What We Can Learn from a Child

Cycle B Proper 20

Gospel Puppet Show

Characters:  Jesus, Peter and John

(John and Peter are speaking)

John: I am so glad that we’re friends with Jesus.  When Jesus becomes the King of this land, I’m sure he will pick me to be his president.

Peter:  But I am closer to Jesus and I am also stronger than you are.  John, you will let people run over you.  Jesus need a strong leader to be his president.

John:  No Peter, I think that I will have the better position when Jesus is King because you lose your temper.  Jesus needs a calm person to be his president.

Peter (shouting real loud):  I don’t lose my temper.  I don’t get angry.  I just raise my voice to make a point.

John:  Well, it looks like you’re losing your temper.  In fact the other disciple think that you can be a very hot head.  That’s why Jesus needs me to be his president.

Peter: He does not.

John:  Does so.

Peter: Does not.

John Does so.

Peter: Just wait, Jesus will pick me to be his highest assistant.

John: No he won’t, he will pick me.

Jesus(suddenly appears):   Hey, Peter, hey John, what were you talking about.  I thought I heard you speaking very loudly.

Peter:  We weren’t talking about anything.

John: We were arguing about who caught the biggest fish.

Jesus: Are you sure about that?  I want to tell you something about my kingdom.  My kingdom is different from other kingdoms.

Peter: How is your kingdom different?

Jesus:  Well, in my kingdom the King is the one who serves people.  And anyone who wants to be a president also has to serve people.

John:  What kind of King is that?  Aren’t people supposed to serve the king?  Aren’t people supposed to obey the orders of the president.

Jesus: My kingdom is different than that?

Peter: But it is not like the kingdoms we know.  It’s not like the King of Rome, the Caesar or like the famous King David.

John: Jesus how do you expect us to understand your kingdom.

(Father Phil bring a baby)

Jesus: Do you see this baby?

Peter: Yes.

Jesus: If you want to understand my kingdom, you have to become like this baby.

John:  It is very hard for us to be babies again.  What do you mean?  Are you talking in riddles again?

Jesus:  Well, yes I am.  You have to become like this baby.  What I mean is that you’ve learned the wrong way and the wrong things about my kingdom.  You have to erase you’re wrong thinking.  You have to become like this baby and be re-educated again.

Peter:  But you know we have lots of habits.  You know you can’t teach an old dog, new tricks.

Jesus:  But if you learn about my kingdom and the importance of service then you will be able to learn new things.

John:  It is hard to learn new things.

Jesus:  But when serve people you get the reward of helping people and that will make you happy.  You can learn that serving and helping people is better than making them serve and help you.  And that is the secret of my kingdom.

Peter: Well, we’ve got a lot to learn.  And I have to confess now.  John and I were arguing about who would be the most important people in your kingdom.

John:  I am ashamed that I misunderstood your kingdom.  I now understand the importance of service.  And I should have known, just by watching you.

Peter:  Thank you Jesus for this lesson about serving and helping other people.

Jesus: Boys and girls, can you remember this secret about the kingdom of God?  It is all about learning how to serve and help others.  Can you remember this?

Wisdom and the Gospel As Spiritual Method

15 Pentecost Proper19  September 16, 2012

Proverbs 1:20-33 Psalm 116:1-8

James 3:1-12  Mark 8:27-38

Lectionary Link

  It seems as though the writer of the book of Proverbs presents Wisdom as rather unforgiving.  I quote: “I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when panic strikes you,”  And though this might seem cruel, I believe that it represents the reality of ignorance in not understanding the clash of the various systems of natural law and human behavioral responses.  We have wisdom clichés that state the same principles: “If you play with fire, you’ll get burnt.”  Buddhism is a wisdom philosophy and one of their chief understandings is that in a great part “suffering is caused by ignorance.”  Not knowing leaves us at a disadvantage in life.   If we could cure the gross ignorance of the world how much could we reduce the amount of suffering?  If I could cure my own gross ignorance, how much of my own suffering could I reduce?

