Pentecost 13 Mark 7:14-23

Have you ever notice how many different categories we have for our relationships these days? Those of you who have set yourself up with a page on the online social networking site Facebook might have discovered that you can indicate your “relationship status” on your Facebook page, There are lots of different categories to choose from.

Of course you can select the typical categories of “single” or “married”, but beyond that you can identify yourself as “in a relationship”, engaged, widowed, or even the more progressive “open relationship”. And those whose love lives tend to the more turbulent can identify their status as “it's complicated”.

These are the relationship choices available on Facebook, but in today's world they are by no means exhaustive; especially when you begin to add in the generally accepted category of “preference”. Modern people will unabashedly and unashamedly identify themselves according to “preference” - GLBT is a common label being proposed these days – with a cultural attempt to make “mainstream” lifestyles that only a few years ago were consider deviant. Our relationships have certainly taken on a whole new dimension.

So this is how we have come to answer these questions within the culture. As Christians we are “in the culture but not of it”, “in the world but not of it”. So, the question is, how do we approach the issue? How do we answer the question?

Being Christians, we are not answerable to the culture. What the rest of the World decides to do has no bearing on what the Church does; on what the church thinks and how the church behaves. As Christians, as members of The Holy Christian Church, as baptized believers in Christ, we have been redeemed by Christ and we have been purchased by Him to be set apart from the world. Therefore as citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven we are answerable first and foremost to our King. The Church is answerable to Christ. Therefore as members of Christ's Church, we hold ourselves to the standard of what we find in the Word of God.

So what is your relationship status? The world would offer you categories of gay or straight or even bi. The world would have you think of yourself as single, or committed, or casual, or open. Scripture doesn't acknowledge these categories. Scripture talks about the people of God as married and as single. See yourself as married to your spouse, to your husband or to your wife. If you are married, your Christian duty is to be faithful. If you are single, your duty is to be pure.

Much less complicated, is it not? Not so many categories to choose from. Not so many options to confuse the issue. It is much more simple and straight forward.

Now, to be sure, scripture does acknowledge that there are different ways to be single. There are those who are single because they are not attached to a spouse, there are those who are engaged, (scripture calls it betrothed). There are those who are widowed. The scriptural requirement for how you relate to one another as a sexual being is always the same – be chaste. Be pure. Avoid sexual temptations.

Scripture also discusses what it means to be married. We received clear instruction on this in our text last week. Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her. Wives honor your husbands. If you read elsewhere in scripture, God's requirement for husbands and wives is that they be faithful to each other... because God is faithful to us. God does not give himself to His church and then remove the gift. God is faithful. Husbands and wives should therefore be faithful to each other.

As far as these categories of preference – do you prefer men or women or both. Scripture only and always calls this sin. Romans 1 very clearly states the following:

Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, [25] because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

[26] For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; [27] and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.

Romans 1:24-27 (ESV)

In spite of Scriptures clear teaching on this issue, Christians still struggle. We still struggle with our sexuality. We still struggle with how to relate to one another as sexual beings. We are faced with all kinds of sexual temptations. Everywhere we turn, whether it be in books or magazines or on TV or in the movies, on the internet, in common every day advertizements, everything is saturated with sex. We always fight against it. We are always pulled in by it.

With all this sexual temptation, with all this temptation to legitimize what the Scripture clearly identifies as sin, it is helpful for us to remember what Jesus teaches us in our text.

Jesus says, “²⁰ And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. ²¹ For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, ²² coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. ²³ All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”

We always want to think about sexual sins in terms of what we have or have not done. I have had this thought, but I have not carried through on it. Therfore I am not guilty. I have seen this movie but I didn't see that one, therefore I am not guilty. I have done this action but I haven't done that one, therefore I am not guilty.

We want to think of sexual or sinful pollution like it is something that is out in the world.

