Sermon 8/14/05
What Goes In . . . Matthew 15:10-20
(view lectionary notes for this text)
Today’s gospel lesson is a lesson, it seems, in hygiene, from Jesus’ perspective. He calls the crowds together to talk about what defiles and what doesn’t, what makes a person unclean, and what doesn’t. The Jewish people had many laws as part of their religious beliefs but also as part of their community codes that had to do with cleanliness and ritual purity. Food had to be prepared just so. The hygiene of individuals was described and required to be done in a certain specific way. There were rules to be followed, and failure to follow these rules resulted in a person being called defiled or unclean. Sometimes whole groups of people were unclean – those who were not Jewish were certainly not considered clean. Other things caused practicing Jews to become unclean – associating with non-Jews would do it, eating the wrong thing in the wrong way also could make one unclean.
So when Jesus starts talking about what makes a person clean or defiled, he begins to speak in a way that is clearly in contradiction to what is written in the law books. Jesus says, “listen, and understand: it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles.” Naturally, the Pharisees are offended by Jesus’ words, which fly in the face of the law, it seems. Even Jesus’ disciples don’t seem to get it, and ask for an explanation. Jesus responds, “are you also still without understanding?” frustrated that even those who have been with him everyday still aren’t getting the message.
But Jesus explains in more detail, just to make it crystal clear: “Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth enters the stomach and goes out into the sewer? But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this is what defiles . . . [What comes out of the heart is] what defile[s] a person, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile.” Put simply, “it’s what comes out of our mouths, not what goes in them, that makes us unclean.”
This lesson seems simple enough for us to understand. After all, today we don’t follow the codes of ritual cleanliness that Jews in the first century practiced, right? Of course, we’re still obsessed with cleanliness – everything we buy, it seems, can be purchased either in regular or antibacterial form. Jesus might say that goes in us doesn’t defile, but that sure won’t stop us from fighting germs however we can! But still, our practices have changed and become flexible, haven’t they? We don’t consider whole groups of people unclean, do we? And yet, I think our attitudes and beliefs are still very much the same as in Jesus’ day. We have our own ideas about cleanliness and what defiles. We might not worry about eating particular foods that defile, or perform religious rituals for cleanliness, but we still worry a lot about what goes into us.
After all, our world is filled with things that it seems we’d be better off excluding if we could. We are bombarded with things that seem to threaten our cleanliness. We’re tempted by all the world offers – junk food that hurts our bodies, drugs and alcohol and other addictions that break us down physically and emotionally. The world offers us empty promises that new toys and new technology and new cars and new homes and new clothes are going to fill us with the meaning that we seek. In the media and on television, we are inundated with images of sex and violence and an on-demand lifestyle, masquerading as normal and necessary. Indeed, it seems that there is much in this world that can defile us, make us unclean, if we let it inside us. How can Jesus say that it doesn’t matter what goes into us? As Christians, shouldn’t we be protecting ourselves, insulating ourselves from all of these things, these temptations, that are coming at us?
But Jesus says we should be more concerned with what comes out of us than what goes into us. Christians have always struggled with how to live in the world and not be just like the world. But insulating ourselves, closing ourselves off from anything that might make us unclean also means we would have to close ourselves of from others, close ourselves off from those we are called to love and to serve and from those to whom we are called to share the good news of God’s free grace. Jesus surrounded himself with people and places and practices that we would describe only as bad influences. But Jesus didn’t see it that way. He saw himself as the one who was doing the influencing. We are called to do the same, and to draw from within us the Christ that we have to share with the world.
Writes Wesley White, “The sea in which we swim is invisible to us. The water comes in and goes out. We live. In this regard, the stuff we are exposed to is simply the stuff we are exposed to. The good, the bad, and the ugly are all things we take in day after day. The junk food comes in, the junk jokes come in, the junk prejudices come in, the junk thinking comes in, the junk suffering comes in, the junk guilt comes in. The junk we will have with us, always. But all these influences that bombard us day and night are not determinants. We yet can learn and choose, rather than just junk react. One key question here is about the validating responses we make. If we respond to the openness of God's love, we validate that. If we respond to the consumer drive of our culture, we validate that.” (1)
How will we respond to the world we live in? Today as we celebrate Holy Communion, we confront Jesus words from a different angle, and have a chance to make our response. Just as it is what comes out of our mouth from our heart that can defile us, and not what goes in to us that can make us unclean, so it is not what goes into our mouths that can make us holy, but what comes out of us. Does taking Communion make us Holy? Only if we let it be so. Because the elements that we take into our mouths aren’t magic – Jesus shares a meal with us of simple, everyday things – bread, and juice – plain things. But it is how we respond to the sharing, how we respond to being at the table together and being at the table with Christ – our response is what can be holy, what can be transformative. In communion, we celebrate that we are part of the one body, the body of Christ. So what comes out of us should be what God has already placed within us. Jesus promised us that he would live inside us, so what comes out of us, should be Christ. We are the body of Christ, and within us dwells the spirit, the love, the grace that is Christ. This is the gift that we receive at the communion table, and this is the gift we are called to share with the world.
So come, let us gather at the table, and receive into us bread and juice, but go forth sending out of us the love of Christ that is within us. Amen.
(1) http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2002/august2002.html