13th Sunday after pentecost 8/30/09 Text: Mark 7:14-29 Title 3 Choices.
Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost
08/30/09
Text: Mark 7:14-29
Title: Three Choices
The Gospel reading for this morning is a fitting conclusion for the sermon series, “Ten Words for living a happy life”. It was a study of the Ten Commandments where we learned that, as followers of Jesus, a people who believe that he took the punishment that we still deserve the Ten Commandments serve a new purpose; that is how we are to live better lives.
I have titled my sermon this morning, “Three Choices”. It is based on our gospel reading, Mark 7:14-29. It is my prayer that by the time the sermon is over you will have a better understanding of God’s will for his creation.
How many of you remember the nursery rhyme “Little Jack Horner sat in the corner, eating a Christmas pie; he put in his thumb, and pulled out a plum, and said, “What a good boy am I!” This nursery rhyme has some factual history behind proving that Jack Horner was not as good a boy as he claimed to be. He actually cheated the king of the title to an expensive estate. To those who knew him he was an upstanding citizen, but inside he had a black heart much like the Pharisees of Jesus’ day.
When we listen to the Pharisees in the gospel today we see a bit of Jack Horner. They presented themselves as “good boys.” doing righteous things. They were impressed with themselves because they kept the rules of the Jewish religion. They were not intentionally evil. In fact, they tried very hard to be “good,” as they understood it. However to do that they picked which rules were important, and they sometimes the rules they picked to follow were wrong. Tradition to them was very important. The problem being that the tradition that they followed was not based on God’s Word. Jesus did not mock tradition, for he understood the importance of tradition in lives of the religious lives of the people. He did not mock it, but he had no tolerance for those traditions that gave human-made rules priority of the timeless rules of God.
The interchange we hear between Jesus and the Pharisees, along with Jesus’ admonition concerning what really makes a person holy, offers an important reflection for all of us who call ourselves religious. Like these Pharisees of old, we can easily interpret our adherence to tradition as closeness to God. In fact, such adherence may not only enable us to judge ourselves as glowingly as the Pharisees did themselves, but also to overlook other things that are more critical to our being at one with God. This is why Jesus reminds us, even warns us, “It is not the one who says, ‘Lord, Lord’ who will attain the kingdom of God but rather the one who does the will of the Father in heaven.”
The Pharisees in this story had not only used a handful of man-made rules to justify themselves and then they used those same rules as verbal missiles to pass judgment on others who in the long run, were holier in God’s sight than the Pharisee could understand. In focusing on those rules passed on by their forefathers, they had become blinded to the fact that they were ignoring the intent of the law of God.
Unfortunately that is as easy for us to do as it was for them. It is sort of looking at ourselves in the mirror and determining our health and wellbeing by what we see, when an X-ray or a CAT scan may offer a much more accurate picture than the mirror, for they show what is below the surface, such as when Pastor Rhoads had his CAT scan that showed a potentially life threatening tumor. There was nothing visible on the outside, but on the inside a whole different story. Jesus reminds us today just like he did to the Pharisees of his day that it’s what is on the inside, not the outside, that matters, for it is what is on the inside that can kill.
If we were to transport ourselves back in time to this particular encounter with Jesus we would see that there are three choices available to us. We could side with the Pharisees and be offended by those who do not follow what we consider important rules. We could side with Jesus in challenging the Pharisees’ priorities. Or last but not least we could remain quiet and not take a position.
You are witnessing the encounter with Jesus through the words of Saint Mark. What choice would you make? What choice would our congregation make? There would be a certain advantage if we sided with the Pharisees, for that would have put us on an inside track with the religious authorities of the time. They pretty much controlled everything. We would, by siding with them be in a seemingly safe place.
On the other hand, if we had sided with Jesus and his followers we would have been put on the outside, a much more dangerous position. Jesus was after all a radical, and our agreement with his teachings would earn us the same negative label they attached to him. We would be at odds with those who were accepted as religious, the good boys and girls of the day, those who were considered righteous by the community. To follow Jesus’ teachings would defiantly compromise our comfort level.
