Readings for the Day:
Sermon:
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Original Manuscript:
There's a great cartoon called Avatar: The Last Airbender that I would recommend to young and old alike. It is very well done with a lot of great messages.
The show is set in a world where certain people can control, or bend, the elements of Water, Earth, Fire, and Air, and the story revolves around Aang, who is the avatar, the spiritual guru for his generation because of his ability to bend all four elements. Unfortunately Aang got trapped in the ice for 100 years and only recently awoke, similar to Captain America.
In one episode in particular, Aang and his friends are helping two feuding tribes across a dangerous valley in a canyon. As they talk to both tribes, Aang and his friends learn that the feud started over 100 years ago. One side says the other stole a sacred orb for their ritual from them. The other side says they were returning the orb and wrongly imprisoned.
When Aang hears the name of the tribes original leaders, he tells them they have the story all wrong. There was no orb, instead the leaders were children who were playing a game, similar to soccer or football. Realizing this, the tribes put their differences aside and come together as friends.
One of Aang's friends tell him it was lucky he knew those people over 100 years ago. Aang says luck had nothing to do with it; he made the whole story up.
Now, I'm not advocating lying. But it does make sense that what Aang says would work. After all, it's a very common thing that people start to mix up their rituals or the original meaning of our signs, symbols, and ways of worship after so much time.
In fact, that's exactly what we see in our readings this morning. In Deuteronomy, Moses tells the Israelites to continue to keep the Commandments of God- to, in essence, worship in the right way. Doing so will make them a wise nation who all others will look on with awe because God is in the midst of them, or rather so near to them they they call on Him whenever they want.
Flash forward to Jesus' time, and we see that keeping the Commandments didn't go so well. In Mark, the Pharisees go to Jesus and ask why His disciples are eating without washed hands.
Unfortunately a great deal of this passage has been left out of the lectionary this morning. The rest of this reading is actually helpful to understanding Jesus' response, and I strongly encourage all of you read the rest of this passage in Mark 7 when you leave here this morning. After Jesus quotes Isaiah in our reading, he says "You have a fine way of rejecting the Commandments of God in order to keep your own tradition." Jesus is telling them that they are better at following the traditions they have set up than the actual Commandments. In fact, Jesus points out that they have allowed people to give money that they would give to "Honor thy father and mother" or rather literally "Make your parents heavy", which means to make sure your parents are well taken care of and, thus, well fed, and give it as an offering to God.
What Jesus is saying quite rightly is that laws like the ones this group of Pharisees is focusing on can actually turn us away from the true point of the Law, even allowing us to break it.
The Law calls on us, as James tells us, to care for the widow and orphan. That is what we hear throughout all the Old Testament, and it is the issue the Israelites continue to struggle with. What it means is to help those in our midst who need our help. It means to live together with one another in community.
It means following the words we hear at the beginning of almost every service we have hear: The Two Great Commandments. "Love God with all your heart, and all your soul, and all your mind. And love your neighbor as yourself."
These two are not mutually exclusive. To love God means to "be doers of the word" as James puts it. It means, rather, to do God's will, and God has been very clear about His will. His will is that we love one another, just as He loved all of us to the point that He was willing to die on the cross for us.
Right worship, right belief, isn't about following an arbitrary set of guidelines or traditions. Right worship is about being in community with one another, and thus with God as well. If you want a great example of that, go and worship with Colonial Haven. As I and others here who have do so can say, there is so much love in that room because they are just so happy to see that some cares enough to be there and worship with them.
Go to Horseshoe Farm. The folks at program are always happy to see someone there to spend time with them. Go to Sawyerville next summer and see the joy on the kids' faces from receiving such a labour of love from around the state.
When our worship and our doing is centered on love and community, then God is there in the midst of us because we are doing God's will and because "where true charity and love dwell, God Himself is there" as we will sing shortly (Our music does help connect to our lectionary).
This isn't to say it always easy to love our neighbor or that we don't sometimes fail, but it does mean we continue to strive to love one another more deeply. I was asked early on what I hoped to accomplish for St. Paul's. This is my answer: that at the end of my time here you will have grown as a Christian, that is you will have grown in your faith. James talks about giving this morning, and yes, I hope each of you will give to this church. But I also hope you will spread God's love for you to others, whether financial, through giving your time, or preferably both. I hope you will do more to show that love in the world, and that you will encourage us as a church to do the same. I hope, most of all, that you will strive to let God dwell among you, that you will listen to what He has to say, and you will take joy in His presence with you this morning and in all you do throughout your week.