The word of the Lord Almighty came to me. This is what the Lord Almighty says: “The fasts of the fourth, fifth, seventh and tenth months will become joyful and glad occasions and happy festivals for Judah. Therefore, love truth and peace.” This is what the Lord Almighty says: “Many peoples and the inhabitants of many cities will yet come, and the inhabitants of one city will go to another and say, ‘Let us go at once to entreat the Lord and seek the Lord Almighty. I myself am going.’ And many peoples and powerful nations will come to Jerusalem to seek the Lord Almighty and to entreat him.” This is what the Lord Almighty says: “In those days ten people from all languages and nations will take firm hold of one Jew by the hem of his robe and say, ‘Let us go with you, because we have heard that God is with you.’ (Zechariah 8:18-23)
Prop: onion (outside layer with dark spots) and strong cheese and an apple (that looks good on the outside but has bad spots inside)
I need some volunteers this morning. Come on up. Thank you!
I have here an onion. Does this onion look good to eat? No? It’s got some black spots on it. Yeah, it doesn’t look so good. What can we do?
We can peel this layer off, can’t we? Let’s do that. So now, we took the bad looking layer off of the onion, and we now have a nice white onion. Would anyone like to bite into it and eat it?
No?
Why not? It’s not so good just to eat it, is it? We may like a little onion here and there, but it’s not the kind of thing we want to just bite into. In fact, that would probably make us all a bit teary. [lol] In fact, I’m getting teary right now just handling the onion.
Quick. Let’s go to the next sample I have up here on God’s Food Network. I have a very strong cheese. In fact, this cheese is known for its very strong smell. [You can introduce the cheese you are using.]
Do you see any spots on this cheese? It looks good, right? But it does smell a bit off. It tastes delicious though. Want to try it? [Allow someone to taste the cheese.]
So, we can pull off what seems to be the bad layer of an onion, but we still don’t want to eat that onion just as it is. But we can’t get rid of the smell of this cheese, no matter how much we cut off. Why? Because the smell is part of the cheese itself. Cheese is in fact “mold.” Did you know that? It’s milk that has been allowed to turn into a kind of cheese. We eat blue cheese like it’s nothing, but can you imagine the bravery, the heroism, of that first person in history to see this curdled milk with all this blue mold growing on it, and to actually put it in the mouth?
Ok. Let’s look at our last item here. It’s an apple. In fact, it looks like a really good one. No spots that I can see. Can someone volunteer to bite into this apple?
Is it good? We have no qualms about biting into the apple right? We expect it to be really good. It looks really good on the outside. Oh…what happened? It’s not good on the inside? It’s got some bad spots inside of the apple. It looked perfect on the outside, right? But the inside didn’t look so good once you opened it up.
So…let’s see. What have we learned? [Be sure to ask your children and youth…not just your adults and allow them to answer.]
Well, first of all, you can’t tell if something is good just by looking at its outside. Why? When you take away that layer outside that doesn’t look so good, it could still be really good inside. And sometimes, just because something looks really wonderful on the outside, that doesn’t mean that inside it tastes good. It could be rotten on the inside, where you can’t immediately see it.
And what about the cheese?
Well, cheese isn’t like an apple or an onion. You can’t peel it away. What it is, it is. Cheese is going to be cheese, no matter how you cut it. What you see is what you get.
If it’s a smelly cheese, it’s going to smell with every bite you take. If it’s a soft cheese, every part of it is going to be soft. There IS no inside or outside. Just cheese through and through.
The way we live our lives is kind of like this taste test. Like the onion, in our world, we can have people who look different from us, who may be sick, who may have some problems, who may have a rough exterior in one way or another. Maybe you even have a few onions in your neighborhood or in your congregation, who are really strong in some ways that turn us off, not just make you cry.
But those onionskin people could also have very pure hearts. There’s really no way to know unless we get to know them. Many people out there (and in here!) can look bad to us, because we are judging them on their “onion skin,” that rough and tough shell they’ve had to use to go through life with all of its bumps and bruises. But often, these people have tender hearts that are yearning for God, needing Jesus. And needing friends like you to help them reveal their true, inner beauty.
