Proper 17 B
September 2,
2012
Imagine the scene. It’s 5:00. You’re coming home from work, and
stopping at the store. Dinner’s waiting
for this last cup of milk you need to get.
And there’s a meeting at your kid’s school you need to get to, at
7:00. The parking lot is packed. You troll for a spot. You see one at the end of the row you’re
in. You turn your blinker on, and
proceed to the spot. You’re waiting at
the spot. The driver leaves, you start
to pull in. Just at that moment, another
car zips around the corner and takes your spot. But road rage is real. A Baltimore man was killed over a parking lot
space altercation. This year, a
Junction City man was shot, because of a road rage incident.
Maybe this makes your blood
boil. Maybe this doesn’t bother you at
all. It’s the same event from the
outside, and yet, some of us respond with rage, while others are
unaffected. I think this is a great
example of what Jesus is talking about in today’s Gospel, after he performs a
verbal martial arts move on the Pharisees.
The Pharisees are again complaining to Jesus about how his
disciples don’t follow the law. They
don’t do what’s “right”, because they haven’t washed their hands before eating. Instead of refuting the claim, or arguing
about the merits of the law, Jesus uses the law quoting Isaiah, to prove his
point. The rules aren’t the point. The
rules are e a way to 1)practice good food handling, and 2) show obedience to God. When the rules or practices intended to move
us closer to God instead obscure their purpose and become the purpose, those
rules are useless, and worse have become false idols. Jesus gently redirects them to the real point
of the rules – honoring God, not following rules.
After this exchange, he explains that
it’s not what comes from outside the body that defiles, but rather what is in
the body that creates evil
intention. Nothing outside a person can
defile. Not the dirty hands. Not the inconsiderate driver. Rather,
it’s the things inside our hearts that can defile. Our responses. It’s how we respond to our world around us,
it’s what we control that can defile.
Not the things external. If it
were external, like the other driver, or a politician, or not following rule – like not washing your hands, that
might be easier. It might feel like we
were simply the victims of our circumstances.
We had no choice in our response, because we were aggrieved or defiled
from someone else. This is exactly what many
aggressors think and how they defend their actions, from the school yard bully,
to the road rage aggressor, to the family abuser, to the hateful mass
murderers. People feel defiled or
aggrieved from somewhere else, or someone else, and they believe that they have
no choice, they had to respond to this thing that happened TO them.
Listening to the news and the excuses
of people who abuse, steal, kill, it sounds absurd. What do you mean you had to kill, or hate, or hurt? For
most of us, a response of theft, abuse or murder in response to something that
happened TO us is clearly, utterly and apparently wrong. It’s wrong to respond to anything with that
sort of response. It’s easy to see in
those people that it’s their response that is defiling, not the original
offense. Convenient, isn’t it, that
Christ clears up how others are supposed to act, while we are pretty
unscathed?
But wait a minute. Christ’s list of defiling responses is
long. What about envy? Pride.
Folly. Or my personal favorite,
avarice, which is rampant in this
culture. Avarice is a desire for wealth
or gain. Those I can imagine; those I
can do. I guess this isn’t just about
those other folks.
So while we’re not likely to respond
with murder or theft, the issue remains the same. It’s not original external action that
defiles. It’s our response -our envious
and prideful response that defiles us. Sometimes we are incited to respond with one
of those ugly defiling responses, and it does feel like we don’t have a
choice. It’s as if the ugly response from me is forced by my circumstances, and
unfortunately, it’s often the people I love most that can incite defiling
responses from me.
Other times, I feel more immune from
the barbs, the slights, the perceived wrongs, committed by others, and I don’t
respond badly. So what’s the difference? Why sometimes can we brush things off, and
other times we cannot? And how come some
people never seem to be incited to that ugly response. More importantly, how can I move towards the
less reactive, non-envyious, non-prideful, non-avarice way?
The answer comes from the other
readings today. The Song of Solomon is
an incredibly evocative love poem. Arise
my love and come away. This love poem is
full of images and sounds and smells that could make you blush. Do you remember
being newly in love? That giddy, early love?
When you feel that loved, and that in love, it’s hard to be provoked
into much – other than song or a smile.
That’s the answer. Love, in
fact, is the answer.
Sometime, read the Song of Solomon
and imagine it was written about you, by your soul mate. Glow with that giddy
love. Imagine now that this love
language is spoken to, by God. The Song
of Solomon is intended to illustrate God’s love for us. Arise my love, and come away.
Yes, God loves us that much.
If you knew, if we could feel that
love from God, which doesn’t change, doesn’t waiver, we’d be in that giddy new
love. The brain in love sees beauty
everywhere. That’s what love poems are –
seeing beauty in really interesting places, just like the Song of Solomon. “I see my love gazing through the lattice,
looking like a gazelle.” This may not
make sense to anyone except a brain in love.
God loves us that much, and unlike
early romantic love, God’s love for us doesn’t waver or change or fizzle out. As the epistle says, God’s light creates no
shadows. Nothing is outside it. And nothing else, not our fear, not our
malice, not our pride, is so big that it can create a shadow. God’s love is all around us, all the time,
so that there are no shadows and it never changes.
I think it’s this encompassing,
enveloping love that is our secret defense, and why Christ says nothing outside
us can defile us. If we let it, we are
so filled with God’s love that external things cannot defile us.
The Pharisees felt the disciples were
defiled because they hadn’t washed their hands before eating. What Christ is saying is that it isn’t the
dirty hands, or the forgotten cleaning, or the stolen parking spot that defiles
us. Those things happen – outside us,
and often beyond our control. It’s our
response and our intention that can defile.
And it’s God’s unimaginable love in us that lets us respond in love,
regardless of what’s happening outside.
Today, we’re not likely to be deemed
defiled because we didn’t wash our hands, as the disciples were. But there are other risks today. Lost parking spots. Divisive politics. Social unrest. Economics.
These things happen TO us, around us.
Outside us.
Letting God’s love in, that unwavering
all-encompassing love, we have the opportunity to turn all of those bad things
that happen TO us, to wonderful loving things coming FROM us.
Examples of this happen all around us, every day in little
ways. Really big ways make the
news. In 2006, a man shot 10 Amish
school girls in Pennsylvania. The community’s response glowed with God’s love,
as they individually and collectively showed forgiveness. Talking about the gunman, the grandfather of
one of the victims said, “We must not think evil of this man”. The media tried to make the Amish out to be
super-human. But by their own admission,
they are human, and they did nothing heroic, other than letting God’s love in
and through them.
A month ago, a gunman
entered a Sikh house of worship and killed 5 people. Their response was also one that radiated
God’s love. "Together,
we will try our best to heal from this tragedy," said the president of the
World Sikh Council. "Together we will try to bring peace to the misguided
and troubled minds. Together we will ensure that no person and no community
feels unsafe and intimidated by such senseless violence."
In the face of those kinds of events, these
people of faith did not respond with a defiling ugly response. They responded in a way that glowed with
God’s love. They refused to let
something external defile them. They
responded in love, rooted firmly in God’s all-encompassing love.
Let God’s love in. Feel that giddy-in love feeling. Even if you can’t feel it, know that you are
enveloped in that kind of love. From
that place of overflowing love, don’t let things outside defile you. Instead, turn all those opportunities, all
those barbs, and slights, and stolen parking spots to be opportunities of
grace, and an opportunity to show God’s Love.
Mother Teresa said it well. She said, “Let no one ever come to you
without leaving happier.” With God’s
love, we can.
