Sermon: Confidence in Joy

Joy, from Aspects of Daily Life, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=56048 [retrieved December 12, 2021]. Original source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:55-aspetti_di_vita_quotidiana,_gioia,Taccuino_Sanitatis,_Cas.jpg.

Texts: Zephaniah 3:14-20, Isaiah12:2-6, Philippians 4:4-7, Luke 3:7-18
Lectionary Year C, Advent 3

Introduction

The Third Sunday of Advent, with its theme as joy has an interesting history. The period we are currently experiencing that we call Advent, originally was known as St. Martin’s Lent. It was just like the Lent season before Easter, being 40 days long and of a similar penitential nature and with an accompanying fast. It most likely arose around the fifth century. It appears to have been shortened to the current four weeks around the ninth century, and by the twelfth century the fast had been replaced by simple abstinence. The Third Sunday of Advent is similar to Lent’s Fourth Sunday, known as Laetare Sunday, which is also a break during the solemn period for a day of celebration and joy. The liturgical color of purple, or sometime deep blue, of the Advent season is broken for this one Sunday by the use of pink or rose color. This is the reason why in some Advent candle sets, you will see a single pink candle lit on the third Sunday.[1]

I bring this up because I was curious about today’s set of readings. Three of them clearly are about rejoicing, but the gospel reading from Luke continues where it left off last Sunday with a theme primarily of repentance. At least one takeaway then, is that amidst this time of individual and corporate reflection, introspection, and repentance, we also need to take time out to express and experience joy.

But also what may be of interest are the circumstances surrounding the writing of each of the three texts where rejoicing figures prominently.

Textual Contexts

Zephaniah

The prophetic writing of Zephaniah locates itself in the seventh century BCE, during the reign of King Josiah of Judah. There is tenuous calm for the nation of Judah and in the city of Jerusalem. But there are growing threats from Assyria and Babylon. And within Jerusalem, the prophet sees evil and corruption in the royal court and inside the Temple itself. Judgment is prophesied for Judah and Jerusalem.[2] What we heard this morning from this prophet’s text is the very final words – reactions from the people after God rescues and restores a remnant back to Jerusalem. It is joy that arrives with a backdrop of judgment and suffering. Joy is something that people can claim and experience, even among still-fresh memories and reminders of crisis and loss.

Isaiah

The psalm reading from Isaiah is placed at the end of the first section of Isaiah. This section, like Zephaniah, contains oracles of judgment against Judah. The enumerations of evil and corruption are far more extensive and detailed than in Zephaniah. They go through the motions of religious piety, but their hearts are full of evil. They think that their piety will keep them safe from God’s judgments, all the while pursuing greed and riches at the expense of the poor, widows, and orphans. Judgment is proclaimed against Judah and Jerusalem. It is at the end of this that a repentant remnant is prophesied to return and there will be joy.

Although today’s psalm is placed at the end of this first section of Isaiah, scholars place the actual writing of the text during the exile into Babylon.[3] That makes the composition and the text of this psalm even more pointed since they were written while experiencing the very judgments that were prophesied, yet he still anticipates deliverance and joy.

Philippians

The reading from Philippians is generally accepted to have been written by Paul while he was in a dungeon in Rome. The portion we heard certainly speaks about joy, but it is not just there but throughout the entire epistle. Paul does not dwell much on his own, immediate circumstances. His concern is with how the gospel is spreading, with the Christian community in Philippi, and how to continue in joy.

What is Joy?

The common thread in these three readings is about joy and rejoicing while amidst sometimes extreme personal troubles and distress. How is it possible to have joy when the world seems to be, or is, falling apart?

I did some searches on the web to see what opinions existed in regards to differences between joy and happiness. As might be expected, opinions ranged widely. Some think there aren’t any meaningful differences. Some think that happiness is a subset of joy, or vice versa. And then there are opinions that note that they are related, but they are not the same. I also learned that joy and happiness are very fuzzy concepts. Even the American Psychological Association’s dictionary[4] entries did not add much clarity to any difference that might exist. There doesn’t seem to be a formal description of what joy is and what happiness is.