That's what the Pharisees were doing. That's what Jesus was teaching. The pharisees would go to the marketplace and treat the experience like they were your bleached white Sunday best making their way through a minefield of mud puddles. They avoided contact with anything and anyone that might make them unclean. And then, just in case, when they went home, before they ate, the did a quick little hand washing ceremony to get the sinner off the outside of their hands – like the sinner was outside, on the surface, like it came from someone or something else.

Jesus says “No. Not so.” This sinner isn't out there in the world around you. You are not pure as the driven snow trying stay clean. You are polluted swimming in pollution. You are dirt swimming with the dirty. We are a part of the problem. All those sins live in our own hearts. They don't stick to us from the outside we vomit them up from the inside. They are in our hearts and we can't get rid of them.

A few years ago, Christians would have quickly pointed out that homosexuality is sinful. These days Christians are not even so sure. “Didn't God make them that way?” We ask. “Shouldn't we love and accept everyone?” We ask. “It's not like they are hurting anyone.” We tell ourselves.

We allow ourselves to be convinced by these arguments. They sound legitimate, don't they? They do, but we buy into them because we have already used them to justify ourselves. I am only thinking, doing, saying what everyone else does. I can't help it, it's who I am. “Boys will be boys”, “I'm only human.” And besides, “I'm not hurting anyone...”

My fellow Christians we are in no position to condemn. For in condemning others we only condemn ourselves. We are all guilty. Every single one of us in one way or another bear this same guilt. Our hearts are filled with sin. What can we do but confess.

So what category are you? Married, single, widowed, divorced, in a relationship, or on the rebound. Scripture would see you as married, or single. If you are married scripture would have you to be faithful to your spouse in thought word and deed. IF you are not scripture would have you be chaste and pure in thought word and deed.

We are neither of those things. We are neither faithful nor are we pure. Regardless of what we have done with our bodies we are guilty in our hearts. But God is faithful. God is pure. In spite of the fact that we are sinful, God in not. God is perfect, completely and fully without sin. And God has not condemned us.

Remember the account in the Gospel of John of the woman who was caught in the sin of adultery. She was brought before Jesus, judged for her sin by her community. They were ready to execute judgment and stone her for her actions. Knowing the sin in her heart but also in theirs, Jesus said to the crowd let him who is without sin throw the first stone. Each one was guilty. Each one had sinned in his heart. Every last one was guilty, every last one except for Jesus. Jesus was chaste. Jesus was pure. So Jesus remained.

He said to the woman, “Is no one left to condemn you?” “No” came the reply. “Then neither do I condemn you.” said Jesus. “Go and sin no more.”

Go and sin no more! This is the command of Jesus. You who have come with an adulterous and sinful heart, you who have come stained with sin, Go. Sin no more.

Go and sin no more because your sin has been removed.

Jesus has taken your sin from you. If we are the polluted swimming in the pollution Jesus is the pure. As Jesus comes, his touch takes from us our sin and takes it into himself. He exhanges our pollution for his purity. The sin that has arisen from within, the sin that lives in your heart. The sin that you have explained away and have justified in yourself has been washed away.

Jesus, your Lord and your savior has had mercy on you. He has not condemned your sin as you have deserved. Not even the sin in your heart. Instead Jesus has taken your heart, your corrupted and sin filled heart and he has carried it with him to the cross. Your heart became Jesus' heart and Jesus died with your heart on his back. Your punishment has been served. You are set free. Go.

Go. But Sin no more. Jesus did not say, go and sin all you want. Jesus did not say Go and do what feels right. Jesus did not say Go and do what comes natural. Jesus said go and sin no more.

Yes the sin is in your heart. Yes boy are boys and girls are girls and boys and girls experience all kinds of temptations from all kinds of desires that have been born out of the sin that lives is their hearts. But, boys and girls, men and women, you have been set free from that sin. Jesus has released you from it. You are no longer its slave. Sin no more.

The rest of the world is quick to sin and quick to justify. The rest of the world is comfortable in their skin and pleased to live a life that God condemns. But not you. You have been bought and paid for. You have been set free from your sin by the blood of Jesus. Go and sin no more.

Amen.

