& when you get damned in the popular opinion

it's just another damn of the damns you're not giving

The Holy Gospel according to St. Mark, the 7th chapter!

It’s a hard saying Jesus drops on us today:
For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, & theft, & murder, & adultery, & avarice, & wickedness, & deceit, & licentiousness, & envy, & slander, & pride, & folly. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.

That’s hard to take.

Not to mention that us good, modern people; part of a social justice oriented denomination to boot, and Danish no less; aren’t even sure if we actually believe Jesus. 

I mean, surly he’s exaggerating, right? We’re not that bad, are we?

After all, we’re good people. Why just, well last year now that I think about it, donated to NPR. 

I mean, how bad can we be?

Should we dare to be so brash as to admit some amount of guilt, we’d never go as far as Jesus goes today. We think that it’s our heart that’s the good part of us; we imagine that it’s all that stuff out there that defiles us…

Yet Jesus says that it’s from within, our heart, that all this evil spews forth and defiles things…

…Martin Luther began one of earliest treatise about justification with an on-point observation. To begin his writing on Christian liberty, he notes that many think practicing the faith is an easy thing. It seems easy he says, until you actually try it yourself. 

His observation is one born from experience. 

It is an observation I cannot convince you of. Until you ventured with all due fear and trembling to live out this faith for yourself, you will never know how difficult it actually is. 

When the rubber hits the road, however, we find out for ourselves how hard following Jesus really is. It’s when you actually dare to live out the faith, that you experience for yourself, that Jesus, indeed, was right; it’s all this junk within us that keeps us from being faithful, that defile us.

Jesus has a way of doing that, doesn’t he; of speaking the truth about ourselves that even we can’t admit, much less see.

Jesus was telling the truth, in the life of faith; it isn’t the stuff out there that ruins things, we’re our own worst enemies…

*But that’s the rub, isn’t it?

After all, all we have is what’s in us.

If you’re finally going to be that star guard on the Vikings, you’re going to have to dig deep, put in the hours and give it all you got. Or if you’re going to be that ace student you always told your parents you’d be, and your scholarship demands you to be, then you’d better be willing to put in some long hours in the library. 

(Looking back on it, many of my best and most important memories were in the library, actually.)

We assume, then, the same goes for following Jesus. 

If we’re going to be good, upright and pious Christians (something you Happy Danes were never too good at in the first place, as I understand), then we will have to dig deep and give it all we have.

Only Jesus shows up today saying that it’s exactly the stuff we’re all too want to rely on, what’s in us that makes matters worse, that defiles us…

As always, the Gospel puts us at a crossroad, at a crisis point. 

Everything you’ve put to work to get you through one thing or another, Jesus says, will defile you. With these words ringing in the air the only question is; “so what are we going to do then.”

Well, on this auspicious occasion, we might as the good and ever faithful, Dr. Jones; that paragon of virtue if there ever was one. 

After 25 years of being faithful to the call to Word and Sacrament, how do you do it? If it’s what’s in us that defiles, how are we to actually follow Jesus’ way of perfection and holiness?

-Now listen, I’m not about to let him answer that question. He’s not going to get a word in edgewise. 

The best way to get someone to finally sit still and be quiet, especially someone who makes their living off talking, is to honor them.

Well, we’re honoring you today, Dr. Jones, and you don’t get to spoil it by opening your trap. Got it?

And believe me when I tell you this, clergy are always more to be trusted that academics. I mean, how much can you trust a guy whose gone through all the rigamarole of becoming tenured?

The truth is, sisters and brothers, I’m actually doing us all a favor by keeping him quiet.

What help would he be to us today, faced with this hard word of Jesus? 

Why, on the anniversary of his ordination we’d ask him to stand up and speak from the heart; only Jesus has just told us that’s where all our evil intentions come. 

We’d tempt good ‘ol Dr. Jones to honor God with his lips, only to reveal, as Isaiah prophesied, that his heart is far from God!

+Jeez+

Well, sisters and brothers, I’m all you have today; and Pastor Russ the rest of the time.

*And here’s the scandalous thing; that’s exactly how God prefers it. 

God loves to send a preacher into our midst, someone with no real authority, just God’s Word on their lips.

A Word that, by the way, comes -not from within, but from without, from God.

…Remember when Jesus had his homecoming? How he was invited to speak at the synagogue that sent him off to seminary, the one that sent him funds to pay the bills, the one that prayed for him during his studies?

Well, when he stood up, they didn’t ask him to speak from the heart. No, they put the Torah in front of him, and said “what’s in the book.”

Just like you all today. 

You’re not interested in what I think about that state of the academy or even church for that matter. Pastor Russ sent the gracious invite, then you all shove me up here, put this hard reading in my lap, and say “tell us about that.”

Good on ya… Well, one good turn deserves another, so I’ll spare you from my, frankly, uninteresting opinions; I’ll stick to the book. 

Jesus was right, sorry to say. It’s all this stuff in ourselves that defile. Even if you haven’t ventured to actually live out this faith, and so don’t know for yourself how hard it is; let me tell you, Jesus’ Word is more to be trusted than your opinions on the nature of humanity. 

It’s all this stuff inside ourselves that defile. We are our own worst enemies.

Here’s the thing, though, that ought not cause you to despair.

You don’t have to despair because you, you are not left to yourself. 

God has gathered you out from yourselves to bring you here, God has sent you a preacher to give you a Word, God has made you a promise

God has something for you; a Word that when all this stuff inside you makes a mess of everything, when it threaten your career, is a little too quick with your beloved, breaks your bank account or goes haywire and sends you to the hospital, a Word you can leave yourself and cling to. 

God comes with a Word you can turn out from yourself and cling to. 

25 years is a long time, isn’t it?

There have been highs and lows, no doubt. Memories you’ll cherish forever, and probably a few you’d rather forget. Today is not an occasion to look back over those years and draw conclusions or lessons, though. Today is a day to look back on all those years and give thanks. 

Give thanks to the God who called you out of yourself so long ago. 

Much longer than a measly 25 years ago; but way back on July 31, 1960; your baptism.

The same is true for you all, too; you know. 

This anniversary today isn’t about some dubious accomplishment, it’s about that God who comes to us from outside ourselves and saves us f. 

Today, Dr. Jones’ anniversary and the Gospel, is about the God who dares to show up, to give you a promise; a promise you can trust, a promise you can cling to.

“For it is from within,” Jesus said, “from the human heart, that evil intentions come.”

Thanks be to God that you don’t live trapped in yourself, Jesus has died and is raised, and you have been baptized in his name; so your life is now hidden outside yourself, in Christ.