Kilmorack and Erchless Church
Sunday 1st September
to you the source of life we come with worship
to you the risen saviour we come with gratitude
to you the presence within us we come to raise our voice
Prayer
Eternal God - the invisible source of our life, our unseen strength from day to day; though so much of our time is consumed with lesser things, today we choose to be here; we set aside this time to rest in the company of our creator.
Today we choose be positive, to focus our thoughts on great love, and guided by your presence, to re-order our priorities.
Today we choose to worship you, to honour you, to commit ourselves again to serve you.
Forgive us when we have forgotten you, because other things seemed more important.
Forgive us when thought badly of people, because that has been easier than trying to understand them.
Forgive us when we have seen problems and not seen possibilities.
Forgive us, and fill us we pray, with hope, and with understanding, and with a great sense of possibility.
May we know that you are with us, and that when you are with us we need have no fear.
Amen.
Introductory Talk
A man is involved in a terrible accident at work and is left unconscious. As he lies in the hospital, he has an encounter with God, and while he is delighted to meet God in person, he is sure that this must be a sign that his time on the earth has come to an end. But no, quite the opposite. God appeared to him to reassure him that he still had work to do upon the earth, and gave an assurance that he would look after him and keep him alive for many years to come.
In due course our man does indeed make a miraculous recovery, and soon he is up an about again. Indeed this promise has given him new confidence and new lease of life, so he decides to make some changes. All the old clothes were out and he started dressing like a younger man. He had been going bald but a hair transplant made him look a lot younger. Then a bit of botox and some filler in the right places took away the lines and left him with the face of a teenager. Then, as he headed off to a night club one evening, completely out of the blue – he was hit by a bus and died.
So once again he finds himself in a conversation with his creator, but this time he is angry. “What happened”, he asked, “after my accident you promised that you would look after me and keep me safe!” God looked a bit puzzled for a moment and then said, “O was that you? I didn’t recognise you!”
That only works as a joke because we all know that it is ridiculous to think that God would fail to know who we are just because we change our outward appearance. Any kind of understanding of God would need to involve him knowing us as we really are, not judging us on appearances, as we do with each other. Indeed we might well feel that our culture has become obsessed with outer appearances, not just in terms of how we look, but also about being seen to do the right things, and not being seen to do the wrong things. Perhaps that is a modern obsession, or perhaps we have actually always been like that, but we can say that the bible has always implied that God sees beyond such things, and sees us far more deeply. Certainly in our bible passages today, and particularly in our gospel reading, we find that way of thinking being challenged, and a rather different way of thinking being offered as an alternative.
Bible Readings
The letter of James is quite distinct in the New Testament. For one thing it is the only book which makes no mention of Jesus. It is a more practical book, written to guide believers on what they need to do to form the kind of communities which can help them to live out their faith. This morning we read a section from the first chapter…
James 1 : 19 – 27
19 Remember this, my dear friends! Everyone must be quick to listen, but slow to speak and slow to become angry. 20 Human anger does not achieve God's righteous purpose. 21 So get rid of every filthy habit and all wicked conduct. Submit to God and accept the word that he plants in your hearts, which is able to save you. 22 Do not deceive yourselves by just listening to his word; instead, put it into practice. 23 If you listen to the word, but do not put it into practice you are like people who look in a mirror and see themselves as they are. 24 They take a good look at themselves and then go away and at once forget what they look like. 25 But if you look closely into the perfect law that sets people free, and keep on paying attention to it and do not simply listen and then forget it, but put it into practice—you will be blessed by God in what you do.
Then some words from Mark’s gospel, where we find pharisees getting concerned about rules and traditions and the right way of doing things. while Jesus is concerned with faith and action and doing the right things.
