Certainty than Humanity
sermon/homily, HNEC 32401, Sunday 29 Aug 2021. Proper 17B
The Epistle: James 1:17-27
Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. In fulfillment of his own purpose he gave us birth by the word of truth, so that we would become a kind of first fruits of his creatures.
You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger; for your anger does not produce God's righteousness. Therefore rid yourselves of all sordidness and rank growth of wickedness, and welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your souls.
But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like. But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act-they will be blessed in their doing.
If any think they are religious, and do not bridle their tongues but deceive their hearts, their religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.
The Gospel: Mark 7:1-8, 14-15. 21-23
When the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him, they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them. (For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they thoroughly wash their hands, thus observing the tradition of the elders; and they do not eat anything from the market unless they wash it; and there are also many other traditions that they observe, the washing of cups, pots, and bronze kettles.) So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?” He said to them, “Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written,
‘This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me;
in vain do they worship me,
teaching human precepts as doctrines.’
You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.”
Then he called the crowd again and said to them, “Listen to me, all of you, and understand: there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.” 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.”
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Good morning, our reading from James is beautiful, and clear, and will be beautiful and clear as we read it the next few Sunday mornings. On the other hand this from Mark is a strange gospel indeed; but as I remember, and skip about disorganized from here to there, relating from MY life, as you contemplate your own life, maybe you will see that the Gospel is not comforting but demanding, challenging; that the Peace of God is not peace at all, but strife.
Twenty years ago, when we overthrew the Taliban as part of our response to 9/11, I read a news account of their governance under sharia law. At a public execution for capital offenses, one of those to be put to death, a woman, a mother with children, was kneeling on the ground, waiting to be shot in the head for stealing bread. As a woman, she was forbidden to work, that’s the law; and stealing, the penalty for theft is death. Rules are more important than human beings, Hatred than Love, Certainty than Humanity.
Christians also are still Certain, and not that far removed from barbarity. [Yesterday, “This Day in History” reminded me that Emmett Till was murdered 66 years ago: his story is still immediate, details gruesome, a story of unspeakable inhuman cruelty in response to a perceived violation of White racist norms.
August 14th the Episcopal Church honors Jonathan Daniels, who in 1965 was murdered when he jumped in front of a White man’s gun aimed at a Black child. Blacks violating White racist norms.]*
This gospel is not trivia. Jesus is not saying “do not wash your hands before you eat”. Jesus is forbidding us to make customs, rules, traditions and points of view, racism, homophobia, hatred, bigotry, certainties and expectations more important to us than human beings. Jesus is saying
people are more important than rules and laws,
people are more important than customs and expectation.
people are more important than tradition, political tradition, social tradition,
and especially religious tradition.
Mind what traditions you enforce in the Name of God, lest you blaspheme the Holy Spirit.
Human beings hold the central place of honor in Heilsgeschichte, God’s story with us; nothing is more important to God than each person. God is not obsessed with human sin. God’s obsession is his love for us, and God’s hopes for us:
Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself?
Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?
The gospel is about other people. The gospel is not about me being saved, Jesus sent from heaven to be crucified, suffer and die as a sacrifice for my sins so I can be forgiven and go to heaven when I die. The kingdom of the Father is spread upon the earth, the gospel is about LIFE, not death. The gospel is agape: lovingkindness, generosity, patience, courtesy, thoughtfulness, consideration, the gospel is about human decency - -
- - Love God, Love Neighbor.
Canons of The Episcopal Church say, “No unbaptized person shall be eligible to receive Holy Communion in this church”, an ungodly law that unseeing Episcopalians defend as tradition of the fathers, and other Episcopalians contemn, defy and push to change. Every human being, everyone present is invited and welcome to Holy Communion in this parish. The rector says so, our bishop says so.
Disobeying, defying unjust customs, rules, traditions (protesting and defying unjust Laws of church and state) is a call of every Christian.
In 1974, in defiance of church law, eleven women were ordained Episcopal priest by four rogue bishops. Their disobedience forced change in the church.
In my growing up years, not only ordination: girls and women could not serve as acolytes or lectors, or on vestry, or as delegates to diocesan convention or General Convention.
Water fountains downtown were White Only. That was the law. If you were Black and thirsty, good luck finding a sign that says “Colored”.
Public restrooms? Whites only, the law. No White person would use a toilet that Black people could sit on.
Restaurants were White Only: against the Law to serve a Black family in a restaurant or soda fountain downtown.
Seats at the Ritz, now Martin Theater: White Only, the law. If you were Black you bought your ticket at a side window and sat upstairs behind a high wall.
Interracial marriage was illegal. Here in the South, a Black man dating a White woman was liable to be lynched.
At the University of Florida, every Gator was White. Bay High School was White Only, the Law. Cove School (now HNES) was White-Only my eight years there.
No Black Episcopalian was "The Episcopal Church Welcomes You" in a White Episcopal parish: we had separate parishes for Blacks, or they went to their own denominations. It never occurred to us that we were living in sin, that we were sin personified, sin itself. We were as certain of ourselves as the Jesus-hating-&-bating Pharisees in today’s gospel.
Homosexuality, same-sex attraction, relationships, activity and love was illegal, punishable at law, Big Brother in people’s lives and bedrooms.
Gay marriage was forbidden: tradition and Law.
I grew up in America barely three generations out of slavery: White men owning Black human beings bought and sold as property. When I was a boy, Blacks had been elevated - - from slave to servant class. They might say that today they’ve not come all that far.
Divorced people who remarried could not receive Holy Communion.
Customs, habits, tradition, CERTAINTY and Law persist: people want to to tell other people how they may live, what they may do with their lives and Beings. Ignorant people “prooftext”, searching the Bible for verses to substantiate their opinions and defend their positions. It's called eisegesis, the opposite of intelligent scholarship.
America has come a long way, but we are not there. The Episcopal Church works hard to make our way out of sin and become a hospitable, welcoming institution, but we are not there, and we can be blind to it.
Jesus is not saying “do not wash your hands before you eat”, he’s saying people who do not wash their hands are more important than your expectations of them.
In this covid19 age, Jesus might encourage me to get vaccinated, and wear a facemark in a crowd, as my love for self and neighbor. And he would tell me to wash my hands.
Jesus would say your rights on every subject, including your constitutional rights, yes, even your Constitutional Amendment rights, are worthless against his gospel commandment to love your neighbor.
The gospel is demanding, strife not peace. Shall we go away? To whom would we go? Jesus, who speaks the gospel of the Father, is the very Word of the kingdom of God.
* two paragraphs in brackets [...] omitted from preached sermon as I tried to cut pulpit time to eleven minutes. TW+