Pentecost 9. John 6:22-35

When I get hungry I get grouchy. Maybe you do too. This past Thursday Julie and I ran a 4 mile road race in Dublin. As we have been training we have been altering our diet a little bit – eating less, limiting our snacks, cutting back on the unnecessary calories – because each extra little snack comes back to haunt you when your are out on the road logging the miles. It slows you down and causes you to be less efficient as a runner. The bottom line is that lately I have been hungry. And when I am hungry I am prone to being grouchy, irritable, and uncomfortable.
I suppose that is not unlike the Hebrews in our Old Testament text for today. They were out in the wilderness. They ran out of food. They were hungry and before you know it, sure enough, they were irritable and grouchy and angry. Looks like I share the same sinful human nature as the Hebrews, the same nature that is quick to complain when I am not fat and well fed.
In their grouchiness, they complained against the Lord. “If only we had died in Egypt, when we had meat and bread and our bellies were full. You brought us out into the wilderness to starve us to death.”
Oh the foolishness that lives in the hearts of sinful men!
God came to the Hebrews in their slavery to rescue them. In our modern sensibilities we tend to think of this freedom in terms of personal liberty. All people are endowed with certain inalienable rights – life liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The Hebrews were slaves. They needed to be liberated. Not too different from how we view our political processes – Iranians, Iraqis, early American colonists, the plantation slaves from our own history – oppressed people who need to be emancipated. As far as God and the Hebrews were concerned, sure that was a part of the deal, but that was just a small part of the deal. More than emancipation from human oppression the Hebrews, and the whole Human race needed to be emancipated from sin, from death and the devil. When God rescued the Hebrews from Egypt, he had in mind to save them not just from Pharaoh and his task masters – the Lord had in mind to save them from sin.
So God did. God raised up a savior – Moses, from among their midst. He called Moses to be his mouthpiece before the people and before the Egyptians and to call the Hebrews to freedom through God's saving action. God rescued them from slavery and God brought them out into the wilderness on their way to the promised land. And then God brought them to Sinai where he gave them the covenant and the promise. He would be their God. They would be His people. They would sacrifice and He would not count their sins against him. And just as he raised up Moses to save them from the Egyptians, God would raise up a Messiah, Jesus, who would save them and us from sin for all eternity.
So there they were, making their way through the wilderness. They consumed the supplies they brought with them from Egypt and they ran out. They were a congregation a million strong. They were out in the wilderness and desert of the Sinai Peninsula. There were no fields to harvest, no grocery stores where they could stop and buy food. How would they survive? How would they live? Perhaps God hadn't thought this through – bringing a million people out into the desert without provisions for food. They were better off as slaves in Egypt.
Have you ever found yourself in the same boat?
Bread and water are pretty basic needs. You can't live without food to eat and water to drink. These things are important. Beyond that, we have standard of living that we maintain – necessities for life in the United States in the 21st Century – a house, a car, utilities – electricity, telephone, and the like. We have bills to pay. Have you ever wondered where the money is going to come from to meet these living expenses? Have you ever wondered how you are going to make it and keep up and keep ahead of your bills and keep the creditors from dialing your number? That can be stressful. You, like the Israelites, might be tempted to think and to say those same things the Israelites said, that they grumbled when they found themselves out in the wilderness, without bread, and hungry. Where's God when I need him? What good has he done for me lately?
At times, like the Israelites what we want is for God to be a bread god? A God who feeds us, fills us up with earthly food, food that perishes, that is here today and gone tomorrow. We want God to fill us with food that can be taken away, that can spoil, with food that you will demand for today but turn around and throw out tomorrow.
This was the god the Hebrews wanted. When the Lord no longer suited their needs, they melted down their gold, turned it into a bread god – a golden calf, a god who they would pray to to give them what they wanted. Have you done the same? Constructed your own god that feeds your belly and pays your bills?
Hear the words of Jesus: “Do not labor for food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life.”
