Spiritual Speaking, Do We Have the Faith And Love To Get Clean What Needs To Be Washed?
Good Morning Friends,
Today’s devotional topic is a tough one during our tense pandemic and election season. But it is not about Christians relationship with Donald Trump nor Joseph Biden. But it will address the issue of antagonism prevalent in the cultures of our time and in a way the problem of hypocrisy. For conflict is nothing new in efforts of organized acts of faith and evangelism and politics. Both Jesus and Paul encountered opposition in ministry work. In fact, all the disciples did as well. It is a challenge we face today. You will likely encounter people who profess to be religious but do not even believe in God. Jesus pronounces a series of woes upon these religious hypocrites, for they had experienced the power of the Gospel yet still refused to affirm Jesus. They had no faith. No trust and no repentance. And it is this sad reality during a pandemic and election season that prompts today’s question: Spiritual Speaking, Do We Have the Faith And Love To Get Clean What Needs To Be Washed?
Scripture: While he was speaking, a Pharisee invited him to dine with him; so he went in and took his place at the table. The Pharisee was amazed to see that he did not first wash before dinner. Then the Lord said to him, “Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. You fools! Did not the one who made the outside make the inside also? So give for alms those things that are within; and see, everything will be clean for you.
Luke 11:37-41 (NRSV)
For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. Listen! I, Paul, am telling you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no benefit to you. Once again I testify to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obliged to obey the entire law. You who want to be justified by the law have cut yourselves off from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. For through the Spirit, by faith, we eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything; the only thing that counts is faith working through love.
Galatians 5:1-6 (NRSV)
Message: I am pretty certain that I know some adults who as kids, if they had known today’s Gospel passage would have complain to their parents wondering why they had to get clean to eat if Jesus did not wash up before dinner. In these days I wash my hands about every time I walk past a sink. Well maybe I have an overactive attention to personal hygiene even though I realize that a little dirt is probably healthy for us in most situations. Still most everyone is dumbfounded that Jesus would walk into the Pharisee’s house, recline at table, and refuse to wash up. But then we miss the point. Everything that Jesus does and experiences, gives Him an opportunity to teach us about something spiritual. Even when he was being crucified Jesus preached a prayer of forgiveness. So clearly in the presence of the holier than thou Pharisee, Jesus is teaching a lesson that is worthy of our attention. Paul, in the letter to the Galatians, helps us understand the lesson. Paul, was also a Pharisee, strictly applying to His own life all of the rules of Torah that were given to the Temple Levites. He at one-point thought that adherence to the law was the path to forgiveness and acceptance by God. He refused to listen to the Gospel preached by whom he thought to be heretical followers of the Way, followers of the executed Jesus. But on his long journey to Damascus to round up and imprison more of them, he was struck blind and pierced by the interior Light of Christ asking Paul why he was persecuting Jesus. So, when Paul wrote, decades later, of this event to the Galatians, he was telling them that they were unwise to try to mix in Jewish legalism with the Christian faith. Following the Pharisaic practices, beneficial though they might be had an unintended consequence that actually separated them from Christ’s plan for the world. Jesus’ faith in them, working through love, was the only way to do God’s will. Friends, hypocrisy may be defined as the practice of professing standards, beliefs, contrary to one’s real character or actual behavior. And nothing is more hypocritical than for someone to call themselves a Christian when he or she is in fact a spiritual fraud. And if you are ashamed of the Gospel then you too might fall in this category. Friends, we are taught in scripture to live… by faith and not by sight. And when we do, the Gospel message shared through us becomes the power of God to save others who begin to believe. So too this same message directs us and holds us together and lights our way to do good things that God has ordained for us to do as acts of faith. But the thing is that we are not clean on the inside and the power of our faith and love is not enough to change us, only the faith and love of Christ.
And So, we have much still to learn. I suspect that the Pharisee, in today’s Gospel story was about to throw out Jesus if He did not submit to the purification ritual. The Pharisee was playing the role of a legalistic and ancient version of the CDC but took it further to add on all sorts of extra rules for their hearts were full of suspicion of anyone who did not follow their example. They practiced a kind of extortion, condemning anyone who did not act like them. And to be sure the purification rituals and dietary laws had their health benefits, but so too does herd immunity. Jesus’s point spoke to the deeper issue of throwing out the evil things in the Pharisee’s hearts. The image is of a kind of almsgiving to God for the benefit of the people around them. And this is something all of us should literally take to heart. It is a message about the spiritual issues we have yet to face in the pandemic not so much the scientific ones. The evidence of God’s cleansing power is all around us. Still it seems that people can hear and even see and still not believe. Our Lord was eager to show divine mercy to everyone. Maybe there is the deeper message for us today too. In our present crisis of community health, the facemask is the most obvious personal sign of our desire to reduce risk. We know that they have limited ability to keep the wearer safe from the virus unless one is wearing an N-95 mask. Yet it shows our willingness to help protect others, at least in a small way. So, a mask makes some sense. But we need to be careful not to judge a person’s inner intentions by their willingness to mask-up or not. The far more challenging ethical question is what to do when there is a safe and effective vaccine. Nobody is talking about that very much. No doubt, it is going to be a challenge for all of us to come out of this pandemic in a grace-filled way. There will be issues we have yet to grapple with. I imagine some things have changed for the long haul. When people are sick, they will stay home. When we have a sniffle, we will wear a mask not for our own safety but for the safety of others. We will likely continue using hand sanitizer and washing our hands for the foreseeable future. And yet there will be a challenge for us once a safe and effective vaccine has been developed related to distribution. Regardless it is clear that our decisions will need to be based in love and faith that goes beyond our on self-benefit so all may be helped. So, remember to wash your mind of all the stress. Maybe cleanliness on the outside is not so much next to Godliness as getting washed on the inside. And as today’s text suggests, the deeper issue is a spiritual one.
Pray for God’s daily protection. Pray we watch out for hypocrisy not just in religion but in our own behavior. Pray we beware of heartless legalism and vain pride. Pray that we be real, genuine and sincere. Pray we do not rely only on what we see but also believe in a vision of what can be. Pray our outward appearances and actions agree with our inner convictions. Pray we are true to Christ from the inside out. Pray we become examples of the righteousness given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. Pray we believe in a God that brings us the hope of grace as well as justice. Pray we seek the Kingdom of God. Pray we speak the scriptures and sing the scriptures and apply the power of the scripture as we seek God’s help in doing what we cannot do for ourselves. Pray we believe in the power of God’s love. Pray we believe we too can love and be loved. Pray we be an outward sign of an inner faith that demonstrates our love for others in the love of Christ.
Blessings,
John Lawson
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