Clean hearts over clean hands- Mark 7
Once again, there are a couple of directions we could go with our readings this morning. The Song of Songs, which is also called the Song of Solomon, is a book that has often puzzled people. It seems to be a poem about the passionate love between two people. It doesn’t even really talk about God. So, it has been tricky to know how it should be interpreted.
A second century Rabbi, Rabbi Akiva, was asked by his students if the book should be considered Scripture at all. He replied,
“Heaven forbid that any man in Israel ever disputed that the Song of Songs [is holy], for the whole world is not worth the day on which the Song of Songs was given to Israel, for all the Writings are holy, and the Song of Songs is the Holy of Holies” (Mishnah Yadaim 3.5).[1]A traditional way to interpret the Song of Songs, which Rabbi Akiva seems to ascribe to, is to see it as a description of God’s desire for God’s people. The Bible often uses marriage as a metaphor to describe the relationship between God and the people. Often this metaphor is used in a negative light, so when the people start to worship foreign gods the prophets will talk about the people as an unfaithful spouse in their marriage to God (Hosea 2; Isaiah 54:5-8; Jeremiah 2:2-3,32; Ezekiel 16; 23). … The Song of Songs can be read in such a way as to see this marriage metaphor in a positive light. It is an image of God and the people chasing after one another, passionately in love with one another.
There are some slight variations. Sometimes the lovers are seen as God and Israel. Sometimes Christ and the Church. It is also sometimes read as a metaphor of the love between the soul and God. God comes to your window and calls you, like Romeo calling Juliette, saying, "Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away…”.
The metaphor is of two lovers gazing into each other’s eyes, almost forgetting about the rest of the world. It is the flip side of the prophets’ image of Israel as the unfaithful lover. Here they are very much desiring each other. Many people have been deeply moved by prayerfully reading this book and meditating of God’s love for them.
The other direction our readings are taking us today have to do with what it means to live an undefiled life. In our Gospel reading the Pharisees were picking on the disciples of Jesus because they haven’t been ritually cleaning their hands before they eat. This is a “tradition of the elders”, but not necessarily something commanded in Scripture for everyone. This was a command for priests when offering sacrifices (Exodus 30:17–20), and the Pharisees were in a habit of extending these kinds of laws to everyone.
It is tempting for communities to try to make markers that identify when we are doing the right things. So, we make rules to make sure we are good with God. As Anglicans, it might be tempting to say Morning and Evening Prayer, attend worship on Sunday, give a tithe, then feel like I’ve checked all the boxes, so I must be good with God. And, by implication, if I meet someone who isn’t praying Morning and Evening Prayer, and isn’t tithing, and isn’t always attending Sunday Worship, then what am I left thinking? If I’m checking off those boxes to make sure I’m good with God, then how is that person standing with God? … Now, these are all good things to do- saying our daily prayer, tithing, attending worship. But they aren’t meant to be boxes we check off. We can do all these thing and not be close to God. We can pray half-heartedly and not pay attention to the words we are saying. We can tithe our money grudgingly, rather than joyfully. We can attend worship and never really turn our attention to God. … Jesus wants us to pay attention to our inward reality. What is going on in our heart. Again, it’s not that there is anything wrong with these activities, but our inward life changes how effective these things are at helping us develop a relationship with God. So, turning back to our Gospel reading, of course, there is nothing wrong with washing our hands, but Jesus wants to get to something deeper. What about clean hearts?
Jesus turns this discussion inward.
“There is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile” (Mk 7:15).
“For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.” (Mk 7:21-23).Jesus says things like this in other places in the Gospels. When Jesus talks about lust, he talks about it as an attitude of the heart. He is referring to a cultivated lust. It is a welcomed lust. It is like a seed that can grow, and the fruit of that plant might be adultery (Matt 5:27-30). So, deal with the seed before it can grow. Pay attention to the inward reality, not just the outward fact that you haven’t been unfaithful to your spouse. …
He says the same thing about anger. He is talking about a cultivated anger that becomes resentment and contempt. It is a seed that can grow, and the fruit of that plant might be murder (Matt 5:21-26). Pay attention to the inward reality, not just the outward fact that you haven’t murdered anyone. …
While we are talking about anger, James has something interesting to say about this. … Anger is a big deal in the Bible and in the writings of the Early Church. It is common to justify our anger by saying it is about justice. … In James’ letter we read,
“let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger; for your anger does not produce God’s righteousness” (James 1:19-20).
