today may be calling us as we respond to the “different person” to evaluate our faith, our hearts.  Cross-cultural encounters are painful and require prayer, forgiveness, and going the extra mile.

         Perhaps that is a bit dramatic.   But we shall see how this all unfolds.  On a more normal level we might ponder how do we respond when we interact with our child’s spouse who does tradition so differently than our family tradition?  When the guy in the car ahead of us goes through the yellow light or if the person cuts us off in traffic what words come to our mouth?  Or perhaps we are triggered by the person who does not mask, endangering my young unvaccinated grandchild.  The newscasters spend a lot of time weighing in on all the opinions on this.  None of these are easy issues with easy answers but they do draw reactions from our heart and provide an opportunity for us to reflect on our faith.  As outward forms of expression are challenged, our inward expression of ourselves is challenged.  Jesus reminds us that what goes on outside cannot defile us as “this too will pass.”

         I think Jesus is telling us that traditions are not the problem and the conflict is not the problem.  The different traditions are bound to clash.  What we need to be aware of is the response of our heart, what comes out of us.  Will we respond with racial slurs, fear and closed hearts, with hatred and strict rules?

            ²¹For 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.”

How we respond to conflicts of traditions is a challenge to our faith.

  “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.”

         So let us get back to my original theory.  Might Jesus be responding to the exodus of the people who were offended by his teaching about eating his body and drinking his blood?  Many stopped following him because he was talking about something that offended their dietary “rules.”  The text today seems to be saying, it is not the dietary rules when broken that defile us.  Eating with dirty hands, drinking blood (we might call it gravy), or eventually a new tradition of communion will develop and will not defile our bodies.  The issue is what happens in our hearts.  What is important is our relationship with Jesus.

         Do we come to the communion table to get our card ticked, to fulfill tradition demands, or do we come for a genuine encounter with the God we believe is present and active?  That does not mean each communion is a big emotional experience but it does mean we are bowing at the altar of God and meeting with him personally about our lives.  He knows who we are and how desperately we are trying to keep our balance through our traditions that express us.  Ultimately we are that person created by God and interacting with him in the experiences of our life.

         I like to say that in the mysterious handshake between us and the unseen God who is known through Jesus, in those times when we don’t remember who we are, can’t express who we are, may even be ashamed of who we are and may fear who we are — God is there holding on to us just as we are.  Communion reminds us that he will build us with his body so our bodies can go through tough times.  His blood will be nourishing and life giving so we have the strength to be more than we thought we could be, to be our better selves.  He is here today, that close to us and that involved with us.  As our traditions are challenged and we feel wobbly on the roof of our lives, God will be there helping us keep our balance and play our violin.  That is something for which to rejoice!  Amen!

This week we have pondered the miracles of Jesus.  As each story unfolds we have seen people follow Jesus while others walk away.  Faith is not receiving the answer to prayer that we want and then believing the giver is able but rather it is trusting that the giver, God in Jesus, will give the best possible answer.  That’s hard because the end of our story is not known in the middle of its unfolding.  Jesus met too much demand and too little resources by feeding 5000 men plus women and children with two fish and five loaves of bread.  He multiplies.  He walked on water and invited Peter to join him outside the box of normal experience. He demonstrated power over satanic forces, perhaps mental illness, restoring a man to himself.  And then he called back Lazarus from the dead.  He can resurrect our death experiences.  The choice to believe is ours.  But not all are healed and not all stories have happy endings.

         Fanny Crosby became blind at six months due to improper medical treatment.  She was blind but she wrote poetry.  She came from a very poor family.  One day she needed $5 which was probably a lot of money in the 1870s and had none.  So she decided to pray.  A few moments later a stranger walked to the door and handed her $5.  There was no explanation.  So touched by God’s care for her, she sat down and wrote a poem.  One day I was asked to go to a women’s conference but it would cost $200 and we had no extra money.  The church offered to pay half the cost so I accepted.  I hung up the phone and walked to the mailbox and there was a letter for me from my home church states away.  There was a check for $200 from an anonymous donor.  I know these things happen!

         Fanny wrote the poem “All the Way My Savior Leads Me” and her friend Dr. Lowry set it to music and it was first published in 1875.

