Sung Eucharist and Matins, The Priory Church, 2nd September 2018
Deuteronomy 4.1-2,6-9
Psalm 15
James 1.17-27
Mark 7.1-8,14,15,21-23
I want to begin by asking you to think of someone who for you embodies what it is to be a Christian. It may be someone you knew when you were younger, perhaps a teacher or a relative. Or it could be somebody you’ve met more recently, a new neighbour, perhaps, or someone through work.
For my part, I think of a person who I first met at theological college some twelve years ago. He’s now a retired priest who’s given me lots of encouragement and support over the years. He’s very kind and hugely generous with his time. Not just that, he’s also a very joyful person and great fun to be with, not least because there’s invariably good food and wine to be had when we meet up!
Over time, as I’ve got to know him better, after many long conversations, and reading the Bible and praying together, too, I’ve been struck by how his outer life, by which I mean the way he behaves, his actions, his words, seems remarkably in tune, as far as I can see, with his inner life, who he is deep down, and what he believes.
Of course, if my friend were here, he’d be the first to say that he’s far from perfect, quite the opposite, in fact, and that if I knew the half of what goes on inside his head, I’d quickly change my mind. But nonetheless, this deep connection between his inner and outer life is striking and it’s this connection which is a key theme in our readings this morning.
Be it Moses and the Israelites, Jesus and the Pharisees, or James and the early church, the teaching is clear: your outer life, its words and deeds, are a reflection of your inner life and the beliefs your heart holds dear. Jesus tells the Pharisees that it is your inner life which shapes your outer life. ‘It is from within, from the human heart,’ he later explains to his disciples, ‘that evil intentions come’.
But the same applies for our good intentions, they too come from within, from the human heart. As such, as James makes clear, our words and deeds are an excellent indication as to what’s really going on inside us.
Early on in his letter, James highlights anger: ‘be slow to anger’, he says, ‘for your anger does not produce God’s righteousness’. He then goes on to talk about words, using the image of the tongue being a horse that needs to be reined in—and I’m sure we’ve all seem images of a horse that’s out of control and the damage that can it can cause. ‘If any think,’ he says, ‘if any think they are religious, and do not bridle their tongues but deceive their hearts, their religion is worthless’.
Worthless! That’s a very strong word to use. Why does this all matter so much? Well, let’s take James’ examples of anger and words, and see why.
Firstly, it matters because when we get angry with each other or speak ill of each other, we make it very hard for us to be the church. If I get angry with you or say rude things to your face or worse, behind your back, I make it really hard for you to stick around and carry on being a member of the church. You’re going to think to yourself, I’m not going to go to church this morning, or I’m not going to volunteer on that committee or join that small group because if I did, I’d just have to see Will again, and after he lost his temper with me that time and all that he said, I can’t be dealing with that.
And slowly over time, my loss of temper and/or unkind words contribute to the creation of a negative atmosphere, where, if this happens often enough, it results in your stepping back. Perhaps, you think about going to worship somewhere else. Or maybe, that’s just the last straw and you come to the conclusion that you can be a Christian but you’re not going to keep putting yourself through all this nonsense. So you quit going to church. All because I, and others, lost our tempers and said things we shouldn’t have said and didn’t apologise.
But by contrast when we’re kind, generous, peaceable, and loving towards each other we make this the best community to be a part of. When we take the time to give each other an encouraging word, when we help each other out, when we show each other we care, we make it so that we would never think of leaving. We encourage each other to do more, give more, support more, volunteer more. And when we’re like that, together, in a sustained way over time, the church flourishes.
Secondly, it matters because we’re not a community that exists for itself. Quite the contrary. As the church, the Body of Christ, we’re called to serve the world. And that’s why it’s doubly costly when our our outer actions betray our inner lives. When I’m angry with you, when I speak ill of you, if I lose my temper in the workplace or at home with my family, then all those people around me, my work colleagues, my neighbours, my own family, see this disconnect between the beliefs that I profess and the outer life I exhibit.
My non-Christian friends and family are not stupid. When they see me behaving like this, they rightly question the beliefs I hold. ‘Will says he’s a Christian, but look at how he behaves. He’s just as bad as anyone else. If not worse! In fact, come to think of it, most of my atheist friends are far more Christian than he is.’ And, bang! In the eyes of the world around us, in goes another nail in the church’s coffin.