If we just remained silent, not wanting to get involved, as I am sure many did, we would have avoided conflict and had the numbers on our side. We could stay out of the fray and devote ourselves to other interests, things of more importance to our lives today.
While thinking about what we might have done is an interesting exercise; some good might come out of it the important question is what we will do today when the same choices confront us in our lives?
Pharisee-types are still wandering about. They are in every church body. We run across them every day in our lives. Talk show hosts on the radio and TV. There are those in our social groups, our relatives, those at the work place, all of which can and do challenge us the same way the Pharisees challenged Jesus. And like those there that day so long ago when Jesus went head to head with the Pharisees we are faced with same three choices.
We can throw in with those who revel in moral-values debates by picking a few convenient rules and using them as the litmus test for holiness. Or we can attempt to address the questions of holiness as presented by Jesus; it is what is on the inside that makes one unclean, not what one does on the outside. Or we can throw in with the Christian silent majority; those folks who stay out of the discussion and leave what is usually referred to as church politics to others so we don’t have to get involved.
Let’s see, if we picked choice number one in selecting a rule or two to justify ourselves and look down our religious noses at others we would find ourselves in acceptable company. We could harp on one or two rules that we are really good at keeping while ignoring the inner virtues that God calls for in our hearts and thus feel pretty good about ourselves.
If we picked choice number two we would find ourselves assessing the moral values of our society, as to how in line they were with the mind of Jesus as he expressed it in his teachings. This choice might cost us by putting us in the minority. It may even put us at odds with the first group and tag us as radicals to be shunned, ignored or worse. It is certainly not the easiest choice, for it is guaranteed to cause problems and discomforts in our lives. Choice number two is becoming a worker in God’s kingdom, not a bystander.
If we picked the third choice we would feel safe, for we would have thrown ourselves in with that great Christian silent majority, the folks who stay out of the discussion and leave the assessment of what is truth to others. The problem being of course is that the silent majority perpetuate false hoods and injustice in God’s kingdom by their silence. These people who pick the third choice by remaining silent can be their words that they never discuss religion which translates into someone else deciding what is true and just.
It appears that there are three obvious choices, but for those who truly believe in Jesus as their Savior there is only one choice. Not three but one choice, for the only choice a true follower of Jesus can have is to follow his teachings, having them mold our values, and thus our teachings.
This brings up a subject that I would like to share with you this morning. Did you know that by age 12 1 out of 2 children have accepted Jesus as their Savior? Did you know that by age 13 a child has irrevocably formed the majority of their beliefs about God and the reliability of the Bible? Did you know by age 9 a child has formed their core moral foundations, the same foundation that will carry them through their life?
George Barna, a well known and respected church researcher writes, “In essence what you believe by time you are age 13 is what you believe when you die.”
Proverbs 22:6 tells us, “Train up a child in the way they should go and when they are old they will not depart from it.” Now I know some of you have children who have left the faith, for various reasons, but the promise of God still stands. “Train up a child in the way they should go and when they are old they will not depart from it.” When they are old they will not depart from it. Those are words that we who have wayward children hang on to for they are promises from God.
Our children and grandchildren are not the future of the body of Christ. They are our primary responsibility now, for God has put them in our midst so that they could be taught of his love. Our congregation, like so many small congregations struggle with getting people to tell our children simple Bible stories. There have, since I have been here time where we have used nonmembers to teach our children the Christian faith because no one would step up to the plate, so to speak.
Pastor Rhoads knows that he could put a guilt trip on some of you and you would teach our children, but that is not how it should be done. He knows that there are some of you out there right now who are being moved by the Holy Spirit to teach, be a helper, or be a substitute teacher. The lessons are easy, for they are the simple Old and New Testament Bible stories that we all know and love. We have picked to teach our children, the children that God has entrusted to us those stories, for in those stories the faith is taught and our children are brought in into the fold of Jesus where they become Jesus’ little lambs. God will surely bless this congregation when he sees us walk the talk. See Mark Kyle of Katrina Sheely for more information on this most important ministry of our congregation. Amen.
