Hearts

Charlotte Collins Reed

Christ Church Episcopal

September 2, 2018

17 Proper B

When Don and I were first married, we lived in Nashville, Tennessee where Don was in graduate school at Vanderbilt.  In Nashville, there are many Episcopal Churches from which to choose.  We sampled Anglo-Catholic and Evangelical Episcopal churches, a historic downtown broad church, friendly churches, decidedly unfriendly churches, and everything in between.  One Sunday we made our way to one of the smaller churches in Nashville, one we really didn't know anything about.  The service was a standard Rite 2 Holy Eucharist, so nothing unfamiliar to us.  But when we went to the altar rail to receive communion, before placing the bread in our hands, the priest looked us in the eye and said, not "The body of Christ the bread of heaven," but "Have you been confirmed?"  Now, before the current prayer book, adopted in January of 1979, the official teaching of the Episcopal Church was that confirmation was admission to communion.  The idea was that a person needed to have made a mature affirmation of faith before receiving the Eucharist.  But this was 1982, and the 1979 prayer book understands that baptism is full initiation into the life of the church and that includes receiving communion.  So I was stunned-not only by the priest's question but at his nerve to ask the question at the altar rail of someone with their hands outstretched waiting to receive Christ in the bread and the wine.  There was no question in my mind that had the answer been "no," we would have been refused.  We had been called out for being strangers and possibly unfit for the sacred meal.  I felt judged, even though I met the requirements.

I wonder how Jesus' disciples felt when they were called out by the religious authorities for eating with defiled hands.  On the one hand, Mark does not portray the disciples as the brightest lights in the building.  They are forever misunderstanding Jesus.  In fact, just prior to the story we heard this morning, we were told that the disciples did not understand the feeding of the 5000, because their hearts were hardened.  But on the other hand, the disciples have given up everything and followed Jesus.  Earlier in Mark's gospel, we are told that the disciples had successfully cast out demons and anointed the sick with oil and cured them.  How many of us can claim success like that?  Had I been one of those disciples, I might have been a tad bit offended when called out for not living according to the tradition of the elders and keeping my hands clean.

On a first reading of the gospel lesson, we might think that Jesus is criticizing the tradition of the elders in favor of good works. Jesus quotes Isaiah who says "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."  Then Jesus teaches the crowd that evil comes from within; that there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile the human heart.

The reading from James teaches likewise.  We hear these words: "Be doers of the word and not merely hearers."  Like Jesus' quote from the prophet Isaiah, the emphasis seems to be on works.  James writes "Religion that is pure and undefiled before God is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world."  Merely hearing the word is not sufficient.  Right action is what is required.

So, what does Jesus want?  The intent of the Jewish ritual was to make all of life holy.  So, what a person ate or drank, or how a person kept clean, or what a person did on the Sabbath, or how a person worshiped mattered. All of life was to be holy and pleasing to God.  But on the other hand, Jesus was clearly concerned with the commandments of God that have to do with our relationships with our fellow human beings.  Everything in Jesus' list of evils has to do with harming other people.  Which does Jesus want?

What Jesus wants is our heart.  Jesus wants ritual that forms our hearts so that the actions that come from our hearts honor God and each other.  Jesus is not an either/or sort of Savior.  Jesus is a both/and Savior. If we come to this place for beautiful worship, and our hearts are not formed to do gospel work, then Jesus has some harsh things to say and our worship is empty.  If we work at our Welcome Table, or Open M, or First Serve, or go about our day to day lives, and we do not see Jesus in the people we encounter, then our actions are empty, too.  In worship, we sing great hymns, pray the ancient prayers of the church, hear the sacred story, break bread, connect with God and each other, then hear the words of the dismissal "Go in peace to love and serve the Lord."  That worship opens our hearts and sends us out into the world to encounter God.   Then our hearts are more open and patient with people who view the world differently than we do, or who have needs we may or may not be able to meet, or who need to hear a bit of Good News and be treated with kindness and respect.  Those encounters drive us back here to worship, pray, and connect.  Which sends us back into the world in an endless cycle of ritual or worship, and works.  On Labor Day Sunday, we offer the Blessing of Hands as part of our worship as a reminder of the connection between what we do with our lives and what we profess with our lips.  Jesus tells us that neither worship nor works are complete without the other because both are needed to form our hearts as people of God. And our hearts are what matter to Jesus.

                                                                          Amen.