Note to the reader: This was Reverend Neal's first sermon, preached while he was serving as a student assistant minister at Westover United Methodist Church in , Raleigh, North Carolina. July, 1989.

Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands before they eat.” He answered them, “And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? For God said, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever speaks evil of father or mother must surely die.’ But you say that whoever tells father or mother, ‘Whatever support you might have had from me is given to God,’ then that person need not honor the father. So, for the sake of your tradition, you make void the word of God. You hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied rightly about you when he said:

"This people honors me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me;
in vain do they worship me,
teaching human precepts as doctrines.’”

Then he called the crowd to him and said to them, “Listen and understand: it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles.” Then the disciples approached and said to him, “Do you know that the Pharisees took offense when they heard what you said?” He answered, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted. Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind. And if one blind person guides another, both will fall into a pit.” But Peter said to him, “Explain this parable to us.” Then he said, “Are you also still without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth enters the stomach, and goes out into the sewer? But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this is what defiles. For out of the heart come evil intentions, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile.” (Matthew 15:1-20 NRSV)

***

"'For the sake of your tradition, you make void the word of God."
Oh, we do love out traditions, don't we?
When a new minister comes to any Church, and
and asks why something is done a certain way,
The answer is almost always: "That's the way we've always done it."
Traditions.
Sometimes, we make our traditons more gospel than gospel, don't we?

But that's not what Jesus is talking about in this morning's reading
From the Gospel of Matthew.

You see, it's not just some man made regulation that Jesus is breaking--
He is contradicting the Dietary Regulations found in the Old Testament book of Leviticus.
No wonder the Pharasees were upset with this upstart Rabbi.
He was, they believed, teaching against the Torah.
And, in their fury over what they thought Jesus had said,
they missed the deeper truth he was proclaiming.

Would you Pray with me?

Gracious God, move among us this day so that we may always know that we are never alone; and speak to us so that we may always hear, understand, and remember -- give us your word by which you mold and shape our living; in Jesus Name we pray. Amen.

“Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth enters the stomach
and goes out into the sewer?
But what what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart,
and this is what defiles.
For out of the heart come evil intentions,
murder,
adultery,
fornication,
theft,
false witness,
slander.
These are what defile a person, but to eat with unwahsed hands does not defile."

To put it bluntly,
The teachings of our Lord stand in stark contradiciton to the
Dietary regulations of the Book of Leviticus.
It's not as if he was saying 'Change your order of worship,"
or,
"Stop using the organ, and use only the piano in your worship services.'
He wasn't tearing down some tradition that
some human being had errected.
He was, at least on the surface, attacking the very Torah
the LAW of God.
The Pharasees had a right to be angry.
After all, if Jesus was right, than the Pharisees' entire theory of religion was wrong.

They identified true religion and true spirituality
with the observing of rules and regulations which had to do with cleanness
and uncleanness,
with what you eat
and with how you wash your hands before you eat it.

Jesus identified true religion with the state of your heart,
and bluntly said that these Pharisaic and Scribal regulations
had nothing to do with religion.
Jesus said that the Pharisees were blind guides who had
no idea of the way to God, and that if people followed them
they could expect to stray off the road and fall into the ditch.
And, of course, Jesus was absolutely correct.

I want to make a few observations on this passage, today:

Firsltly, if true religion consists in external regulations and observances,
it is far too easy.
It is very much easier to abstain from certain foods,
and to wash your hands in a certain way,
than it is to love and forgive
the unloveable and the unforgivable.

Secondly, If religion consists in external observances,
it is quite misleading.
I mean, most of us learned
when we were children
How to look, act, and be considered relgious.
Before we ever came to know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior,
we knew how to play the "Church-game."
Many people live externally holy and pius lives,
only to have their hearts--their spirits
filled with anger, hatrid, and evil.
Jesus Teaches us that it is the heart of the Christian that matters.
Not how we act
But why we act
Not so much what we actually do
But what we wish, in our heart of hearts, to do.
As St. Thomas Aquainis Said,
“Man sees the outside
God sees the inside
Man sees the deed
God sees the creed -- the intentions.”

Thirdly, Action and Intellect must be maintained in tandum.
The Jews had so focused upon the outward works
that they had lost the heart of faith.
While we, too, commit that sin,
we committ another equally distructive sin, as well.
We modem day, Proestant Christians,
Put a lot of weight on Mental Assent to the Doctrines of the Faith.
The Creeds--I am quite guilty of this
It has become a Religion of the Mind for many.
Now, just as the ritual wasn't bad -- in and of itself --
It just couldnt' save
It just wasn’t true religion apart from faith,
So also
All the mental assent
All the intellecutal faith
All the cognative understanding of the mind
to the doctrines of the Faith
Will not make for True Religion.
Mental Assent simply becomes, in this way, a ritual observance.
A work
devoid of living, active faith.

It is a belief of the heart that we are in need of,
not just of the mind.
When we way: "I believe in God, the Father Almighty . . .
We don't mean belief with just the mind.
We mean belief with the innermost spirit,
Belief in the heart.
It is a belief that goes byond the limitations of our minds.
It is a belief which requres not Brilliance
But openness
Openness to the still, soft voice of the Holy Spirit,
whispering the truth into our souls.
It is a Religion of the Heart,
this Faith called Christianity.

Yes, there is an intellecutal content to the faith
Yes, there is a ritural content to the faith
Yes, there is a moral -- a works -- content to the faith,
But first and foremost,
there is the Heart Content of the Faith,
The true presence of the Holy Spirit in the life of the Believer
Who gives meaning to the other religious “stuff” that we do.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
--Amen