All the way my Savior leads me
What have I to ask beside?
Can I doubt His faithful mercies?
Who through life has been my guide
Heavenly peace, divinest comfort
Ere by faith in Him to dwell
For I know whate’er fall me
Jesus doeth all things well

All of the way my Savior leads me
And He cheers each winding path I tread
Gives me strength for every trial
And He feeds me with the living bread
And though my weary steps may falter
And my soul a-thirst may be
Gushing from a rock before me
Though a spirit joy I see

And all the way my Savior leads me

Oh, the fullness of His love
Perfect rest in me is promised
In my Father’s house above
When my spirit clothed immortal
Wings it’s flight through the realms of the day
This my song through endless ages
Jesus led me all the way

John 11 shares the miracle of Jesus that sets in process the need to crucify him.  The brother of Mary and Martha becomes ill and dies in Bethany, 2 miles from Jerusalem and religious hierarchy.  Jesus hears but does not rush to help.  He waits.  Four days after Lazarus’ death Jesus arrives.  Jesus comforts Martha

“I am the resurrection and the life.

 The one who believes in me will live, even though they die,

and whoever lives by believing in me will never die.”(11:25,26)

Mary then met Jesus with the grief of many of our hearts, “If you had been here…”  Jesus stands at the grave and cries.  He then tells the people to remove the stone and Jesus calls Lazarus back to life.  “Let him go!”  This was a dramatic demonstration of Jesus’ authority as God, his power over death, and a picture of what he was about to face.  He not only said he was the “resurrection,” he showed the people what that meant.

            Amazingly the Pharisees who believed in after-life but realized that what Jesus did would be a threat to their religious security in the eyes of Rome and with the people started to plot the downfall of Jesus.  Miracles can be threatening.

            “Resurrection” is a word we use to describe bringing back to life.  We all know a form of death before physical death claims our bodies.  We know the death of dreams when young love fails, the death of vision when we loose our job, and perhaps a death of hope when a beloved dies.  Faith does not guarantee that all sick people will be brought back from death’s door.  Faith does mean believing that Jesus will stand at that door to death, will walk through it with us, and a new life will begin on the other side, eternal life.  Jesus has resurrection power.  He can pick us up off our knees, out of the gutter, from defeat and lead us into new starts.  Mary and Martha did not really understand for they could not envision the meaning of resurrection but they were willing to trust Jesus.  I pray as you look at those hurting places in your life that need resurrection power that you will reach out in faith.  We think, “if only Jesus had been here,” our situation would be different.  He is here with us, walking beside us, guarding our back, and preparing our future.  Blessings.

Mark 5: 1-20 is another type of miracle Jesus did where he directly confronts Satan and his demons.  Jesus and disciples cross the Sea of Galilee, land and are met by a demon possessed man.  For many people today, the explanation is mental illness.  The man himself cries out acknowledging Jesus as “Son of the Most High God” and begging not to be tortured when Jesus orders the demons to leave.  The man gives his name as “Legion, for we are many.”  Jesus sends the demons into a large herd of pigs that runs into the sea.  The town people learn that their source of income is gone.  They are “afraid” and ask Jesus to leave.  Wow, how do we understand this in our day of scientific enlightenment and in a day when dietary limitations are not so strict?  Exorcisms do not hit the evening new

         Change is scary.  The possessed, sick man is afraid what change might mean.  The town’s people are afraid about their economic future.  I suspect the disciples had wobbly knees also.  Confrontations with real evil are very scary and not undertaken lightly.  It is possible to have long discussions and arguments about how to deal with evil.  Feelings run strong on the subject. 

         I think more importantly than the “how” or “if” is that this story teaches us that Jesus at no point in this encounter is out of control.  Whatever evil is plaguing you or your loved one, God is stronger!!!  That means Satan cannot possess a person controlled by the Spirit of God but Satan can harass the person.  Demonic harassment is not demon possession. 

         The man once delivered is a changed person and seeks to stay close to Jesus.  Interestingly, Jesus sends him to tell his people what has happened. In telling our story, we affirm our reality.  Jesus has changed us!  And Jesus does not seem to be afraid of the future for this man and is willing to use this new person.

