Church Standards

Read Matthew 15:10-20

“Church Standards”

She was a young single parent living in a small community. She had two children that had never met their fathers. Every since she had become a parent people had been calling them "accidents". She did not plan on it, if that’s what they were talking about. Her parents told her that people make mistakes and they pay for them. She explicitly remembers her mom telling her that she would be paying for her mistakes for the rest of her life. She recalled her mom telling her that one Sunday while they were at church. Her parents made her stand up in front of the church and apologize for her sin of getting pregnant. The second time it happened, her parents didn’t want her to tell anyone at church. They made sure that she knew that she would embarrass them if the church found out about the second pregnancy. She decided that it was best that she did not go back to church for the sake of her parent’s reputation. Her dad was a deacon and her mom was a Sunday school teacher. She didn’t want to embarrass them.

Years passed and she was on her own. She would receive a call or a visit from her mom occasionally but not by her dad. The younger of the two kids just did not fit into the family. So the father would have nothing to do with either of them. On her own, the young mother decided that it would be best that she found a church for her kids. Accidents, mistakes, call them what you want; to her, they were blessings. She loved them and she was prepared to do anything she had to do to raise them well. She went to a local church that a friend invited her to. She was welcomed in this new place but despite that fact that everyone welcomed her; she did not feel welcomed. She did not feel like she met the church standards. She wasn’t treated like the other members. She felt like she was ostracized from the other young adults. She told the friend that invited her how she felt and the reply was, “Well, you’ve obviously made some mistakes.” The young, single mother never went back to church.

The American tradition that many of us have adopted is grow up in the church, go to school, graduate, maybe college, get married, buy a house, have kids, and live happily ever after while silently sitting in the pews of church every Sunday morning. If something outside of tradition happens hide it and don’t tell a soul because people might think bad of you. And, if you are wondering why bad things happen to people it is because they are bad people and they sin. Those are very shallow and selfish sentiments. The poor girl in this story (and her children) were being deprived of the living water of the Holy Spirit, not because of the mistakes or decisions she had made, but because of the path God had led her down. It is a classic case of tradition verses scripture. Traditions are known to get in the way, particularly in the church. Many of us do not see it when it is happening. Sometimes it is hard to notice, especially when we do not have a competent understanding of the mission of Christ. Sometimes we miss it because of lack of theological reflection or knowledge. Sometimes we don’t pay attention to it because the truth hurts. Sometimes selfishness likes to tell us that we have it all figured out. The truth is, many of our American and church traditions are in conflict with the mission of Jesus Christ. Our traditions blind us from the true mission of Christ. We are the blind trying to lead the blind. That is what Jesus called the church leaders. Their traditions got in the way of God’s will. Jesus offended them. He called them hypocrites to their face and said, “Isaiah really knew what he was talking about when he prophesied about you, …’their worship of me is empty since they teach instructions that are human rules.’”

Jesus developed a reputation in the poor communities of Israel. He particularly showed love for the communities that had been oppressed by the Roman authorities and demoralized by the Priests and the wealthy religious communities. These people had much taken from them. Their food and crops were stripped from them, what little money they had collected had been stripped from them, and in many cases family members had been taken from them. And, they were convinced that God was against them. But, Jesus came with a new message; he promised them life. He empowered these people when they were weak. He healed people that were sick, he fed people that were hungry, and he promised them the Kingdom when all hope was lost. Jesus shared this Kingdom wealth with people that did not belong in the church. They were beggars, thieves, people of different nationalities, they were cursed, and they were considered sinners. There were some that were nonbelievers. But, wait a second, why did Jesus help people that did not believe in God? Because, the "church" and the religious leaders created this illusion of whom they wanted God to be and that is the God they worshiped. That God only saw them and not the people that Jesus ministered to. Jesus called these church leaders out and told them how wrong they were. He offended them because he rebuked their religion.

They were Pharisees and scribes from Jerusalem. This is important to know because it was the Pharisees and scribes from Jerusalem that sentenced Jesus to death. They came to Gennesaret to meet this person that was stirring up trouble. It seemed that they were far more concerned with the way Jesus broke tradition than anything else. They noticed that the disciples were not washing their hands before they ate food. Of course that doesn’t seem to be a big deal to us but that was a big deal to church tradition. That was a rule and they were breaking it. But, allow me set this up a little more. During this era, if you were breaking a church rule, you were breaking a law. Church leaders were politicians and church government was the state government. Aside from the Roman oppression, politics and religion were of one substance. To complicate things a little more, the church leaders were collaborating with the Romans. Hypocrites! Jesus called them.

Much of the church traditions of the early first century were based on cleanliness, food preparation, and many other Talmudic laws. The church considered it to be sinful to break any of these practices. Let me remind you that breaking these rules was the same as breaking a law. Jesus calls these rules plants that God did not plant. And, all plants that God did not plant will eventually be uprooted. All of these church rules that God does not ordain will fade. Jesus referred to these church leaders, the people that enforced these laws, as blind people guiding blind people. When blind people lead blind people they will eventually find a dead end. These traditions lead to nothing.

From this little encounter with church leaders Jesus found a great opportunity to teach his followers a lesson. These leaders were far more concerned about what goes into the mouth that might make a person unclean. But Jesus specified that it is what comes out of the mouth that makes a person unclean. Basically, he is telling them that it is not church tradition that determines a person’s cleanliness. But rather, it is compassion or lack thereof that determines a person’s cleanliness. Jesus tells them that what comes out of the mouth comes from the heart. There is evil that can come from the heart; this is what contaminates a person. But, there is also compassion that comes from the heart; this purifies a person.

This lesson that Jesus taught was inspired by a misconception by the church on tradition. For the pious priests and Pharisees they had become so blinded by church traditions that they lost touch with what is good and what is not. They were unable to identify what was God’s will and what was their own. They truly believed that their tradition and piety is what would grant them God’s favor and eternal life.

I feel like churches still have a habit of using tradition to filter out unwanted people. I feel like churches deny ministry opportunities because it does not coincide with tradition. I feel like church people pick and choose who they think will and will not inherit eternal life because they do or do not meet church standards. The truth is if we filtered out all of the folks that didn’t meet the standards of church tradition, church doors would be closing at far more rapid rate than they already are. I know I certainly wouldn’t make the cut and I think I would be OK with that.

Let’s look at the big picture here. Jesus said it doesn’t matter what goes in, but rather what comes out. It doesn’t matter what goes in to the church. What matters is what comes out of the church. It doesn’t matter if a church has 10,000 members and a million dollar monument outside. It doesn’t matter if a church has full pews, choir, and a lit sound system. It doesn’t matter if the church is 200 hundred years old and a historical monument. It doesn’t matter if the church is full of elderly people, young people, single, divorced, black, white, refugee, gay, straight, broken, fixed, homeless, addict, mentally ill, left, right, and all those in between. It doesn’t matter what goes into the church. What matters is what is coming out of it. What matters is the product of the church. What matters is what your hands are doing for the church to make a difference in the world. What matters is how your voice is showing love and compassion to people that don’t get it and are craving it.  

How are you fulfilling the mission of Christ in this world today? In the midst of a lot of hate are you the light of love and reflection of Christ. Everyday that you live you have the opportunity to be just that. How will you show the world the Spirit of Christ as you walk in it?