Here are excerpts from a selection of articles I read –

Happiness usually involves a victory for the self. Joy tends to involve the transcendence of self. Happiness comes from accomplishments. Joy comes when your heart is in another.[5]

Joy often comes from encounters with people—pouring pancake batter with a young child, or feeling a lover’s fingertips skim your back as you enter a door.[6]

Earthly and material things are at the base of happiness… Where happiness is created externally, joy is created internally. Joy comes from being thankful, grateful, and through appreciation. It comes from giving, caring for others, spiritual experiences, and a moral lifestyle.[7]

… the consensus of the majority is that your happiness depends on various external factors. Happiness is an emotion that you experience as it happens to you… Joy needs you to connect – this connection is often with other people or things in your lives, such as people, pets, hobby, creation, etc.[8]

The common threads I see in the above opinions is that happiness tends to be more of your reaction to what happens to you, personally. Joy, on the other hand, seems to come from investments made into, and relationships with other people, and from our own internal integrity with ethics and morals that we express to the outside.

Repentance and Joy?

Considering these characteristics where joy is often found and experienced, perhaps our gospel text in Luke isn’t so out of place after all. We have heard three specific examples of what John the Baptist meant when he preached repentance. To review, here is the text again:

¹⁰ And the crowds asked him, “What then should we do?” ¹¹ In reply he said to them, “Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise.” ¹² Even tax collectors came to be baptized, and they asked him, “Teacher, what should we do?” ¹³ He said to them, “Collect no more than the amount prescribed for you.” ¹⁴ Soldiers also asked him, “And we, what should we do?” He said to them, “Do not extort money from anyone by threats or false accusation, and be satisfied with your wages.” Luke 3:10-14 (NRSV)

Episcopal priest Jaime Edwards-Acton notes that this really isn’t a high bar that John sets.[9] I think that we have often gotten the idea in our minds that repentance is a huge deal and difficult, but these texts have John telling people who come to ask him specific instructions that basically to be moral and ethical in dealing with one another, and to be compassionate and caring. “Just be a decent person,” John seems to be saying.

John isn’t calling for radical life change. He doesn’t tell tax collectors to stop collecting taxes. Taxes are needed to fund government services. A person may not agree with everything that the officials do with the taxes, but they still support necessary services. In John’s time, they were used to fund the Roman occupation. But John does not tell anyone to stop collecting or paying taxes. He just tells the tax collectors to only collect what is officially needed and no more. Be tax collectors of integrity and ethics, John says.

John does not tell the soldiers to resign from the armed forces, or in John’s case, law enforcement as well. Armed forces and law enforcement are necessary to keep the peace. John’s admonishment to them is that they should not use their position to extort money, take bribes, accuse someone falsely, and satisfy their greed in that manner. John tells them to be ethical soldiers of the empire. Become soldiers with integrity.

For the masses, he tells them that if they have more than they need, and see someone in need, to simply share. He does not tell the crowd that they have to become poor and needy themselves. Be decent, compassionate neighbors, he instructs.

This is essentially what the prophets were also calling on the people to do. The prophets’ messages were that the people already had instructions on how they were to live. Don’t just agree that they are good, but put those instructions into actual life activities, they proclaimed. Live lives of integrity where beliefs and action are congruent, is the message.

Confidence in Joy

From the prophets in the Bible, Jesus, the apostles, and many more throughout history and indeed with us today – many who suffer hardships nevertheless are filled with joy.

Here lies what I believe is the key to a joy-filled life. Joy is found in being connected with other people, looking after their well-being, being empathetic with one another, being generous to whatever extent is feasible, and living a life of integrity with Christian ethics and values.

Hardships and suffering cannot negate joy. In fact, joy may be one of the key ingredients that allows us to get through life and all its twists and turns and survive difficulties and tragedies. As the author of Hebrews wrote about Jesus,

​¹ Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, ² looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:1-2 (NRSV)

The author of Hebrews tells us that it was joy of seeing the redeemed, including us, that carried Jesus through the crucifixion.

Joy is not just a happy emotion or feeling. It is a deep-seated confidence that all will resolve to justice and righteousness in Christ. And we have each been given a part to play in this drama through our generosity and integrity in our relationship with one another.

In conclusion, let me repeat today’s reading from Philippians and continue a couple more verses beyond it.

⁴ Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. ⁵ Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. ⁶ Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. ⁷ And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

⁸ Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. ⁹ Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you. Philippians 4:4-9 (NRSV)

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[1] Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Gaudete Sunday - Wikisource, the free online library

[2] Feasting on the Word Commentary, Year C, Volume 1. Essays for Advent 3.

[3] Ibid.

