Immediate Word

In this week’s gospel reading, Jesus loses his patience (yet again) with a group of scribes and Pharisees after they question him about why his disciples don’t thoroughly wash their hands before eating. While the specific issue is excessive devotion to ritual, what really irks Jesus is the underlying problem of misplaced priorities, represented by focusing on outward appearances rather than inward reality and behavior. As he acerbically sums it up: “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. You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.” What Jesus describes is a life out of balance, in which the façade of faith is more important than its actual manifestation. And in order to be absolutely clear, he spells it out in detail -- pointing out that “it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come” and providing a laundry list of the things that really defile a person. This week’s epistle text underlines that theme, as James describes the characteristics of a life devoted to the commandment of God -- chiefly, that faith is a matter of action, not of words. And the Deuteronomy passage stresses the importance of teaching all this to our children -- and posits that laws and rituals can be helpful in this regard... as long as they do not distract us from the ultimate goal.

Of course, lives out of balance is a major problem in the modern world -- and in this installment of The Immediate Word, team member Mary Austin explores how we can become distracted by external priorities, and points to some examples from recent headlines of people whose lives exemplify being “doers who act.” Mary suggests that we can learn from them not to get bogged down with things we can measure, but instead to focus on what’s really significant -- the qualities of inner character that change lives.

Team member Robin Lostetter shares some additional thoughts on the gospel text and Jesus’ admonition that what goes in doesn’t matter nearly as much as what comes out in behavior. She examines our culture’s sometimes unhealthy obsession with dieting as an example of behavior that is more concerned with what goes in than what comes out -- and offers “intuitive eating” as a more reasonable alternative that is more effective too... because it changes inner habits.

 

Peanuts, Paste, and Pathways to God
by Mary Austin
Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

As students, teachers, and parents everywhere prepare for the start of school, we find Jesus taking the religious leaders to school in this week’s story from Mark’s gospel. Their question gives Jesus a chance to talk about what we should value in our lives. It’s easy to understand the importance of the spirit over the material, and very hard to live it. We know the names of the Kardashian sisters more readily than those of our neighborhood kindergarten teachers. The presidential race has us hoping for a chief executive with a principled character, but we are fully prepared to be disappointed.   

If we are looking for people who model the kind of inner life Jesus teaches, where should we look? If character counts, where do we find people who show us how to live that in our everyday lives? 

In the World
As a society, we are in danger of becoming like the Pharisees -- focused only on the external appearance of things. Instead of looking at the rituals of religion, we measure people by the rituals of popular culture -- appearance, money, celebrity, and a certain level of outrageous behavior. We value entertainment over substance. Jesus is calling us to look beneath the surface -- to become interested in character over caricature. 

When we look around for people of character, former President Jimmy Carter comes to mind for the extraordinarily generous life he has lived since leaving office. Defeated for re-election after one term, he left office generally seen as a failure. Since then, he has become widely admired for his character, evidenced by his work as an international statesman, advocate for health and human rights, and supporter of Habitat for Humanity around the world. Somehow a peanut farmer became a moral compass for his fellow Americans. 

He gave an unusually candid news conference about his health recently, announcing that his cancer has spread to the brain. As the Los Angeles Times reported, “He delivered the straightforward news with courage, clarity, and a much remarked-upon grace. ‘I’ve had a wonderful life. I’ve had thousands of friends. I’ve had an exciting, adventurous, gratifying existence,; the 90-year-old Carter said.” Carter hopes to travel to Nepal in the fall to continue a build with Habitat for Humanity, but first planned to travel home to Plains, Georgia, to host a birthday party for his wife and to teach his Sunday school class. The article adds that people were touched by Carter’s honesty and simplicity in making the announcement. David Axelrod, formerly President Obama’s strategist, said on Twitter: “President Carter just taught us all a lesson in facing up to our own mortality.” 

