One day a man by the name of Kirk was having a particularly difficult time. Everything was going wrong for him and nothing was going right. And when he went to bed that night, he laid there in the dark. And he thought about all of the horrible things that had happened to him. And you know, the more he thought about it the more upset he became.

He blurted out into the darkness, “Why me God? Why have you done this to me?” But there was no answer and all he heard was the silence. So he blurted out again, this time much louder and much more demandingly, “Why me God? Why have you done this to me?”

And all of a sudden, he heard a crack of thunder and he saw the lightning flash across the sky. And the earth began to tremble and quake. And his whole house shook and pictures started falling off the wall. And he was scared to death. And then the ceiling above his head was ripped off the house and the roof too. And a great big hand came down out of heaven with a long outstretched finger, and the finger was pressed right up against his chest. And with a booming and majestic voice, the Lord said, “Because you bug me, Kirk!”

Now we know God doesn’t cause bad things to happen to good people. But don’t you think God gets awfully tired of the things we do and the way we live?

There is a sense in which that’s what Jesus is saying to the Pharisees in our scripture lesson. You bug me! You pretend to be so good. You keep the religious law. You honor tradition. Every thing outside looks good, but inside you are filled with hatred and pride and jealousy.

Jesus’ encounter with the Pharisees was stimulated by their self-righteousness. They saw that the disciples of Jesus did not observe the niceties of tradition and the code of oral law in regard to the washing of hands before and during meals. They demanded that Jesus tell them why.

Jesus begins by quoting one of their great prophets, Isaiah. Let’s read those words again, because they draw our attention to the focus of our message today.

And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written,

‘This people honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.’

You leave the commandment of God, and hold fast the tradition of men.”

We’re looking at the age-old tension in religion - the tension between tradition and living spirit, between outward acts and the inward condition of our heart, between profession and performance, between saying, “Lord, Lord” in pious liturgy and acting as the Lord’s servant in daily life.

This is an important Sunday in the life of our church. We are joining the angels in heaven singing for our church. It is important, young people, that these confirmands hear this sermon, because from now on your whole life will deal with what we’re trying to deal with today. At the heart of it all is the question: “What is the essence of being Christian?

In architecture there is a law of design which insists that form follows function.

In religion, as clarified by Jesus in our scripture lesson, form follows faith. For the Pharisees, tradition had become more important than the true worship of God. There was letter without spirit, religiosity without Godliness. It was in this cryptic word that Jesus addressed the issue: ”You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God, in order to keep your tradition.” And then he used this image: ”Hear me, all of you, and understand: There is nothing outside a man which by going into him can defile him; but the things which come out of a man are what defile him,” Then He talked about the stomach and the heart – what goes into the stomach passes through the body — but what goes into the heart, is cultivated there, takes root there, develops there, and then comes out as expressions of the life of a person.

Let’s pick up significant stakes to nail down in our thinking in order to appropriate what Jesus is calling for — for He is calling for heart religion.

I

The first thing that grabs our attention is Jesus’ scathing address to the Pharisees. He calls them hypocrites. It will help us, I think, to understand the essence of what it means to be a Christian by thinking about the meaning of hypocrisy.

The word hypocrite has an interesting and revealing history. “It begins by meaning, simply, one who answers it goes on to mean one who answers in a set dialogue, or a set conversation; that is to say, an actor and finally it means, not simply an actor on the stage, but one whose whole life is a piece of acting without any sincerity behind it at all.

“Anyone to whom religion is a legal thing, anyone to religion means carrying out certain external rules and regulations, anyone to whom religion is entirely connected with the observation certain ritual and the keeping of a certain number of itin the end ‘bound to be, in this sense, a hypocrite. The reason for that is this he believes that he is a good man, if he carries out the correct external acts and practices, no matter what his heart. and his thoughts are like. To take the case of the legalistic Jew in the times of Jesus, he might in his heart of hearts hate his fellow man with all his heart, he might be full of en and jealousy and concealed bitterness, and pride; that did not matter so long as he carried out the correct hand washing, and observed the correct laws about cleanness and uncleanness. Legalism takes account of a man’s outward actions; but it takes account at all of his inward feelings. He may well be meticulously serving God in outward tings, and bluntly disobeying God in inward things — and that is hypocrisy. The Mohammedan must pray to God a certain number of times each day. To do so he carries his prayer mat; wherever he is he will unroll the prayer mat, fall upon his knees, say his prayers and then go on. There is a story of a Mohammedan who was pursuing a man with upraised knife to murder him. Just then the call to prayer rang out. Immediately he stopped, spread out his prayer mat, knelt, said his prayer as fast as he could; and then rose and continued his murderous pursuit. The prayer was simply a form and a ritual, and an outward observance, merely the correct interlude.