08/30/09
Text: Mark 7:14-29
Title: Three Choices
The Gospel reading for this morning is a fitting conclusion for the sermon series, “Ten Words for living a happy life”. It was a study of the Ten Commandments where we learned that, as followers of Jesus, a people who believe that he took the punishment that we still deserve the Ten Commandments serve a new purpose; that is how we are to live better lives.
I have titled my sermon this morning, “Three Choices”. It is based on our gospel reading, Mark 7:14-29. It is my prayer that by the time the sermon is over you will have a better understanding of God’s will for his creation.
How many of you remember the nursery rhyme “Little Jack Horner sat in the corner, eating a Christmas pie; he put in his thumb, and pulled out a plum, and said, “What a good boy am I!” This nursery rhyme has some factual history behind proving that Jack Horner was not as good a boy as he claimed to be. He actually cheated the king of the title to an expensive estate. To those who knew him he was an upstanding citizen, but inside he had a black heart much like the Pharisees of Jesus’ day.
When we listen to the Pharisees in the gospel today we see a bit of Jack Horner. They presented themselves as “good boys.” doing righteous things. They were impressed with themselves because they kept the rules of the Jewish religion. They were not intentionally evil. In fact, they tried very hard to be “good,” as they understood it. However to do that they picked which rules were important, and they sometimes the rules they picked to follow were wrong. Tradition to them was very important. The problem being that the tradition that they followed was not based on God’s Word. Jesus did not mock tradition, for he understood the importance of tradition in lives of the religious lives of the people. He did not mock it, but he had no tolerance for those traditions that gave human-made rules priority of the timeless rules of God.
The interchange we hear between Jesus and the Pharisees, along with Jesus’ admonition concerning what really makes a person holy, offers an important reflection for all of us who call ourselves religious. Like these Pharisees of old, we can easily interpret our adherence to tradition as closeness to God. In fact, such adherence may not only enable us to judge ourselves as glowingly as the Pharisees did themselves, but also to overlook other things that are more critical to our being at one with God. This is why Jesus reminds us, even warns us, “It is not the one who says, ‘Lord, Lord’ who will attain the kingdom of God but rather the one who does the will of the Father in heaven.”
The Pharisees in this story had not only used a handful of man-made rules to justify themselves and then they used those same rules as verbal missiles to pass judgment on others who in the long run, were holier in God’s sight than the Pharisee could understand. In focusing on those rules passed on by their forefathers, they had become blinded to the fact that they were ignoring the intent of the law of God.
Unfortunately that is as easy for us to do as it was for them. It is sort of looking at ourselves in the mirror and determining our health and wellbeing by what we see, when an X-ray or a CAT scan may offer a much more accurate picture than the mirror, for they show what is below the surface, such as when Pastor Rhoads had his CAT scan that showed a potentially life threatening tumor. There was nothing visible on the outside, but on the inside a whole different story. Jesus reminds us today just like he did to the Pharisees of his day that it’s what is on the inside, not the outside, that matters, for it is what is on the inside that can kill.
If we were to transport ourselves back in time to this particular encounter with Jesus we would see that there are three choices available to us. We could side with the Pharisees and be offended by those who do not follow what we consider important rules. We could side with Jesus in challenging the Pharisees’ priorities. Or last but not least we could remain quiet and not take a position.
You are witnessing the encounter with Jesus through the words of Saint Mark. What choice would you make? What choice would our congregation make? There would be a certain advantage if we sided with the Pharisees, for that would have put us on an inside track with the religious authorities of the time. They pretty much controlled everything. We would, by siding with them be in a seemingly safe place.
On the other hand, if we had sided with Jesus and his followers we would have been put on the outside, a much more dangerous position. Jesus was after all a radical, and our agreement with his teachings would earn us the same negative label they attached to him. We would be at odds with those who were accepted as religious, the good boys and girls of the day, those who were considered righteous by the community. To follow Jesus’ teachings would defiantly compromise our comfort level.
