Some Rules are Meant to Be Broken
August 31, 2009
Pastor Paul
Sermon for August 30, 2009 Pentecost 13B
Texts:
James 1:17-27
Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
Theme: Jesus’ disciples ignore the “traditions of the elders” and eat with unclean hands
Sermon Title: “Some Rules Were Meant to Be Broken”
Friends in Christ, grace to you and peace, from the God who made you, the Christ who loves you, the Holy Spirit, who lives in you. Amen.
I was all of 23 wisdom and weather-worn years when I stepped into the pulpit at Christ Lutheran Church on Capitol Hill in St. Paul. I was preaching my first official sermon during my first official year in the seminary. I was doing what they called contextual education, which means that we did a small amount of pastoral work in a church, while we were taking our classes in scripture, theology and pastoral care.
So, here I was my big morning, my one shot of the year to preach. I don’t recall the topic of my sermon, nor the text of scripture I was given to preach on, but what I do remember is that I did pretty much what every new preacher does out of the seminary. I think I covered every topic I had learned about thus far in my training. So, the sermon sounded something like a smorgasboard of bible baloney and theological cheese.
The only real interesting about the sermon was what happened during it. Somewhere mid-sermon, a tall man in a full-length trench coat walked into the sanctuary from the back, down the long, traditional center aisle, sauntering slow enough so that every one in the room would notice him. He walked in, somewhere in the middle of my sermon, sporting a pair of large mirrored sunglasses, you might call them shades.
He made his way all the way to the front of the church, and being this was a good, Lutheran congregation, there was nobody sitting there. In fact, the somewhat dwindling congregation of elderly Scandinavians and new Southeast Asian immigrants, didn’t start there seating until about 6 pews back, so his presence in the front row was both obvious and disconcerting.
I was not to be denied my one opportunity to preach, so even though he was now in the front row staring up at me through his mirrored shades, I did not skip a beat in my perfectly planned theological treatise of truisms, all the while thinking, ‘doesn’t he know we have rules in this place, worship starts at 9:30 am and we all sit down and stand up at the right times in the service, and we sing the hymns with gusto and we smile at the children…doesn’t he know that we’ve done this for centuries now and that God’s order is called liturgy and we all know it’s movement and goodness, if we just stick to it and don’t interrupt the ordo.’
And he certainly missed the memo on the dress code!
And to top it all, he didn’t even stay for the entire sermon. He sat there right in the front row, looking up at me like a hired sermon-critic, and then, before I was finished, he got up, slid into the aisle, again drawing all the attention to himself, and casually sauntered by up the asile and out the back door, likely thinking, ‘that was a waste of time. I didn’t hear one word worth listening to.’
I finished the sermon and stepped down from my majesty, relieved to have made it through…but as one so new to the trade, it is only now, later in life, that I realize that he was the sermon! All of my theological training and preparation had gotten in the way of the reality of God’s presence, and the sermon is in what happens that we can’t control and what no tradition can contain, which is the heart of people who are seeking God, which is the feet of people who walk in the ways of God, which are the hands of people, dirty with serving others…
Some rules are meant to be broken.
In our Gospel lesson today, Jesus and his disciples are caught in another conflict with the rule-keepers. This time is it is around the issue of eating with ‘unclean’ hands. The religious leaders, the seminary-trained theologians of the day are troubled by the lack of decorum being observed by Jesus and his followers. Jesus, well-versed in OT codes and religious practice, certainly would have know the rules about hand-washing, but his disciples were bending and even breaking the tradition of the elders…
Truth be told, some times we love religious tradition more than we love God.
Some rules are meant to be broken.
This would have been one of some 613 commandments and purity laws in the first five books of the bible, that served as a very complex holiness code of the emerging Hebrew people 3,500 years ago. Some of it was about spiritual purity and some of it was about physical purity and the prevention of the spread of disease and illness, but like most good rules of care, they eventually run amok in exclusion, putting people on the outside of the in, drawing lines and boundaries between peoples, erecting walls of division where they don’t exist in God’s eyes, which would’ve included all of you by the way, Gentiles, by nature of their birth alone, were considered unclean.
So, if Jesus hadn’t challenged the rules of purity, you Gentiles wouldn’t be sitting here today.
Jesus, breaks down the walls, shoots holes in the traditions of the elders and challenges the religiously trained. In Marks Gospel alone, up to the 7th chapter today, Jesus has touched a leper(unclean), neglected to fast at the appropriate time(unclean), ignored laws of working on the Sabbath(unclean), touched a woman with a flow of blood(unclean), and handled a corpse(definitely unclean).
Because when it comes to loving people, Jesus is a rule-breaker, leaving tradition behind for the sake of God’s love.
Some rules are meant to be broken.
Many of you know, that Pastor Michele’s father, Jack Williams, died a couple of weeks ago. Michele spent time in Green Bay with her family, helping her Mom with all of what this experience entails. She has been a faithful daughter and sister, as together, they said goodbye to her Dad.
As a pastor, Michele was asked to assist with the funeral service planning and preparation. With her Mom, they met with Bishop Bob, the Assistant Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese where the service was held, along with his pastoral care assistant. They talked over hymn selection and shared memories of her Dad in preparation for the service. They found places in worship where family members could participate and lead.
They came to the point of who would help with the serving of Holy Communion and Michele’s Mom, Mary Anne, asked if it would be okay for Michele to serve in that role. The Bishop responded with “sure” and all the plans were in place.
The next morning, Michele received a phone call from the Bishops pastoral care assistant. She shared with Michele that the Bishop, after thinking about it further, just didn’t feel right about her serving communion and just couldn’t let that happen, so they would have to find someone to replace her…
Because she is a Lutheran Pastor? Because she is a female Lutheran Pastor? Because she is a woman? Because her hands are defiled…because this isn’t part of the traditions of the elders? Let us not forget that less than 40 years ago, this tradition was also true among Lutherans.
Some rules are meant to be broken.
Pastor Michele, we honor your calling to serve God among us. We cherish the hands God gave you to offer his Son to the people. You are welcome to lead at this banquet table of God’s love.
Some rules are meant to be broken.
When we love tradition more than God, when we love rules more than people, we dishonor God and walk away from Jesus. Jesus reminds us that there is really only one rule…love God with all of your heart, soul and strength and love your neighbor as yourself…which is really just one rule, because to love God is to love others and to love others is to love God, and anything else falls short of the kingdom, and anything less diminishes the banquet and lest we forget, it is for this that Jesus died, that the walls between might be broken down, so that all may know the truth of God’s love for them.
Some rules are meant to be broken.
If I would’ve had this truth squarely in my head, when I stepped into the pulpit at Christ Lutheran in 1984, I think, I hope I would have responded differently to the man in the trench coat. I hope I would’ve at least broken enough with decorum and order to say, “you are welcome in this place,” because that would’ve been the sermon, that would’ve put my heart closer to God’s heart, and somewhere in there is what God seeks from me…
So, you who walked in this morning…you are welcome in this place…there is nothing about who we are or what we do that should ever get in the way of your seeking God…it matters not who you are, where you’ve been or what you’ve done…bring your broken heart, your defiled hands, your worn out feet…welcome to the banquet, welcome to our community of faith…welcome to the table of the Lord.
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