ACTION THAT COMES FROM THE HEART
(Preached on August 31, 2003)
He 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;...’”
-Mark 7:6
Have you been following the latest civics vs. religion debate in our nation?
You know, the one over the 2 ½ ton monument of the 10 commandments which the judge in Alabama had placed in the rotunda of the state judicial building.
This week that monument was removed by the state Attorney General, following the ruling of a Federal court. It was accompanied by hundreds of Christians gathered on the steps of the building praying and protesting the action, pointing to it as one more evidence of the hostility of our government toward believers and belief and further evidence of all that is wrong with this nation. According to a recent CNN-USA Today-Gallup Poll, 77% of us agree with the Christians demonstrating on those steps. After all, this is a Christian nation founded on Christian principles.
Which is an interesting argument in light of such realities as the Enron scandal, the sexual misconduct in the Catholic Church, the possibility that our President may have manipulated the work of the intelligence agencies to create support for war, and many other questionable practices.
National Public Radio’s Susan Stamberg has been doing a weekly series on ethics on Morning Edition. (Now, keep in mind, following statistics: Nine-tenths of Americans believe in God and pray; two thirds are members of a church or synagogue.)
On August 5 Stamberg reported on her visit to a local supermarket, where she interviewed people on such matters as sampling a grape in the produce aisle to reporting someone who slips a package of seeds into her purse. She asked one person if they would tell the person at the checkout counter if they had been charged for an ordinary mushroom instead of the lovely big portabello.
People’s answers varied. For some, cost was the deciding factor, for others it was a matter of principle, for others it seemed to be a matter of not getting caught.
Some religious type people would suggest that all this is proof that our nation has turned its back on God. It is proof that Ten Commandment Monuments should be displayed in public buildings; children should be praying in public schools; etc., etc.
Some Pharisees and scribes had come down from Jerusalem to check out this new teacher they had been hearing about. They are gathered around, waiting to hear some of his teaching, watching the disciples eating lunch. Evidently tired from their morning’s work, too hungry to much care that their hands and faces were dirty, they immediately sit down to eat without washing. The Pharisees seize upon this ceremonial oversight and question Jesus: “Why don’t your disciples live according to the traditions of the elders and clean their hands before they eat?”
This passage has contributed to the unfortunate tendency to discount the Pharisees as mere legalists. But the tradition of the elders was not an attempt to bury the commands of God in trivia but to apply the Torah to ever facet of life.
The tradition was an attempt to bring structure and understanding which would order all of life in terms of holiness. Traditions themselves are not the problem; people have a difficult time living without form and structures.
Jesus did not have trouble with the traditions per se. Nor did he have problems with God’s law. In fact, Matthew, Mark and Luke all tell us that Jesus supported the law of Moses. What he did not support was what human beings have perversely made of God’s will or intention.
Far too often what we human beings tend to do is take God’s law, analyze it for what it appears to tell us to do, often in a literal fashion, develop traditions, rituals, a code of behaviors to follow, and then attempt, by the force of our own wills, to follow those behaviors. And we universalize our understanding and our system for living so that we imagine it my apply to everyone. But what this does is set up boundaries to help us determine who is in the group and who is outside the group. It allows us to put our lives on autopilot so that we don’t have to think about our actions or behaviors too much. Nor do we continue to sit with God’s word, allowing it to soak deep into our being as we continue to mull it over, stew with it, struggle with it, fight with it, question it, marinate in it, until it begins to truly transform our hearts and minds and eventually our behaviors.
That requires much more of us than following traditions, rites and rituals, or someone else’s guidelines. It requires being in relationship with God.
That is why it is our hearts that are most important. For Jesus what is important is for our hearts to be in tune with God so that the actions of our daily lives be expressions of faith, of a trusting relationship, rather than adherence to a set of rules.
That is why Jesus says there is only one measuring line: do we love God with our whole heart, mind, strength and soul and do we love our neighbors as we love ourselves? It is really that simple.
That is why Jesus suggests that it is not what we take into our selves that defiles us but what comes out of us, what we do, what our actions are, that defile us.
Our actions indicate whether our hearts are turned over to God or whether they are turned away from God. When our hearts are turned over to God, when God is at the controls, then we become epiphanies of God, revelations, shining lights of God’s presence in the world. That is evident for our relationship with God is made tangible as we do the word, the will, of God in the way of life we have opted for: the way of justice, service, peace making. Our lives are no longer lived just for our sakes but for the sake of others, especially those in need, those who live on the fringes, the unloved, the unlovable, the forgotten, the invisible.
This is not something we can fake. Either our hearts are truly given over to God or they are not and our actions are the proof which others see. Clarence Jordan, the founder of Koinonia Farm, the first truly integrated Christian community in the South, tells a story the illustrates how important this matter is.
As a boy Jordan lived in a small Georgia town within one hundred yards of the Talbot County jail. One hot summer night during a revival meeting, Jordan noted how carried away the warden of the jail’s chain gang became while singing “Love Lifted Me.” He was inspired at how deeply the prevailing spiritual atmosphere had impacted this man. But later that same night, Jordan was awakened by agonizing groans coming from the direction of the chain gang camp. He knew what was happening; he had heard these sounds before. Someone had been placed into the “stretcher” and was being tortured. He also knew only one person could be responsible for inflicting such torture — the same man who had been singing “Love Lifted Me” with such great conviction only hours before. The realization tore at Jordan’s heart. He identified with the man who was in agony, and as a result, became angry at the church.
Our actions are vitally important for others are always watching us to see just what sort of people we are and what sort of God we serve.
We cannot fake the state of our hearts: they are either given over to God or they are completely under our control.
This is also important for the way we treat strangers who show up for worship. Marketing research has identified the reasons customers leave and go buy somewhere else.
1% die
3% move away
5% other friendships
9% competitive reasons (price)
14% product dissatisfaction, but...
68% go somewhere else because of an attitude of indifference toward them by some employee!!
That truth generally holds true for voluntary organizations, such as service clubs and churches. Why do some people leave for no apparent reason? Why do some people come once or twice and then disappear?
Ralph Milton, radio personality and religious publisher in Canada, relates an experience he had visiting a service club in Vancouver that, unfortunately, happens far too often in similar settings, including churches. He was there as the after-dinner speaker, at the request of the program chairperson, who had to fill up half an hour with someone, anyone, who can talk that long without stopping.
Ralph arrived 15 minutes early. The program chair said “welcome,” got him a cup of coffee, and disappeared. He stood there feeling conspicuous while the folks talked to each other in little groups. Then the chairperson came and sat him down at the head table. There were polite introductions. The meal was served.
The man on Ralph’s right talked to the man on his right.
The man on Ralph’s left talked to the man on his left.
Nobody talked to Ralph. The club president stood up and complained about the falling membership and that people didn’t attend very faithfully anymore. Not like the good old days. Then Ralph made his speech, took his fee, and everyone went home. It’s funny. Ralph says he didn’t have an overwhelming urge to join.
All of this is like a youngster learning to play the piano. The child holds her hands just as she’s been told ... she has memorized the piece perfectly. She has hit all the proper notes with deadly accuracy. But her heart’s not in it, only her fingers. What she’s playing is a sort of music, but nothing that will start voices singing or feet tapping.
When it comes to faith and life, this is the question:
Are our hearts in it or only our fingers?
Are we only going through the motions or are we allowing God’s renewing grace to work in us from deep within?