If a congregation does not have some oniony people, it’s not a true body of Christ. If we do not have recovering addicts, the abused, the accused, then something is wrong. If we do not have people who talk tough, who sometimes say things they shouldn’t, who are loners or don’t dress as well as you, then something is wrong. If we only have people in our congregation that look just like you, then something is off in the body of Christ. Cause no basket of onions or apples ever is without a blemish.
Every congregation is made up of onions as well as apples. And every one of us is both an onion and an apple.
And let’s talk about that apple.
Some people in this world look so fine! They go to church. They appear to follow all of the “rules.” They talk right, walk right, dress right, have the right house, the right job. They serve on church committees. And God knows we need them. They look so respectable. But I’ll tell you right now, not every apple is sweet inside.
Some are sour, some have worms, some have dark interiors that make them rotten to the core. Others are wonderful, and sweet, and tasty, and firm in their faith. But do you know what? On the outside, you can’t tell the difference.
You can’t tell….not unless you get to know the person inside and what their true interior is like. Are they too concerned with the color of their skin, or the traditions and habits of the church instead of their inner relationship with God? And what about their relationships with others?
You can’t tell, until you “taste and see.”
No matter what or who something looks like on the outside, if the inside isn’t good, there’s nothing sweet about it.
It’s the inside that counts –the part you taste. You can peel off bad clothing. You can peel off bad habits. You can peel off bad experiences. But like the cheese we looked at earlier, you can’t peel off what you’re actually made of –your character, your content, your context, your condition of soul.
John Wesley knew this well. That’s why each week at his Methodist class meetings in old Britain, he would ask each person, “What is the state of your soul this week?”
No matter what kind of person we are, we are just like that cheese. You can’t change the way you are unless God changes you entirely. And only God has the ability to change who we are inside. Only Jesus knows how to restore to beauty what has been lying dormant or eaten away.
Jesus is the Great Restorer.
Recently (May 2016) an early painting by Rembrandt was discovered in a New Jersey basement. Called “The Unconscious Patient,” the painting revealed two physicians administering smelling salts to an ailing young man. Suffering age and dust, when the layers of dust and a layer of lacquer were removed, not only was the beauty of the painting restored, but the renowned artist’s monogram “RF” was discovered. The painting now resides in the Getty Museum.
Like a restorer of great art, Jesus too restores us from all of the “rot” we carry, inside and out. Only Jesus can return us to the way God created us and intended us to be, inside and out.
In the Jewish scriptures, there are many stories about what it means to be “pure.” But nothing says it better than the prophet Isaiah, “For thus says the high and exalted One Who lives forever, whose name is Holy, "I dwell on a high and holy place, and also with the contrite and lowly of spirit in order to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite.” For “the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart. O God, you will not despise.” (Psalm 51)
In Mark, Matthew, and Luke, we see Jesus having it out with some of the Pharisees from Jerusalem. The topic is “defilement.” What does it mean to be “defiled,” unclean, spoiled, desecrated? While many of the Pharisees felt that if you broke a certain rule (ones they created themselves of course), you would be defiled and suffer the consequences. Jesus reminded everyone that it isn’t what you look like, or how you dress, or even your habits and traditions that make you a “good person” in God’s eyes. But it’s the condition of your heart. Your mind. Your soul.
Whether you wash your hands before you eat, whether you wash your dishes properly, whether you keep the sanctuary rug clean, whether you have the American flag inside or outside of your altar, or whether you have it there at all. Whether you dress up to go to church, or whether you grew up knowing how to read the Bible. Whether you know how to “act” in the ways church people are used to, or whether you know what a narthex is. Whether you like hymns or rock music. Whether you sit like a statue or shout alleluia! None of that matters to God.
What matters to God is what is going on inside your heart and soul. Is there hunger in your heart for God? Do you want a deeper and closer walk with God? Is Jesus the light of your life? Do you live each day with Jesus as part of your life?
As Jesus tells us, it’s what comes out of the heart that is important, not what’s on the outside or what goes into the stomach.
