Look Inside
Proper 17B
Deut. 4:1-2, 6-9; Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
8/30/09
Jim Melnyk

On the surface, one would not think that today’s lessons deal with our partnership with God – on the surface. Lessons about the Law – or the Torah Teaching – and laws about purification rites seem to have little to do with what it means to be in partnership with God – on the surface. But they do.
        
At our Vestry meeting the other night, Julie Lee offered our opening and closing devotions. She shared a passage from the fifth chapter of Desmond Tutu’s book, God Has a Dream. In hearing Tutu’s words something clicked about how both Torah and Gospel teaching share a word about how we partner with God. Tutu reminds us that “God calls on us to be [God’s] partners to work for a new kind of society where people count; where people matter more than things, more than possessions; where human life is not just respected but positively revered;” and where peace, gentleness and compassion will be the norm – what Tutu, and what Jesus, would call the Kingdom of God (Desmond Tutu, God Has A Dream, Doubleday, 2004, page 62).
        
Tutu believes that our partnership with God stems from the reality that we are created in God’s image – something that he calls “an incredible… staggering assertion about human beings” (ibid). He offers a story to underscore his assertion: “When I was rector of a small parish in Soweto,” he writes, “I would tell an old lady whose white employer called her ‘Annie’ because her name was too difficult: ‘Mama, as you walk the dusty streets of Soweto and they ask you who you are, you can say, “I am God’s partner, God’s representative, God’s viceroy – that’s who I am – because I am created in the image of God”'” (ibid).
        
In fact, not only does Tutu believe that how we treat one another must be based on our understanding that every single human being is created in God’s image – he believes that to treat anyone as less than the image of God is not simply wrong, or even possibly evil at times – rather he sees our treating anyone as less than the image of God as positively blasphemous. He likens treating others as anything less than the image of God to “spitting in the face of God” (page 63). An image we might bear in mind when we debate issues like equal rights for all, housing and health care for all, capital punishment, or whether or not we each have enough money and enough stuff to be truly happy.
        
All this brings us to the whole debate in Mark’s Gospel about ritual purity, human traditions, and the Torah. No doubt everyone hearing today’s Gospel lesson can pick up on the tension in the exchange between Jesus and the visiting Pharisees and Scribes. Perhaps some sense of sarcasm comes across in the translation as well. Mark, writing in the mid 60’s – in the midst of a Roman-Jewish war which led to the destruction of the Temple in the year 70 – is most likely transferring much of the Jewish-Christian tension of his day into the stories of Jesus’ arguments with the religious authorities of Jesus' day.
        
Tension was growing in Mark’s time between followers of The Way and the leadership of mainstream Judaism. The disagreement in chapter 7 of Mark may well have been as much about the tension between Gentile Christians, Jewish Christians, and mainline Jews as it was about the tension between Jesus and the Pharisees.
        
Just how in the world do we find the ability to honor the image of God in one another when ancient teachings, nearly as ancient customs, and new ways of living – all of which deal with questions of faith and fidelity and an understanding of who we are before God – how do we find the ability to honor the image of God in one another when all these things come into conflict?
        
“Your disciples refuse to wash their hands!” “Well, you seem more concerned about the washing of pots and cups and kettles than about people!” Nothing about Mark’s opening narration or the Pharisees’ challenges seem to have anything to do with honoring the image of God in each other.
        
Now it is important to note that laws and customs like those dealing with purification rites were very important to the life of Israel – especially while the nation was in exile – or even while under Roman occupation. Such rules helped keep Israel from becoming culturally assimilated by the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Persians, and the Romans. They were a way of reminding one another that they were God’s people – loved and cared for by God, and called to be a light to the nations.

But there have always been instances where such rules seem to have more to do with drawing lines in the sand to differentiate between one group and another while ignoring the Torah teaching to love God and love one’s neighbor. We use these rules and ones like these as ways of proving who is more holy – who is more righteous – who is closer to God – who is the true image of God. Love of God and love for neighbor become secondary to our religious fervor – or worse yet – love of God and love for neighbor are forgotten and lost. Just ask anyone from the C Street Clubhouse of The Family – the evangelical Christian group centered in Washington that sees wealth and power as signs of divine favor. As the author of James writes – we become like someone who sees his or her face in a mirror – we recognize who we are and what we look like, then the moment we step away from the glass we forget – we forget the image of God that had been looking back at us!
        
But Jesus, like the true Torah teachings of Judaism, will have nothing to do with drawing lines in the sand in an attempt to discount or exclude the other. “It’s not what one puts in one’s mouth that defiles a person – it’s what comes out of the mouth – it’s how we treat one another – that matters.”         
        
Torah – the Law – is meant to name, establish, and assist the relationships that exist between God and God’s people. Torah is meant to establish boundaries necessary for the strengthening of relationships, not the disestablishment of them.
        
The commandments referenced in today’s lesson from Deuteronomy refer back to the Ten Commandments given to Israel on Mount Horeb. Those commandments are centered in love for God and love for neighbor. They are relational – they show care for one another in the midst of God’s presence – as a part of God’s hope and dream for a humanity that reflects the grace and love of God – that expresses the compassion and justice of God – that lives out the mercy and promise of God in community. These commandments honor the image of God in every human being.         
        
The commandments of Torah – which Jesus held as absolute imperatives – are not about when to wash one’s hands, or how to prepare one’s food, nor are they about cups and kettles – nor are they about some form of modern-day cult of independence and individualism – just me and God and the heck with everyone else; the commandments of Torah are about people – and how people are called to live with one another in a community dedicated to the God whose image they bear.
        
The thirteenth century poet Rumi put it this way: “Look inside and find where a person loves from. That’s the reality, not what they say” (Rumi: The Book of Love, Coleman Barks – quoted in Synthesis). Scholar Luke Timothy Johnson, writing about today’s lesson from James puts it in yet another way writing, “theoretical correctness matters little if one’s life does not conform to the ideas one espouses” (The New Interpreter’s Bible, vol XII, page 189). Be doers of the Word!
        
In other words, telling everyone how important it is to love God – or to be right with God – or to love our neighbor – without actually carrying that love out in some tangible way is nothing more than religious misdirection – nothing more than theological and ideological smoke and mirrors.
        
It’s as if Desmond Tutu had been reading today’s lessons while he put his thoughts on our partnership with God and his story of “Annie” down on the page. We are created to see one another with the eyes of our hearts. Would you see the face of God in the world today? Look at your neighbor. Look at your neighbor. (Okay – everyone is staring straight ahead – go ahead – take a look at your neighbor – take a look the image of God sitting next to you!) And when you go across the courtyard to the Ministry Fair – look at your neighbor there – the ones standing next to you in the Community Life Center and at the faces in the displays – the people we minister with and to every day. They – you – we – are God’s beloved children. They – you – we – are the image of God. They – you – we – are God’s beloved partners. Amen.

©2009 Jim Melnyk