Another example of people exemplifying character might be the two women who recently completed Army Ranger training, judged to be one of the toughest courses in the U.S. military. NPR reports that “The first two women to graduate from the Army’s elite and grueling 62-day Ranger School said Thursday they were motivated to prove naysayers wrong and also break open the hatch for future generations of women.” The two are Capt. Kristen Griest, 26, a military police platoon leader, and 1st Lt. Shaye Haver, 25, an Apache attack helicopter pilot.  For both, character as much as physical skill helped them complete the grueling training course. According to the NPR piece, “Some of the men [in their group] admitted they were skeptical of the women at first, but were won over throughout the demanding training. Some shared stores about how Haver and Griest offered to help carry heavy loads when male soldiers were ‘too broken’ to help.” Lt. Haver said, “I think the battles that we won were individual. And the fact that at each event we succeeded in, we kind of were winning hearts and minds as we went. But that was more important to us, becoming teammates with our Ranger buddies.” 

Much of our character is formed at school, and having the right teacher at the right time can make a lifelong difference. As school begins this year, a shortage of teachers has been widely reported. NPR reports serious shortages of teachers in California, Oklahoma, and Kentucky, among other places, noting: “A big factor: Far fewer college students are enrolling in teacher training programs, as we reported this spring, exacerbating a long-standing shortage of instructors in special education, science, and English as a second language. In California, enrollment in teaching programs is down more than 50 percent over the past five years. Enrollment is down sharply in Texas, North Carolina, New York, and elsewhere.” Districts laid off thousands of teachers during the recession, and now that the economy is gaining ground many teachers have found other things to do. For example, in Nevada “population growth has meant the district can’t build enough schools to meet demand or find enough teachers, especially when you can potentially make more money with tips as a card dealer in a casino.” 

But part of the problem is about the value of teaching -- and by extension, teachers themselves. “The job also has a PR problem, [Bill] McDiarmid, [dean of the University of North Carolina School of Education] says, with teachers too often turned into scapegoats by politicians, policymakers, foundations, and the media. ‘It tears me up sometimes to see the way in which people talk about teachers because they are giving blood, sweat, and tears for their students every day in this country.’ ” 

The Washington Post reports that teachers’ level of satisfaction with their jobs is low: “Polls show that public school teachers today are more disillusioned about their jobs than they have been in many years. One 2013 poll found that teacher satisfaction had declined 23 percentage points since 2008, from 62 percent to 39 percent very satisfied, the lowest level in 25 years.” If teachers go into education to connect with students, the current environment doesn’t foster that bond. According to Carol Burris, a former award-winning New York high school principal, “There are frequent stories about public school teachers who are leaving the profession or taking early retirement because of the toll of working in a ‘test and punish’ environment. A November 2014 National Education Association survey reported that nearly 50 percent of all teachers are considering leaving due to standardized testing.” We value teachers who can produce numbers over people who can shape lives. 

What touches the lives of students is the example of the teacher, their character, and their belief in the student. All of that takes time we no longer believe in giving to teachers. Anything not on a test seems like a waste of time, when really those intangible things can change a student’s life in a deep way. 

In the Scriptures
Jesus uses a conversation with a mixed group of scribes and Pharisees to talk about our inner connection with God. The two groups come and ask him a question about the importance of handwashing, a key part of Jewish tradition. The Jewish Religion: A Companion says that the tradition of handwashing began with the original temple. When the first temple was destroyed, the ritual spread out into everyday Jewish life: “It has to be appreciated that this ritual washing of the hands has nothing to do with physical cleanliness. On hygienic grounds, the hands are obviously to be clean of dirt before food is eaten. Even when the hands are physically clean they are still required to be ritually washed. Although the original reason for washing the hands no longer applies, since there is no sacred food to be eaten, the ritual was continued on the grounds that the ideal of holiness demands a special, ritualistic washing of the hands. The act of washing the hands in this sense is seen as the introduction of the holiness ideal into the mundane life of the Jew. This ritual washing is only required before a meal at which bread is eaten.” 