[4] APA Dictionary of Psychology

[5] Brooks, David. Opinion | The Difference Between Happiness and Joy - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

[6] Bogost, Ian. Why Joy Is Better Than Happiness - The Atlantic

[7] Abbate, Bill. How to Embrace Happiness and Joy in Your Life | by Bill Abbate | ILLUMINATION | Medium

[8] Andre. Psychology of Joy vs. Happiness – Psychology Educator

[9] Liberation Lectionary Year C, Advent 3, posted Dec. 7, 2021 – https://fb.watch/9Rb9I6Rl5m/

 

Sermon: Are You Ready?

"John the Baptist preaching in the desert"
JESUS MAFA is a response to the New Testament readings from the Lectionary by a Christian community in Cameroon, Africa. Each of the readings was selected and adapted to dramatic interpretation by the community members. Photographs of their interpretations were made, and these were then transcribed to paintings.

Lectionary: Year C, Advent 2

Texts: Malachi 3:1-4; Luke 3:1-6

Introduction

“Are you ready for Christmas?” is a common refrain heard every year as Thanksgiving draws to a close and Christmas Day approaches. On its surface the question seems to be asking if your holiday decorations are up, is your house cleaned and tidy, is your Christmas tree up, have you prepared your cooking and baking, and have you shopped for everyone on your Christmas list? You do have a Christmas list, don’t you?

But perhaps unspoken by the questioner is also an admission: I’m certainly not ready for Christmas! Sure, I’ve started and I’m working on it, but there is just so much to be done. I don’t know if I’ll be able to get it all done!

We go through this tradition annually. We have tasks that are associated with preparing for Christmas.

On this Second Sunday of Advent, we have heard readings from Malachi 3 and Luke 3 where prophets are calling on their respective audiences to prepare for the coming of the Lord.

The question that kept pressing into my mind this week about the theme of preparation is, “Why do we prepare?” Or asked slightly differently, “What are we trying to achieve through preparation?”

These texts and the several commentaries and bible study helps I examined assume that preparation is necessary, but I couldn’t find that would help me get closer to figuring out the “why” of preparation.

A key reason for asking the question is that a surface reading of Malachi and Luke texts might lead the reader to think that preparation is a necessary step before judgment and being accepted into the presence of God. And that could be taken as another way of saying, salvation. But we Christians believe that salvation is something God initiates through God’s grace and mercy, and that we can’t do anything to earn or deserve it. That offers some insight into why I was perplexed when reading these texts.

Connecting to the Exodus

In our readings of the later prophetic texts, especially those that have been ascribed to prophesy the coming Messiah, in our Christ-centric interpretations of these texts, we can miss the deep connections to the Hebrew and Jewish traditions that these texts would have invoked in the minds of the earliest hearers.

One of those that is relevant to our readings today is the Exodus story. To briefly recap, the Hebrews were enslaved in Egypt. God, through Moses, delivers and releases them from their oppressors. They travel to Mount Sinai. Here is the text from Exodus 19 describing their arrival at the mountain:

¹ On the third new moon after the Israelites had gone out of the land of Egypt, on that very day, they came into the wilderness of Sinai. ² They had journeyed from Rephidim, entered the wilderness of Sinai, and camped in the wilderness; Israel camped there in front of the mountain. ³ Then Moses went up to God; the Lord called to him from the mountain, saying, “Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the Israelites: ⁴ You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. ⁵ Now therefore, if you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession out of all the peoples. Indeed, the whole earth is mine, ⁶ but you shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the Israelites… When Moses had told the words of the people to the Lord, ¹⁰ the Lord said to Moses: “Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow. Have them wash their clothes ¹¹ and prepare for the third day, because on the third day the Lord will come down upon Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.” (Exodus 19:1-6, 9b-11 NRSV)

Notice that the Israelites have been called out to be a “priestly kingdom and a holy nation.” The IVP Bible Background Commentary explains

“… the Israelites are identified as a ‘kingdom of priests,’ which identifies the nation as serving a priestly role among the nations, as intermediary between the peoples and God. Additionally there is a well-attested concept in the ancient Near East that a city or group of people may be freed from being subject to a king and placed in direct subjection to a deity. So Israel, freed from Egypt, is now given sacred status.”[1]

Israel was called out to mediate and demonstrate to all the rest of the world what their God was like and why their God was the most worthy of worshiping and serving.

Next note that a time of preparation is commanded because God would be coming to the people. But also note the order in which this early part of the Exodus story plays out: first God delivers and frees from oppression and bondage; God chooses a group to become God’s ambassadors and witness to the world; only then does God announce that God will be coming to meet them and that they should prepare for the event.

