I am a week behind in preaching the lectionary. The scriptures I am using are printed below, followed by my message.

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 fulfilment 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.

Mark 7:1-23

Now 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?’

Jesus said to them, `Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written,
“This people honours 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 said to them, `You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition! For Moses said, “Honour your father and your mother”; and, “Whoever speaks evil of father or mother must surely die.” But you say that if anyone tells father or mother, “Whatever support you might have had from me is Corban” (that is, an offering to God)- then you no longer permit doing anything for a father or mother, thus making void the word of God through your tradition that you have handed on. And you do many things like this.’ 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.’

When he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about the parable. He said to them, `Then do you also fail to understand? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile, since it enters, not the heart but the stomach, and goes out into the sewer?’ (Thus he declared all foods clean.) And he said, `It is what comes out of a person that defiles. 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.’

Sermon

One of my favorite cartoon strips in the papers used to be Peanuts.
I don’t know if you knew this or not, but the late Charles Shultz,
creator of Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Lucy, and Linus,
used to draw for a Methodist Youth magazine years ago.
One of these old cartoons is appropriate to today’s message.
It shows a Sunday evening youth group gearing up for the night’s program.
The leader of the group is talking with another young person who is dressed up in an African witch doctor’s costume, complete with straw skirt, mask, shield and spear.
The leader then turns to the youth and says, “Our program for this evening is entitled ‘It doesn’t matter what you believe as long as you’re sincere.

Our readings from Mark and James this morning, however, make the opposite point.
It does matter what you believe, they tell us,
but then they go on to say, in effect,
it matters even more what actions you take upon your beliefs.
As a matter of fact, today’s reading suggests rather strongly that much of what religious people sincerely believe is not only false,
but also directly opposed to the will of God.

Now that is a rather bold statement to make.
And as I attempt to back it up, I’d like you to remember back to your childhood, to the typical talk that came before almost every meal.
If you’re a parent you can probably recall a similar conversation from yesterday or the day before.

Before any meal the kid comes walking into the kitchen or dining room and asks, “What’s for dinner mom?”
The mom, ignoring this question asks one of her own,
“Did you wash your hands?”
“Yes, mom,” replies the kid.
The mom not fully trusting the kid says, “Let me see.”
And as often as not she will send the kid back to the soap and water.
Then, as the kid walks away he or she might hear,
“After all, cleanliness is next to Godliness.”
As a kid I was led to believe this quote was scripture, the word of God.
I can even remember looking for it in the Bible.
It was many years later that I learned John Wesley was responsible for giving us that little pearl of wisdom.
And in a way, John Wesley was right.
Cleanliness is next to Godliness,
but not the cleanliness the Pharisees wanted,
or the cleanliness we often want or desire.

In Mark Jesus and his disciples shock the religious leaders of their day.
How? By not washing their hands before dinner.
Now before you parents get the idea Mary and Joseph did not raise Jesus right, and you kids out there think you have an excuse to come to the table with dirty hands, let me clarify.
The issue here is not getting the dirt off the hands and out from underneath the fingernails.
The issue has to do with something the Jews called ritual purification.

You see, the Jews felt strongly that they were a people set apart.
They believed they were called by God to be different from their neighbors, to be a “peculiar people” one scripture says.
And the Bible readily backs up the claims of the Jews to be God’s chosen people.
The Jews were different from those around them.
First of all, they had a written law, the Ten Commandments.
This law governed the people’s lives,
and at its heart was something unique to the people of Israel.
It was what theologians call “monotheism.”
In our language it is called the belief in one God.
The Israelites came to believe that there was only one God,
and they said so in their writings over and over again.
“The Lord our God is One,” was their creed.

Further, the Jews believed God had given them other rules and regulations to govern their lives.
These rules told them what they could or couldn’t eat.
What they could or couldn’t do on the sabbath.
What they needed to do before worship or before offering a sacrifice to God.
People who came into contact with certain sacred things, such as items used in worship, had to undergo ritual purification when they left their workaday world to do God’s work.
In fact, there was a big division in their minds between what was holy and sacred and what was ordinary and everyday,
and only in certain circumstances could the two ever meet.

