Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
I recently got poison ivy for the first time in years. I spent the past two weeks scratching my skin, pouring rubbing alcohol on it, using Fels Naptha soap, and rubbing in poison ivy scrub gels to help clear the oils. All my washing made having poison ivy more tolerable, but it didn’t get rid of it completely. That healing only came with time, a healing that was from the inside out.
What we’ve just heard are three readings that all relate to purity and defilement, and to what it actually means to follow to the will of God in the world. In Deuteronomy we heard Moses teaching the Israelites not to abandon the law God has established, saying if they follow it other nations will see they are a wise and discerning people. However throughout the rest of the Old Testament, their descendants are constantly forgetting the law and even when they remember it, they seem to confuse the letter of the law with the spirit of the law. That’s what Jesus runs into in this Gospel passage. The Pharisees had gotten pretty good at following the letter of the law, but they seem to have forgotten the purpose of the law in the first place. Jesus quotes Isaiah saying, “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”. The Epistle of James caps of the lesson Jesus is trying to relate by saying, “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”.
So what does it mean to follow God’s will, to avoid defilement, and to honor the law of God? Well for starters, Jesus makes it clear that it doesn’t mean washing your hands before you eat. That’s certainly a good, sanitary choice, and with what we know about germs nowadays I’d highly recommend it. But washing your hands doesn’t have anything to do with how spiritual a person you are or how holy and pure you are. What Jesus says makes all the difference is the cleanliness of your heart. He says it’s not what comes in the body that defiles, whether unclean foods or unwashed hands, but what comes out of the body—because those actions reflect what’s in our heart. And so Jesus calls on us to cleanse our hearts, not our hands. To cleanse what’s on the inside, not be overly concerned with what we look like on the outside. That means not worrying about looking religious or good in the eyes of others, but rather looking at our own hearts and striving to clean the mess inside ourselves.
Cleaning the mess inside ourselves is something we are called to do as Christians. We are called to get in touch with our hearts, with the inside of ourselves—through humble introspection and meditation, through inviting the Holy Spirit to heal us of our brokenness and transform us into the people God calls us to be. This transformation from brokenness to wholeness is the heart of Christian spirituality.
This kind of self-honesty and humble introspection is what the practice of Confession is about, as well as centering prayer, meditation, the 12 Steps of AA, and good therapy or spiritual direction. Through such methods we can become aware of the mess inside ourselves and invite God to clean us from the inside out, to purify and heal us from the sin and selfishness that rules most of our lives. This inner purification has long been the goal of mystics across the centuries and such purification is indeed possible because the Holy Spirit is active today: inviting us to be healed and transformed and helping us grow into the children of God we were created to be.
And then: when our hearts are cleansed, when our motives are purified, when our brokenness is made whole—then our outer actions fall into place. Jesus says that from unclean hearts come things like fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, and folly. In the same way, when our inner world is cleansed out comes things like the Fruits of the Spirit which Paul lists as: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. From a rotten inner landscape comes rotten outer actions. And from a healthy inner landscape comes this good and fruitful actions.
Once we clean the mess inside ourselves, we are better prepared to clean the mess we’ve made of the world. That doesn’t mean to completely postpone doing anything good for others until we’re completely healthy and spirituality whole; but it does mean to pay attention to your inner life as well. So often well-meaning Christians try to serve others and find themselves in such frustration and anger at the situation that we make things worse, or experience such tiredness and burn-out that it’s impossible to continue. That’s why Jesus emphasizes the need to look inside ourselves and clean the mess in there, then we can follow God’s will without our own egocentric needs getting in the way all the time.
And it’s important to remember: this is not something we have to do in order to earn God’s love or forgiveness. This is simply following God’s call to healing. Being transformed by the Spirit to be the reflections of the divine image that we were created to be. We are already saved by God’s love and grace through Christ. And because of that, we get to experience the healing and cleansing that the Holy Spirit initiates. In theology, this is called sanctification. It’s the process through which the Holy Spirit purifies us and makes us holy, transforms us into the mature children of God we are called to be.
As Christians we have the privilege of following the Holy Spirit’s invitation on this journey of inner purification. What you find in your own depths may be uncomfortable or even scary, but remember you are never alone. Jesus is journeying with you. He knows the depths of your heart even better than you do! Whatever unseen sin is hiding down there, God already knows it and has already forgiven it and is longing to free you of it. This cleaning house Jesus encourages is the center of Christian spiritual practice. It’s healing the brokenness in ourselves so that we can experience life to the fullest and better serve God and our neighbors.
So I invite you this week to consider what your heart might need cleansing from. Don’t be afraid to take the plunge and enter this journey of cleaning the mess inside ourselves. Pray to God for the courage to do so and trust the Holy Spirit to guide you. Jesus is calling us to this journey of healing and promises to be with us every step of the way. Thanks be to God for the new life we have in Him.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Pastor Brian | Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost | September 1, 2024
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