Clean Heart or Clean Hands?

Mark 7:1-8

August 30, 2015

So Jesus is telling us not to wash our hands before we eat.

I guess someone could read this and understand that.

This is not about washing hands necessarily,
But this is about traditions like washing hands.

We love traditions and rituals.

In our families and in our churches.

Worshiping, Communion and Baptism are traditions

human precepts that bring God into our lives.

We have traditions at home that remind us that

we’re part of the family they can be

Eating, praying together, watching TV, vacation spots,

even greetings we use when we see each other

Almost anything we repeat.

Church and home traditions can ground us.

They give us stability and something to return to.

Our Church traditions can help us

understand the constancy

And eternal nature of God.

We do them over and over again,

much the same as people thousands of years ago did.

Confessions help us remember that we

are all sinful and need forgiveness.

Baptism reminds us that we are children of God.

Communion helps us remember a score

of things: God’s love, presence, sacrifice,

abundance… So many things that

it would take too long to say that the

tradition says it for us.

Traditions bind people together

They bind generations together.

They are a great way to worship and remember God.

But the problem with traditions is that you can do them so often,

they can be done without thinking,

and sometimes we forget the meaning behind the tradition,

and then we only remember the tradition.

And sometimes the tradition becomes more important

to people than what the tradition was trying to help us remember.

So then the question becomes  “are we doing the traditions right?” rather than “are we living the life that God wants us to live”.

The Pharisees did this with the rules of the Torah.

The hand washing, the processes with

food and with cleanliness and all the rest.

Now washing before eating is probably a good idea hygienically,

but that wasn’t actually the main idea of it.

It was a ritual.

It was an imitation of the priest who would wash his

hands and feet before going into the temple.

It was there signify our uncleanliness

it stressed our humility and our humanity

before the awesome otherness of God.

But not everyone who did the human tradition

of washing hands remembered their own

humility and uncleanliness.

Like humans tend to do, they started to forget what it meant

it started to lose its real meaning,

and they started to do the opposite of what the

tradition was for and  believe that

they were better than others just for performing the ritual.

eventually, these rules and traditions

overshadowed God’s will.

And to the people, they became God’s will.

Eventually, the religious leaders only took account of

whether these rules and traditions were being followed correctly.

And not only that, they were replacing some of

the basic rules of God with their traditions.

Just like Jesus said, they took the commandment

of “honor your father and mother”

But instead of helping people do that,

the temple was saying that adult children

could declare what they would use to support their parents

“an offering to God” and not have to share it with their parents.

The traditions that were supposed to point to God’s will

and remind people of God’s will and guidance.

But people ended up doing the traditions

and thinking they were done.

They could just do all the traditions right

They could get all the hand washing

and worshipping and sacrificing right

and still do the fornication, theft,

murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness

and everything else that Jesus mentioned.

What Jesus was telling the people that were scolding him

for not doing the traditions right was

that God was more interested in what came

out of us than the traditions that went in us.

Then, you think that would all change with Christianity.

But the Christian church has spent most of its time

doing the same thing, being preoccupied with traditions

rather than God’s will and how we treated one another.

The church spent its first few thousand years

discussing the right way to worship

instead of why we worship,

How we should do communion

and who should be allowed to get to communion

rather than what we should take away from communion.

Who can be baptized and whether we should

sprinkle or dunk or pour rather than

what the waters of baptism can do for us.

The church of Luther’s time was busy

making sure that the rituals of the church were done right

and by the right people, and yet,

the church felt comfortable ripping off

the poor Christians by demanding indulgences from them

to pay for their expensive churches and extravagant lifestyles.

And today, even Lutherans have more discussions in our churches

about the version of the Lord’s Prayer,

the version of the bible to use,

the kind of worship we have

whether or not we should kneel during communion

rather than what God is doing in our lives,

how we are caring for God’s kingdom,

what we should be doing in the world.

And traditions can still get in the way.

our traditions can still become a substitution

for what we’re supposed to be doing.