Are you greedy or generous? Selfish or giving? Are you impatient or patient? Are you cruel or loving? Are you open to change or immovable? Or are you rigid in your thinking? If you are any of these things….you are at the right place. We welcome you here. Will you welcome Jesus to change you into the kind of fruit God intends you to be?
One of the most beautiful stories in scripture is the story of Ruth. Ruth was a Moabite woman who became a Jewish convert out of respect for her deceased husband’s faith and people and out of obedience to his God. It’s a “happy ending” story, and a story that shows us that beauty comes from the inside. It’s no mistake that after teaching his disciples what it means to be undefiled, Jesus takes them into the area of Tyre and Sidon to heal a Syro-Phoenician woman’s daughter, a gentile, and a Canaanite.
Jesus is demonstrating a teaching moment. But there are many stories in scripture where rejection was more prominent than acceptance. Let’s look for a moment at the story of Dinah.
Dinah was the daughter of Jacob and Leah. Dinah grew to adulthood at a time when her family lived in a region filled with Shechemites and other non-Jewish peoples. It was a custom in that time to give the hand of a daughter in marriage to a foreigner, so that not only could all peoples live in peace, but also, many others could be converted to Judaism to worship the One True God! There are hundreds of “conversion” stories in the scriptures.
In the story of Jonah, while Jonah flees in a boat on the sea, his comrades end up converting in a humorous scene on the water. In the story of Samson, Samson seeks to marry a foreigner, hoping she will encourage the Philistines to convert to Judaism too, so as to appease the warring nation. And there are so many other Jews who married foreigners for these reasons and others: Abraham and Keturah, Judah and Bat-Shua, Joseph and Asenat, Moses and Tzipporah, David and Maacah, Ruth and Boaz, to name a few.
So when the Shechemite asks Jacob for his daughter’s hand, Jacob agrees, and Dinah is given to sleep with the foreign man. But afterwards, chaos ensues, not because of what the Shechemites have done, but because of what Dinah’s brothers do next! Although Jacob is trying to make peace with the foreign nations, hoping to convert them, his sons, Simeon and Levi, don’t like the idea of mixing with foreigners and so accuse the Shechmites of raping their sister, and subsequently “rape” the Shechmites instead! They kill the men, they capture women and children, and they burn their cities. Jacob admonishes Dinah’s brothers for the deed they have done, not just because it was nasty and terrible and based on biased and a false sense of what it means to be “defiled,” but he admonishes them too for losing all of those potential converts!
Like Jacob, Jesus teaches his disciples that it’s not about the color or the clan. It’s all about the heart. The more your heart follows traditions and stigmas that keep God out instead of inviting others in, the more your heart begins to rot.
Where is YOUR heart focused? On rules? Or on love?
Love is a beautiful thing. But the beauty of love is not love only for people who think, act and sound just like you. The beauty of love is a love that surpasses all pettiness and parochialism and embraces those who are different as beautiful.
God sees all of us not in the way we are, but in the way we can be. Our potential is the palette for divine artistry.
In our narthex [you can use any example here of artwork, or pick out something from the web] we have a very large quilt hanging that depicts the beauty of God’s people. In the quilt, you see people of all kinds, all races, all nations, all places. Young and old. Rich and poor. And all of them are part of the beautiful city of God.
Now you can choose to look at the backside of that quilt and see only strings and knots, straggles and bits of wool. That’s mostly the way we look at the world, from the outside in. Because that’s the side we work on. That’s the side we see when we are building the quilt, as we build our lives. But when you turn the quilt around, “inside out” or rather front side outward….you see a beautiful portrait of God’s kingdom world. This is the way God sees us. Beautiful, colorful, relational, and infused with the Light of the Holy Spirit.
We heard a beautiful choral piece this morning. [Again…use your own examples.] All of those voices singing in harmony to God’s One Voice. Some were singing a different line, depending on if they are an alto, or a soprano, or a tenor, or a baritone. Some were singing different kinds of notes in different voices and in different ways. Occasionally, maybe even there was an extra note put in, or a little stray from the line. But every voice is important, because together, they create the beautiful harmony that echoes God’s voice.