I believe this background is assumed in Malachi and John’s proclamations about the coming of the Lord. They are not stating that in order to be saved, you must prepare; but rather, because you are already delivered and God’s people, you ought to live as God’s ambassadors. But because you haven’t, preparations are necessary.

Individual vs. Collective

Another key sentence in interpreting the “why” of preparation is found in Luke 3:6, “And all flesh shall see the salvation of God.” The end goal of all the preparation is to have a group of people exemplifying the character of God on earth so that when God appears everyone on earth will recognize what a community and society of saved people looks like.

There is also another dynamic at work that can help us better understand what Malachi and John is saying.

When we prepare for, say Christmas, we think of it mostly in individual and private terms. It is our homes, our gift lists, our entertaining. We prepare out of a sense of personal obligation, because that’s simply what is done at this time of year. We do it because we don’t want to be a Grinch. Some of it might be out of sense of personal pride. We might want to be admired for it. And I suppose there might be more than a few of you that really do enjoy Christmas preparations.

But our texts for this morning were written not to individualistic society, but to a collective one – one where everything is steeped in gaining or losing honor, and the avoidance of shame. A parable from Luke 11 can help us understand this a little more.

⁵ And he said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; ⁶ for a friend of mine has arrived, and I have nothing to set before him.’ ⁷ And he answers from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door has already been locked, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.’ ⁸ I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, at least because of his persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs. (Luke 11:5-8 NRSV)

We don’t have time to go into detail, but the summary is this: a guest has arrived at the community at a very late hour. The household where the guest arrived no longer had their daily bread. Hospitality is among the highest of values, and to not offer a minimum of bread to a guest would be highly offensive and insulting to the guest, bring dishonor and shame to not just the household but to the entire community. An actual friend in the same community would never act as the one in this parable did, because he would recognize the honor and shame potential. What he would do is immediately do what this “friend” in the parable finally does – provide everything and more needed to offer proper hospitality to the guest so that the guest will not be offended and insulted. Another example of this kind of hospitality is found in the story of Abraham and the three travelers.[2]

When we read the texts about preparation and about repentance, we need to see them as being spoken to the entire society. The continuation of today’s lection from Malachi reads,

⁵ Then I will draw near to you for judgment; I will be swift to bear witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the hired workers in their wages, the widow and the orphan, against those who thrust aside the alien, and do not fear me, says the LORD of hosts. (Malachi 3:5 NRSV)

Next week’s continuation of the gospel reading in Luke 3 will have John the Baptist identifying similar societal injustices that are among the obstacles that should be cleared to make way for the Lord.

To be unprepared or underprepared then, would be to offend and insult God. To be practicing and condoning societal injustices while preparing for Christmas and the Second Advent would be to offend and insult God. To remain silent while witnessing oppression and injustice goes against the very prophetic nature of the Advent season. Our preparations for Christmas and for welcoming Christ again is to become the kind of people and society that is indistinguishable from the kind of life Jesus led and the community he fostered.

Advent is a little bit like the Exodus journey where we have already been delivered and saved, but we still need reminders to practice what it means to live a saved life among a saved community. Through annual Advent preparations for our encounters with Christ each Christmas, we are given opportunities to examine ourselves and our communities and find new valleys to fill, mountains and hills to level, crooked to make straight, and rough ways to make smooth.

Advent is not really about us, but about becoming the presence of Christ in the world.

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[1] IVP Bible Background Commentary, Old Testament, entry for Exodus 19:5-6.

[2] Genesis 18:1-15.

Sermon: Breaking Down Boundaries

Lectionary Year B, Proper 18
Gospel Text: Mark 7:24-37

Introduction

None of us are born in isolation from society. From birth, we are a part of some kind of social group. From these social groups we absorb and learn many things; some good, some neutral, and some bad. Some of the things are taught and modeled explicitly, but many more we absorb implicitly. One of those things is how society values different kinds of people, and more specifically, how my in-group views people that are outside of my group. As we grow and interact with different groups, we have positive and negative experiences that can reinforce stereotypes for good or bad. While most of us learn and know intellectually that we should not look down on people different from us, we may still harbor fear, dislike, or feelings of superiority that unconsciously influence our actions.

Many of my childhood and teen years were lived among predominantly White communities. Whether accurate or not, as my young brain looked around, I observed that White people appeared to be more affluent and clearly were the majority. One result of this was that I subconsciously developed anti-Asian sentiment within myself, even though I am clearly Asian.

