Scripture Readings: Deuteronomy 4:1-9 | Psalm 15 | James 1:17–27 | Mark 7:1-23
“But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves.” (James 1:22). There’s a saying that seems to reflect a certain spirit of the age these days: that ‘rules are made to be broken.’ The basic idea behind this saying is that any kind of command, restriction, or limitation we face must simply be an oppressive obstacle to our ‘freedom’, which we should feel free to overcome, or just ignore. Of course, rules really are restrictive by nature. They are meant to narrow down the possibilities of our actions, but in doing so they can also bring to life many other possibilities that cannot exist apart from these necessary limits. For all those bakers and cooks among us, think of how recipes… rules about ingredients and measurements… can help us construct even very complex meals… but only if we actually try to follow the directions. For those of us who follow sports, what good would a game or a competition be if the athletes involved just ignored the rules of how to play and did their own thing? Imagine living without rules… no traffic laws. No expectations for how to treat our neighbours. No safeguards to protect those of us who are most vulnerable? No one to say no to those with no concerns at all about the damage they will cause by chasing after their desires. Of course, sadly this is not totally hypothetical. There have been times and places throughout history when all the rules have been set aside… scenes of war and chaos… and it isn’t pretty! Rules are restrictive, yes. But the limits they offer us can be a real gift to us… helping us experience truly life-giving possibilities… that is, if the rules themselves are leading us into life. Not all rules do that, of course. Some rules are actually intended to keep people trapped… or to oppress us, instead of leading us to the peace and freedom they claim to offer. The truth is, it can be hard to know which rules are good for us in the long run, and which rules should really be left behind. So many of our ongoing and divisive political disputes today boil down to disagreements about which rules our communities should follow… which goals we should all be striving for… which ways of life are worth protecting and preserving, and which should be resisted instead. We know sorting through all this isn’t always easy. But as Christians, we are not just starting from scratch either. We have already been entrusted with a way of life… a vision for the kind of life the Living God intends for His creatures. Yet we too can resist the restrictiveness of the rules God has given to us… seeing them as a burden and a barrier to a fulfilled life, instead of as pointing us down the path that leads to God’s blessings, for us and our world, that we could not experience alone. Thankfully, our Scripture passages today call us to reflect, not simply on a list of rules we can either accept or reject according to our own wisdom, but rather they call us to reflect on the overall role that God’s commands play in our lives as His people… reminding us of what it means to respond to them faithfully… and the fruit that this obedience will bear in our own lives, and in the world around us. In our first reading today from Deuteronomy Chapter 4, we hear the words of Moses, addressing God’s people, and reflecting on the covenant the LORD had made with them at Mt. Sinai… the clear parameters… the rules of this sacred relationship forged between Yahweh and Abraham’s family. Moses reminds them that they are to live by God’s rules in the land they are about to receive. Deuteronomy 4:1, “So now, Israel, give heed to the statutes and ordinances that I am teaching you to observe, so that you may live to enter and occupy the land that the Lord, the God of your ancestors, is giving you.” These commandments were meant to guide and shape their shared life in the land… helping them walk in God’s good ways, and experience the blessings that they lead to. But there was another reason beyond their own benefit: by obeying God’s commands, they would be showing the rest of the world the blessing that they too can experience, if they draw near to the Living God in faith, and follow His ways. Deuteronomy 4:5-6, “See, just as the Lord my God has charged me, I now teach you statutes and ordinances for you to observe in the land that you are about to enter and occupy. You must observe them diligently, for this will show your wisdom and discernment to the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and discerning people!’” In other words, if Israel would walk faithfully in God’s ways, they would become a sign to their neighbours, revealing God’s wisdom, goodness, power, and steadfast love that all are invited to share in. But if they refused to do so, the nations around them would miss out on this sign. Following God’s commands, His way of life, is an integral part of sharing His saving love with the world. Faithfulness to Him draws us into His mission, and though it can be challenging, it leads us and others around us into life. Faithlessness, on the other hand… leads us all in a very different direction. The rest of Israel’s story in the Scriptures gives us a clear warning here. Despite the words of the prophets continuously warning them to turn around and return to the ways of the LORD, God’s people kept pushing back against the commands Yahweh had given to them. And as a result, they end up losing their land, and are carried away into Exile. And yet even so, God’s grace did not abandon them. In His great mercy, the Living God allows His people to learn first-hand where their lawlessness ultimately leads to, but eventually He led them back to the land… opening up the wonderful possibility that their descendants would remember His covenant with their ancestors, and walk again in His ways. And so, although their story offers us a warning, it also offers us a vivid reminder that the One who gives us these commands is not a cruel uncaring dictator, arbitrarily making up rules for no reason! No, He is the Giver of Good Gifts… the Lord of Love, who longs for us to share in His blessed life… the One who can bring forth all sorts of unforeseen and beautiful possibilities in our lives, if we will trust in Him, and faithfully walk in His ways. This leads us right to our second reading today from the letter of St. James, and his words reminding us that we can confidently place our trust in the steadfast grace of God. James 1:17-18, “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” The gift of God’s blessed life is not fickle or fleeting, uncertain like flickering lights or dancing