josephholubsermons


 

August 23, 2009  -  Pentecost 12
Mark 7:1-8

Sea of Grace

"…the only thing that counts is faith active in love."   -Galatians 5:6

If you were to write down in 25 words or less what the essence of the Christian Faith is for you;  the heart, the core, the center, what would say? 

It is an important question.  I have a conviction that we all have a center and a core that steers us like a rudder steers a great ship.  It's a center and core that has power to shape our lives; shape how we live and relate to the world and to others; especially when under stress or pressure. 

I believe all three of these passages this morning; from Micah 6, Galatians 5, and Mark 7 have to do with that core, with that heart, and that center.     

Let’s begin with the gospel and work our way backward.  Jesus and his disciples were frequently accused of being lawbreakers and blasphemers of Mosaic Law; of not following the precepts of  sacred scripture and tradition.  We see in today’s gospel.  As we have journeyed through the gospel of Mark this liturgical year, I remind you of passages we have already considered from Mark 1, 2, 3, and 5:          

·         Jesus touched a leper thereby making himself unclean;  a practice strictly forbidden in their sacred scripture and tradition. (Mark 1)

·         Jesus forgave sins, once again violating sacred scripture and tradition that had explicitly  reserved the mediating of God’s grace for the temple priesthood. (Mark 2)   

·         Jesus did the unthinkable, that which was considered blasphemy according to sacred scripture and tradition by having table fellowship with “tax collectors and sinners.” (a euphemism for undesirables, outcasts and the scorned)  (Mark 2)

·         Jesus' disciples were accused of ignoring and breaking sacred Sabbath laws by working in the fields plucking ears of grain on the Sabbath.  (Mark 2)

·         Jesus healed a man with a withered hand, and the religious elite swooped down upon him like a flock of vultures on carrion because he broke sacred scripture and tradition by healing on the Sabbath.  (Mark 3)

·         Jesus allowed a ritually unclean woman to touch him which broke several laws in the sacred scripture and tradition.  (Mark 5)  And then there is today's story from Mark 7

·         Because of all of this Jesus was accused by the religious elite of being possessed by Satan.  (Mark 3)

All of that in just few chapters of Mark, not to mention the balance of Mark, and also Matthew, Luke and John all of which contain numerous examples of Jesus trumping Mosaic Law with love and grace.  From our 21st century viewpoint we may not think these issues to be very significant, but for them they were issues of serious and  intense religious identity; issues of life and death as Jesus was to later experience in his own life.  Numerous times I have been accused of a similar thing, especially at those times when I have deferred to grace; at those times when, emulating my Lord Jesus, I have allowed grace to trump rigid law and tradition. 

Jesus confronted his accusers saying to them, “You have abandoned the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.”  In other words Jesus meant, ‘You religious use the sacred law and tradition to leverage yourselves over and against others, and in so doing gut the religion of the one most essential commandment.’  To what commandment was Jesus referring?  Mark tells us in chapter 12 when a scribe asked Jesus, “What is the greatest commandment?”  Jesus said, “Love God… and love your neighbor as yourself.”  Jesus connected loving God and loving neighbor as the core, even if it meant that love and grace trumped religious law.

A similar thing is going on in the Galatians passage this morning.  A serious crises was going on in the Galatian congregation.  There were those who were advancing the idea that to follow Jesus meant an obligation to keep every letter of the Mosaic Law as expounded in their sacred scripture and practiced in their tradition, especially the practice of circumcision.   Paul insists to the contrary, arriving at this incredible crescendo when he said,  “For freedom Christ has set us free… the only thing that counts is faith active in love.”

More than anything else that declaration, of love trumping law, put the early followers of Jesus on a road that would transform them from merely being a insignificant Jewish sect into a world religion.   For Paul and those followers of Jesus this was their core, “faith active in love”; not faith active in following rigid law; not faith active in a correct set of beliefs and doctrines; but “faith active in love.”