I think that most strongly reinforcing this idea occurred during a few of my middle school years and a year in high school, when our family spent some time in Singapore as missionaries. The missionaries, who were nearly all Western and White, had their own school for their children, in nice air-conditioned buildings and rooms in a compound just for them.

All of this added up so that for a good number of decades I tried to avoid associating with other Asians and preferred the company of White groups.

But even within the broad category of Asians, I also absorbed a national and ethnic hierarchy that placed my people, Japanese, at the top and other Asians further down the ladder. Although I had close Asian friends that were not Japanese, I held to negative stereotypes when thinking about other groups as a whole. Even though I would have never thought of myself as racist, I thought it was fine and good to maintain internal hierarchies of race and nationality, and to have negative ideas about groups that I didn’t identify with.

I bring all this up because a human individual’s social environment, their culture, and their upbringing all contribute to what they assume is moral and ethical. What they learn and absorb from their in-group defines much of what is assumed to be right. I didn’t think any of what I’ve mentioned was wrong. I simply believed and accepted that that’s just how the world worked. I bring this up because many decades later, as I’ve learned and matured, I am finally at a point where I can begin to see how my upbringing and the experiences I had shaped me and can take conscious steps to break away from recognized negative aspects.

Was Jesus Exempt from Human Upbringing?

Was Jesus exempt from experiencing this part of humanity?

Dr. James F. McGrath, professor of New Testament Language and Literature at Butler University writes,

“Was he [Jesus] entirely free from human biases in his upbringing and culture? As a genuine human being, I think there is no way he could have had a human upbringing in which he learned language, culture, customs, and values, and yet be entirely free of all prejudices and biases.”[1]

And Loye Ashton in the commentary Feasting on the Word writes,

“To be the Son of God, the Messiah must suffer, not only at the hands of those of us who do not understand him, but also under of the conditions of existence, the challenge of the human condition itself. To be otherwise would not allow Jesus to be fully human… Mark provides an interesting way of seeing how the divine and the human can be completely combined in the life of Jesus of Nazareth.”[2]

Jesus and Ethnic Traditions

Today’s gospel text is the middle of a series of stories arranged by Mark to show how Jesus went from caring for the Jews, his in-group, to breaking rigidly established boundaries of purity, religion, ethnicity and race to include all humanity in his care. The Syrophoenician woman is the fulcrum on which this shift occurs.

Up to this point the series of stories show Jesus challenging traditional Jewish norms and even disregarding purity codes. But these were all debates within Judaism and having disagreements or practicing differently did not automatically place one outside of the community.

To offer God’s divine power to someone outside of the Jewish community would be something else entirely. That is the challenge that Jesus is confronted with when the Syrophoenician (or Canaanite; c.f. Matthew 15:22) woman comes to him with a request to cast the unclean spirit out of her daughter. This was not only a Gentile, but a woman; a woman with an unclean daughter, and even more problematic, a descendant of the Canaanites, Israel’s mortal enemy.

And that is the point at which Jesus hesitates. He seems to have some intellectual recognition that God’s mercy should go to all of humanity, but his social norms acquired through his upbringing seems to erect an emotional block. Jesus responds as a Jewish man would be expected to respond to a request from a Gentile woman. It is rude and insulting, but simultaneously, it is an entirely acceptable and expected response.

Rev. Marcea Paul of the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd, in Austin, Texas writes,

“We believe and profess that Jesus is fully human and fully divine, and this week, we encounter Jesus in his full humanity.”[3]

We don’t have the time to go into the problem of this apparent portrait of a less-than-perfect Jesus. For now I hope it is sufficient to note that the problem may lie in our overreliance on John’s gospel and some of the Christological texts in the epistles as fully explaining Jesus, and through them our assumptions about what it means to be perfect and without sin. From the quotes I’ve already used, there are biblical scholars and practicing pastors who are raising the problem of an underdeveloped doctrine of Jesus’ humanity.

Jesus Challenged

Jesus responds as a Jewish man might be expected to respond. But the woman, instead of going away, as would have been expected, she responds with a challenge to Jesus’ response, thus invoking an honor contest – again, something that is completely unexpected across social, ethnic, and gender boundaries.[4]

Her response, “Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs,” (7:28) get the better of Jesus. This is the only story recorded in the gospels where Jesus loses an honor contest, and it is to a Gentile woman. Whereas in Matthew’s account Jesus praises the woman’s faith, in Mark’s account Jesus recognizes the superiority of the woman’s reason and logic.

