The Mouth & The Heart
Notes
Transcript
It is Sunday - the Lord’s Day - and we are gathered here in this house of worship which we call Grace Church. Each of you got up this morning and made it a priority to come here and join together in worship. Some of you are life long members, some have decided to return to church after a time away, some may be new believers, others of you may be skeptics or seekers or whatever description may be used of one who senses there is something more to life worth exploring - questions that need to be answered.
So here is my question for you today.
What is it that God desires from us?
If God created all things, as the Bible tells us He did, and if He made man and woman in His image - if we are the pinnacle of His creation - what is it that God desires from us?
To answer that question, someone familiar with scripture may quote Micah 6:8
He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
Others may quote the Greatest Commandment as instructed by Jesus found in Matthew 22:36-40
“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
Still others may quote from the various places in the Bible where we are called to “Be Holy” - such as Leviticus 11:45
For I am the Lord who brought you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God. You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.”
Now, on the surface level, those directions may seem like sensible, aspirational goals for a good life.
Be just
Be kind
Be humble
Love God
Love Your Neighbor
Be Holy (ok - that one may sound a bit out of reach)
But still, I think most people would say - yes, if everyone strived to live that way the world would be a much better place.
Yet what happens when we try to live that way? We find that it is humanly impossible.
Am I always kind? Trust me, if I am following you through the streets of Cambridge and you are driving slower than the speed limit, my thoughts are not that kind.
Am I just? Is it just that there are children in Cambridge who are raising themselves? Or that there are undocumented workers being exploited for cheap labor? Do I really do anything to address these issues of justice?
Am I always humble? Well yes, yes I am, and I am quite handsome too. I think I have actually nailed that one.
Do I love God with all my heart, soul and mind? Is pleasing God always my top priority - my overriding criteria in all that I do?
Do I really love my neighbor like myself? Which neighbor are we talking about?
If we can all agree that a good life, a life well lived, a life pleasing to God, would be one where we are:
just
kind
humble
Love God
Love our Neighbor
and we are Holy (ok - again - that one seems a bit out of reach)
Then what do we need to do or change in order to live that kind of life?
Often in the church, we try to instill spiritual disciplines and we structure programs and ministries that will help us live that good life.
we may read scripture and daily devotionals.
we join a Bible study
we attend worship service
we volunteer at One Mission Cambridge to try and help our less fortunate neighbors
we share prayer requests and lift up one another in prayer
we sing songs of praise to God
All are good things that help us grow - but is that what it takes to be what God desires? By doing these things on a regular basis, participating in the ministries and practices of the church, will we eventually become just, kind, humble, loving and holy people?
Or does something else need to happen?
In our gospel passage this morning, we heard Jesus teach on what defiles a person.
To understand what he is talking about, we need to, as I always say, look at the context.
For the last two weeks, we examined the passages related to Jesus’ feeding of the 5000 with five loaves of bread and two fish. If you recall, this was done near the sea of Galilee in northern Israel, and we often refer to this section of the gospels as his Galilean ministry. This is Jesus going through the countryside, teaching, preaching, performing miracles, and drawing crowds to himself. The power of God displayed so that the Word of God would be heard and received. The blind see, the deaf hear, the lame walk, the demon possessed freed, that will not only draw crowds - but as word spread of this radical rabbi amassing a huge following, it draws the scrutiny of those who think they are in charge.
This is what we find in the interaction that leads up to Jesus’s teaching this morning. His teaching on what defiles a person is a response to an accusation against him found in Matthew 15:1-9
Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat.” He answered them, “And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? For God commanded, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ But you say, ‘If anyone tells his father or his mother, “What you would have gained from me is given to God,” he need not honor his father.’ So for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God.
The Pharisees and scribes, the religious leaders of the day, come to Jesus in an attempt to cast doubt on his authority, to try and diminish his influence, put him in his place, while asserting themselves as experts and they do so by pointing out a purity code that his disciples are not following. “If you are such a great teacher, why do your own students not act religious and do what is expected - including the washing of hands before eating?” It seems a trivial matter. We think of washing your hands before eating as a matter of good hygiene. In that day, it was a matter of ritual purity. The Law of Moses says in Exodus 19:6
Exodus 19:6 (ESV)
and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’
To be a priest meant to keep oneself ritually pure and undefiled - and to do that a long list of codes and traditions were developed to maintain that state of being set apart and pure.
Jesus doesn’t bother defending the actions or inactions of his disciples - he goes on the counteract and aims at the heart of the problem.
Jesus, in essence, replies, “You think your traditions and codes are what makes you aligned with scripture and holy before God - well let me show you where you are wrong.
The scripture is very clear: “honor your mother and father and whoever curses their mother and father are to be put to death.”
Honoring your mother and father includes taking care of them in their old age. Yet you allow a practice, by your tradition, that permits a son to take that which is meant to financially support his elderly parents and dedicate it the Temple. Since it is a gift dedicated to God, it supersedes the laws requirement to provide for his own parents.
For the sake of following their tradition - the acceptable practice of their religion - they have voided out God’s Word on honoring your parents.
Now having pointed out the error in their practice, Jesus rebukes them with...
Hypocrites! Isaiah really knew what he was talking about when he prophesied about you, This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far away from me. Their worship of me is empty since they teach instructions that are human rules.”
Following the rebuke, Jesus turns to those listening, including his disciples, and instructs them on what we heard earlier - that it is not the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth that defiles them. Food eaten with dirty hands, while not the most healthy thing to do, will eventually pass through you and find its way to the sewer. What really defiles you, what make you unholy, unable to live as the person God desires you to be, is your unclean heart. The heart being the location of the essence of the person - it is from this place that all kind of evil comes forth. The heart infected by sin is what defiles you.
That is why you need a new heart. Only a new, transformed heart, will result is a life pleasing to God.
Checking off all the boxes of the church life: going to worship, serving the poor, praying, studying the Bible - does not make you a Christian.
Only in surrendering to Jesus, turning to Him in faith and believing that He died for your sins, that he defeated death and that in His resurrection - he offers you new life - that is what makes transformation possible.
It is in receiving new life through faith that we benefit from all the Church offers to help us grow and mature in our faith as we are shaped and molded into who God intends for us to be.
Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
One final note as I wrap up.
When we read Jesus’ rebuke of the Pharisees, let’s be careful not to shake our heads at them and not see ourselves in this picture. “For the sake of your traditions you have made void the word of God.” We may not practice the tradition of ‘Qorban’ (which was the actual name of the practice of dedicating gifts to the temple - gifts which should have gone to elderly parents) - but we certainly have our own traditions that can get in the way of kingdom building.
I’m reminded of the joke:
How many Methodists does it take to change a light bulb? Five: one to change the bulb, and four to talk about how good the old bulb was.
Not every tradition in the church is grounded in scripture. Local tradition can get in the way, or block, the Kingdom building mission of the church. I’ve heard it said before that the seven last words of the church are “We have always done it this way.”
Well if the way we have always done it results in stagnation, disconnect, or division - then it is time for a change.
But that is not to say that change for the sake of changing is good either. Change for the sake of relevancy without biblical and spiritual discernment is a recipe for disaster as well.
As we, the body of Grace Methodist Church, continue to move forward in faith, inviting the Spirit to guide us and grow us, let us make sure that we focus on heart transformation first and foremost. Because it is with clean hearts, purified by the blood of Christ, that we will truly become a just, kind, humble, loving and holy people. That is a church that bears witness to the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Amen.