Jesus wanted his disciples to understand how to see other people as beautiful and to allow their voices to be heard among all of the others. Jesus saw different ways of doing things, different nationalities worshiping the same God, people who were not Jewish, who could with their hearts of gold come to know the One True God, who loves them all.
We too need to honor Jesus’ lesson to us.
We need to ask ourselves….”What is truly important?”
Is it the state of our rug? Really?
Is it the way we sing? Really?
Is it the way we sit? Really?
Is it the order of worship? Really?
Or is it the state of our hearts and the depth of our love for God?
Really!
How is it…with YOUR soul?
Based on the Story Lectionary
Major Text
Mark’s Witness to Jesus’ Teaching on Defilement and God’s True Way (7:1-23 and 24-30)
Minor Text
The Story of Dinah and Schechem (Genesis 34)
The Story of the Saving of Moses by Batya (Bithiah), Daughter of Pharaoh (Exodus 1 and 2)
The Story of Samson and Delilah (Judges 16)
The Story of Ruth
Psalm 37: The Salvation of the Righteous Comes from the Lord
Psalm 51: Create in Me a New Heart O God
Psalm 106: The Lord Gathers from the Nations
Psalm 119: Seek God with Your Heart
Psalm 145: The Lord has Compassion on All He has Made
The Mountain of the Lord to Which All Peoples Will Come (Isaiah 2)
Isaiah’s Prophecy of the Lord’s Anger at Those Who Persecute Others with False Traditions (59)
The Lord Our Shepherd Will Gather All People of the Nations (Ezekiel 34)
Jesus’ Story of the Good Samaritan
Jesus’ Healing of the Syro-Phoenician (Gentile) Woman’s Daughter
Matthew’s Witness to Jesus’ Teaching on Defilement (15)
Luke’s Witness to Jesus’ Teaching on Defilement (11:37-54)
Peter’s Dream and His Meeting With Cornelius (Acts 10)
Mark’s Witness to Jesus’ Teaching on Defilement and God’s True Way
The Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus and saw some of his disciples eating food with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. (The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, holding to the tradition of the elders. When they come from the marketplace they do not eat unless they wash. And they observe many other traditions, such as the washing of cups, pitchers and kettles.
So the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus, “Why don’t your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with defiled hands?”
He replied, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: “‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.’ You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions.” And he continued, “You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions! For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and mother,’ and, ‘Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.’ But you say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is Corban (that is, devoted to God)— then you no longer let them do anything for their father or mother. Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like that.”
Again Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them.”
After he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about this parable. “Are you so dull?” he asked. “Don’t you see that nothing that enters a person from the outside can defile them? For it doesn’t go into their heart but into their stomach, and then out of the body.” (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean.)
He went on: “What comes out of a person is what defiles them. For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and defile a person.”
Image Exegesis: Zing!
Rend your heart and not your garments.Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate,slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity. (Joel 2:13)
Do not defile the land where you live and where I dwell, for I, the Lord, dwell among the Israelites.’ ” (Numbers 35:34)
Jesus is master of the “zinger!” At one point, his disciples say to him, “Do you realize that you offended the Pharisees by what you just said?” They are obviously afraid of what will happen. Jesus reply tells all. He has a beef with them, and he’s going to say what needs to be said on God’s behalf. This is vintage Jesus in prophetic mode!
Jesus is also master of the teaching moment. After declaring that some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law have misinterpreted God’s laws and put more emphasis on human tradition, he in fact points out that in their quest for the fruitless picayune, they have actually broken God’s actual commandments in the process. There is a difference between God’s law and human tradition, and they have confused the two.
The issue goes deeper however. The Pharisees aren’t just talking about hand washing. There’s a larger problem in that their hundreds of “requirements” are sabotaging human relationships, and particularly those with gentiles. Jesus knows this. It’s no mistake that just after he finishes his discussion about what “defilement” actually means, he leads his disciples into a gentile region (Tyre and Sidon / Syrophoenicia) and heals a gentile woman’s daughter.