         I do not know what bothers you today.  Sometimes we think our own sinful self is the bad guy but in fact we are not following God’s way and so we get in trouble.  Getting an STD because we are fooling around or getting pregnant is not necessarily Satan attacking us or God punishing us.  The laws of science explain that one.  Likewise we always have access to God through prayer, and the Holy Spirit interprets for us so we need not have a prayer formula.  “Help” is a good prayer.  Change is scary but God always leads us to a better place even if we don’t see it at the time.  Today may we pray for those places in our world where evil is hurting people and driving them to desperation and despair.  Whatever we call it, it is wrong and God is stronger.  Blessings.

“One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!”

John 9 tells of a Jesus miracle surrounding blindness.  The disciples notice a man born blind.  There is no record that the man asked for help but Jesus reaches into his life, spits on the dirt and makes mud that he puts on the man’s face and tells him to go wash.  The man does and like at creation when God formed people out of the dust, this man can see.  Wow.  I would suggest that we are all blind in someway and it is only as Jesus reaches out to us and creates the capacity to see that we can wash and see.

         Reactions to Jesus miracle came from several directions.  Was the man blind because of sin, ask the disciples.  Was the miracle really from God as it was done on the Sabbath, ask the religious folk.   The parents refuse to commit and refer the question to their son who “is of age.”  Jesus’ answer to the disciples was that God is going to use the problem to display his might, his glory.  “Seeing” is a word that can refer to observation but it can also refer to insight and understanding the meaning of what is happening before us.  Just because we see, does not mean we recognize the hand of God involved in the events.

         We can be blind because of physical experiences in our lifetime.  The bitterness of unexpected deaths, broken promises, or actions of imperfect people in our lives can leave us with a sour taste in our mouth.  It is easy to become cynical and untrusting of a God we cannot see.  Others are blinded because God often works outside our boxes, the rules we have of how we think God should work.  The foreign believer coming into our midst is often mistreated.  The wayward teenager that has a “conversion experience” is probably just being emotional.  The recovered addict is doubted.  Many are slow to believe God has really acted in a situation.  And then there are the people who are like the parents.  They sit on the fence and do not want to commit to a faith that might bring ridicule, censure or expulsion.  It is easier to pass the buck.  Let the other guy speak.

         The healed man simply says:  “One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!”  We do not have to be seminary graduates or great theologians to talk about our faith.  We do not need to have a fancy and dramatic conversion story.  Sharing our faith is simply saying how we went from being blind to seeing when Jesus came into our lives.  The simple, the more authentic, the more “spit and dust” is often the most transparent and real story that needs to be told.  It is to God’s glory, not ours.  Blessings as you share your story.

Matthew 14:22-36.  Jesus fed the 5,000 with five loaves and two fishes, sends the disciples ahead, dismisses the crowds and sought some alone time to pray.  I can identify with that.  After a long hard day, some alone time is needed.  I tell my husband I am going to sit in my chair and “recharge my batteries” for a half hour.  Meanwhile the disciples are rowing across the Sea of Galilee in a storm.  Their hard day was followed by a hard night.  We pray with Tevya, “I know we are the chosen people but sometimes I wish you would choose someone else!!!”

         We all know those awful times when our resources seem depleted.  Amazingly Jesus comes walking on water.  Now that is a weird miracle.  He joined them in the trauma.  He brings his presence before any solution.  His words ring in our hearts, “Take courage!  It is I.  Don’t be afraid.”  The ghost is really Jesus.  Sometimes we are blinded by our fears and don’t even recognize God’s presence!  Interestingly the outspoken disciple, Peter, thinks outside the box to test reality. “Lord, if it is you, tell me to come to you on the water.”  What was Peter thinking?  Perhaps he was thinking he did not need a friend, he needed the impossible.  Faith believes in a God who is working outside the box, doing the impossible, to resolve a situation for everyone involved and probably on a timeline that is different than ours.  Crisis and fear shrink our imagination and challenge our ability to see God’s hand in our situation. 

         How many miracles are there in this scenario.  Jesus appears right at the needed moment as he knows what is happening.  Even though unrecognized, he reaches out to assure his disciples.  He invites Peter into the impossible and rescues him without reprimand.  Even baby steps are ok.  And then he calms the storm.  Jesus, standing outside the box of drama, reaches in to strengthen Peter’s faith and the disciples’ faith and to deal with the problem.

         Sometimes in the midst of crisis, we need to draw aside to “recharge our batteries.”  Faith affirms that Jesus is present if unseen or unrecognized or in the midst of the impossible.  Let us not become demanding of one solution that God must do.  Whatever you are facing today, may you have eyes to see our unseen Savior working.  Let’s use our imaginations.  Blessings.

