Raul Garcia III

September 2, 2018

Let us Pray:

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be pleasing to you my Lord my rock and redeemer.

Jesus was always pushing the limits and challenging the status quo. He was always making the Pharisees and Scribes question him. Not that the Pharisees or Scribes were wrong they just didn’t understand why Jesus did what he did. Jesus thought they were concentrating on the wrong thing.

I have a little story for you about me when I was little and I remember this vividly because it happened in school.

I was one of those kids that I walked the fine line between being good and being I guess bad. I was more good that awful because I knew better. Sometimes I tell stories of what I did to Rhea and she tells me I am so glad I was not your teacher. I also got away with a lot of things because the last thing I wanted to see were the mom eyes. You know the mom eyes that you get when you know you are in trouble. In my opinion I wasn’t being bad, instead I was always challenging my teachers. Here is an example. We had rules in our 4th grade classroom which were no talking out of turn, raise your hand and so forth. One particular rule my teacher had was: No chewing gum unless you have some for the whole class. The teacher wanted to keep order in class. Which looking back at it now a days. I totally get it. But me being me, I always chewed gum and my teacher would always bust me.

Raul, are you chewing gum? Yes, Ma’am. Do you have enough for the class? No, ma’am. Go toss it in the trash. Okay. Till I had a brilliant idea. One day I wanted to be sneaky and I was chewing gum like it was going out of style. I wanted my teacher to bust me. Teacher finally saw me and asked Raul are you chewing gum? I said yes I am! She asked me, you know the rule do you have enough for the rest of us. Me being me I said well of course I do and I dug in my bag brought out a big bag of gum everyone. My classmates all went yahoo!!! My teacher shook her head in disbelief. She was either furious or maybe surprised in what I did because I had enough gum for everyone. So she took my bag of gum and passed the gum out to everyone and still made me toss out my gum and she kept my bag of gum. I totally get why she made the rules in the classroom. It guided us to have a better education. I was following the rules but I was also thinking outside the box because I wanted to share with my classmates the experience of chewing gum in class. It might have seemed weird to have all that gum in my bag but I was still following the rules.

You see, Jesus was following the rules he was just thinking outside the box. The Pharisees and scribes were not used to that. They were being knit picky about being clean. Washing their hands before going to eat dinner.

When you are engulfed in conversation with people and just being there with them. Having a wonderful time you forget the little things like washing your hands before dinner. Because what you are doing right now is more important than washing your hands.

Whom do we see as “unclean” today?

I have this clay cup in my hands and this clay cup sits on my shelf in my office. It is from India where they have a caste system. There are some people in the lower caste system called Dalit’s. The term Dalit is an ancient western Indian language called Marathi that it is defined as “ground” or “broken to pieces.” It refers to people who have been broken, or ground down by those above them. As a result this term or word came to fruition. This word Dalit usually referred to the portion of the population falling on the bottom of society the lower caste system, the outcasts or untouchables. So these clay cups were made and used by establishments in India exclusively for Dalits. The purpose was to destroy the cup, breaking it into pieces, after each use so that no one else will use the cup and that no one in the upper caste system would get contaminated by the Dalit’s uncleanliness.

So let me ask you this question again. Who do we see as “unclean” today?

Jesus didn’t see anyone unclean nor his disciples. They were doing what they needed to do and got their hands dirty. And if there happened to be food they ate because that was more important at that moment.

We have to have a clean heart. The problem with the Pharisees and scribes according to Jesus was that had become so focused on the rules that they neglected to look at their own heart. They were worried about clean and unclean and who needs this and who you are suppose to be around and eat with. They forgot about Love. Love for each other no matter who you are and where you come from.

Jesus clearly sees the dirtiness of our hearts. Jesus shows us and is daring to touch those considered less holy or unclean, by loving those social outcasts, by serving, giving and loving and giving his life for all people like the tax collectors and sinners, lepers and demon possessed, scribes and Pharisees, you and me.

I want us to do something together. Turn to your ELW to page 96. I’m gonna ask Rhea to help me lead this song as I grab my guitar. We are going to sing this as if we were around a campfire. Look at the words we sing.

Create in me a clean heart O god, and renew a right spirit with in.
Cast me not away from your presence. oh Lord. And take not 
your holy spirit from me.
Restore unto me the joy of your salvation. And renew 
a right spirit within me.

Beautiful words for us all to sing together.

Following Jesus is not about separating ourselves from those considered less holy or unclean. Following Jesus means that like Him, we get our hands dirty serving others, caring especially for those whom the world has cast aside. True faithfulness is not about clean hands, but a heart cleansed and a life shaped by the radical, self giving Love of God in Christ. (Elisabeth Johnson, Commentary on Mark, Sept. 2)   

Amen.