They can placate us into thinking that we’re

doing all that God wants us to do.

Even the sacraments can do that.

  

I think here of the scene from the end of the

If you share in the tradition of baptism like Michael Corleone,
you're doing it wrong.

God Father movie where it shows the

baptism of Michael Corleone’s nephew,

Michael Corleone is the god father of the child,

and he is asked if he rejects Satan

and the powers of this world, he says yes

and the child is baptized.

But then the scene of the baptism is interspersed with scenes

of the murder of four enemies that Michael Corleone has

killed by his people while the baptism is going on.

Complete disconnect.

Those traditions he practices

should do something, change his heart.

But actually, the ritual is a substitute for real change.

His religion is only about what is going in

and not what is coming out of him.

Now that’s an extreme example,

of what Jesus is talking about, but it’s still true.

Our traditions are meant to show us God.

Our repetition of it should reveal

our true state before God,

and our short comings,

traditions should help us grow

they help God change our hearts.

But our traditions don’t save us.

God’s love and forgiveness saves us.

  

Our theme for the next few weeks is growing.
The season after Pentecost is the green season

and the time that we focus on growing

in love towards one another and in faith in God.

Growing in our faith means

remembering that our traditions are for us, not God.

Growing in faith means

Knowing that God doesn’t want ritually clean hands.

God wants clean and open hearts.

Growing in faith means that our traditions

should often make us uncomfortable

when our actions don’t meet with what they teach.

And Growing in faith means taking a stronger account of

what comes out of us, how we treat others,

how we act in the world,

rather than if we’re enjoying our traditions

or “being fed” as people say now a days.

It sometimes means challenging us

to give up some of our beloved traditions 

in order to understand God’s will for us.

It sometimes means giving up things that we love

in order to help the next generation

hear the word of God in a new way.

Growing means we can still wash our hands,

but realizing that only God can make us clean.

The Food We Need

John 6:56-69

August 23, 2015

Everyone eats.

Not the same thing or the same amount.

Not everyone has the same likes or dislikes.

Some people need to take nutrition

in different ways because of health problems.

Some people have more complicated relationships with eating.

Some people love to eat, some people don’t.

Gethsemane's Tables

But everyone needs food.

Everyone eats in one way or another.

The necessity of eating has brought

people together forever.

People have formed communities

out of hunting and gathering

food with each other.

In pre-grocery store times,

making a meal was a community act.

The cheese maker shared the baker’s products

baker shared the farmer’s products and the butchers.

The necessity of food brings people

to our food pantry every week and

out of that necessity, we’ve made

new relationships with new people
we might never have met before.

  

And since we all know that we have this

similar need, eating is a good opportunity to

gather together with other people.

So people come around tables.

Somewhere where we can put the food down on

Whether it’s a dining room table,

a kitchen table, a coffee table, a restaurant table.

We have places where we can do this

necessity of life together.

And lots of things happen around these

tables while we’re filling this needed activity.

When we do come together at the table

it’s probably the most extended

amount of time people spend together.

This human necessity that we all share,

makes the sharing of food with others a sacred experience.

God joins us in that moment.

Whether we’re sharing with strangers, giving it away,

or eating with our families around these tables.

Now, if you’re like me, you remember a lot of

of good times around this table,

talking, laughing, sharing.

But if you’re like me, you also remember some horrible times,

bad news, yelling, crying, storming away.

The dinner table:

The best of times and the worst of times.

That’s a good indicator when something is sacred and holy,

it can go very, very good and terribly wrong.

But the thing about food, is that we all have to eat.

The need brings us back again, and again

where we can forgive and rebuild

sometimes a good plate of spaghetti

can fix a lot of things.

For the last 5 weeks we’ve been hearing Jesus

talk about food and bread.

His body given for us, his flesh and blood

that he gave for us, that lives inside of us

the meal that we share at this table together.

Now this table and all tables

that share communion are Jesus table.