The ritual of handwashing is meant to bring God to mind -- to create a pause where people remember God before the meal. The Pharisees and scribes are stock characters in our minds, foils for Jesus and the points he wants to make, but they have a similar end in mind. The tradition continues into modern Judaism, where Jews are advised: “Your table is an altar. You are the high priest. That plate of delicious morsels before you, that’s the sacrifice. You do the ritual washing of hands, say a blessing on the food, and then dig in, to elevate all those carbs and proteins into a divine experience. So here’s ritual handwashing 101: Do this only before eating a meal with bread or matzah.... Bread is considered the staple food of all foods.... This may sound strange, but before washing your hands, be sure that they are clean and free of anything that will obstruct the waters from reaching the entire surface of your hands. This is a spiritual experience, you recall.” 

Jesus understands that this is meant to be a spiritual experience, and he takes the requirement deeper. The important part of the ritual is the connection with God, who is the gracious giver of the gift of food -- not merely checking off the requirement. As Jesus spends every day with his disciples, teaching them to live deeply in God’s presence, we can see why he’s annoyed by people who want to see the external ritual but are missing the internal transformation. Jesus is forming their spirits into a life of meaning, and counting the number of times they wash their hands is only the surface of a God-filled life. Jesus wants the whole heart, not just the hands. 
 
In the Sermon
Where does character come from? 

If we use Jimmy Carter as one example, Hendrik Hertzberg writes that when Carter left office he was returning to a different role, that of citizen: “In the... years he has held that title, he has brought honor to it. He hasn’t just talked about housing the homeless, he has built houses for them with his own hands and has inspired and organized others to do likewise. He hasn’t just talked about comforting the afflicted, he has mounted a little-known program through the Carter Center that is well on its way to eradicating Guinea worm disease, a painful, crippling parasite that has inflicted suffering on millions of Africans. He hasn’t just talked about extending democracy, he has put his reputation and sometimes his very life on the line in country after country, often with little or no publicity, to promote free elections and expose rigged ones. And, of course, most controversially, he hasn’t just talked about peace, he has made peace, or made peace possible, by using his moral prestige and his willingness to take risks and his persistence and his patience and his stubbornness to bring hostile parties that extra little distance that sometimes makes the difference between war and not-war.” 

So are we back to the Pharisees? Do our actions make us who we are? Hertzberg adds: “Carter’s style of leadership was and is more religious than political in nature. He was and is a moral leader more than a political leader. And I think this helps explain not only some of his successes as president but also some of his failures.” The sermon might look at what combination of our foundation, plus our repeated actions, shapes our character over time. 

Most of us no longer follow the ritual of handwashing, but what everyday actions remind us of the presence of God? Where in daily life do we stop and pay attention to God’s presence? The sermon might look at how we can use everyday activities to remind ourselves of God. As we rush through our days, could it be that the Pharisees have something to teach us about stopping to attend to God? 

And on a larger scale, the sermon might look at how our actions reveal our faith. If someone followed us around all day, would our faith be evident? Do we do anything that reveals our identity as people of faith? Is there a cross around our neck or on our car? Do the checks we write and the purchases we make say anything about God? Does our conversation tell a story? 

Karoline Lewis writes for workingpreacher.org that this story reveals “how hard it is to live what we believe, to speak our truth, to be willing to bring forth in our words and our actions what is in our hearts. And how hard it is to hear that what others hear from us does not seem to be us. That’s why you need people around you who will tell you the truth when they see a disconnect between who you are and what you say and do.” The sermon might look at experiences of seeing ourselves as we really are, and the importance of truth-tellers who point is back to our inner reality.  

Or the sermon might look at where we sometimes long for an easier faith. Handwashing, pouring water over each hand a certain number of times before each time we eat bread? No problem. Wearing nice clothes to church, and being sure to put money in the offering plate? No problem. Giving our whole lives to God? Much harder. We love the external forms of religion because they’re much easier. 

In his book Doing the Math of Mission, author and church consultant Gil Rendle talks about the difference between counting and measuring. He says what we can count are inputs -- church attendance, or giving, or the number of kids in Sunday school. We can do the same in our personal lives -- the amount we give, or the amount of time we pray or spend on Bible study. But, Rendle suggests, what really matters are outcomes -- growth in faith, expanded mission, our value to the community around us. Outcomes have to be lived to be seen. 

