August 29Th 2021
James 1 v 17-27; St Mark 7 1-8, 14-15, 21-23
I asked Harry if he could draw me a picture of our Church or Churches but to show them as part of a bigger picture. I asked him to put a lot of dots on the picture reminding us of a style of painting called "Pointillism."
If you hold Harry's picture close to your face you tend to concentrate on the dots in one particular area, you have to hold it further away or take a step back to see the bigger picture.- The Church at the heart of the community and the community at the heart of the Church'
We've just sung, "Blest are the pure in heart"
If you've looked at this week's news letter you'll have seen that it's headed with a picture of a heart. Anybody with a heart complaint knows how debilitating it can be, how it hinders/ limits what they want to do, how they function, even who they want to be. The physical condition of our heart is crucial to our functioning as we are intended to function. That's equally true of the spiritual condition of our heart.
I'm often relieved that people can't see into my heart because, at times they'd be really shocked by what's in there. I can put on a really good holy front but, oh boy, there are times......
Apparently, many years ago there was a really popular children's programme on the radio; the presenter was a real folk-hero to the children and they idolised him. One Saturday he finished his programme with all his best wishes to all his friends and looking forward to being with them again the following Saturday. The programme finished with the usual musical flourish but then disaster struck! Believing that it was all over, the presenter turned to those around him and came out with a string of abusive words about all those spoiled brats out there, who really annoyed him so much!
What he didn't know was that the microphone was still on and he was still on air - everyone knew what a front he put on what a hypocrite he was and what was really in his heart.
When I was a child in Sunday School, many moons ago, we sang a chorus which says; "Cleanse me from my sins Lord; put thy power within Lord, take me as I am Lord and make me all thine own. Keep me day by day Lord, underneath thy sway Lord, make my heart thy palace and thy royal throne."
I've sung sung it, mainly in my head, countless times over the years, and I know that He is in my heart but I also know that there are many times when I allow all kinds of other things to turf Him off the throne and allow them to rule. And, I don't always realise that I have turfed Him off and allowed other things to rule my decisions, my actions , my attitudes, my words, my moods. Those other things have clouded my judgement, taken my eyes off God's big picture and my place in it.
Throughout history and today, we have examples of people, nations, religions, doing, horrendous things whilst going through the motions of religious practices claiming to be ruled and led by God. How can they be when God is intrinsically LOVE? Religion so often gets caught up in ambition, rules, regulations and tradition, to name but a few, all of which which can totally distort or completely obscures God Himself.
The Jewish religious leaders were completely caught up in religion. The scribes studied and taught the Law whilst the Pharisee enforced and policed it. They couldn't see the big picture of God's redemptive plan for the world because of their total absorption in the Law and tradition.
In our Gospel today the Pharisees challenged Jesus because his disciples were eating with"unwashed" hands. Now, particularly since Covid raised its ugly head, we have all been particularly conscious of how important hygiene rules, particularly washing our hands, are. The scribes and pharisees weren't talking about that kind of washing of hands but the complicated ceremonial washing as prescribed on the O.T. Books of Leviticus and Deuteronomy . The laws set out there were formulated during the period when the the Israelites were wandering through the wilderness and then, finally settling in Canaan, a pagan country.
613 laws were instituted to help to provide a moral, ethical code to help the people to keep the 10 Commandments in very adverse circumstances, in order to be the missionary people God had created them to be. They were to be the example to the world, seen as a pure and holy people who others would admire and be drawn to their example, and thereby, to God. The ceremonial washing of hands, and utensils was time consuming and complex involving two lots of fresh water, two lots of towels, a prescribed way of washing, so on and so forth - way over the top and quite unnecessary by Jesus' day. But, it had become one of the many that had become the expected, traditional, legalistic custom, which, like many such, the scribes and pharisees spent their lives zealously and rigorously enforcing, as I said, so much so that they lost sight of the bigger picture of God's purpose for them.
Jesus came to change that. He came to bring God's people across a bridge from A LOVE OF LAW TO A LAW OF LOVE - the cross being his ultimate demonstration of the height, breadth and depth of God's love. Both of today's readings remind us not to fall into the same trap as those scribes and pharisees, to become so blinkered by customs, traditions, long held prejudices, that we too fail to see that they have turfed Him off the thrones of our hearts and we have lost sight of His "big picture" and His purpose for us in it.
Jesus came to give us his Spirit to live in our hearts, to sit on the thrones of our hearts, to turn our hearts of stone into hearts of love. We know that we have allowed Him, not only to take up residence but to actually sit on the throne of our hearts, if the fruits of His Spirit are being seen in our lives-----love, joy, peace , patience , kindness, goodness, meekness and self control, and the other things, as listed by Jesus in the final verse of the Gospel, are being banished, the evil things Jesus said come from inside us and make us unclean, unfit for purpose.
Underneath the picture of the heart on the news sheet is the caption: "PURIFY MY HEART",
The caption is taken from no. 574 in our hymn books, if you'd like to turn to it and read it with me:
Purify my heart........
Let's read the chorus again----
"Set apart for you, my master, ready to do your will"
Back to Harry's picture and the reminder that we must not let anything take our eyes off God's big picture and our part, as His Church to be at the heart of our community, to have God's love for every member of our community at our heart, to help everyone and anyone to find God and experience His love for themselves.
Let's finish with the lovely Serum, 15th Century prayer, remembering that God is absolute love:
" God be in my head, and in my understanding.
God be in my eyes and in my looking.
God be in my mouth and in my speaking,
God be in my heart and in my thinking.
God be at my end and at my departing. Amen.