Sermon Tone Analysis

Title

From the Mouth to the Heart

Outline

How do we avoid hypocrisy?

That has been a question in my mind as I watch the meltdown of sections of evangelical Christianity

That has also been a more significant question in my mind as scandals and simply poor behavior have appeared in the Catholic Church, especially in priests, for now that is what I am while evangelical Christianity is my past.

So how do we avoid such hypocrisy?

Deuteronomy tells us that it is by God’s commandments sink in

He not only puts his words, his commandment, “in our mouths” so that we know it and can teach it, but “in our hearts” so that we embrace it with “your whole heart and your whole being.”

The teaching is not secret needing a guru to discern it, but must be embraced with our whole being.

Love God = love his commandment.

Colossians tells us that it is embodied in Christ

He is the image of God, the new human being

He is the reconciler to God, who made peace by the blood of his cross

He is pre-eminent in all things and creator of all things

So if you want to love the commandment, love Christ - embrace him with your whole being

Jesus tells us to do the commandment

The “scholar of the law” knew Deut 6 well.

Be he had learned to separate himself from others by defining them as non-neighbors, something that is not in the Torah.

He wants Jesus to confirm that his boundaries are correct.

So Jesus takes a Jewish man who is attacked and left half dead on a lonely road, two ritually observant, knowledgable Jewish men, the priest and the Levite, and the hated opposite to a Jewish man, the Samaritan, who had the Pentateuch, but the wrong Pentateuch.

However, it is not the ritually pure, Torah-literate Jewish men who treat the dying Jewish man with love.

It is the Samaritan who does so in spades, risking his life, using his food, spending his time at the inn and then spending his money - even giving a blank check.

The Samaritan knows God and relates to God, for he does the commandment without weaseling out of it.

Go and do likewise

So, Sisters, we realize avoiding hypocrisy is knowing God

It is loving him so much that we bury his words in our hearts

It is loving his words so much that we embrace the creator Christ who created all things and makes us one with God

It is taking his words simply and straightforwardly and proving in practice that he is really in our hearts

And perhaps it is the last of these that is the hardest, for it costs us the most

Readings

FIRST READING

Deuteronomy 30:10–14

10 because you will obey the voice of the LORD, your God, keeping the commandments and statutes that are written in this book of the law, when you return to the LORD, your God, with your whole heart and your whole being.

11 For this command which I am giving you today is not too wondrous or remote for you.

12 It is not in the heavens, that you should say, “Who will go up to the heavens to get it for us and tell us of it, that we may do it?”

13 Nor is it across the sea, that you should say, “Who will cross the sea to get it for us and tell us of it, that we may do it?”

14 No, it is something very near to you, in your mouth and in your heart, to do it.

Response & Psalm, Option I

RESPONSE

Psalm 69:33

33 “See, you lowly ones, and be glad;

you who seek God, take heart!

PSALM

Psalm 69:14, 17, 30–31, 33–34, 36, 37

14 But I will pray to you, LORD,

at a favorable time.

God, in your abundant kindness, answer me

with your sure deliverance.

17 Answer me, LORD, in your generous love;

in your great mercy turn to me.

30 But here I am miserable and in pain;

let your saving help protect me, God,

31 That I may praise God’s name in song

and glorify it with thanksgiving.

33 “See, you lowly ones, and be glad;

you who seek God, take heart!

34 For the LORD hears the poor,

and does not spurn those in bondage.

36 For God will rescue Zion,

and rebuild the cities of Judah.

They will dwell there and possess it;

37 the descendants of God’s servants will inherit it;

those who love God’s name will dwell in it.

SECOND READING

Colossians 1:15–20

15 He is the image of the invisible God,

the firstborn of all creation.

16 For in him were created all things in heaven and on earth,

the visible and the invisible,

whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers;

all things were created through him and for him.

17 He is before all things,

and in him all things hold together.

18 He is the head of the body, the church.

He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead,

that in all things he himself might be preeminent.

19 For in him all the fullness was pleased to dwell,

20 and through him to reconcile all things for him,

making peace by the blood of his cross

[through him], whether those on earth or those in heaven.

GOSPEL ACCLAMATION

John 6:63c, 68c

63 It is the spirit that gives life, while the flesh is of no avail.

The words I have spoken to you are spirit and life.

68 Simon Peter answered him, “Master, to whom shall we go?

You have the words of eternal life.

GOSPEL

Luke 10:25–37

25 There was a scholar of the law who stood up to test him and said, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 26 Jesus said to him, “What is written in the law?

How do you read it?”

27 He said in reply, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.”

28 He replied to him, “You have answered correctly; do this and you will live.”

29 But because he wished to justify himself, he said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

30 Jesus replied, “A man fell victim to robbers as he went down from Jerusalem to Jericho.

They stripped and beat him and went off leaving him half-dead.

31 A priest happened to be going down that road, but when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side.

32 Likewise a Levite came to the place, and when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side.

33 But a Samaritan traveler who came upon him was moved with compassion at the sight.

34 He approached the victim, poured oil and wine over his wounds and bandaged them.