  The writer of the book of Proverbs presents a natural theology; God as Wisdom can be discovered and known by simple observation.  But is the attaining of wisdom really just natural or does it have to be learned within the traditions of a particular community?  And are the findings and practices of wisdom in one age adequate for the practice of another age?  I think that one could make the claim that the Bible is a book of the unfolding of wisdom in the belief and practices of various communities of people.  And this would mean that wisdom is still in the process of being unfolded and known to us.  The Bible is not to be a limitation to details of ancient practice of wisdom; it is to be an invitation to us to be engaged in the current work of the discovery of wisdom in our lives and the practice in the situations that confront us here and now in the year 2012.  In fact, one can even say that what was once regarded to be the ancient practice of wisdom now seems to be ignorant or at the least irrelevant.  We don’t see the need to keep from our diet shell fish or pork though ancient religious prescription did so.  We don’t see the need to restrict the roles of women or practice slavery for economic well-being.  In this regard we find so called “ancient wisdom” to be even cruel ignorance.

  I do not believe that any one can observe nature with pristine eyes and see things how they “really are.”  We only see things through the lenses of culture and tradition which we inherit from our communities of birth and our current interaction with the communities of influences.  And just as communities and traditions grow in adjusting wisdom to new situations, so too we as individuals need to grow and adjust and discover wise practices in our moment by moment situations.  If we look at the world communities today we can find lots of conflict over how wisdom traditions are practiced in various countries and communities.  In America we admit that the free speech tradition permits tasteless speech, sacrilegious and disrespectful speech and cruel speech and the free speech practice is not appreciated in other cultures that do not share the same free speech traditions.

  And when we think about the free speech tradition in our country, we can note the wisdom from the epistle of James.  What the writer of James reminds us about is that the tongue is perhaps the smallest and most powerful muscle of the human body.  One does not have to be a politician to put one’s foot in one’s mouth.  How many of us have regretted at times things that we have said?  Every thought that we have does not need to be said or published.  Our social media today allows things to be published and  made public without proper thought for self-censorship to take place.  We are in the age of “too much information.”  We are in the age of the practice that everything that can come to language and publication, should come to language and publication.  I’m not against the free speech tradition but the wisdom tradition of James encourages all of us to adopt a policy of self-censorship otherwise known as the fruit of the Spirit of self-control.

  So how do we attain this Spirit of self-control?  How can we make free speech the blessing of truly creative speech that is used to bring goodness and kindness to our world?

  Wisdom needs a strategy or it is wishful thinking or mere academic thinking.  We often would like to make the Gospels into academic thinking; simply treating them as theological words on the page that we need to have the correct view about.  In wanting my position to be declared the correct position, I can be obsessed with orthodoxy or right belief as a way of declaring that I hang around with the right crowd.  I think that the Gospel writings that originally were read as liturgy to mostly illiterate congregants are more about orthopraxy, that is, they are a spiritual methodology more concerned with wise practice rather than correct belief.

    So how does the Gospel reading as our liturgy promote wisdom and self-control that could extend to the control of our speech?

  Remember we don’t read this Gospel as an eyewitness recording of the actual life of Jesus; we read it as the method of the early church using the story of Jesus to teach a spiritual method for the growth and renewal of one’s life.

  In this method the church is taught that having the correct confession does not mean that one has wise practice.  Peter is used as a teaching foil; he is the one who had the correct confession but he did not have the wisdom and the practice of that confession.  It was not enough to know that Jesus was the Messiah.  For Peter, being the Messiah and the Messiah’s follower meant that one was on the triumphant winning side such that nothing of loss or disappointment could happen.   But this was revealed as ignorant thinking and untrue to life; bad things do happen to good people, in fact, a very bad thing happened to the Messiah and he was not any less the Messiah because of the bad death that happened to him.

  And in the early church, there were teaching catch phrases:  “taking up one’s cross,” and “dying to one’s self.”  These phrases express the method of wisdom, knowledge and education.  We die each day to a state of mind that is exposed as ignorance through further education and wisdom.  But as ignorance is exposed by wisdom, then we have the ability for more self-control, more intelligent action, more intelligent and wisdom in our speech.

  Today the Gospel of Jesus Christ is not words on the page to believe in a certain way; it is the invitation to a method of coming to progressive wisdom in our lives so that we may excel in wise practice and in wise speech.  And what is the desired goal?  To live and speak the Good News of God in Christ in our lives.  Amen.

James: The tongue is the smallest mightiest muscle

Gospel Puppet Show

September 16, 2012

Kathyrn as the emcee; and James

Kathryn: Welcome boys and girls to Sunday School Puppet Theatre.  Today I am going to interview a famous man.  He wrote a letter and this letter became a part of the Bible.  Let’s give a big applause to our guest today.  Welcome James.  Thank you for being with us today.