The food that endures. These days if you want food that endures you have to fill it with preservatives. Saturate it with chemicals that make it taste bad. And even then it still has an expiration date. The best we can come up with is food that endures for a few months. Yet God gives to us eternal food. Food that does not spoil. That has no expiration date. Food that strengthens and sustains. Not just the food that fills us for today, but the food that fills us forever. Jesus tells us to labor for this food.
“But,” we tell ourselves, “there's no free lunch, right?” What will this food cost us. Doesn't Jesus even say it himself - “Labor for the food that endures to eternal life.” What is that work? What is the labor that results in eternal life?
We can't conceive of something for nothing, something that comes that we have not fully deserved. But Jesus tells us: “This is the work of God: that you believe in Him whom he has sent.” That you believe. Believe in Him. In Jesus. In the Son of God who has been sent into the world to pay for the sins of the world. This is the work that results in food that does not perish, that lasts without preservatives, that satisfies that doesn't need to be eaten over and over again, that fills us for forever. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and feed on the food that lasts forever.
Our sin that condemns us and leads us away from the Lord is our desire for the food that perishes, that fills our bellies but does not fill our souls. We want that food that satisfies our hunger pains and strengthens our bodies. We don't care how it comes or what we have to do to get it so long as it comes.
God knows that you need this food.
When the Children of Israel grumbled against the Lord in the wilderness, in spite of the fact that they were motivated by sin and selfishness, in spite of the fact that they wanted a god who would be their bread god, the Lord gave them what they needed. God hadn't forgotten that they had need of food for their bellies. God made us. God created us with bodies that need to eat and be filled. God created us with bodies that become weak when we don't eat. God doesn't want us to go without. God doesn't want us to be weak. God doesn't want us to go hungry. God found a way to feed one million hungry Israelites out in the middle of the wilderness. There were no farms or fields where they would plant and harvest. There was no grocery store out along the way. The Sinai Peninsula didn't even have one Super Wal Mart. Yet somehow God found a way to feed them. God sent bread from heaven – manna, that had all the nutrition they needed to survive and thrive out in the wilderness. And God will feed you. He will give you what you need. He will provide for you. You will have food on your table when you are hungry. “The eyes of all look to you,” writes the Psalmist, “and you give them their food at the proper time. You open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing.”
But God has greater things to give you than just food for your mouth and bread for your stomach. God has food for your soul. The bread of God that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.
God has for you Jesus. Jesus who calls himself the bread of life. Jesus who says of himself “whoever comes to me shall not hunger and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.”
When we do the work of the Father, when we believe in the one whom the Father in Heaven has sent to us, when we are turned in faith to Jesus, believing that he is the sacrifice for our sin, believing that he is the one who was sent for us to believe in to have faith in, then he fills us up.
When our bodies are hungry, we feel empty, we feel a pit in our bellies that needs to be filled, we are uncomfortable, we are irritable. We need to be filled. We are not satisfied until we have eaten and through that meal are strengthened and sustained.
When our spirits, when our souls are hungry, when we are emptied out because of our need for salvation from sin, because of our need to be restored to our relationship to god there is an emptiness in our souls that cannot be filled, a weakness that cannot be overcome until we have eaten and been filled.
This emptiness is not filled with a mere bread god, with a god of our own making who gives us what we want of with what we think we need. Have you noticed the spiritual emptiness, the vacuousness, the desperate hunger for meaning in the world today? We live in a world with people who need to be fed and filled with the bread of God.
The food that God gives, the bread of God that he has sent down from heaven, the spiritual food that fills our souls is the food that addresses that need that no bakery could fill. God gives the food that lasts to eternity. The food that fills the emptiness, that strengthens, that satisfies, that fills and that sustains. God gives Jesus. Jesus dead on the cross for our sin. Jesus risen from the dead victorious over sin. Jesus ascended into heaven as the one who has been given all authority in heaven and on earth. This is Jesus for you. This is God for you. This is salvation for you. This is your bread. May you eat and be filled of the bread of life and may you never hunger or thirst.
Amen.