As human beings, we like to count -- it makes life simple. But God is looking for character, for trust, for courage -- for things that can’t be counted. Looking beyond just the surface, God is eager to take our measure. May it be that we’re ready to be measured.    

 

SECOND THOUGHTS
In and Out
by Robin Lostetter
Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

“In and out” brings many things to mind, including In-N-Out Burgers and the 1997 American romantic comedy film In & Out. These three words could also refer to much of what Jesus says to the Pharisees and scribes (in Mark 7:1-8), to the crowd (in vv. 14-15), and to the disciples (in vv. 21-23). “Whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile, since it enters not the heart but the stomach” (vv. 18-19), whereas the behaviors that begin with evil intentions in the heart are what defile a person.

Jesus could hardly have had a better poster boy for his point than Jared Fogle. Fogle was prominently featured in Subway’s marketing campaign for over 15 years. Then, this past week Fogle pled guilty to child pornography and sex charges. All those seemingly healthy Subway 6" subs -- which helped him to lose over 200 lbs. and reach a net worth of $15 million -- apparently had no effect on the predatory actions stemming from his heart.

In the Scripture
In the verses skipped in today’s lectionary reading, there is a second example of what Jesus refers to as the Temple leaders’ hypocritical ways: in vv. 9-13 he describes the corrupt Temple taxation practices that left individual Jews unable to support (i.e., honor) aging fathers and mothers while benefiting the Temple and its leaders. Jesus isn’t just pointing to food and behaviors that defile a person, but to an entire system that forces individuals into compromised situations where even heartfelt behaviors may be impossible. What if you don’t have the ability to pay Corban and still keep your widowed mother fed and healthy? What if there is no water available to wash not only your hands but a cup or pot along the road? What good are the human precepts -- or traditions -- if they violate higher rules of honoring life and righteous behavior?

In the News
Although Fogle is the ultimate example of vv. 15-23, there is another related area in the media and often in the news: dieting. And into that arena comes a term which seeks to get rid of “human traditions,” better known as “old diet rules and habits.” It’s called intuitive eating. Intuitive eating is a reaction against extreme dieting and extreme weight-loss as we see it on such programs as The Biggest Loser.  

Headlines and blogs tell the after-story of individuals who have endured The Biggest Loser, or simply the rigidity and shaming of a part of our culture’s obsession with dieting. Mike Morelli, who appeared on season 7 of The Biggest Loser, spent as many as eight or even 12 hours a day on the show’s campus. Moving back into “normal” living was a challenge:

It wasn’t until he stopped trying to set such strict rules for himself that Morelli found a balance. “I’m healthy now, but it’s been five years,” he said. Now, he’d call himself a “mindful eater,” engaging in about an 80-to-20 ratio of healthy and not-so-healthy choices. He’d let himself go out to eat or drink with friends, but also work out around 45 minutes most days.

To be fair, Morelli is currently a trainer, and employment in the health industry makes it easier to fit workouts into his schedule. But the reality is that setting rules and regulations for oneself is what is so aggressively unsustainable. “Setting out to diet is a failure in and of itself,” said Marissa Sappho, an NYU professor and psychotherapist specializing in eating disorders. “We know from decades of research, 95 percent people regain weight, usually plus some.” An “[obsession] with calories and numbers and nutrition disconnects us from our own intuitive process,” Sappho explained. And, when you think about it, such numbers -- on the scale and calorie counts -- are at the heart of The Biggest Loser program.

Although losing weight so quickly is most often dangerous -- leading to cardiac and other issues -- Sappho believes there is hope for contestants of the show, if they can find their way to intuitive eating. “Part of the hope might mean shifting their own ways of thinking about their body... shedding that shame they might still carry with them and focusing on their sense of self,” she said.