James:  I’m happy to be here today but I thought that I was going to be talking to old people; but I’m looking at these people and they are not old people, they are beautiful young children.  Hi, Kids, how are you doing?  Thank you for coming today.

Kathryn: James, you wrote a very famous letter?  What was the name of your letter.

James: It doesn’t have a difficult name; it’s call the letter of James.  It could be called a letter from me, James to the church.

Kathryn:  What happened to your letter that it became so famous?

James:  Well, I was writing to give some advice about how to live a good life by learning from Jesus Christ.  I sent this letter to one person and he shared with other people and they shared it with others and like the most famous chain letter, it soon was shared with lots of people.

Kathryn:  Well, it must have been very popular.  It must have had some very good advice.

James:  Well, I hope so.  I just want people to be successful in living good lives and so I am happy to share this letter with everyone.

Kathryn:  Well, it was shared with so many people and so many people read it that it became a part of the Bible.  And now people have been reading your letter for 2000 years.  But today, you want to share something from your letter that you wrote.

James: I want to share with you a riddle.

Kathryn:  Okay, what’s your riddle?

James:  What is one of the smallest but most powerful muscles in the human body?

Kathryn:  What do you think kids?  What is the smallest most powerful muscles in the body?  Is it your biceps?  Your triceps?  Your thigh muscles?  Your calf muscles?  Those are strong muscles but they are also big muscles.

Okay, we give up James.  What is the smallest, most powerful muscle in the body?

James:  The smallest but most powerful muscle in the body is the human tongue.

Kathryn: Now that’s a surprise.  The tongue cannot lift a heavy weight.  The tongue cannot run a long race.  The tongue cannot jump.  The tongue cannot throw a football.  How is the tongue the strongest muscle?

James:  The tongue is the smallest and strongest muscles because what can we do with the tongue?

Kathryn:  Well, I use my tongue to lick an ice cream cone.  I think the children are very good at that too.  But does your tongue have to be strong to lick an ice cream cone or to eat?

James:  Well, no but what else do you use the tongue for?

Kathryn:  We use our tongues for talking.  But does that make our tongue strong?

James:  Yes, talking and speaking with our tongue makes our tongues the strongest muscle in our bodies.

Kathryn:  How does talking with our tongue make us strong?

James:  When a general speaks an order to all of the soldiers can he make them go to battle?

Kathryn: Yes, he can.

James: So talking can start a army to go to battle.  Can a tongue heal a person and make them better?

Kathryn:  Well, yes it can.  When I am sick and someone tells me that they love me and they are praying for me, I feel much better.

James:  A tongue is so strong that it can hurt people too.

Kathryn:  Yes, when people say mean things to us and when they hurt our feelings, it can make us feel very bad.  And now I understand your riddle.  A tongue is a very strong muscle.

James:  Yes, it is very strong and so we have to use our tongue in the right way.  We have to use it to speak words of love and kindness.  We have to use it to teach others.  We have to use it to encourage each other and help each.

Kathryn:  Yes, and we have to use it to lick ice cream cones too.

James:  Yes, a tongue is good for licking ice cream too.

Kathryn:  Mr. James, thank you for sharing your riddle with us today.

James:  You’re very welcome.  And children can you remember how great your tongues are?  If your tongues are very strong muscles, can you use them today to help to say words of love and encouragement?  If you can do this then your tongues will be a very powerful force of love in our word.

Kathryn:  Children, repeat after me:  I will use my tongue to speak powerful words of love and kindness.

James:  Amen.

Noah's Ark Puppet Show on Patience

Chapel Time Puppet Show

A lesson in Patience and Noah’s ark

Characters:  Fr. Phil in front of theatre, Noah and Roary the Lion in the ark

Father Phil:  Boys and girls today we are going to learn about patience and we’re going watch a puppet show to help us learn.  I want to introduce to you a very famous man who built a very big boat.  This man name is Noah.  Noah, welcome.  Take a bow.

Noah:  Hello boys and girls, my name is Noah.  And I am in my big boat.  Do you know what we call my big boat?  We call it Noah’s ark.

Father Phil:  Noah, why did you build a big boat?

Noah:  Well, God told me it was going to rain.  God told me there was going to be a big flood.  God told me to build a big boat so I could save my family from the flood.

Father Phil:  Did you save anyone else from the flood?

Noah:  Yes I did. I built the boat big enough bring lots of animals with me.  I brought mommy and daddy animals on the ark so they could be safe during the flood.  And after the flood is over they can have baby animals.