In commenting on this the Fortress Biblical Preaching Commentaries: Mark reads,

The Syrophoenician woman’s reply in v.28 is startling. The fact that she talks back is itself a sign of boundary-crossing persistence… She engages Jesus in a clever, rhetorical riposte that while not undoing the offense of naming, breaks and thus bests its logic… The gentile woman works cleverly within the metaphor that Jesus uses. But in doing so, she breaks it open for newness and healing.[5]

The woman of this story is the hero. She extracts honor from Jesus, and he is compelled to accede to the woman’s request.

What Jesus Learned

Jesus had been pushing and crossing boundaries within his own Jewish tradition. But the Syrophoenician woman challenged boundaries that defined ethnic, national, social, religious, and gender separations. She challenged Jesus to break those boundaries as ones that were hindering a broader mission to all of humanity. In healing her daughter, Jesus appears to have learned that there were far more traditional boundaries that would have to be broken and crossed.

The next story where a man who is deaf and has a speech impediment is healed shows how Jesus puts into practice what he has learned. He no longer shows reluctance to immediately respond to a Gentile person’s needs. But Jesus’ manner of healing in this story is strange in that he does not lay hands on the man, as was asked of him, but rather pokes his finger into the man’s ears, spits onto his fingers and touches the man’s tongue. It is almost as if Jesus is adopting certain healing practices and goes through motions that were more common in the Greco-Roman world. Karen Pidcock-Lester offers the following observation in the commentary Feasting on the Gospels,

The significance of the spittle is unclear. Some evidence indicates that the Greco-Roman culture viewed it as having curative effects, while other evidence from Jewish texts indicate that it is an unclear discharge. This would actually make a difference in how one views the healing act. Given that Mark has been picturing Jesus breaking boundaries, I would suggest that it is viewed in the Jewish fashion as unclean. By an unclean act Jesus heals; this makes the boundary breaking even stronger.[6]

The final story in this Markan sequence of narratives showing Jesus’ boundary crossings is the Feeding of the 4,000 which takes place still in a Gentil area. In this story, as was found in the feeding of the 5,000 which was in Jewish lands, the Markan text includes that Jesus had compassion for the crowd which had been with him for three days (8:2). Jesus who had compassion for the Jewish crowds, but responded rudely to the Syrophoenician woman, comes around to having compassion for a Gentile crowd.

What We Can Learn

Since we are human, we don’t always know the kinds of boundaries that we hold on to. Many are handed down through our families and the society that we are born into. Others we might choose along life’s way.

Jesus did not say all boundaries should be eliminated. He clearly has at least one – that of sacrificial love for one another which is the defining marker for his people and community.

Any boundary that is antithetical to sacrificial love for one another is, therefore, a boundary that should be questioned. Another might be any boundary that builds and maintains hierarchies of power. And yet another might be any boundary that assigns a degree of value differently from one person to another depending on where they fall. Do our stated values always match what we hold on to internally?

Another area to consider is the ways in which we respond when we are externally confronted and challenged on boundaries that we adhere to, both consciously and subconsciously. Do we become defensive or are we open to the possibility that we might be wrong and take corrective action?

Jesus was crucified, at least in part because he refused to stay within what society demanded were proper and necessary boundaries. Jesus crossed boundaries to love those that were considered enemies by society. He not only crossed boundaries, but he sought to remove them. One could say that Jesus was a traitor for the cause of love. We, who claim the name of Jesus Christ and follow him, are being asked to do no less.

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[1] Was Jesus a Racist? | James McGrath (patheos.com) (https://www.patheos.com/blogs/religionprof/2021/09/was-jesus-racist.html)

[2] Feasting on the Word: Year B, Volume 4, Kindle location approximately at 1716.

[3] Crumbs for Healing, Pentecost 15 (B) – September 5, 2021 – The Episcopal Church (https://www.episcopalchurch.org/sermon/crumbs-for-healing-pentecost-15-b-september-5-2021/)

[4] Fortress Biblical Preaching Commentaries: Mark, p. 103-104.

[5] Fortress, p. 104-105

[6] Pidcock-Lester, Karen (commentary contributor). Feasting on the Gospels: Mark. Approximate Kindle location 7608.

Sermon: Boundaries

Lectionary Year B, Proper 17

Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

Story: The Guru’s Cat^[1],[2]

Once there was an Ashram in Kathmandu, Nepal, where a guru lived with many disciples. Also living in this Ashram was a cat. He was a wonderful cat, very friendly and eager to please. The cat was well fed and well loved by everyone in the Ashram.

