Our Pharisee Hearts

Sermon 9-2-18

Grace to you and peace from God our Creator and from our savior Jesus the Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Bye-bye, Summer of Bread, and the Gospel of John. It was nice to spend some time doing a deep dive on Jesus statement “I AM the bread of life….” But now it’s time to get back to Mark. One of the last things we heard from Mark was that cheerful little story about a flashback to the beheading of John the Baptist, included because King Herod thought Jesus was John the Baptist 2.0.

Herod was not the only who was getting nervous about Jesus. The Pharisees too were taking notice of Jesus’s shenanigans and were eager to find fault. On the surface it may seem like the Pharisees have a legitimate complaint – it IS kind of gross not to wash your hands before you eat, especially in this climate which is hot, windy, and dusty. What, then, is it about this behavior that has gotten them bent out of shape.... hit the roof... foaming at the mouth... drive them up the wall.... blow a gasket - you the picture.

I think you got it that the Pharisees were upset. But if you are NOT a native English speaker, most of those phrases I just said sound strange. But we all take idioms for granted, Now the reverse is equally true, that there are plenty of phrases in other languages that don’t translate directly either…. And things get REALLY fun when phrases in English get translated to another language, then back to English. For example, in Star Wars, “Jedi council,” translated into Mandarin Chinese, and BACK into English, is “The Presbyterian Church.” 

We’re going into a bit of a cultural deep dive, because we need to remember in reading these texts, that they are written in another language, on another continent, and two thousand years ago.

Earlier in the summer and in Mark, Jesus healed a woman who had a bleeding issue for twelve years. Not only had her illness been uncomfortable and embarrassing, she was also shunned from her community for being ritually unclean, which had nothing to do with germs or dirt. 

Similarly, the Pharisees took issue, not with the lack of cleanliness of some of the disciples, but their disregard of the purity codes and traditions that the Pharisees hold so dear. Pharisee means, “pure”, they were like a denomination within Judaism. Like their name sounds, they believed that everyone and everything is holy…  as long as you followed EVERY SINGLE ONE of the purity codes …all six-hundred of them! In this case then, handwashing is not about avoiding germs; it’s about following a tradition that makes a meal holy, pure, and worthy of consumption. And similarly, the person who eats it will become or remain holy, pure, and worthy of love. To put it simply – unclean food, and behaviors, make for unclean people. And following these rules – whatever they may be – are what gets us there.

And not surprisingly, Jesus doesn’t buy this one bit. Not because Jesus is anti-Jewish, nor is he replacing Judaism with Christianity – instead, Jesus has in his sights the evil that lies in every human heart to twist God’s commands into things that hat bully and exclude.

How many of you remember any of the 10 commandments? Any of them, shout them out…

By the way you can download Luther’s Small Catechism for both Apple and Android phones… anyway, THESE are the ten Big Ones that God deemed important enough to write on stone (by the way, Jesus isn’t getting ride of THOSE commandments). Which commandment do you think is the hardest for YOU to follow? Haha, no one wants to shout THAT one out!

 I’ll tell you MINE. I struggle so much with the 8^th Commandment: You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.” Seems simple enough on the surface, right? Until we read Luther’s explanation, which goes: “We do not tell lies … betray or slander our neighbor…. Instead we are to come to their defense… and interpret everything they do in the best possible light.”

Let me tell you a little secret. The Ten Commandments were not given to us to make me holier as a person. God gave us the Ten Commandments in order to minimize the damage I could do against my neighbor, especially Commandments four through ten.

Because most of the time, I think I am more like a Pharisee than I care to admit.  I find myself tempted to fall into an “all or nothing” mentality with my fellow human beings, especially based around behaviors that I deem to be impolite, unhealthy, or peculiar. I am quick to judge, and I need a little help in the translation…. So that I interpret what they do in the best possible light. And sometimes this begins at home, and I am going to give you an example from where I grew up.

In Appleton WI, the largest city near my parents, is admittedly not very diverse, especially compared to the Philadelphia area. However, Appleton has an unusually high percentage of a group of Hmong people, from the country of Laos in South East Asia. Growing up, I heard all the usually “truths” that are also “true” of every refugee group out there: 

“They refuse to speak English – why don’t they just learn?” 

“The government give them these big cars and they don’t even pay taxes.” “

They won’t become citizens like the rest of us.”

I didn’t meet a person who was Hmong until I did my Clinical Pastoral Education at a hospital in St. Paul Minnesota. A patient of Hmong descent was suffering from the complications of a heart attack, but his family was convinced that this patient’s uncle had curses him. I did my best to pray with the family until their pastor arrived – yes, you heard right, this family were also devoted Christians.

After this, I did a little research: the Hmong people were a nationless group living in countries all around Asia, and no country actually wanted them around. During the Vietnam war, many Hmong people helped the United States, and in return, we resettled a large portion in various places around the country, including Appleton WI. In return… we treat them with suspicion and distrust – not unlike their counties of origin, it seems like.

More recently, I read through the book (Dialogues on the Refugee Crisis) that the Adult Ed class will be starting in a few weeks and I just want to share a few things about what I read – without giving too much of it away! According to this book, there are so many RULES that refugees coming into this country are required to navigate, besides the cultural ones once they get here. United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees estimates that it takes 2 years for refugees to move from initial screening to resettlement here – and the process takes 3 years or more to unite families. Less than 1 percent of refugees worldwide are resettled – less than 1 percent. All refugees are expected to repay the resettlement within 4 years, and the first bill comes six months after their arrival.

I’ll only give you one more statistic to chew on, I promise. In 2016, the Hmong population of Appleton was 6 percent. That same year, the percent of people in Appleton who are full US citizens was 97 percent. If I know how to do math correctly, that means that no less than half of the Hmong population are already US citizens, and I would guess that the number is probably higher than that. Maybe, just maybe, they have paid off their resettlement loans, are paying their taxes, and are being successful enough that they can afford a nice car for their families to enjoy.

“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor” because we all harbor in our hearts the fear and dislike of the other. But the truth is, there is no “other.” There is no “them.” There is only “us.” Jesus is reminding us of what God has already commanded – to love one another - and Jesus of course lives that love out in its ultimate fullness – facing head-on the evil intentions of our hearts and refusing to let them win. He stands up to our Pharisee hearts and does not back down or give up, even when it is difficult for us to hear and understand. Jesus won’t give up on us, and we don’t give up on one another, even when its hard for us to understand too, and we need a little bit of translating. Thanks be to God, Amen.