Father Phil:  Noah that is very kind, but isn’t it difficult traveling on a boat with all of those animals?  Doesn’t it smell?

Noah:  Yes, it does smell so I just open the window.  And the hippopotamus snores real loud at night.  And he has really bad breath.   Yuk..yuk..yuk.  But I love my animals.

Father Phil: Do you have any problem with the animals?

Noah:  Yes, I have a problem with Roary the Lion.

Roary the Lion (appears):  Heh.  I heard that Mr. Noah.  Did you call me a problem?  I’m not a problem.  I’m Roary the Lion.  Roar!   Can I go out and play now?  Can I go out and play now?

Noah:  Roary, you’re not a problem but you have a problem with patience.  I have told you that we had rain for 40 days and 40 nights and we cannot go outside and play.  We’re stuck on a boat.  Can you swim if there is no place to go?

Roary:  No, I live in a jungle.  I don’t live in the water.  I am not a swimming animal.  But I want to go outside and play.  It’s no fun staying inside the boat with all of the stinky animals.

Noah:  Roary, you need to learn patience.  Did you know that you need patience to save your life?

Roary:  What do you mean?

Noah:  If I let you go out of the boat, you would be lost in the flood.  If you are not patient you might jump out of the boat into the water and we would lose you.  We don’t want to lose you in the very deep water.

Roary:  But I am a lion and I need to be out doors in the jungle.  I don’t like to be trapped on this boat.

Noah:  I know Roary.  Being patient is difficult but it will save your life.  Just wait for more time and it will stop raining.

(Roary goes off scene and then jumps up)

Roary:  Can I go outside now?

Noah:  Not yet.  It stopped raining but the water is still too deep.  Be patient.

(Roary goes off scene and then jumps up)

Roary:  Roary, be patient.

Noah:  Boys and girls can you help me remind Roary?  Can you say, “Roary be patient!”

Boys and girls: Roary be patient! 

Roary: Okay.

(Roary goes off scene)

The water recedes.

Noah:  Roary, come here.  Now you can go outside.  The water has gone down and now you can go back to your jungle.

Roary:  Roar!  I am very happy now.  And I am happy that I learned a lesson.  Be patient and soon we can do what we want to do.

Noah:  Children can you learn patience today?

Children:  Yes, we can.

Noah:  Yes you can!  Thank you.

Welcome to Sunday School Puppet Show

Gospel Puppet Show

September 9, 2012

Michelle, the emcee, Susie, (Pam) the young girl,  Marilyn (Kathryn) the young girl, and Jesus (Eric)

Michelle: Welcome boys and girls to Rally Sunday.  Do you know what Rally Sunday is?   It is a celebration for the start of Sunday School.  Today is the day we begin our Sunday School Program.  We had a summer vacation and now we start Sunday School.

Susie:  Miss Michelle, I have a question.  Why do we have to go to school on Sunday?  We go to school during the week.  Why don’t we take a break from school on Sunday?

Michelle:  That is a very good question Susie.  We come to Sunday School to remember that we are in the most important school in our lives.

Marilyn:  What School is more important than Charter School?  Or Nordstrom?  Or P.A. Walsh?  Or Jackson Oaks?  Or Oakwood?  Or Paradise Valley?   Those are some of our schools.  Why is Sunday School more important than our schools?

Michelle:  Does anyone know what the followers of Jesus were called?  You remember people like Peter, James, John, Philip and Bartholomew?

Susie:  I think they were called disciples.

Michelle:  That is right Susie, good answer!  But do you know another word for disciple?

Marilyn:  Does it mean pastor or priest? Like Father Phil.

Michelle:  Well, a pastor or priest is a disciple of Jesus but disciple means something just a little different than pastor or priest.  A disciple is a student or a pupil.  So a disciple of Jesus is a student of Jesus.

Susie:  I get it!  So we come to church on Sunday because all of us are students of Jesus.

Marilyn:  So that means that we are always in two schools; we are in our elementary schools and we are in Sunday School.

Michelle:  Jesus was a great teacher and his students learned many things from him.

Susie:  What did they learn?  Did they learn arithmetic?  Did they learn how to read and write?

Michelle:  No, they learn some very important rules about how to live good lives.

Marilyn:  What rules did they learn.

Susie:  They learn the 10 commandments.

Michelle:  That is correct Susie and they learned about loving God with all of their hearts and they learned about loving their neighbors.  And there was something wonderful about how Jesus taught his students.