And Jesus table has been used

for great things, for healing and hope,

for forgiveness, and wholeness.

But, like all things sacred, it can be

the worst of times too.

Exclusion, fear, pain.

We come to this table and all tables like this

to share the necessity of life with one another.

Jesus body and blood, the gift and sacrifice of God.

Jesus is the host of this table.

And we have come as Jesus guest.

We have shared at this table with people

we don’t like, don’t agree with, can’t stand.

But yet, this basic human necessity brings us back again

and again, to forgive and rebuild.

This table of Jesus challenges us, and stretches us,

being at this table with others makes us

more like what we eat.

There was an Anglican priest named Wiggit

who ministered to the political prisoners in

South Africa in Pollsmore prison in the early 1980’s.

Every week they shared communion when Wiggit would come.

They would sit around a table and the prison

always assigned a warden to come and observe who would just sit there and make sure that there was no ‘suspicious’

activity happening, no secret information shared.

In 1982, Nelson Mandela was transferred to Pollsmore prison.

He had already been in prison labor camps for over 20 years.

The first time that Nelson Mandela was there,

Wiggit started the communion liturgy and

as they shared the peace, Mandela asked them to stop.

Mandela walked over to the warden and

asked him if he was a Christian.

The warden said yes an Mandela said

"Well then … join us round this table. You cannot sit apart.

This is Holy Communion, and we must share and receive it together”

  

This is difficult teaching.

To sit across the table and share this sacred

food with our enemies, those that don’t share,

that don’t believe our struggles or opinions.

Who don’t understand us or agree with us.

Even those who keep us captive,

who treat us with great injustice.

This is difficult teaching.

Not everyone can live with that.

But this is Jesus table, Jesus is our host

and so it’s Jesus guest list that we use.

And the food that we share

The need we share,

keeps us coming back to the table.

And this table has the power of reconciliation,

the power of forgiveness.

The power to help and to heal.

The power to bring us together

This living bread from heaven

has the words of eternal life.

And when we finally come together at God’s table

Our differences will fade,

our hatred and anger will go.

and we will all be together,

and our hunger for

the bread of life will finally be satisfied.

Cannibalism, Communion, or Something Else?

John 6 51-58

August 16, 2015

I can hear the disciples now.

Jesus, you’re losing them.

You almost had them, but

now with all this talk about

eating your flesh and blood

you’re losing them.

I think when we hear these words from Jesus we go directly

to communion and the 2000 years of

doctrine that has gone with communion.

But this was not written today.

There was no communion when Jesus said this.

There was no doctrine.

John’s gospel doesn’t even have

a last supper/first institution of communion in it.

So how did the people understand this?

What was Jesus talking about?

I would say it’s obvious that

Jesus isn’t talking about

literally eating his flesh, tucking in

and eating and arm or a leg.

Even people who take the bible literally

don’t think that.

But what I think he’s is saying

is don’t just be an observer of Jesus.

Don’t just see Jesus, don’t just sit on the sidelines

when it comes to Jesus..

Don’t just be impressed by the miracles,

don’t just appreciate his life and sayings.

Don’t just politely call yourselves Christian

Don’t just think about or talk about Jesus

life given on the cross for us.

Eat it. Eat the whole thing

Eat it. Consume it. Chew on it.

Ingest it. Make it a part of you.

The word Jesus actually uses for eat

literally means “to gnaw”.

To gnaw, gnaw on his flesh.

Not just to nibble or to taste, but to gnaw on it.

Jesus doesn’t just want followers who want things

like bread or blessings or whatever we’re after these days.

Jesus is not a vending machine,

put a prayer in, get your request out.

Jesus wants each of us to take in all of him.

To understand how he gave his life for us.

To live in thanks for it, appreciate it

to know that this is how much God has loved us.

Then live our lives in sacrifice for God and others.

We come to the table to eat together every week,

not just to fulfill a ritual that the synod office tells us to.

We come to the table because

this is where Jesus becomes a part of us.