Mark 7 : 5 – 8, 14 – 23
5 So the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law asked Jesus, “Why is it that your disciples do not follow the teaching handed down by our ancestors, but instead eat with ritually unclean hands?” 6 Jesus answered them, “How right Isaiah was when he prophesied about you! You are hypocrites, just as he wrote: ‘These people, says God, honour me with their words, but their heart is really far away from me. 7 It is no use for them to worship me, because they teach human rules as though they were my laws!’ 8 “You put aside God's command and obey human teachings.”
14 Then Jesus called the crowd to him once more and said to them, “Listen to me, all of you, and understand. 15 There is nothing that goes into you from the outside which can make you ritually unclean. Rather, it is what comes out of you that makes you unclean.”
17 When he left the crowd and went into the house, his disciples asked him to explain this saying. 18 “You are no more intelligent than the others,” Jesus said to them. “Don't you understand? Nothing that goes into you from the outside can really make you unclean, 19 because it does not go into your heart but into your stomach and then goes on out of the body.” (In saying this, Jesus declared that all foods are fit to be eaten.)
20 And he went on to say, “It is what comes out of you that makes you unclean. 21 For from the inside, from your heart, come the evil ideas which lead you to do immoral things, to rob, kill, 22 commit adultery, be greedy, and do all sorts of evil things; deceit, indecency, jealousy, slander, pride, and folly— 23 all these evil things come from inside you and make you unclean.”
Sermon
Don’t you understand, Jesus asked. This is a strange question when you think about it. You would imagine he would know by now! The whole of the gospel is a tale of people not understanding him, or perhaps worse, of people misunderstanding him. What he had said sounds simple enough – “There is nothing that goes into you from the outside which can make you unclean. Rather, it is what comes out of you that makes you unclean.” It sounds simple enough until you try to work out what it means.
This was a different kind of challenge for his first listeners than it might be for us. The idea of being ‘clean’ or ‘unclean’ was very big in their thinking. Under the Old Testament Law, animals were defined as either “clean” or “unclean”. Places could be “clean” or “unclean”, and the same was true for things and people. According to the Law, a person could become ceremonially unclean by having contact with the wrong thing, and those who did were forbidden from worship in the temple, and any person or thing they touched was made unclean
as well. The person might remain unclean for one day, one week, or forty or fifty days—depending on the cause of the uncleanness, and there were rituals which had to be carried out before they could be considered clean again. These definitions were ingrained in people’s thinking, as they had been for many generations. It was just how the world was. It was all clear and legally defined and everyone was anxious to remain pure.
So for them, Jesus’ words were hard to understand because they contradicted everything they had always assumed, they cut across the rules they had always lived by. The suggestion that this kind of uncleanliness might not come from the many things they had always been taught to avoid, but actually from inside of them, was a whole new concept which must have been puzzling indeed. The ‘don’t you understand’ comment might be there for our benefit rather than theirs. Of course they didn’t understand.
And what about us. Our core assumptions will be rather different. We have not been brought up with the notion that the world is divided into those things which are clean and acceptable to God, and other things which are not and which we need to avoid coming into contact with. We certainly know how physical disease can spread, how germs and infections can be passed on by us being close to certain people or touching the wrong things. If we learned anything from Covid it was surely that! But Jesus is not talking here about germs and infections. As usual, his words hit a bit deeper.
“There is nothing that goes into you from the outside which can make you unclean. Rather, it is what comes out of you that makes you unclean.” How can we understand? What can we take from this? We have things outside of us, things all around us, which would have been unimaginable in New Testament times. We have a vast variety of food available, and clean water that comes right into our homes for whenever we need it. We have transport and health care and communication tools… endless things which are available to us which were never known even a few generations ago. Let’s face it, we are surround by things which would have been unimaginable when most of us were at school!
If our well-being, if our happiness, depended on what is around about us, we would surely be living among the happiest, most content, most peace filled generation that planet earth has over known. I don’t think many would claim that to be the case. For all the immense developments we have seen in science and technology, for all the opportunities offered to us to do things never before possible, and for all the luxuries and comforts that we have come to take for granted, we can look around and see that none of it has really been able to heal us and restore us, none of it has saved us from greed, or corruption, or envy, or the misuse of power, none of it has cured our tendency to anger and jealousy and violence.