Marilyn:  How did Jesus teach his students?

Michelle:  How many of you like to hear stories and riddles?  Well, Jesus taught his students using wonderful stories.

Susie:  Are we going to hear stories at Sunday School? 

Michelle:  Yes, each week we read stories in the Bible; we read stories about Jesus.  And we look at the stories to see what lessons we can learn about how we can live better lives.

Marilyn:  Do we have to memorize things?  Do we have to take tests?

Michelle:  When you say memorize, it sound like hard work, but when you say “remember” it seems easier.  When I tell Alex to put on his bike helmet, I don’t ask him to memorize it, I ask him to “remember” to put on helmet.  Why?  Because I want him to be safe.

Susie:  So we learn in Sunday School some important things to remember so that we can live successful lives?

Michelle:  That’s right.  And you know what?  We need get out of Sunday School because we never stop being students of Jesus Christ.  Your parents and grandparents are also still students of Christ.

Marilyn:  What would Jesus do if he were here today?

Susie:  I bet that Jesus would welcome us and he would enroll us in his school as his students.

Jesus appears:

Jesus:  Susie, you are right. I am glad that all of you have come to Sunday School.  I am glad that all of you are students in my school.  And now I want to enroll you in Sunday School for this fall.  Can everyone stand?  Now put your right hand on your heart and repeat after me.

Jesus:  I am a student of Jesus Christ.

All:  I am a student of Jesus Christ.

Jesus:  I promise to follow him as my Lord and Savior.

All:  I promise to follow him as my Lord and Savior.

Jesus:  I promise to learn new things about God each week.

All:  I promise to learn new things about God each week.

Jesus:  I promise to be a Sunday School Student at St. John’s.

All:  I promise to be a Sunday School Student at St. John’s.

Jesus:  With God’s help I will be a good student of Jesus Christ.

All:  With God’s help I will be a good student of Jesus Christ.

Jesus:  May God bless you as a student in Sunday School Amen.

Michelle:  Thank you coming and welcome to St. John’s Sunday School.  We’re going to have a great year.  

Grace, Faith and Good Works; Simultaneous and not Contradictory

14  Pentecost P.18  September 9, 2012

Proverbs 22:1-2, 8-9, 22-23  Ps. 146: 4-9

James 1:17-27        Mark 7:31-37     

 Lectionary Link

   The Bible has been a source of disagreement amongst people of faith for a long time.  And in fact it seems as though one portion of the Bible may actually be written to counter another portion of the Bible.  We tend to think that everyone agreed with St. Paul; but we find that he had some disagreements with Peter and others.

 Today we have read from the Letter of James.  We read this: What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, "Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill," and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.

  There was a famous theologian who had difficulties with the apparent contradiction between the emphasis of the letter of James on works and the writings of St. Paul with an emphasis on faith and grace.  This theologian was Martin Luther.  Luther was so troubled by the writing in the letter of James, he did not regard this letter to have the authority of the apostles.  In short, it was not a part of “his” Bible.

  One of the results of the modern historical study of the Bible is that we don’t need to have the kinds of dilemma with biblical writings that Martin Luther  had.  In our study of the Bible we don’t believe that somehow God’s word happens unfiltered in the biblical writings.  We don’t believe that words of Bible have one self-evident meaning that can be discovered to be the same by everyone who reads them.  In short, we believe that the words of the Bible happened within a context, a very human context.  And the context means that persons are asking questions that pertain to that particular context.

  Martin Luther was reading the Bible in reaction against what he perceived to be an emphasis on salvation achieved because of one’s good work.  Luther believed that if salvation was due to one’s works then it diminished the grace of God.  Luther observed too many clergy using guilt and work to manipulate lay people.  One extreme form was the alleged selling of Indulgences by clergy for lay persons to receive official remission of their sin.  So, Luther, from his reactionary context, could not accept the context from which the letter of James was written.

  You and I from our own context probably cannot identify with the context of Paul or the letter of James or Martin Luther.  Our context is different and different questions arise for us in our time and place.

  In our time, we are beneficiaries of many more years of biblical studies.  Some of the letters that Martin Luther assumed were written by St. Paul are no longer regarded to have Pauline authorship even though they may have been written by some of Paul’s disciples.