I read a story about a group of people that were

being held as political prisoners during the rise of communism.

The prisoners were not supposed to practice

any religious services.

The Breaking of the Bread, Sieger Koder

But the Christian prisoners wanted to have communion,

so the non-Christians offered to talk among themselves

while the Christians had a service

so that the guards wouldn’t be able to hear what was going on.

They had no bread and no wine and no other food or drink.

So they acted as if they did.

The leader among them said the words

and broke an imaginary piece of bread,

each person took a piece and shared it around to the next person.

They each then took a sip of wine from an imaginary cup.

And when it was over, they thanked God for what they had.

And when the service was over

the non-Christians said that understood

what Christianity and the Eucharist was for the first time.

They understood that it wasn’t just bread

they were eating, it was God.

Jesus wants God and God’s love for us

to be our food, what nourishes us

and what we live on together.

And that is why we eat at this table

every time we join as a community on Sunday.
That is why we invite everyone

regardless of age, denomination or background.

Regardless of who you are or what you’ve done.

  

This is where we find God and Jesus.

This is where we find Jesus sacrifice,

where God’s love fills us and nourishes us

where Jesus teachings and actions

Where we consume it, ingest it,

digest it, it becomes a part of us

it flows through our bodies and our digestive systems

into every cell and molecule,

until it becomes part of who we are.

And then we give it back to the world

Jesus is the bread of life.

Not just to be looked at,

or studied, or honored, or praised.

Jesus means to be gnawed on, and consumed.

Jesus wants us to eat his flesh,

so that we might live.

Making the Ordinary Extraordinary

August 9, 2015

John 6:35;41-51

I’m really bad at math, Specifically Algebra.

I took it three times in college before I could pass it.

Now whenever I took it, I went to every class.

I paid attention, I was determined, I studied and did the homework

and at the beginning of each class I thought I understood

what was going on, but inevitably, somewhere in the middle of it,

the professor added something that I just didn’t understand,

and after that point, the whole rest of the class

was kind of a mysterious blur for me.

I think that’s what’s happening with the people

that are following Jesus. 

This conversation is a mysterious blur.

They just don’t understand 

what Jesus is saying

Jesus lost them somewhere along the way.

To give them some slack,

Jesus has just been giving them glimpse

of information, a little at a time.

He hasn’t been spelling it out for them until this week.

In the part of the conversation 

we read last week,

The people following Jesus asked him

how they could do what he just did.

Feed 5000 people 

from five loaves and two fish.

They see Jesus as an equal who has learned

to do something that they could learn too.

They don’t yet know that Jesus is who he is.

Jesus tells them that having faith

is the work that they should be doing.

They ask what they should have faith in.

Jesus says believe in God,

and believe that God is the one who sent Jesus.

He says if you have faith in that then

you’ll already have the bread that never goes stale.

  

Not understanding that Jesus is the

answer to all their questions, they ask,

“How do we get this bread that never goes stale?

Where can we buy it or find the recipe?”

Then, finally, in this week’s portion, Jesus gets a little clearer.
He says “I am the bread. I am the bread of life.”

He spells it out for them.

Now the religious leaders and the church people

have apparently come to listen in on this conversation

by now, and they get offended at this direct statement.

they’re like:  “He’s the bread of life?

How dare he say that. He’s just Joseph’s son.”

We have to remember that Jesus

wasn’t a big deal then.

He looked like everyone else.

He came from the same place.

They didn’t know who he was

or what he would do.

“He’s the bread of life?”

But he’s one of us.

We watched him grow up.

We knew his father,

he did the same things my kids did

and he knows the same people I know.

He’s so normal.”

And yet he knows God?

God is working through him?

He is God?

He’s the bread of life?

  

We can understand their confusion

and maybe even their offense.

God is great and amazing and powerful

God is the creator of the universe, the galaxies,

the oceans and mountains

We worship God, we fear God, we are humbled before God.

What is God doing with Joseph’s son.