But when as Christians our outer lives are more in sync with our inner lives and the beliefs our hearts hold dear, the world around us sits up and takes notice. When you’re generous and encouraging with your work colleagues, loving with your family and neighbours, the fact that you’re a Christian doesn’t confuse people, it’s what makes sense of your behaviour, especially when you go above and beyond the call of duty. Your outer lives aren’t an obstacle to people around you coming to faith, they become part of the very means by which the Holy Spirit draws others to faith in Jesus.
Of course, the truth is that we’re all of us a bit of a mixture. St Augustine calls the church a school for saints, yes, but he also says it’s a hospital for sinners. And we’re all of us one and the same. We all of us have our good days and bad days. Days when we’re better-tempered and generous with our words, and, sad to say, days when we’re more ill-tempered and mean-spirited.
This is a deep-rooted problem. But what exactly is going wrong? Jesus makes clear, it’s what’s going on in our hearts that matters, yes, for what shapes our hearts will shape our deeds and words. As such, he’s pointing to where the problem lies, and he quotes the prophet Isaiah, ‘Their hearts are far from me’, far from the LORD. But why, as believers, in that moment when we get angry or say something cruel, are our hearts far from God?
Moses is very insightful on this point. He tells the Israelites, ‘take care and watch yourselves closely, so as neither to forget the things that your eyes have seen nor to let them slip from your mind’. He’s referring to the giving of the law at Mt Sinai and prior to that the dramatic freeing of Israel from slavery in Egypt. For us as Christians, in addition to such formative events, it is the life, death, resurrection and ascension of Our Lord Jesus that we are not to forget, that we are not to let slip from our minds.
It sounds so obvious, I know, but we all do it. When I forget, when I let the life of Our Lord Jesus slip from my mind, my inner life all too quickly is shaped by other lords, other forces that move in and take charge, pushing and pulling me in this direction and that, all of which in time issues forth in words and deeds that are flatly contrary to God’s good purposes and my calling as a follower of Jesus. When I lose my cool at work, for example if I’ve been given a ridiculous deadline and I’m already right up against it, in that moment it’s as if Jesus might as well have never bothered with the Sermon on the Mount. When I catch myself making fun of someone or saying something unkind simply for the sake of conversation over a coffee with friends, in that moment it’s as if the resurrection of Jesus had never happened. When it fact it has and it changes everything, including even how we talk about each other, even those people we find difficult.
So how do we make sure that we don’t forget all this: Jesus’ teachings, that he is risen, that the new creation has begun and that the Spirit is with us. Just as vitally, as Moses reminds us, how do we make sure our children and our grandchildren don’t forget?
Well, for starters, we do exactly what we’re doing now. We gather to celebrate our Lord’s life, his death, his resurrection. We hear the Scriptures read, we receive the Bread and the Wine, the body and blood of our Lord Jesus. At a vital level, the sheer act of doing these things week by week is one of the ways the Holy Spirit lays and maintains the necessary foundations of our inner lives and draws us closer to Christ.
But it’s not enough. Throughout the week, we need to stay in touch with God. Not just us. Our children and our grandchildren too. We need to read his Word together and spend time with Him in prayer. As an aside, it’s why, if you can, being a member of one of the small groups is so helpful.
Whoever it’s with, if we don’t do this kind of thing – reading the Bible and praying together— we’re simply kidding ourselves that we have the resources on our own to avoid our inner lives getting all messed up. When we don’t, we’re like a patient that’s been prescribed the necessary medicine to heal our illness, but we decide in our wisdom we don’t really need the pills. We think we know better than the doctor and that if we just keep soldiering on under our own steam, we’ll get better eventually. We don’t and we won’t.
So it’s important that we make time throughout the week so that we don’t forget. So that Jesus doesn’t slip from our minds. Yes, it’s hard work. Yes, we have to be deliberate about it. And yes, there’s always something else to do around the house, or to watch on Netflix, or to scroll through on our phones.
But I know of no higher calling than to be a follower of Jesus. The fact that you’re here this morning makes me think that probably deep down, you reckon this to be true, too. And with good reason. For the prospect of our inner lives being shaped so that our outer lives more and more resemble his image and likeness is one that fills me, and I pray that it does you, too, with excitement and joy. For to become more like Christ, is to be blessed by God and thereby become a blessing to those around us.
In a moment, when we pray, please pray for the person who came to mind when I asked you to think of someone who for you embodies what it is to be a Christian. Thank God for that person and pray that in our own way, you and I, too, may become such people for others, both within our community as the church and with those with whom we live our lives and whom God has called us to love and serve.
In the name of Jesus Christ Our Lord, Amen.