If we just remained silent, not wanting to get involved, as I am sure many did, we would have avoided conflict and had the numbers on our side. We could stay out of the fray and devote ourselves to other interests, things of more importance to our lives today.
While thinking about what we might have done is an interesting exercise; some good might come out of it the important question is what we will do today when the same choices confront us in our lives?
Pharisee-types are still wandering about. They are in every church body. We run across them every day in our lives. Talk show hosts on the radio and TV. There are those in our social groups, our relatives, those at the work place, all of which can and do challenge us the same way the Pharisees challenged Jesus. And like those there that day so long ago when Jesus went head to head with the Pharisees we are faced with same three choices.
We can throw in with those who revel in moral-values debates by picking a few convenient rules and using them as the litmus test for holiness. Or we can attempt to address the questions of holiness as presented by Jesus; it is what is on the inside that makes one unclean, not what one does on the outside. Or we can throw in with the Christian silent majority; those folks who stay out of the discussion and leave what is usually referred to as church politics to others so we don’t have to get involved.
Let’s see, if we picked choice number one in selecting a rule or two to justify ourselves and look down our religious noses at others we would find ourselves in acceptable company. We could harp on one or two rules that we are really good at keeping while ignoring the inner virtues that God calls for in our hearts and thus feel pretty good about ourselves.
If we picked choice number two we would find ourselves assessing the moral values of our society, as to how in line they were with the mind of Jesus as he expressed it in his teachings. This choice might cost us by putting us in the minority. It may even put us at odds with the first group and tag us as radicals to be shunned, ignored or worse. It is certainly not the easiest choice, for it is guaranteed to cause problems and discomforts in our lives. Choice number two is becoming a worker in God’s kingdom, not a bystander.
If we picked the third choice we would feel safe, for we would have thrown ourselves in with that great Christian silent majority, the folks who stay out of the discussion and leave the assessment of what is truth to others. The problem being of course is that the silent majority perpetuate false hoods and injustice in God’s kingdom by their silence. These people who pick the third choice by remaining silent can be their words that they never discuss religion which translates into someone else deciding what is true and just.
It appears that there are three obvious choices, but for those who truly believe in Jesus as their Savior there is only one choice. Not three but one choice, for the only choice a true follower of Jesus can have is to follow his teachings, having them mold our values, and thus our teachings.
This brings up a subject that I would like to share with you this morning. Did you know that by age 12 1 out of 2 children have accepted Jesus as their Savior? Did you know that by age 13 a child has irrevocably formed the majority of their beliefs about God and the reliability of the Bible? Did you know by age 9 a child has formed their core moral foundations, the same foundation that will carry them through their life?
George Barna, a well known and respected church researcher writes, “In essence what you believe by time you are age 13 is what you believe when you die.”
Proverbs 22:6 tells us, “Train up a child in the way they should go and when they are old they will not depart from it.” Now I know some of you have children who have left the faith, for various reasons, but the promise of God still stands. “Train up a child in the way they should go and when they are old they will not depart from it.” When they are old they will not depart from it. Those are words that we who have wayward children hang on to for they are promises from God.
Our children and grandchildren are not the future of the body of Christ. They are our primary responsibility now, for God has put them in our midst so that they could be taught of his love. Our congregation, like so many small congregations struggle with getting people to tell our children simple Bible stories. There have, since I have been here time where we have used nonmembers to teach our children the Christian faith because no one would step up to the plate, so to speak.
Pastor Rhoads knows that he could put a guilt trip on some of you and you would teach our children, but that is not how it should be done. He knows that there are some of you out there right now who are being moved by the Holy Spirit to teach, be a helper, or be a substitute teacher. The lessons are easy, for they are the simple Old and New Testament Bible stories that we all know and love. We have picked to teach our children, the children that God has entrusted to us those stories, for in those stories the faith is taught and our children are brought in into the fold of Jesus where they become Jesus’ little lambs. God will surely bless this congregation when he sees us walk the talk. See Mark Kyle of Katrina Sheely for more information on this most important ministry of our congregation. Amen.
posted by Pastor Rhoads | 5:06 PM
|
0 comments