What’s God doing with normal?

Now we have the benefit of hind sight and scripture.

We know that Jesus was human and God.

We know that God chooses over and over again

to use and work through things that we consider ordinary.

We know how God has a habit of

using the normal things of this earth

to carry out God’s great and awe inspiring plans.

To be honest, at times we might rather have

the great and powerful creator of the

universe come down and make everything right.

Like these people gathered around Jesus,

we might rather have God come to us

an other-worldly Messiah, who doesn’t get his

hands dirty, who is removed from

the riff raff of this world.

Because we know how humans  are.

We have prejudices and fears,

greed, selfish pride, shame and disappointments.

To sum it up, humanity can often stink.

Why would God use something like us?

Sometimes it seems like

the best course of action might be to

bring in something different, an improved model.

Humanity 2.0 the updated version of ourselves

a newer and better model

without all the issues and problems.

But then, What would we do?

What about us?

That’s not how our God works.

Our God won’t replace us.

Our God uses us as we are.

God redeems the world by working

through the world, not around it.

God redeems a flawed humanity

by working through a flawed humanity.

That’s what the sacraments are.

God takes these ordinary things of this world:

food and water and uses them to bring his infinite love to us.

Sacraments are the promise that God can use everything.

This is just normal tap water.

This water came out of our faucet here.

Water that we all see and use every day.

But with it, God makes us God’s children,

God unites us, God forgives us, and God calls us.

Normal people, normal young men

like Wally and Chris, God calls them and us

to do great things in this world.

God calls us to care, to work for justice and peace,

to change the world.

And the bread we eat every week is

just normal bread, just flour and water

and oil and a few other ingredients.

And the wine we drink is just the kind

you get from the liquor store

down the block, the same wine

These are the same things that

have been sitting on dinner tables

for thousands of years.

And yet, it is the presence, strength

and forgiveness of God.

Jesus is the bread of life.

Jesus, a normal human -- biologically speaking.

But he was infested with God’s Spirit,

was one with God’s love and will.

So then, by being born and dying

like we all do, he was able to save the world.

In using the normal, God blesses the normal.

God makes the average wonderful.

In the life of Jesus and In the water, bread, wine.

When we come to this normal table,

we see and feel and taste God’s

acceptance of us, love of us, and forgiveness of us.

God doesn’t want to replace this world

with something better or more functional.

God doesn’t want the newer model of humanity

without flaws and scrapes and bumps and bruises.

God wants us.

Jesus is the bread of life.

In Jesus, God comes to us to

be at one with this fallen humanity,

this flawed world.

Jesus is God showing us that

We are God’s whole plan.

Food that Does Not Perish

John 6: 24-35

August 2, 2015

After Jesus fed 5000 people,

they tried to make him king.

So he hid himself somewhere

but some of the people that were there

have come to find him again.

These are not the hungry or the sick,

These are more the curious.

The ones who come by afterwards

Broken Bread, Walter Rane

that go backstage after the show

like autograph hunters.

They’ve come to get a little more from Jesus.

Jesus actually seems a little skeptical

about their motivations for following him.

Jesus accuses them of  just looking for more bread

they like what they ate.

They want one more sign, one more

miracle, one more piece of bread

then they will know, then they will be satisfied.

they even ask Jesus how they can do the trick themselves.

But Jesus tells them not to waste their time

looking for that perishable food,

He says , don’t’ keep trying to find the food that

just goes stale in the end.

Jesus knew about them,

just as he knows about us.

We spend a lot of our time focusing

on perishable things.

Like this crowd, most of us have

looked for something some time in our lives

and not quite known what it is.

Many of us have grasped on to the

next thing or the simplest thing, thinking that was the answer.

Most of humanity has felt this at one time or another.

And in this world of quick fixes

and instant gratification

and the world tries to offer up satisfaction

in endless temporary and perishable ways.

It’s easy thing to point to obvious things like addictions

like drugs or alcohol, or even food or sex.