shadows. God’s grace is completely consistent, trustworthy throughout the ages, carrying always a common purpose: to shape and transform those of us who trust in Him, so that we might become the first fruits… the starting point of His great work to transform the rest of His beloved creation… to bring His blessed, rescuing life and love, not just to a few, but to all who will receive it. And so God’s commandments, God’s ways are a great gift to us, but one that we must also put into practice. After all, it may be important to know the rules, but that won’t help us if we don’t actually follow them. James 1:22-25, “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.” God gives us the word, the Good News and the way of life that flows from it… a way of life intended to bless us, and to help us share this blessed life with all those around us. But we need to actually do what it tells us. It needs to take root in and influence our day to day decisions. Only then will it start to transform us into those who reflect the goodness and love of the Lord. This leads us at last to our reading from the Gospel of Mark, where we heard Christ’s confrontation with some of the experts on God’s laws: some Pharisees and Scribes, who were both deeply devoted to obeying the commandments of the covenant God gave to Israel… carefully and publicly putting them into practice… and watching to make sure everyone else did the same. In fact, many of the Pharisees were so concerned about breaking God’s laws, that they created all sorts of other rules around the covenant to make sure they never got close to breaking them. These extra rules were often passed down, and followed just as strictly as God’s own laws, seeing this as as a mark of true faithfulness, even though they were not found in the covenant God had made with Israel… which led to the confrontation we read about this morning. These law experts criticized Jesus and His disciples because they were not following the traditions of the elders; eating food without first washing their hands. Jesus hits back with a withering critique, highlighting the hypocrisy that He sees at work in those who claim to be defending God’s ways, while twisting His commandments to suit their own purposes. Mark 7:6-9, Jesus “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 said to them, ‘You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition! Jesus then offers examples of how these experts on God’s laws would use pious sounding loopholes to avoid actually putting God’s commands into practice… showing that even if they thought they were committed to the covenant… to the rules God had given them, in truth their hearts did not belong to the Lord at all, but to themselves. Jesus is here pointing out the hypocrisy of religious people using religion to serve their own purposes, instead of serving the Living God, and letting Him lead them into life. This problem remains a temptation for many of us today. One example that quickly comes to my mind are all the politicians that make use of other people’s faith, and their religious commitments to build up their own following… arguing that, unless you sign up to their agenda, and support and vote for them, you can’t really be a faithful Christian. But there are lots of ways that this temptation can be at work in our own lives too. Like when we follow the commandments we like… the ones that don’t challenge us to change our ways… and then ignore those that don’t suit us, as if they were dishes in a buffet to choose from, instead of essential ingredients in a recipe. And as Jesus just showed us, we can even run into trouble when trying to follow them all… if we do so for the wrong reasons… if we are obeying the rules so we can compare ourselves to others, and try to prove how good we are. That’s like being so focused on the rules of a sport that we completely forget what the game is all about! So if it’s so messy… if it’s so hard to figure out how to truly obey God’s ways, and faithfully follow His commandments, what are we supposed to do? Well, as Christians our hope has never been about how we can sort through life’s challenges on our own, or how we can be sure to perfectly obey God’s laws in our own strength. We need something more than rules to follow… we need Someone to rescue us. Jesus goes on to teach His followers that the uncleanness we should care most about comes not from the outside, but from within… and so, while rules about washing hands can perhaps point us in the right direction about the need to be clean, they can do nothing at all about the uncleanness already at work inside of us. The point I am getting at is this: even God’s commands in the covenant are not an end in themselves… but a tangible, practicable invitation to trust in the Living God with our whole lives… teaching us to walk in His ways so that His goodness, and holiness, and saving love can take shape in us, and live in us, and live through us in the power of His Spirit. Rules and commands, even from God, may be a good gift to us, but alone they are unable to cleans our hearts of sin. For that, we need the gift that God’s rules all point us to: the gift of His Son, Jesus Christ, who gave His life at the cross to wash away our sins by His blood, and who, through His Spirit at work in us, shares God’s blessed life with us, and with the whole world. These are the life-giving possibilities that God’s rules open up for us: God gives us a way of life intended to bless us, so we can start to share this blessed life with others. God gives us this gift for our good, but we need to put it into practice to truly benefit from it. And while trying to follow God’s ways on our own does not save us, they will point us in the right direction: inviting us to keep placing our trust in Jesus Christ, whose perfect obedience and sacrifice of love alone can save both us and our world. So as Christians, committed to the way of Jesus every day, and in all that we do, let us remember that the gift of God’s commandments call us to keep the cross of Jesus Christ our Lord at the centre our hearts and minds. For it is there in His death that Jesus put the entire perfect law of God into practice once and for all. And it’s there in His rising again to share His new life with us, that He shows us what these rules are all about: /as He breaks down everything that stands between us and His saving love. Amen.
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Rev. RObRev. Rob serves as the Priest-in-Charge at St. Luke's Gondola Point, and as the School Chaplain at Rothesay Netherwood School Archives
September 2024
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