This is one of the most interesting “teaching moments” in that Jesus knows his disciples will default to the usual jargon of the Pharisees’ teaching, and he plays them….. When they respond to his “devil’s advocate” comments about the woman, he turns the tables on them, showing them that it is her heart that counts, not her heritage!
The primary metaphor of course is “defiled.” What makes something or someone defiled? What makes a heart defiled? Jesus says, it all has to do with your relationship with God –or lack of it. Not to do with how well you obey the manmade “traditions” that actually serve to keep relationships from forming.
The Hebrew root of the word for defile makes to “untie,” to separate, to corrupt or contaminate. And a true “defilement” of the heart is in fact a “separation” from God and God’s ways in favor of the ways and vices of humanity (in this case the Phariseeism Jesus so abhors).
While the scriptures are full of the struggle concerning whether or not to consort with foreigners (some say definitely! Others say never!), one of the stories I can imagine Jesus thinking about is the story of Dinah, in which Jacob tries to reach out to the Shechemites by giving his daughter in marriage to the foreigner. However, when his sons, Simeon and Levi, hear about it, they oppose the intermarriage and ultimately “rape and plunder” Shechem. Jacob’s admonishment of the men for their actions show the true defilement of the “closed heart” as opposed to the loving graciousness that invites foreigners to become members of the Jewish community. It’s a missed opportunity for conversion. And as we see in the story of Ruth, this is the result God loves –to turn the hearts of the lost and unknowing to God.*
While stories like Samson’s and Jezebel’s warn against marrying foreigners, other stories praise these intermarriages and conversions. Many Hebrew fathers married foreigners, such as Abraham and Keturah, Judah and Bat-Shua, Joseph and Asenat, Mosees and Tzipporah, and David and Maacah** These gerim were highly valued, as they encouraged others of their people to convert to Judaism as well.
Jesus’ question in the Good Samaritan, “Who is my neighbor” again will address this same question.
One of the most beautiful stories, especially as recorded in the midrash and aggadah, is the story of Pharaoh’s daughter, named Batya (daughter of God –her true name as listed in I Chronicles 4:18 was Bithiah), was praised in the midrash and aggadah as a convert, the same as Hagar, Asenath, Zipporah, or Ruth. “Moses was not your son, yet you called him your son; you are not my daughter, but I call you my daughter.” (Leviticus Rabbah 1:3).*** Pharaoh’s daughter was said not just to have favored the Hebrew boy but to have married Caleb, son of Jephunneh, joining the Hebrew community. She is the reason Moses was saved. Later, Moses would be responsible for the exodus of God’s people.
Matthew’s genealogy also shows signs of gentile women’s stories. This is quite intentional. Jesus belongs to a tradition, much like those of Hillel and the Essenes, who believe in a mission to the gentiles. The Jewish people are to be a light to the nations. Jesus means to help people to see past the legalisms they’ve been presented with to again embrace the relational theology of garden life with God.
In Jesus’ recent history, the great Hillel and Hananya were in favor of converts. Shammai and Hyrcanus were not. The Shammai school, viciously exclusive and in power in the Sanhedrin throughout Jesus’ ministry is likely the cause of his intense criticisms.
Jesus is concerned with what the teachers of the law are teaching. According to Jesus, it’s not so much God’s “way” as it is their own imposed rules.
As often, Jesus quotes Isaiah to back up his position. Jesus is clearly more than proficient not only in the Hebrew scriptures but also in the oral Torah, so much so that he can articulate fine points of the laws they are breaking.
As in the Dinah story, Jesus accuses the Pharisees themselves of “defilement” of God’s commandments, as their hearts are filled with pomposity, greed, power, and idolatry. They are not focused on God and what God wills for all of God’s people, but on particularities that detract from following God’s precepts of love and inclusiveness.
*See the Jewish Women’s Archive Encyclopedia, “Dinah”. See also thetorah.com. “Missed Opportunity in the Story of Dinah.”
**Strange Wives: The Paradox of Biblical Intermarriage. Stanley Ned Rosenbaum. And The History of Judaism. Salo Wittmayer Baron. “Conversion History” by Lawrence Epstein. Myjewishlearning.com
***jwa.org