Those are certainly ways that we get

temporary satisfaction, but in the end

we keep on having to go back for more.

Those are the easy ones to point out.

but how much time do we spend on

The temporary things, the car, the house,

even the church building or

the perfect worship experience.

Just to realize those don’t fully satisfy?

And we also turn to other things,

possessions, money, work,

our own accomplishments, career advancement,

perfection, experiences, and emotional highs

those are things that we spend a lot of time on

that just don’t last forever.

  

Advertisers maybe know best about that

need to fill the space in us and they try to do it

with whatever they’re trying to sell.

The  product, the car or drink or snack or  

not just a good product it’s an emotion,

a feeling, a memory it will fulfill your needs.

 At least for now.

My least favorite commercial on TV today,

is the Kroger’s commercial, have you seen this?

A woman comes in the store with her child,

and the produce lady – or the actress that plays

a produce lady –  says, “Hi, Ashley”

“Ashley’s one of our favorites.”

and Ashley goes around the store where

everyone treats her personally ,

everyone knows her name, everyone has a smile

and a witty retort or statement for her.

And the manager type person says,

“At Kroger, we’re family.”

And she helps Ashley in line

and says , “goodbye Ashley.”

First, I hate this commercial, because it lies.

That is far from my experience at Kroger,

or any grocery store I’ve ever been to.

Depending on what’s going on at

church or at home, I can go to Kroger’s

three times a week one person there might recognize me.

The same person is hardly ever working when I go.

I consider myself lucky when the cashier

even says hello to me before they start ringing me up.

  

And I’ve worked in a large grocery store

as a checker when I was in college.         

I didn’t even know the names

of most of the other employees.

It’s a giant place with hundreds of employees.

But it also bothers me because

why are people looking for that kind of spiritual/emotional

fulfillment at their big box super market chain?

I have to look at this commercial

and say that the advertisers must know something

They know that people are looking for this.

That feeling of family outside family.
The community of sharing and loving,

and helping and forgiving that we talk

about here people are looking for it.

But it’s easy to look for it

in houses and cars and quick encounter

with grocery store employees.

It’s easier for us to look to temporary things

and get little fixes than it is for us to seek out.

get the real bread that never goes bad.

I would even say that if we only look to

other people, even family, we will feel unsatisfied in the end.

We keep seeking the food that perishes.

The crowd asks Jesus where they can find

that food that doesn’t perish

and Jesus tells them.

Jesus says “believe in the one who sent me.

Believe that he is the one.”

Jesus says that the thing that fills that space is God.

Now I don’t believe in magic, even when it comes to God.

I don’t believe that just saying you believe

or that you accept Jesus Christ as your lord

and savior just instantly changes your life.

I don’t even believe becoming part of a Christian church

There are plenty of Christian churches that

have about as much love as Kroger’s.

And all faith communities are

made up of humans and can disappoint.

I don’t believe that just wearing a cross

or saying the prayers, or reading the bible,

or worshiping God is like waving some magic wand.

Those things can help us find true bread,

but if we keep them out there,

they will just perish with everything else.

 But the true bread that Jesus told us about

can be found through faith.
Faith in the one who provides all the bread.

And faith is not just belief in a list of things, faith is trust.

It’s trust, that the creator of everything

the one that is the source of our lives

and all that is, is on our side, is for us, is with us.

Trust that the one who created the mountains

and the trees and the oceans,

also knows how many hairs are on your head.

Trust that God creates abundance, wants us all to

thrive and flourish and love and share with others.

Trusting in that truth, shown to us by Jesus.

That is the bread we’re all looking for.

Joining with other people that try to live

into that truth and share that truth with each other

and the outside world, that’s where

we will find satisfaction, not at Kroger’s.

And how we know as Christians we

find that truth through

the community that gathers around the table.

The place that shares Christ’s body and blood,

broken and given for us.

That is where we find the bread of life

the true bread, the food that never perishes,

the food that endures for eternal life.