There is no greater religious peril than the peril of identifying religion with outward observance. There is no commoner religious mistake than in identifying goodness with certain so-called religious acts. Church-going, Bible- reading, careful financial giving, even time tabled prayer do not make a man a good man. The fundamental question is, how is a man’s heart towards God and towards his fellow men? And heart there are enmity, bitterness, grudges, pride, not all of the outward religious observances in the world will make him anything other than a hypocrite.” (William Barclay, The Gospel of Mark, The Daily Study Bible pp. 170—171)

II

That leads to the second stake we need to nail down in our minds. What is it that defiles a person? What is that makes us unclean or clean in the eyes of God?

Basically, it’s what’s going on in our heart. What are we feeling and thinking in the depths of our being?

In effect, Jesus was saying that things cannot be either unclean in any religious sense of the term. Only persons can be really defiled; and what defiles a person is his actions, which are the product of his own heart.

Jesus then lists those things that come from the heart of persons making them unclean. He talks about fornication and theft and murder and adultery and covetous deeds and guile and wanton wickedness, and envy and slander and pride and folly.

We don’t have time to look at that entire list. Let’s glance at a couple of them, though, In order that we will not escape the fact that they apply to us.

Coveting is one of the defilements of the heart that Paul mentions. It comes from two Greek words meaning “to have more”. It has been defined as “the accursed love of having.” It also has been defined as “the spirit which snatches at that which is not right to take,” or “the baneful appetite for that which belongs to others.”

It’s not the desire for money and things alone, it includes the desire for power, the insatiable lust of the flesh. . . it’s lust for having which is in the heart of the man who see happiness in things instead of God.

Closely akin to coveting is another one of the defilements of the heart that Paul mentions: pride. This has been labeled “the peak of all the vices.” “The interesting thing about this word as the Greeks used it, is that it describes an attitude that may never become public. It may be that his heart of hearts a man is always secretly comparing himself with others.

He might even ape humility, and yet his heart be proud. The bottom line of it is that it sets ourselves against others, but it also sets ourselves against God. That’s the reason James said that “God resists the proud” (4:6).

The bottom line of all these defilements of the heart is expressed in putting rules and regulations and things and possessions above persons. What Jesus is saying to us is that nothing is more important the person, and the person’s relationship to God.

III

That leads to a final stake to nail down in our thinking about heart religion. Jesus said, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God, in order to keep your tradition (verse 9). And what is the commandment of God — Jesus summed it all up – “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength – and you shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

Heart religion is translating the love of God into love of persons, translating our worship into service, turning our religion into a way of relating in love on a day to day basis.

Here it is in a picture.

Mayor Andrew Young of Atlanta, former ambassador to the United Nations in the Carter Administration, told some time back of an experience he had with his youngest daughter. “She has always been the unpredictable one,” he said. While his other children were exceptional students, always achieving academic honors, she made it a point just to get by. While his other children focused on solid career goals, she wanted to be a dancer, or an actress, or a singer. And while his other children paid homage to his “stern father’s voice,” it only made the youngest daughter’s eyes flare in purposeful rebellion.

She came home one day and announced, “Daddy, I’m going to Uganda to work with Habitat for Humanity.” Andrew Young was shocked. “Do you realize Idi Amin wrecked Uganda?” “Yes,” came the reply. “Do you understand there is no real government in Uganda?” Andy Young inquired. “Yes,” came the reply. “Are you aware that anybody can do anything they want to do to you in Uganda and there is no recourse against them?” Andrew Young asked. “Yes,” came the reply. “And you still want to go to Uganda?” he pleaded. “I AM going to Uganda,” came the reply.

On January 7, 1985, three days before he shared this story, Andrew Young, one of the most powerful men in America, stood helpless as his youngest daughter boarded a plane and flew off to Uganda. Said Mr.Young, half in jest, half with unmistakable purpose, “I wanted her to be a respectable Christian…not a real one!”

Andrew Young’s youngest daughter taught him that when it comes to following Jesus, the issue is not being respectable but rather being responsible What matters most is not what the law allows you to do for your life but what love demands you do with your life.” (Walker Railey, “Confessions of an Overachiever”, First United Methodist Church, Dallas, Texas)

That’s the essence of heart religion.