There was only one problem: during the Ashram daily schedule, the cat wanted to participate. And the cat’s participation began to disrupt the hours of chanting and meditation for the guru and the disciples. Why so? When the guru and disciples would chant, the cat would howl. When they would meditate, the cat would snore quite loudly.

Therefore, the guru asked that every day, during chanting and meditation, the cat be tied to a post in another room. The disciples obeyed the guru’s command, and the discipline of the daily schedule was restored. There was no more disruption from the cat and everyone’s focus was again strong on chanting and meditation.

A few years passed, and one auspicious day the guru peacefully left his body. The disciples continued to tie the cat to the post every day during the period of chanting and meditation.

One day, the sweet cat died. The disciples held a meeting and discussed how important it was to preserve the guru’s teaching. With resolve, they went to the market and bought another cat so that they could tie it to the post during times of chanting and meditation and in this way faithfully honor the guru’s teaching.

Comments on Story

It’s humorous and probably apocryphal. And it illustrates the problem of blindly observing tradition but forgetting what birthed it. Faithful observance of tradition becomes more sacred than what the tradition originally pointed to.

And that is one way of interpreting and understanding today’s gospel text about the washing of hands. There is nothing wrong with interpreting the text as pointing to the problem of excessive observance of outward traditions and reliance on them to appear wholesome and good, while neglecting unaddressed evils inside of individuals and groups. It is a completely valid concern.

Yet there is much more to this text than that.

Literary placement

The first point I’d like to consider is the literary placement of today’s text. The larger literary context begins around the middle of Mark, chapter 6 and goes midway through chapter 8. Here is a series of stories that Mark has placed together to convey a larger point.

The larger section begins with the Feeding of the 5,000. This takes place in Galilee, within Jewish lands. There is a slight narrative diversion of Jesus walking on water that takes him from one part of the lake to another, but still within Jewish land. At this new location, Gennesaret, Jesus heals a large number of people. After this comes today’s text where some Pharisees and legal experts confront Jesus about the washing of hands. From there Jesus removes himself from Jewish territory and goes to Tyre where he encounters a Gentile woman who challenges Jesus. Jesus remains in Gentile territory where a deaf and mute man is healed. This large series of stories ends with the Feeding of the 4,000 which takes place in Gentile lands.

From the literary placement of these stories, it appears that Mark is attempting to convey major boundary crossings that Jesus undertakes. Briefly, these include ethnic, cultural, religious, and gender boundaries.

Clean/unclean discussion

Boundaries have their place when used appropriately. But too often they are misplaced and misused. Boundaries can become imbued with meanings that they were never intended to acquire.

I grew up in a religious environment that observed clean and unclean distinctions regarding food. Beef and chicken are clean; pork is not. Fish has to have scales, and some types of fish therefore, are questionable. Shellfish and crustaceans are on the unclean side of the ledger.

Ostensibly these were “divine health guidance” that God gave to Moses as recorded in Leviticus. But more recent evidence from science is lacking.[3]^,[4]

Observance of these restrictions is a boundary marker for what it means to belong to this group.

My first few years in this world were in Japan, and I was probably about four years old when this next story occurred.

I attended a public preschool and lunch was provided by the school. One day the lunch included what were probably something like meatballs. Somewhere I had gotten the idea that ground meat was pork. That assumption was probably 99% correct since across the world, meatballs include pork more often than not, but especially in Asia where the use of pork seems to be far more common. I objected to eating it because it would violate, what I had at that young age understood as, a key pillar of my religious faith and community. I was very proud that I stood up for what I believed to be right and true. My very identity of who I was and where I belonged was tied up in this particular and narrow belief.

While that might seem funny now as a limited, black-and-white thinking of a small child, the same thought process can and does occur among much older adults and with more serious consequences. To protect the boundaries of clean vs. unclean, vegetarianism might be encouraged as another boundary. And to provide even more protection veganism might be encouraged. If these were only suggestions, perhaps it would not be so bad. But in boundary-making, especially in religious cultures, these boundaries acquire moral and ethical properties. All of a sudden, those who are able to adhere to stricter and stricter boundaries see themselves as more spiritual and righteous, and perhaps some on the outside might also see those who are sacrificing appetite for the sake of God to be more spiritual.

I think this may be a large degree what Jesus was objecting to in our gospel text for today. Jesus isn’t condemning traditions or their practice, but what they have come to mean. They have become boundary markers excluding all but those most dedicated to a particular brand of religion and spirituality.  