  Most of the New Testament was written with an imminent expectation of return of the Son of Man in the clouds.  For these people, salvation was defined by whether they would be “saved” or embraced by the Son of Man.  We know that there is amongst modern biblical fundamentalists an effort to maintain this imminent return of the Son of Man tradition and they do so in specifically predicative ways.  So they worry about every current event in Israel because they see portions of the Bible as precise blueprint for what is going to happen in the future.

  How can you and I from our contexts find some insights in this ancient discussion of faith, grace and works?  What relevance does this have for you and me? 

  I think what we learn from Jesus is that I am not supposed to judge anyone except myself.  In short, we are not supposed to think that we are more worthy of God’s grace and favor than anyone else.  We might be fooled to think so when we start comparing ourselves with others.  But if we think it worthwhile to compare ourselves with others, why wouldn’t we just compare ourselves with Jesus, St. Francis and Mother Teresa of Calcutta and find ourselves woefully lacking.  Usually our judgmental attitudes come because we compare ourselves with someone whom we already think we’re better than.  In fact, we actually might like to have “notorious” obvious sinners around just to make us look good.

  Jesus reminded us that we need to be perfect as the Father in heaven is perfect; so that our moral direction is so high and unattainable, we definitively need grace to tolerate ourselves in light of God’s perfection.  And we need grace to tolerate ourselves for not yet being who we can become.

  If we are always lacking in our progress to become better, we always need grace and so we need to have faith to accept that grace.  The Christian notion of grace means that the act of faith is accepting that God makes up what we lack in perfection at any time in our life.

  The act of faith is indeed a human work and it is a significant work even though it is a work that is overshadowed by the grace offered.  Put in monetary terms, should I be congratulated for my gracious work of taking a million dollars; or should it be of greater importance that someone who was generous offered me a million dollars? “ Congratulation, Phil, you’re so great and wonderful for taking that million dollars.”

  On the other hand, if I don’t take the million dollars, do I have the million dollars?  If you understand this you can understand how the relationship between grace and work and faith is a matter of emphasis.

  And that brings us to the question in the letter of James.  It is a kind of what comes first, the chicken or the egg type of argument.  Are you saved and have you received grace?  Well, then why are you treating people so badly?  You show no evidence of having taken the “million” dollars.  Works of charity manifest the proof that someone has indeed taken the gift of God’s grace.  We don’t give to get something; we give as proof that we’ve already received the gift and grace of God.   In the Gospel words, if we are abiding in the grace of Christ, we will bear fruit; we will produce the evidence of our relationship with Christ.  The writer of James was essentially saying that one has to show the evidence of receiving God’s grace by sharing that grace through the love and kindness of one’s life.  In this way we can understand that grace, faith and works are not really contradictory but mutually reinforcing and co-existence.  And so one cannot divide grace, faith or works; they all happen together at the same time.  One cannot presume that one’s works occurred without a prior event of grace; to deny the event of grace is the sin of pride.

  The Gospel presents God’s grace in the form of the stories of Jesus.  God restores us to our lost childhood joy as we overcome all of the interior forces that keep us from freshness of life.  God continually heals our hearing because we always need to hear new things and new insights for our lives.

  Let us hear today the insight that grace, faith and the good work of our lives are all simultaneous events.  Amen.

All Laws Are Not Equal

14  Pentecost Cycle B proper 17 September 2, 2012

Song of Solomon 2:8-13 Psalm 45:1-2, 7-10

James 1:17-27  Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

Lectionary Link

  The teaching  of the Gospel lesson for today is this:  All laws are not equal.  And while it is important to have laws, having too many laws actually might get in the way of freedom for living.  There are lots of laws that we would like to do without, certain tax laws,  deed restrictions, dress codes and rules that seem to deny some basic freedoms. 

  Human life consists of many laws; some of those laws are what we might call morally passive laws.  We would call scientific laws morally passive since they simply try to describe the behavior of natural phenomenon.  Water boils at 212 degrees Fahrenheit at sea level.  It is not good or bad that it does so, and we don’t place any moral value on such a law because human action and motive cannot make it so.

  The laws that pertain to human behavior are many; they are found in human societies ancient and in ours.   For any group of people who have tried to live together well, there is needed structure and order for preserving life and health and the well being of the common good.

   Thou shalt not kill.  That’s a pretty important rule for the health and safety of the human community.  Thou shalt pick up after your dog in the park.  An important rule but not the same level as “Thou shalt not kill.”  Though if it happens on your lawn and the dog owner doesn’t seem to care, it can cause bad thoughts to arise.