Another contemporary example of needing to focus more on the heart and less on the rules of what goes into the mouth is that of Kai Hibbard from season 3 of The Biggest Loser. She had a horrific experience, developing an eating disorder as a result of the show with which she continues to struggle today:

I think when I was on the actual ranch we were eating between 1,000 and 1,200 calories a day, I’m not certain. The thing is, it got worse when I got home.... I would get e-mails constantly from the producers: “What have you done today?” “Are you working out enough?” It was just always, always, always. At that point, [I had] all the pressure on me, and [I was] trying to do right by what I had been told is the best thing to ever happen to me. And they would tell you all the time, “200,000 other fat girls were in line right behind you. How dare you waste this experience? How dare you let anybody down?” So I got to a point where I was only eating about 1,000 calories a day and I was working out between 5 and 8 hours a day.... And my hair started to fall out. I was covered in bruises. I had dark circles under my eyes.

The proponents of intuitive eating echo so many of today’s gurus of organic, locavore, and colorful eating. It appears to be “getting back to nature” in a way that eschews the stringencies of raw, vegan, paleo, and other more restrictive plans. The benefit is described as a means “for letting go of old diet rules to make way for a more connected, body-centered way of eating.”

As a parallel, it seems to me that in Mark 7:8 (“You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition”) Jesus is seeking a more heart-connected way of observing God’s law.

In the Sermon
As preachers, one of the ways we’re taught to preach is to do what the passage does. And although the beginning of this passage challenges the Temple leadership, the bulk of it is addressed to the crowd and the disciples. Therefore it is a “comfort the afflicted” sermon, not an “afflict the comfortable” one.

One possible avenue is to talk about body image and how that affects our ability to be disciples, doing good works in the world. The preacher may remind us that we must first love ourselves before we can love our neighbors fully, and then proceed to build up our body image, or support other ways of loving ourselves. 

If the preacher works with the “intuitive eating” idea, or some of the healthy eating literature coming out of the various denominations’ hunger initiatives (for example, “Just Eating? Practicing Our Faith at the Table”), one could then point to the positive results achieved through mass changes in society’s eating habits. For instance, the rise in awareness of qualitative differences among fast foods has boosted the popularity of some more healthy alternatives to traditional fast food, such as Panera, Chipotle, and Subway. And the emergence of these chains has had a negative effect on the earnings of some of the traditional giants like McDonald’s and Coca-Cola.

The Good News is that listening to God’s stirring in the heart, rather than strict adherence to human-made rules, is a better means to a healthier way to love God, love ourselves, and love neighbor -- free from anxiety, self-loathing, and hypocrisy. And when the community acts together, we can affect society’s practices as well.

 

ILLUSTRATIONS

From team member Chris Keating:

James 1:17-27
Following former president Jimmy Carter’s announcement regarding his cancer, campaign-style signs of support declaring “Jimmy Carter for Cancer Survivor” began dotting the streets of his hometown of Plains, Georgia. Throughout his life, and especially now, Carter has made it clear that he relies deeply on his Christian faith to guide him. His tireless volunteer efforts have defined his post-presidential career, and are a reflection of the way he is a doer of the word, and not only a hearer. In Carter’s own words:

I have one life and one chance to make it count for something.... I’m free to choose what that something is, and the something I’ve chosen is my faith. Now, my faith goes beyond theology and religion and requires considerable work and effort. My faith demands -- this is not optional -- my faith demands that I do whatever I can, wherever I am, whenever I can, for as long as I can with whatever I have to try to make a difference.

*****

James 1:17-27
The 2014 movie The Good Lie tells the story of a family of refugees who are relocated from Sudan to the United States. Guided by faith in God, three war orphans are thrown into American society uncertain of how to succeed, where to find jobs, or how to navigate any other basics of life in a first-world country. Their lives are tested in many ways. For example, one of the brothers, Jeremiah, lands a job at a grocery store. He struggles with his boss’ instruction to throw away expired food. “It is a sin not to give to those in need,” Jeremiah says. He gives the expired food to a homeless woman, but is then reprimanded by his boss. Jeremiah quits his job instead of participating in his boss’ wasteful practices because he feels in serving others he is committed to being a “doer of the word.”