Cultural context

I’ve been discussing today’s subject matter solely in terms of a religious and spiritual context so far. We moderns, particularly in the Western context, live in a world where most of us have separations between religion, civics, social, and personal spheres of life. But that was not the case in the ancient world.

Ritual purity was not just a religious question but affected a person’s belonging within society itself and their participation in any of its spheres. A ritually unclean person was certainly excluded from the religious community, but from participation in civic life, social life, and family life.

For the Pharisees to question Jesus’ disciples (and by doing so were really questioning Jesus’ own practices) about purity rituals was in effect publicly questioning whether Jesus was really a proper Jew. They were defending the honor of all Jews and what it meant to be a Jew. Jesus was, in their view, acting shamefully.[5]

Think about what it means for you to identify as American and for others to see you as American. What goes through your mind and emotions when what you see someone disregard or violate what you believe to be American values, traditions and practices? That is the kind of visceral reaction that these Pharisees most likely felt toward Jesus when they saw him disregarding Jewish rituals they considered vital. It is important to understand that Jesus’ conflicts within his Jewish tradition was not merely religious and intellectual, but that they reached into the core of what it meant to be an authentic Jew.

Drawing New Boundaries

Jesus rises up to the challenge pushed on him by the Pharisees and the legal experts. He confronts accusations of violating tradition by appealing to a different tradition – the prophetic tradition. He quotes from Isaiah to turn the accusation back onto his accusers. The prophetic tradition is stronger than the tradition of the elders. In portions of the text that were not part of today’s reading, Jesus presses his advantage by citing another example where the legal experts placed tradition over justice. Jesus shows that he is a true Jew by utilizing and arguing through a stronger Jewish tradition.

And then Jesus invites the crowd gathered around, who are witnessing this honor contest, to participate by rendering a verdict on his closing argument:

“Nothing outside of a person can enter and contaminate a person in God’s sight; rather, the things that come out of a person contaminate the person.” (7:15 CEB)

Although the crowd’s response is not provided in the text, the lack of any further questioning by Jesus’ challengers and the disciples’ immediate questions indicate that the crowd affirmed Jesus’ position on the debate.

Jesus draws new boundaries. The boundaries aren’t drawn at external observances or their lack. Rather it is the things that come out of a person. The disciples didn’t quite understand so they ask Jesus and additional explanation is provided to them.

“It’s from the inside, from the human heart, that evil thoughts come: sexual sins, thefts, murders, adultery, greed, evil actions, deceit, unrestrained immorality, envy, insults, arrogance, and foolishness. All these evil things come from the inside and contaminate a person in God’s sight.” (7:21-23 CEB)

In the kingdom, the new society and community, that Jesus is establishing, it is not external purification rituals that determine a person’s belonging. The boundaries are, rather, established by the attitudes and actions one has toward another. In this text some examples of the negative kind are given by Jesus. These are each antithesis of love, the positive boundary of Jesus’ new community.

I think that from time to time it can be helpful to see what love is not. When we look at this list of evils, we might be tempted to think that we don’t commit any of them. Perhaps not in their most overt and egregious ways. Every one of the evils listed could have a socially acceptable form. I think all of us would do well to perhaps take some time to think about it and see if we are excusing some evils in our lives because they are socially acceptable.

As we look at ourselves and our communities, perhaps today’s text is asking us to ask, “What boundaries have we erected that hinders or prevent loving relationships to occur among all members of our community?” And secondly, “What boundaries might be necessary to maintain a healthy and loving community?”  

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[1] The Guru's Cat | Siddha Yoga Path (https://www.siddhayoga.org/teachings/stories/gurus-cat)

[2] I originally came across a one-paragraph summary of this story at Distractions, Pentecost 14 (B) – August 29, 2021 – The Episcopal Church (https://www.episcopalchurch.org/sermon/distractions-pentecost-14-b-august-29-2021/)

[3] The Levitical Dietary Laws in the Light of Modern Science (gordon.edu) (http://faculty.gordon.edu/hu/bi/ted_hildebrandt/otesources/03-leviticus/text/articles/key-levdietary61a-asa.pdf)

[4] Food Regulation in Biblical Law: A Paper Submitted in Satisfaction of the Written Work Requirement of Harvard Law School, Wendy Ann Wilkenfeld (https://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/8846735/wwilkenfeld.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y)

[5] Misreading Scripture with Individualist Eyes, E. Randolph Richards and Richard James, p. 228-230.