Working our way backward to the Old Testament passage from Micah, we also see this core expressed in another context.  The issue for Micah seven centuries before Jesus was appropriate worship in Israel.  For Micah, worship devoid of a parallel lifestyle of compassion and justice for the poor and oppressed was nothing more than empty and shallow ritual.  Micah was particularly concerned with the economic injustices that he witnessed in Israel, where the poor were being exploited by the powerful wealthy elites in religiously legitimated ways. For Micah God’s love expressed socially took the shape of compassion, economic justice and humility.  So Micah attempts to re-center an off-centered people by articulating the core:  “With what shall I come before the Lord… God has told you O mortal, what is good... but to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God.” 

Down through the ages sacred scripture and tradition have been sometimes used in dehumanizing and condescending ways that have included: condemnation of the divorced; harsh judgment upon  those practicing birth control;  justification of practices that contribute to over-population; the subjugation of women and even naming women as the source of evil; justifying the institution of slavery; cultivating homophobia, justifying the exploitation of the earth’s resources and poor practices of ecology; justifying acts of violence of all kinds including domestic violence, child abuse and going to war; ways that have turned God, Jesus and people into monsters.

But there have also been those astounding and courageous people who didn’t see sacred scripture as a set of rigid absolutes to be imposed, but in the sacred scripture sacramentally encountered the living Jesus and the resurrected Christ and the life-giving Spirit of God who led them beyond law into a deeper experience of and new expressions of God’s love, grace, justice and compassion for new times, circumstances and places. Brave souls who endured, with their Lord, accusations of blasphemy and sacrilege for the sake of love, compassion and justice.  Perhaps those  gathered in Minneapolis this past week at the ELCA National Assembly can be counted among them? 

I will share with you a centering practice (a ritual) I do regularly to center myself on what I see as the core; to center myself in the astounding love and grace of God, especially when I am stressed; or when I feel myself becoming rigid and uncompromising and not life-giving; or when I am attacked and minimized by others, and I feel the urge to strike back in similar fashion.

My ritual is rooted in an experience I had when I journeyed to Israel, Palestine and Jordan twice in the mid-1990’s.  On both occasions I had the opportunity to swim in the Dead Sea.  The Dead Sea is surrounded by Jordan to the west, the West Bank (Palestine) and Israel to the east.  It is over 1300 feet below sea level and is almost 9x more saline than the ocean.  It is fed by the Jordan River and there is no outflow.  Because of the salinity of the water you cannot sink!  You simply cannot sink!  It’s hard to describe.  What I found myself doing was simply lying on my back, totally relaxing, allowing myself to be held by the buoyancy of the water.  It was an amazing experience!

Out of that experience I created a ritual of meditation and contemplative prayer.  I will lie on the floor and transport myself back to that experience - imagine myself totally relaxed floating in the sea – only now the water becomes God’s grace – and in my meditation I am now floating in the sea of amazing grace - held in the buoyancy of God’s grace – supported and affirmed by God’s grace – God’s astounding unconditional love.  I then often experience that the things that were bothering me, whether it be my own narrowness, my own fear that stifles love, the stinging judgments of others, whatever - all seem to dissipate in the medium of grace that envelopes me. 

There is one last piece.  Because of the intense salinity of the Dead Sea water, when you get out of the water it sticks to your skin.  It is hard to get off.  A shower area is provided but even after several minutes under the fresh water, you still leave that place with some of the sea water stuck to your skin as you journey back into a land that has been historically characterized by so much violence, hatred and bloodshed in the name of three of the world’s great religions.   

As I get to my feet from this ritual of meditative prayer, I image that the sea of grace I was floating in is still stuck to my skin – stuck to my life – stuck to my heart and soul – and the only way to get it off is to rub up against others, even in a world characterized by much hatred and violence .  Emerging out of the waters of grace, it becomes my vocation to embody that grace in my life; in the outward expressions of God’s love – compassion, justice, mercy, kindness - and to see that all others whether they know it or not, whether friend or foe, whether advocate or adversary are also enveloped by that same sea of grace.  Amen.