Focusing on the light

James 1:17-27 & Mark 7: 1-8, 14-15, 21-23.

Augustine said: "Light, even though it passes through pollution, is not polluted."
There must have been some badly tuned chariots around in his day.

In today's gospel lesson…we meet the Pharisees and scribes…they were men of deep religious convictions.

With our 20/20 hindsight vision…we tend to view them in a negative light…because they were so often Jesus opponents.

But that isn't really fair to them…they were good men…motivated by a desire to please God…at least that is how they started! Jewish law stated a number of broad principles…but how would you apply this principle in a particular situation…Exodus 20: 8-9 tells us: "Remember the Sabbath day…and keep it Holy…six days shall you labour and do all your work…but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God;…you shall not do any work…"

This sounds clear enough…but what does it mean when a wild animal threatens your stock…what does it mean when a dog threatens your sheep…what does it mean when your cattle or deer are roaming on the road…can you go to the rescue on the Sabbath?
What does it mean when you are a doctor and a person is ill…can you provide medical services on the Sabbath?
If preparing food is work…can we have the after the service cuppa today…and can you serve food on the Sabbath?

For just one law…like…"Remember the Sabbath and keep it Holy"…there are probably hundreds of questions about how this might be applied.

Each question demanded a specific answer… and the Pharisees…stopped to think about it…they came up with lots of questions…then set out to provide the best possible answers.

For the most part…they used commonsense…required the people to think ahead and to work ahead…they said…’Put out food and water for livestock before the start of the Sabbath…so…if a wild animal attacked your sheep…then yes…you could go to the rescue.

Plan medical treatment to avoid the Sabbath …but yes…you could give emergency care on the Sabbath.

Cook food ahead of time to keep work at a minimum on the Sabbath…but okay…a mother could give her children something to eat on the Sabbath.

So you can see they started out rather well… but like good bureaucrats in any age they buzzed around like bees in a beehive.

The scribes and Pharisees didn't know where to stop…and that has a familiar ring about it…doesn't it…so we see in today's gospel lesson…they've gone too far!
The key issue raised by this narrative/story concerns the positive and negative sides of religious rituals and ceremonies.

Bureaucrats love to be given problems to solve…then watch them spin it into a traffic jam…which makes the rush hour problems on the highways heading west and south seem insignificant!

Give them a little power and watch them go crazy…give a bureaucrat a little responsibility …and watch them drive everyone else crazy!

You see nobody cared if the Pharisees wanted to be strict in their own observance…but have you ever seen a bureaucrat that could stop with that!

They wanted to set rules for the rest of the world…if it is good for me…why it must be good for everyone.

So they asked Jesus…"Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?"

The Pharisees just loved the opportunity to criticise Jesus…to give him a hard time…"Teacher, your disciples aren't following the rules!"…Rabbi…haven't you taught your disciples anything. Jesus…how can you pretend to teach the people when your own disciples are out of control…if you don't know how to do it then just look up page 506, section e, paragraph 3.
Anglican Blue Book of rules…(you will need a PhD for this)…and by the way don't forget the footnotes…it's the footnotes that separate the experts from the pretenders.

We all know someone like that…We all know someone who is buried so deeply in the snow that they wouldn't recognise an avalanche… when it buried them!

Most of us struggle being around people like that…sometimes they irritate us…sometimes they make us absolutely furious.

Unfortunately…the Christian church is sometimes like that…Christians are sometimes like that…Christians like that drive people away from the church…there many people out there who will never set foot inside a church again…because they have met a Christian like that.

Someone who made them feel small and not okay…someone who tried to force them into a mould with which they were not comfortable…someone who knows all the questions and has all the answers…well Jesus never called us to know everything…He called us to love everyone…and…there is quite a difference.

It is much more difficult to love everyone than it is to know everything…AND IT IS MUCH MORE IMPORTANT…we will never win a person to Christ because we know more than they do…but we might win them to Christ because…we love them.

Jesus had harsh words for the scribes and Pharisees…He told them they honoured God with their lips…but their hearts…were somewhere else…said…"You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition."

Then…Jesus said something really important …

"There is nothing outside a person that by going in can be defiled…but the things that come out are what defile."
The scribes and Pharisees had tried to honour God by the food that they put into their bodies…but now Jesus calls them to honour God by what comes out of their hearts.

Jesus went on to say…"for it is a from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly…all these evil things come from within…and they defile a person."

The evangelical Martin Lloyd Jones said: "We must preach with the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other. Let's take a snapshot of some popular magazines for sale in our shops today.

The articles are about one of three things.
Food…Celebrity, sex & slander…looking and feeling good. The food articles talk about feeding our stomachs…they are all about calories and cholesterol…we have become so health conscious…we care deeply about the food we eat…is it safe…is it healthy…will it help us live forever…there is almost a religious fervour to our obsession with food and health.

The celebrity, sex…slander…and sleeze articles in these magazines are the garbage with which we feed our hearts…isn't it amazing how careful we are with our stomachs and how careless we are with our hearts.

We have become so enlightened…that we are no longer chained to the skyways of life…we insist it is our right…and so…we poison our hearts.

In today’s gospel verses Jesus criticises the scribes and Pharisees for missing the mark…
He told them it was not important that people go through a ceremonial cleansing…pointed to what is really important is that which we have in our hearts…it is important that we fill our hearts with love for God and neighbour.

Philipp Melanchthon…a friend and associate of the reformer Martin Luther said…"Of the whole of Scripture there are two parts: the Law and the Gospel. The Law indicates the sickness…the Gospel the remedy” (Common Topics, 1521).

Jesus said…"for it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come."
It is also from the heart that good intentions come…today if your heart diet is unhealthy then ask God to help you improve it…He will never let you down.

Let us begin with ourselves…let us tend our own garden…focus on the light which passes unpolluted through pollution…focus on the light of the world…our Lord Jesus Christ…and then we can lead the world toward a healthy diet.

Let us pray.