When you look at the Greek there are a couple interesting things to consider. First, it actually says “the anger of man”, so this is talking about human anger. Secondly, the Greek word for righteousness (δικαιοσύνη) is also the word for justice. … So, James is saying that human anger won’t produce God’s justice. So, if you think you are going to work to address some justice issue, and anger is motivating you, James says you can’t get to God’s justice that way. … Anger in the Bible and in the Early Church was almost universally considered to be dangerous to the soul. If we want to do good for God in this world- then we have to find a way to do this without anger. And that doesn’t mean we don’t ever feel angry. That just jumps up in us without us having much control over it. This is about a welcomed anger- a brooding anger- a welcomed anger.
There is a deacon in this diocese who has been very involved in justice issues both locally and oversees. I was talking to him one day at a clergy conference and he had recently been invited to talk to a group on the topic of protesting. One of the things he said to them was “The way you protest, will create the world you are going to live in. So if you protest with anger and violence, you are creating an angry and violent world.” I thought that was a profound teaching, and very much in line with what James is teaching in his letter.
Anger is just one of the inner dispositions to be wary of that are addressed between Jesus and James in our readings. James also mentions being a doer of the word and not just a hearer. So, doing outward actions does actually matter. The inward reality is important, but it is also important that the inward reality manifests in outward action. … James is encouraging us to apply what we learn from Scripture. It doesn’t matter if we become experts on Jesus’ teaching if we never apply those teachings to our lives. Maybe we are experts on the prophets’ teaching about caring for widows and orphans, but we don’t do anything to help, what’s the point? Caring for widows and orphans is the religion James says is the religion God cares about. …
James also mentions the importance of controlling our tongue. It is easy to hurt people with our words, or speak to manipulate and manage our image, or speak pretending we have more knowledge than we do. There are many ways to go wrong in our speaking. And it can take a lot of discipline to be careful with our tongue. …
We have been talking a lot today about impurity- what makes us impure? What impure seeds growing inside us can grow into impure actions? This is the negative side. But there is a positive side, as well. There are good seeds. If we can develop a love for God that we see symbolized by the Song of Songs, then the plant that grows, and the fruit it bears, is beautiful. Amen.
There is a deacon in this diocese who has been very involved in justice issues both locally and oversees. I was talking to him one day at a clergy conference and he had recently been invited to talk to a group on the topic of protesting. One of the things he said to them was “The way you protest, will create the world you are going to live in. So if you protest with anger and violence, you are creating an angry and violent world.” I thought that was a profound teaching, and very much in line with what James is teaching in his letter.
Anger is just one of the inner dispositions to be wary of that are addressed between Jesus and James in our readings. James also mentions being a doer of the word and not just a hearer. So, doing outward actions does actually matter. The inward reality is important, but it is also important that the inward reality manifests in outward action. … James is encouraging us to apply what we learn from Scripture. It doesn’t matter if we become experts on Jesus’ teaching if we never apply those teachings to our lives. Maybe we are experts on the prophets’ teaching about caring for widows and orphans, but we don’t do anything to help, what’s the point? Caring for widows and orphans is the religion James says is the religion God cares about. …
James also mentions the importance of controlling our tongue. It is easy to hurt people with our words, or speak to manipulate and manage our image, or speak pretending we have more knowledge than we do. There are many ways to go wrong in our speaking. And it can take a lot of discipline to be careful with our tongue. …
We have been talking a lot today about impurity- what makes us impure? What impure seeds growing inside us can grow into impure actions? This is the negative side. But there is a positive side, as well. There are good seeds. If we can develop a love for God that we see symbolized by the Song of Songs, then the plant that grows, and the fruit it bears, is beautiful. Amen.
[1]
Francis Landy. Paradoxes of
Comments
Post a Comment