Our world may keep developing, the environment in which we live may change in so many ways, but the human heart it seems, remains largely unaffected. Perhaps that is because the things that happen around us are never as significant as the things that happen within us. Perhaps that is because physical developments do not make as much impact on us as spiritual developments. Or as Jesus might have put it, it is not what comes into our lives from the outside that is of ultimate importance, but what comes out from the inside. The real stuff of life, the really powerful things, take place in the silent, invisible places of our soul. It is what comes out of us that matters, and what comes out of us will always be an expression of what is in our hearts.
What does that mean in practice? Well perhaps there is a lot going on outside of us which is not helpful. We might feel that this society, obsessed by wealth and material possessions does not help us to be spiritual people, it doesn’t make it easy for us to be followers of Jesus. There are so many influences around us that might drag us down and leave us feeling unclean, unworthy, ungodly. But nothing that comes to you from the outside can make you unclean. Perhaps we have experiences in the past that have left us hurting and wounded, perhaps we carry memories too painful to speak of and we feel that they have made us unable to do much to serve Christ; things that have entered our life at some point and leave us feeling unclean, unworthy, ungodly. But nothing that comes to you from the outside can make you unclean.
Our faith is not in our ability to keep ourselves pure. Our faith is in life changing grace. When we are touched by such grace, when we are in receipt of such gifts, then we find that what is inside of us starts to get sorted,
and what comes out from us starts to change and then we can find a power that can make a real difference in our world. “It is what comes out of a person that can make a person unclean.” Because it is what comes out of our lives that will reveal what is really in our hearts. That might be greed, or it might be fear or a strict legalism that smothers any sense of freedom or joy. But it might also be mercy and forgiveness and love and peace, and with God’s grace – we rejoice that the latter is truly possible.
The things that happen around us are not as significant as the things that happen within us. Physical developments do not make as much impact as spiritual developments. Or as Jesus put it, it is not what comes into our lives from the outside that is important, but what comes out from the inside. May we all experience his powerful grace. May we trust his all-powerful grace. And may we then go and live in ways that will make a real difference for our world.
Prayers
These people, says God, honour me with their words, but their heart is really far away from me. Mark 7 : 6
The words of the prophet ring true today as much as ever, when we see so many claiming the name of God, but demonstrating that hatred and prejudice rule in their hearts.
The words of the prophet ring true today as much as ever, when we see ourselves, claiming the name of Christ, but living lives so different from his.
We repent of our judgemental attitudes, when we regard others as less worthy than ourselves.
We repent of our pride, thinking more highly of ourselves than we ought.
We repent of our hypocrisy, the way we prefer finding fault in others to questioning ourselves.
By your grace and mercy, make our hearts clean, and renew a right spirit within us, that we may seek to serve you with sincerity and simple joy, letting those around us see something of your love shining through. Make us a generous people, a hospitable people, a holy people.
We pray for the work of your kingdom that happens in unnoticed places, wherever believers are true to our convictions, and allow your love and your justice to flow from our hearts.
We pray for all peace makers, and peace keepers, that they may be strengthened and energised by faith.
As we pray also for those whose lives are blighted by a lack of peace, by fear of violence, by anxiety of the future, that they too may be strengthened and energised by faith.
We pray for the nations of the world; for the places we feel particularly concerned about.
May the hope of justice and peace continue to burn brightly from the hearts of your people.
We pray for ourselves, and for one another.
We pray for our homes, and families, for our neighbours, and friends, that whatever we may face, we may do so as those who know your love in our hearts.
Almighty and ever living God, you are the author and giver of all good things. Graft in our hearts the love of your name, increase us in true religion, nourish us in all goodness, and keep us in your great mercy, through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God forever, Amen.