*****

Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
Reba Riley affirms a Christian identity -- but hers has been an unconventional journey of faith. She documents her religious pilgrimage in a just-released memoir titled Post-Traumatic Church Syndrome: A Memoir of Humor and Healing. Riley coined the term “post-traumatic church syndrome” (PTCS) to describe spiritual “injuries” she experienced in her 20s. She notes that PTCS is not a mental or medical condition, but is rather:
1) A condition of spiritual injury that occurs as a result of religion, faith, and/or the losing, leaving, or breaking thereof;
2) The vile, noxious, and otherwise foul aftermath of said injury; and
3) A serious term intended to aid serious spiritual healing, without taking itself too seriously in the process.

When Religion News Service columnist Jonathan Merritt interviewed Riley, he asked her to describe her understanding of what it means to be a Christian. Her answer resonates with Jesus’ reply to those who criticized his disciples for eating with unclean hands:

RNS: If people ask if you’re a Christian, what do you say?
Reba Riley: Yes. But often I’ve found that isn’t enough. For example, a few months ago a pastor was essentially cross-examining my answer to this question. After 45 minutes I gently said, “Sir, it seems like you’re trying to find out if I am Christian enough for you. If you’re asking if I love Jesus, the answer is ‘yes.’ If you’re asking if I follow Jesus, the answer is ‘yes.’ If you’re asking to give me a litmus theology test, I’ll probably fail, because my theology is really quite simple, kinda like Jesus’s: Love God; Love people. Love, period.” He decided I was Christian enough, but it would’ve been okay with me if he hadn’t.

***************

From team member Dean Feldmeyer:

Balance in Sports
Most baby boomers remember when really good athletes were the ones who lettered in three, even four sports. Baseball Hall of Famer Jackie Robinson lettered in four sports -- baseball, basketball, football, and track -- in one year at UCLA, the first athlete to do so.

A few years ago, however, things changed. It became the accepted and conventional wisdom that if a kid wanted to be a starter in varsity ball, he or she would have to commit to that sport year-round and forgo playing anything else.

Now the medical community is calling foul on that practice. Dr. Mehmet Oz and Dr. Michael Roizen report that the single-sport philosophy is hurting kids and may be keeping them from being the sports stars their parents dream of.

Different parts of the body grow and mature at different rates, and do so best with different kinds of exercise. Playing a single sport can lead to repetitive use injuries. The smarter move, Oz and Roizen say, is to play a mix of sports -- balancing different types of motions and exercises: “If you want your budding athlete to enjoy sports all through school -- and as an adult -- keep her or him safe from overuse injuries. Limit practice time; change up positions played; make sure your child plays more than one sport every year; take breaks between sports; and make sure fun comes first!”         

*****

Balance in Art
As a basic principle of art (specifically of design), balance refers to the ways in which the elements (lines, shapes, colors, textures, etc.) of a piece are arranged. Balance is one of those useful terms to know if one is to employ artspeak.

Balance can be symmetrical (“formal”), where elements are given equal “weight” from an imaginary line in the middle of a piece. Asymmetrical (“informal”) balance occurs when elements are placed unevenly in a piece but work together to produce overall harmony.

In Japanese art the technique of balancing light and dark objects in a painting is called notan, and the goal is to create a sense of harmony among all of the objects on the canvas. In Japanese culture, when these same principles are applied to life in general they are referred to as wa, and their purpose is to create harmony in human relationships.

*****

Balance in Life
Licensed psychotherapist Jasmin Tanjeloff offers these nine steps for creating balance and harmony in our lives so we can “feel calm, grounded, clear-headed, and motivated”:

1. Acknowledge any areas of your life that you may be neglecting.
2. Examine whether the problems you face are coming from you or from somewhere else.
3. Set goals for bringing your life into balance, and write them in a list.
4. Plan specific tasks you need to do in order to achieve your goals. Make a list of them.
5. Reflect on your past, thinking about what worked and what didn’t when you faced similar situations. How did you achieve your goals?
6. Prepare yourself mentally, physically, and spiritually before you begin taking action.
7. Empower yourself with positive thoughts and reflection.   
8. Connect to your support structure -- your friends, family, and others who can help and encourage you in achieving your goals.
9. Plan how you will continue over the long haul.   

*****

A Case for Too Much Balance
In his book On Balance, psychoanalyst Adam Phillips argues that, as a culture, we have a paradoxical relationship with the idea of balance.