Over the course of centuries, various other regulations and laws were added by the religious people in order to further separate themselves from others.
These rules became widespread during the time when Israel was taken captive by the “pagan empires” of Babylon and Assyria.
In these lands, far away from their homes and the temple,
the people had to deal with others who did not believe as they did,
and so it became a requirement to purify one’s self before returning to such affairs as a Jewish family meal.
This was done by symbolically washing one’s hands.

Jesus and his disciples had not done this before sitting down to eat,
and this shocked and angered the scribes and Pharisees around them.
Jesus had refused to set himself apart from the non-Jewish, the not holy.
He had associated with sinners, the non-religious, and then had the audacity to set down and eat without following the required ritual.

The fact is this regulation was only one of many created over the years.
The scribes and Pharisees had constructed a religion that was almost impossible to follow.
Rules were so numerous that the “truly” religious spent most of the time debating them, trying to figure out their meaning,
or finding a way to get around them.

The common people did not have time for such niceties.
They were too busy trying to eke out a meager living.
And in Jesus they found an ally.
You see, Jesus identified with the common people -
people who would never make it if it were left up to the religious elite.
And so Jesus responds to the pharisees by saying, “You have put aside the commands of God and obey human teachings and traditions instead.”
Then he quotes from Isaiah,
“These people, says God, honor me with their words,
but their heart is really far away from me.”

Now I was once told that every good sermon should have three points.
I don’t know if that’s true, but this one does.
The first point is that being serious about religion does not make one’s beliefs right.
The Pharisees were dead serious about their beliefs.
They truly believed one had to follow all their rules and regulations in order to obtain salvation.
Looking around, we can see that the world today is also full of pharisees who are dead serious in their claims that you must believe such and such a thing, and must do this and not do that, or you will go to hell.
They are sincere,
and at times their sincerity intimidates those of us not nearly so sure about what exactly needs to be believed and done to do God’s will.
But this seriousness does not make them right.
Jesus went on to say about the Pharisees of his day,
“It is no use for them to worship God,
because they teach man-made rules as though they were God’s laws.”

Hand in hand with this is my second point.
Jesus accused the Pharisees of leaving God’s commandments and obeying the teachings, the traditions of humankind.
The point is human beings tend to build up religious traditions and teachings as a way of avoiding the commandments of God.
The external trappings of religion can actually get in the way of serving God.
The church building,
the symbols of our faith on the altar,
the robes I wear this morning,
the beautiful stained glass window of the resurrected Jesus behind you – all of these can be valuable to us.
But they are meaningless if they are all that there is to our faith.

We can console ourselves by saying such things as
“I attend Sunday School and church every Sunday,”
“I give generously to the church and other charities,”
or “I do a good deed every day.”
And all of these things are good,
but they are not worth a plug nickel,
as my grandfather used to day,
if our hearts are not in tune with God.

Religious traditions have been used to separate people from the Bible, to give certain people special privileges, and to commit injustice against others.
The Bible, one of the most precious gifts we have from God, has been used to justify slavery and to condone persecution of the Jewish people.
Groups such as the Ku Klux Klan and White Supremacists are very religious, they use the Bible to back up their beliefs,
to give them the right to chant their slogans, burn their crosses,
and even kill those they judge and find wanting -
blacks, Jews, Catholics and others.
And granted, a burning cross is a powerful symbol,
but it is a symbol without holiness or Godliness.

And unfortunately we are often guilty of such activities ourselves.
We can talk as if God were our sole possession -
the special God of United Methodists, of Presbyterians, of Pentecostals.
But please remember this:
Whenever you hear religion – traditions, the Bible, or anything else being used to justify the elevate some and put down others,
it is evil which is being served and not God.
As Jesus said, “These people honor God with their lips,
but their hearts are far from God.”

This, and please hold the applause, brings me to my last point.
It is not what goes in, but what comes out that matters.
Jesus states in Mark, “There is nothing that goes into a person from the outside that can make him or her unclean.
Rather, it is what comes out of a person.”
One cannot make the claim, as Flip Wilson used to, that the “devil made me do it.”
No, Jesus tells us, “For from the inside, from a person’s heart, come the evil ideas which lead to murder, thievery, adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly.
All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.’”
No, when it comes to sin, we have no one to blame but ourselves.

