Wayne D's Blog

Relatively infrequently I lead the service at my church,today was one of those days. Here is the sermon I preached. It will make more sense if you read the lessons that it's based on first. I have helpfully included them here.

How many time has someone said to you, wash your hands before you come to the table? When I was growing up I know my mother would ask us before we sat down to eat, did you wash your hands? I ask my kids, did you wash your hands? I can just see some kid saying to his or her parents after hearing this Bible reading. "See, Jesus says I don't have to wash my hands!" This story illustrates the problem of what happens when someone takes a Bible story at face value, they tend to miss the point Jesus was trying to make.

Current Orthodox and traditional Jewish practice still requires the washing of hands before eating a meal at which bread is served.

How did the practice of ritual hand washing develop? In Exodus 30:17-21 God commands Moses to make a copper basin and to place it at the entrance to the alter area of the temple so that Aaron and his sons could wash their hands and feet before offering sacrifices. Verse 21 concludes with , "... it shall be a perpetual ordinance for them, for him and for his descendants throughout their generations." Aaron and his sons were priests, devoting their lives to the Temple and its system of sacrifices.

By Jesus' time the Pharisees had modified this ritual hand washing by priests into a complicated set of rules. According to William Barclay commentary on The Gospel of Mark some of the rules the Pharisee's would follow when washing their hands were:

1. The hands had to be free of sand, gravel, or any other substance.
2. The water for washing had to be kept in large stone jars.
3. The hands must be washed with the fingertips pointing upwards, and water was poured over them.

4. The fist of one hand had to be rubbed in the palm of the other.

The purpose for this ritual wasn't to prevent the spread of disease but instead to return the performer of the ritual to a state of purity, to set the person apart from the impure. When you live in a desert water is a precious commodity. It has to be carried from the well that is often far away. The rich would have servants or slaves to fetch water for them, the poor would have to carry their own water, filling a large stone jar would take multiple trips. Who would end up fetching the water in the poor households? The women and the children. What we end up with is a ritual that it much more difficult for the poor and disadvantaged to follow than the rich man. Jesus is actually attacking what he sees as meaningless ritual. He tells the Pharisee's that God isn't concerned with human tradition and ritual. It's what's inside that matters most. Salvation doesn't come through the performance of meaningless rituals but through faith. James refers to faith as "the implanted word that has the power to save souls". Who does the implanting? God does!

Jesus wasn't against all ritual though. He and his disciples celebrated Passover. The ritual Passover meal commemorates God freeing the Israelites from Egyptian oppression, something God did for his people. Jesus' Passover meal became our Last Supper. Jesus was unhappy about rituals that divided, rituals that served only to show that the person performing the ritual was better, more important or more Godly than another person.

We need to examine our rituals to ensure that they still retain meaning and haven't become empty gestures. Ritual's need to be symbols that point onto something greater a symbol is "something in our ordinary experience that is used in speaking about God" but what's most important about a symbol is that is connected to whatever it represents. When this connection is broken then the ritual or symbol loses it's meaning. One way I like to think about the meaningfulness of symbols is to compare them to road signs. A sign that says curve ahead is in some way connected to what is to come it describes what is ahead. A stop sign on the other hand isn't connected in anyway to what comes next. It's simply a command, you have to look for yourself to see why you might need to stop.

Rituals may also have meaning to some people and no meaning to others. Passover is an example of this type of ritual, it holds great meaning for the Jewish people but no meaning to someone who doesn't have an understanding of the background behind the meal.

People get very defensive when you question their traditions, not just in churches but everywhere in the world. Often businesses will hire consultants to come in and look at the way they do things, to examine their procedures and practices and make suggestions on how things could be improved. The reason businesses do this is because the people who work there are so used to the way things are done that they can't see them being done any differently. If you talk to consultants they will tell you that in many cases they make their recommendations and either the client decides not to make any changes or does change but slowly slips back into their old familiar practices. Change is hard, everyone agrees that change is a good thing but try to get them to change their rituals or traditions and see what happens. The inertia of tradition is a powerful force. Churches aren't the only place where you hear the plaintive cry, "We've always done it that way!"

At St. Paul's we also have our own fair share of rituals. Our service this morning is a perfect example of one of them. Traditions are another type of ritual. The form the service takes, the words we use to describe the various parts of the service, even the words we use to describe the various parts of the building and pieces of furniture. Pews, lectern, pulpit, platen, kyrie, sermon, hymn, Eucharist. I'm sure you can think of many others. How many of these rituals and traditions have lost their meaning and instead become stop signs whose only purpose is separate us from the people who don't understand the code?