On the one hand, balance seems to be and is often touted as a necessary ingredient of sane and productive living. On the other hand, the things that make life interesting and even exciting are often the very things which unbalance us. Falling in love, for instance, is almost always an experience of delirious imbalance. Epiphanies that inspire us also tend to unbalance us. In fact, Phillips says, almost all inspiration results in the unbalancing of the inspired. People who experience epiphanies and sudden inspirations almost always talk about them in terms of being knocked off their feet, thrown for a loop, stuck blind, and knocked over with a feather. The fact is that we owe much of our great art, music, theater, and scientific discovery to people who were, one way or another, unbalanced, at least for a brief period.

The problems come when we try to live constantly in that state, when we become addicted to it. One cannot live constantly in a state of imbalance. We need balance in our lives to get along from day to day. Phillips urges us to welcome imbalance when it happens to us, but to always leave some breadcrumbs along the trail so we can find our way back to normalcy when we need to.

Imbalance is a nice and often necessary place to visit, but you wouldn’t want to live there.

*****

You Aren’t What You Eat
When Jen Larson weighed 308 pounds, she dreamed about getting skinny.

“I fantasized about it, yeah. It’s the fairy tale of weight. You lose the weight and you’re beautiful and you're happy,” she says.

So she lost the weight -- 180 pounds of it.

Larson says she’s battled weight problems since childhood and tried just about every diet, but when nothing worked she turned to bariatric surgery. “I saw the before and after photos,” she says, “and I leapt into it. I had tunnel vision. All I could see was this idea of me being thin.”

But even as her body changed, her mind didn’t. She was still obsessed with food, only now from the other side of the battle. “You know,” she says, “being thin didn’t make me happy. I’m still looking in the mirror and still hate what I see, and how is this even possible?”

Dr. Bethany Marshall says that many people believe losing weight will solve their problems: “Obese people live with the fairy tale or the illusion that if they lost the weight their lives would be better. But what happens is when they lose the buffer, they feel that people are scrutinizing them.” 

In her book Stranger Here, Larson says she was finally forced to face her real issues and deal with her real psychological struggles. Larsen says she doesn’t regret having the surgery and hopes others will look beyond their body size to find true happiness: “I want to not have my goal be a size and a number. I want my goal to be able to be strong and to run a marathon and to be comfortable in my skin. I am. I’m pretty happy.”

*****

You Are What You Say
Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me -- right? Only it isn’t so, is it? Words can hurt. Depending on who says them, how they’re said, and to whom, they can do irreparable harm -- leaving scars that last a lifetime.

It’s not what goes into our mouths that defiles us, it’s what comes out.

With that in mind, social worker Carole Banks offers these six things that parents should never say to their children, no matter how bad the child behaves and how angry the parents are:

1. “That’s ridiculous! How can you be upset about that?”
2. “You’re just like your father.” / “Why can’t you be more like your brother?” 
3. “You never do anything right.” / “You’re a loser.”
4. “I’m through with you!”
5. “I wish I’d never had kids.”
6. “I hate you too!”

***************

From team member Ron Love:

Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
Several months ago it was revealed that Josh Duggar, the former star of 19 Kids and Counting, molested five underage girls, four of whom were his younger sisters. This week we learned that Duggar had two accounts with Ashley Madison, a website that connects individuals who desire marital affairs. Duggar, 27, had to resign his positon with the Family Research Council (which promotes family values) when the molestation charges became known. He confessed and asked for forgiveness at that time, but now with the new revelations the sincerity of his original confession is being questioned. Duggar said in a released statement, “I have been the biggest hypocrite ever. While espousing faith and family values, I have secretly over the last several years been viewing pornography on the internet and... became unfaithful to my wife. I am so ashamed of the double life I have been living.”

Application: Jesus spoke directly about hypocrisy, with people honoring him with their lips but having impure hearts.

*****

Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
Longtime Subway pitchman Jared Fogle pleaded guilty to child pornography and having sex with underage girls. He paid individuals a finder’s fee to locate girls for him, even texting one client to say “the younger the girl, the better.” Though Fogle never publically confessed to being a Christian, he did promote family values. As Subway’s representative for 15 years, his commercials went from depicting him as a single college student to showing him as a married man with two children.

