Podcast: Play in new window
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More
Our readings this Sunday offer us so many powerful texts upon which to reflect …
- From Deuteronomy:
- Moses warned the Israelites: You must neither add anything to what I command you nor take away anything from it.
- You must observe them [God’s commands] diligently, for this will show your wisdom and discernment.
- From the Letter of James:
- Let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger; for your anger does not produce God’s righteousness.
- Be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves.
- If any think that they are religious, and do not bridle their tongues but deceive their hearts, their religion is worthless.
- And Jesus’ own words, from Mark’s gospel:
- You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.
- It is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come …
- All … evil things come from within, and they defile a person.
Where is the preacher supposed to start?
In my reflection on part of this morning’s gospel text, on Wednesday last, I wrote this:
- Do you remember the days when people would dress up in their ‘Sunday best’ before going to Church?
- Do you remember the way in which people only ever behaved in Church with deference and good manners?
- Do you remember the time when talking about faith was considered to be something ‘polite’ people did not do?
- Do you remember when going to Church, for many, had very little to do with believing in God and far more to do with being seen as doing the ‘right thing’?
In this morning’s readings we are being asked the same questions … and more!
What does it feel like when you visit a ‘strange’ church?
When I am on holiday I usually find a way of going to a local church for a time of prayer and worship. Those visits have given me a powerful insight into what it could be like for a visitor in one of our churches …
- I have been asked to change seat because I have chosen to sit in someone’s normal place …
- I have been identified as a possible new addition to the church’s reading and intercession rota.
- In one church, it having been guessed that I was a priest, I was asked if I would like to take two mid-week services to give the vicar a break !!!
- I have been totally ignored.
- I have been left to flounder around each church’s unique way of celebrating the Church of England liturgy… a liturgy I know better than most.
- I have been able to sit and see the local social hierarchy swing into play as some are celebrated and others are ignored.
Yes … those visits give me a powerful insight into what it could be like for a visitor to one of our churches.
All of this points to the situation Jesus finds himself in at the beginning of today’s gospel reading … the Pharisees and some of the scribes criticize his disciples for not abiding by their rules …
not God’s rules …
but, rather, their man-made rules.
This is obviously not something new …
Our reading from Deuteronomy, which dates from c.1400 BC, presents us with Moses warning against all of these man-made rules and regulations in terms of religious practice.
And the Letter of James, which dates from c.50 AD, that is twenty years after the resurrection, addresses the same issue.
Human beings like to create codes of practice that have very little to do with worshipping God … Rather, they are about appeasing the whims and fancies of whoever is the strongest, the most powerful and the most influential person in any given microcosm of society.
Jesus makes this absolutely clear when he says: You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.
Of course, if you know your Bible well, you will know that the commandments of God seem to be complicated and numerous … The Jewish ‘books of the law’ give us 613 commandments … not just the ten we think we know. These divide into 248 positive do this commandments, and 365 negative don’t do that commandments.
Such a profusion of commandments is bewildering, which is why, when he was asked by a Jewish lawyer, Jesus pointed out that following the commandments of God is easy … there are just two … love God and love your neighbour.
In giving us this formula, Jesus is quoting directly from the Old Testament … Deuteronomy 6:5 …
… love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.
and … Leviticus 19:18 …
You shall not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbour as yourself.
At the beginning of many services of Holy Communion the congregation responds to the reciting of this Summary of the Law with the words:
Amen. Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy indeed!
Far too often we hear those words but we still like to adhere to our own version of what Church should be like.
Too often we think we know better;
we are far too slow to listen …
to listen to God, that is;
we are far too quick to speak …
that is to speak our opinions and preferences;
we are rarely slow to anger …
especially when we are not getting our own way.
Far from being doers of the word, we merely hear and then deceive ourselves.
We would all do well to ponder on the words of James: If any think that they are religious, and do not bridle their tongues but deceive their hearts, their religion is worthless.
At the end of Matthew’s gospel, Jesus commissions his disciples and us to Go and make disciples of all nations …
Today’s readings challenge us to do just that by considering what we say and how we act …
do we meet the challenge to love the Lord our God with all our heart, and with all our soul, and with all our might.
and … do we truly love our neighbours as ourselves?
OR … are we dead set on deceiving our own hearts, thereby making our religion worthless …
letting all that evil pour out of us …
thus defiling ourselves and misleading those we should be drawing closer to God?
Our readings this Sunday offer us so many powerful texts upon which to reflect …
I challenge you to take the words of those readings and meditate on them every day in the coming week … and then ask God what you should be saying and doing for him.
Amen.