  There are also rules that pertain to ceremony and cultural protocol and if one does not know these rules one can truly offend without knowing it.  In a good portion of the world it is impolite to leave your shoes on when visiting someone’s home.  It is protocol to leave one’s shoes at the door.

  Some rules are secret and are meant only for insiders.  Lodges and clubs have secret rules and members take an oath not to disclose the rules.

  So the validity of a rule or law is affected by how widely it is known or promulgated.  The validity of a law is also supposed to be determined by its reasonableness and whether it is truly accessible for whom it is to apply.

  When Jesus walked in Palestine, he found within the Jewish religious community a Judean religious elite.  This elite group had elevated and magnified minutiae and lesser ceremonial rules to the level of the big ones, the Ten Commandments.  The laws of ritual purity were very important to those who believed themselves to be truly the official spokespersons for God and who believed themselves to be the official gatekeepers for those who were to be admitted to God’s favor.

  In Palestine, water was an issue.  Peasants did not always have the same access to water for ritual purity in the same ways that the Judean religious elite had.  The religious elite were wealthy enough to build a micro-society within the greater social order and they had rules for this micro-society that governed membership.  And Jesus found that the vast majority of the countryside peasants and the simple laborers and fisherfolk did not have access to that small micro-society.  And the message of the religious elite was this:  If you don’t and are not keeping the rules of our micro-society, that is a sure sign that you do not have God’s favor.  Because if you are not in our society, you are not in God’s society either.

  And that is what really ticked Jesus off.  The Gospels often portray Jesus as one who is violating these religious rules.  The Gospels have Jesus in sarcasm speaking against the elevation of minutiae to Olympian importance.  In another place Jesus said, “You strain to catch a gnat, but you let the camel go through.”  That is simply an ironic way of saying, “You’re missing the point of God and religion and you’ve got your priorities all wrong.”

  The words of Jesus were meant to indict and convict those who elevated minutiae to top priority while being totally blinded to some very big issue.

  The words of Jesus apply to us because sometimes we are so worried about gnats we do not recognize the camels and elephants that inhabit our world.  It seems as most faith communities fix rules and laws that are exclusionary.  You can’t receive communion unless….You have to be celibate to be a valid sacramental minister…You have to fast an hour before receiving holy communion…you have to believe this particular formula for the salvation of your souls…you have to believe exactly this about the Holy Scriptures…  There are hundreds upon hundreds of subtle little rules that govern who we accept into our company as being valid in God’s sight.  We can get so exorcised about all of the minutiae of church membership we are blind to our great failures to love God and our neighbor as our self.  Our tiny rules can make us blind to justice.

  If the great rule is to love God and our neighbor as our self, should we be more concerned about the correct view of the Holy Eucharist or about the fact that lots of people are starving in our world and in our country?  Should be more concerned about total immersion or sprinkling in baptism than the availability of clean drinking water to all in our world?

  I am not saying we should be over-whelmed by world hunger and poverty; I’m just saying that in the big scheme of things, we should not let the petty church political stuff cause us to lose perspective about the big principle of life, “loving God and our neighbor as our selves.”

  I think if Jesus were here today visiting every church that existed, he would continually challenge all of us about our priorities.  He wouldn't single us out or the Baptists or the Lutherans or the Roman Catholics, because his words are what one might call, “equal opportunity convicting.”  Liberal or conservative, it doesn’t matter, his words will always convict us about our priorities.  His words will convict us about making the petty into the dominant motivation of our lives.

  How is the ritual washing of our hands going to help us love God with all of our hearts and loving our neighbor as ourselves?  But how about getting clean drinking water to all of the people of this world?  How about getting water for irrigation to starving people?  This would really be a way of making the world ritually pure through the use of water.

  If the ritual use of water in our faith ceremonies does not inspire us to get water to those who need it, then our ritual behavior is the equivalence of malpractice.  And Jesus was hitting very hard at the malpractice of religion.

  The words of Jesus will always confront us with our potential malpractice of religion where we are content with micro-rules of ritual and doctrine, but let the big issues that pertain to loving God and our neighbors go unattended.

  Let us live under the conviction of Jesus today, knowing that we are failing in some very major ways.  It is a good place to live because it makes it easy to ask God for mercy, forgiveness, and grace for the amendment of our lives.  And if we have the audacity to ask God for mercy, forgiveness and grace, then perhaps we too will offer the same to the people in our world and life.  Amen.