Thinking Outside the Box

Matthew 14:22-36.  Jesus fed the 5,000 with five loaves and two fishes, sends the disciples ahead, dismisses the crowds and sought some alone time to pray.  I can identify with that.  After a long hard day, some alone time is needed.  I tell my husband I am going to sit in my chair and “recharge my batteries” for a half hour.  Meanwhile the disciples are rowing across the Sea of Galilee in a storm.  Their hard day was followed by a hard night.  We pray with Tevya, “I know we are the chosen people but sometimes I wish you would choose someone else!!!”

         We all know those awful times when our resources seem depleted.  Amazingly Jesus comes walking on water.  Now that is a weird miracle.  He joined them in the trauma.  He brings his presence before any solution.  His words ring in our hearts, “Take courage!  It is I.  Don’t be afraid.”  The ghost is really Jesus.  Sometimes we are blinded by our fears and don’t even recognize God’s presence!  Interestingly the outspoken disciple, Peter, thinks outside the box to test reality. “Lord, if it is you, tell me to come to you on the water.”  What was Peter thinking?  Perhaps he was thinking he did not need a friend, he needed the impossible.  Faith believes in a God who is working outside the box, doing the impossible, to resolve a situation for everyone involved and probably on a timeline that is different than ours.  Crisis and fear shrink our imagination and challenge our ability to see God’s hand in our situation. 

         How many miracles are there in this scenario.  Jesus appears right at the needed moment as he knows what is happening.  Even though unrecognized, he reaches out to assure his disciples.  He invites Peter into the impossible and rescues him without reprimand.  Even baby steps are ok.  And then he calms the storm.  Jesus, standing outside the box of drama, reaches in to strengthen Peter’s faith and the disciples’ faith and to deal with the problem.

         Sometimes in the midst of crisis, we need to draw aside to “recharge our batteries.”  Faith affirms that Jesus is present if unseen or unrecognized or in the midst of the impossible.  Let us not become demanding of one solution that God must do.  Whatever you are facing today, may you have eyes to see our unseen Savior working.  Let’s use our imaginations.  Blessings.

Luke 9:1-36.  This week we will  look at the miracles done by Jesus in our epic story, The Bible.  Our epic hero, God, is beginning to show his hand against the epic villain, Satan.  God has incarnated in the person Jesus, an inconspicuous baby who has become a man and is coming into public view.  Jesus teaches and tells parables about the Kingdom of Heaven, our hero’s design for the future, as opposed to the kingdom of this world run by Satan.  Faith opens our eyes to see it but our wills must decide.]]

         Jesus demonstrates his teachings with actions that point to truth. Seeing the miracles was not believing in him nor accepting his teachings as often he was opposed.  Jesus’ miracles did help people but they were done also to demonstrate principles.  Jesus takes five loaves of bread and two fish to feed five thousand men plus women and children.  God’s kingdom multiples as it is given away!”  (Kuniholm, p. 159)  As we share and don’t hoard, goodness grows.

         Jesus has sent the disciples out to share their faith at the beginning of the ninth chapter of Luke.  They return with joyful reports.  Jesus takes the disciples for a rest but the crowds follow so that now the weary disciples have hungry people surrounding them.  One disciple finds a boy with five loaves and two fish.  Too much demand and too little resources.  We know that problem today as we look at the problems that are overwhelming us.  Too many refugees, too much earthquake disaster, too much disease, too much rain and too much fire.  How can we cope? I feel like one of the disciples facing the 5,000.

         Jesus has the crowd sit, prays, and feeds the people.  What is Jesus teaching the disciples?  Pray before you eat?  I doubt it.  It is only as faith is given away that the kingdom grows.  It is in sharing our faith, that we and others are blessed.  I do not know what that means as we cope with our problems today but I do know that selfishness is not the answer and that I in my own resources, is not enough.  Some problems are too big and we need God.

         So as you look at the week ahead of you, where do you need God to multiply your meager resources?  Jesus started by having the people sit down, relax, take a breath.  He prayed and gave thanks for the challenge they were facing.  He broke the bread into pieces.  Perhaps we need to remind ourselves not to panic over the big picture but to live faithfully each day as it presents its self and trust God for the results.  Blessings as you face your week with its challenges.