And to go further, the things going into us will not make us clean if we continue to do what is evil.
Attending church, singing songs of praise, listening to the sermons -
even when they are long and unbearable,
and reading your Bible and praying are not going to make a difference unless one’s actions also change.
Many feel Hitler was a religious man searching to create the perfect race.
The Pope who ordered the persecution of millions during the inquisition spent much of his time in church.
And modern day racist organizations often open their meetings with prayer and Bible reading,
but none of the above know much about God’s will.

And this friends brings us to a question.
How can you tell the difference between human teachings and traditions and what is truly God’s will.
The Pharisees once asked such a question of Jesus,
and he answered them by giving what he called the great commandment – the law that all other religious rules and regulations must depend upon.
Jesus said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
And later he would say much the same thing again when he added,
“I give you a new commandment,
that you love one another even as I have loved you.”
And Jesus illustrated this love through his death on the cross.

As Bill McElwee, my mentor used to say,
“Love is the criterion, love is the standard, love is the sword of truth that cuts through all of the confused claims and counterclaims of religious people and reveals what is truly of God, and what is not.”
Love is the key.
The Pharisees of Jesus day did not want to hear that.
The Pharisees of our day don’t want to hear it either.
Love tends to make their religion, its traditions and doctrines, rather easy to see through.
It becomes obvious that their’s is a self-serving,
rather than a God-serving faith.

When all is said and done, Christianity is not a religion of rules and regulations, of pious practices that elevate some and put down others.
It is a faith in the love of God as shown in Jesus Christ and his death on the cross.
And the proper response to that love is not nit-picking about hand-washing,
it is not arguing about specific doctrinal teachings,
and it is not a smug feeling of superiority.
The proper response is a faith that has a love so deep for others that their needs take precedence over human-made religious practices and customs.
It is a faith that imitates the love of Jesus for us.

This faith shows itself through the actions we take everyday.
Because while it matters what you believe,
it matters even more what you do.
There are a couple of old cliches that make this point -
“Talk is cheap,” and “You are the only Bible some people read.”
Most of the people you meet will not see you in church,
they will not hear you sing the songs of glory,
and they won’t be with you as you lift up your heart in prayer.
And to reach these people,
your faith must make a difference in the way you live your life.

One writer put it this way:
Do not talk to me of God or ask me if I am saved.
Hell holds no threat more agonizing than the harsh reality of my life.
Don’t talk to me of church.
What does the church know of my despair,
the church barricaded behind its stained glass windows against the likes of me?
Once I listened to your pleas for my repentance and sought a fellowship of faith within your walls.
There I saw your God reflected in your faces as you turned away from me.
Forgiveness never came and judgment reigned supreme in your pews as you murmured empty prayers and words.
The healing love I sought was carefully hoarded,
reserved only for your kind.
Be gone from me and speak no more of God.
I have seen your God in you; a God of no compassion.
So long as you and your God withhold the warmth of human touch and love from me I will remain an unbeliever.

There is no worse indictment against Christians than someone saying,
“You have no love.”
A faith or religion based on rules and regulations will not lead people to Christ, and neither will a faith or religion filled with words and teachings but empty of action.

It was St. Francis who once said to his monks,
“Preach the gospel at all times, and if necessary, use words.”

Our primary mode of communication is what ought to distinguish us and that is not in
our words, but in our deeds.
“Be doers of the word.”

Lin Yutang died a few years ago.
He taught philosophy at Columbia University for many years.
He wrote books.
He was raised a Christian in China.
His parents were Christians.
When he came to America as a student, he put behind him his childhood religion and became an atheist.

In mid-life he came back to the Church.
He said it happened while attending church with his wife.
His wife remained a Christian and was a member of the
Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York City.
Lin Yutang said that it was a quality of life on the part of the members of that church,
and the preaching of David H. C. Reed, that brought him back to Christ.
In his autobiography he talks about his spiritual journey.
“What prevents people from knowing Jesus is exactly those doctrinaire busybodies – their confessions of creed–their dogmas – that kept me from
Christianity for thirty years.
Their five and ten cent theology prevented me from seeing Jesus.
But in actual fact, Christianity in China never made converts by doctrine.
But it did make converts whenever a Chinese came into
contact with a Christian who followed Jesus command, `Love one another.’”

“Be doers of the word, not hearers only, lest you deceive yourselves.”

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