So not only can practices become rituals but so can words. I'm convinced that part of the reason that the mainline churches are losing members is because we have lost the vocabulary to speak to the unchurched. Lets take a look at some of the words that we Christians use so frequently. Salvation, here are a couple of Lutheran favorites, justification and grace. How about redemption, righteousness and even faith? What do these mean? What about sin? For someone who isn't steeped in Christian practices and language we might as well be speaking a foreign language. Now the bad news, I don't have a list of words to use to replace the ones we already have. I've been so immersed in Lutheran practice and tradition that I can't get out of the rut. I have been trying to read Dietrich Bonhoeffer's The Cost of Discipleship for close to a year. Bonhoeffer was a brilliant teacher and thinker whose ideas and commentary about Christianity are just as relevant today, perhaps more so than when he wrote them sixty years ago. Here was a man who believed in what he was saying so much that he was willing to die for them. He was killed by the Nazis just before the end of the war. I really want to finish the book and I keep picking it up with the best of intentions but it's a lot of work to read. The writing is dense, the sentence structures are complex and it must be read carefully. I end up reading a chapter and then put down the book. It almost mocks me as it sits on the table, I can almost hear it saying "Come on chicken, finish me". I will finish it, but don't ask me when.

I can almost imagine someone lying in bed this morning thinking the same thing, they want to go to church but are daunted at the prospect of what they will find there. Rituals that seem alien to them. It's not enough to get them through the door, once they arrive they need to feel comfortable in the place and in the ritual. They need to be touched in their soul, they need to feel that they have found something they are missing. As Kelly Fryer says the church is the only organization on the plant that exists for the sake of the people who aren't members yet. She suggests that when we forget this and make it al about ourselves we have ceased being the church.

What's missing? I think what's missing is the joy of following Christ. Life can be difficult sometimes but we always know that Jesus is there to help us and that no matter how dark things get we have the gift of eternal life and the promise of being one with God. God loves us and cares for us, we no longer need to be filled with fear but with joy.

Our first reading this morning is from the Song of Solomon and of the three readings this morning is the reading most filled with joy. The Song of Solomon is another of the books of the bible that is often shuttled aside. The imagery sometimes makes people uneasy, they don't know what to do with it. From very early after it was written this poetic book hasn't been interpreted literally but instead to help explain God's love for all people. It's not hard to see the joy in our reading from Song Solomon, in fact it's impossible to miss. The female writer hears the voice of her beloved and becomes excited. He is coming to see her and waits outside her house looking up, hoping to catch sight of her through the window. Spring has arrived and he has come to take out to see the flowers, hear the birds singing, eat figs fresh from the tree, not those horrible dried ones we get here in Canada and to smell the blossoms on the vines. Winter has passed, the rains have stopped and he has come to remove her from the gloom of her house and bring her into the sunshine, to appreciate not what man has built but instead the bounty that God has provided.

We need to be sure that we don't through our rituals and actions become the winter and the rain clouds. Spend less time in Lenten frame of mind and more time in an Easter frame of mind.

At the recent Magnetic Church conference a number of people from St. Paul's attended the presenter Andrew Weeks suggested that to get started we go back and paint something. One tradition that many churches have that thankfully our doesn't is to have a big, dark wood door at the entrance. I'm sure you've seen churches like that. His suggestion was to paint the door red. Red is an eye catching, joyful colour. Have you looked at our cross lately? The black paint on the sides has flaked off in many places exposing the rust underneath. I think we should paint the sides of the cross red, not only will it hide the rust but it will also help to show our joy. While we are at it if we aren't going to replace those lights on both sides of the walkway let's paint some bright yellow flowers on them to make them a little less unsightly.

While we are at it why don't we tear out that awful weedy lawn of ours and replace it with a wildflower labyrinth? A labyrinth would not only be of use to our members as a meditative and healing tool but also could be used by others in the community to help them on their spiritual journey.

Music has always formed an integral part of the church service but I know that I have been in churches where any joy and energy was quickly sucked out of the room by the lackadaisical participation of the congregation in their part of the service. A service isn't a performance with the congregation as the audience but instead should involve all, both young and old. When was the last time you were at a party that didn't have music? When people are moved by music they sing along with it. When music really moves them they may even move, perhaps sway back and forth or even dance. I'm not suggesting that everyone has to sway and dance but those who feel so moved should be comfortable doing so.

The introduction of our new song book in the fall is a perfect opportunity for us to examine our rituals and practices which should be kept and which should be lovingly retired.

The point isn't change for changes sake but instead a careful evaluation of how and why we do things to ensure that we haven't become like Pharisee's using ritual and practice as a barrier for those seeking God. Our rituals need to be a symbol that helps lead all to the love of God as expressed through Jesus Christ. When we do this we can help others to be as excited when Jesus comes to their house as the the woman in the Song of Solomon is when she hears the voice of her beloved. Everyone deserves to know about the joy and peace that comes from following Jesus Christ. God wants us so badly to express this joy to others and help them find it as they follow their spiritual path. God loves the whole world and wants us to be more than hearers of the word. God wants us to be doers of the word, God needs us to spread the joy around.

Amen