Application: Whenever our public image does not coincide with our private lives, we are hypocrites.

*****

Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
The grocery chain Dominick’s Finer Foods used Michael Jordan in a magazine advertisement without his permission. Jordan took them to court and won his case. Jordan said the reason he went to court was “to protect my likeness, my image... something I value very preciously.”

Application: To avoid being hypocrites, we must value our images.

*****

Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
Actor David Oyelowo, best known for portraying Martin Luther King Jr. in the movie Selma, is appearing in the upcoming film Captive as Brian Nichols, an escaped murderer who kills four people, steals cars, and kidnaps a young woman after making his prison break -- and that posed a unique challenge.

Oyelowo, who professes his Christian faith publicly and who feels that as an actor he is “responsible” that his “world view” is not misrepresented, was concerned that Nichols not be perceived as a glamorous antihero. As Oyelowo puts it, he wanted to be sure that his role “didn’t come off as a cool kind of James Bond-like character, because you have all these cinematic touchpoints.” Indeed, Oyelowo was drawn to the film by the character he sees as the film’s true hero -- his captive Ashley Smith, a drug addict before her capture who becomes a Christian during her ordeal.

Application: We need to avoid anything that would make us appear as hypocrites.

*****

Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23; James 1:17-27
In a Frank & Ernest comic strip by Bob Thaves, the two motley characters are looking at a sign posted on a wall that reads: “Expect the Unexpected.” Frank says to his disarrayed partner Ernest, “If you think about that for a while, you can get really confused. (Note: If you have a screen, you may want to project the comic.)

Application: There is no confusion in what we are being taught in the readings from Mark and James.

*****

Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23; James 1:17-27
In a Born Loser comic strip by Art and Chip Sansom, we see Brutus Thornapple leaning against the water cooler with an absent-minded look on his face. His boss, Rancid Veeblefester, walks past him with a good-day greeting, to which Thornapple replies “Huh?” Veeblefester answers that by saying: “Like a cellphone with a poor signal, Thornapple is a few bars short of full reception.” (Note: If you have a screen, you may want to project the comic.)

Application: There is no poor reception in what we are being taught in the readings from Mark and James.

*****

James 1:17-27
In January 2015, 70 churches were burned in two days in Niger. There were 60 churches burned in four hours in Niamey, the African country’s capital city. The burnings were done by Muslims, who comprise 94 percent of the nation’s population, and were linked to the shooting at the Charlie Hebdo offices in Paris -- an angry reaction to the French magazine’s publishing of cartoons deemed offensive to the prophet Muhammed. Several months later, one of the congregations whose building was destroyed is meeting in a temporary building while a new church is constructed. Their pastor, Mahamadou Koche, says: “Rebuilding the church physically will show to the world that we hold on to our faith and we’re still Christians.” Another pastor, Yakaya Sherri, passed out Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes to the children of the Muslim men who burned his church. Sherri says, “I do believe somehow that this persecution is a fertilizer for the faith.”

Application: We are instructed to be doers of the Word, not just merely listeners.

*****

James 1:17-27
Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton recently got into a fight with teammate Josh Norman during practice. Norman stiff-armed Newton during an interception return, and Newton ran down the field and attacked Norman. To be sure that they are not injured, quarterbacks routinely wear a red jersey during practice to indicate that there should be no contact -- so the fight would be against the coaches’ instructions. Newton disregarded that, saying: “You’ve never seen a guy in a red jersey like me.”

Application: We are instructed by James to live disciplined lives and to follow the teachings we have been given.

*****

James 1:17-27
Tiger Woods has been having great difficulty performing on the golf course -- he has not won a tournament in two years, has finished only once in the top ten of a tournament, and is now down to number 278 in the world golf rankings. When asked about this, Woods replied, “I’m just trying to get better.”

Application: If we follow the teaching of James, we must just be trying to get better.

*****

Song of Solomon 2:8-13
Brian Kellow recently published a biography of Sue Mengers titled Can I Go Now? Mengers was renowned as an agent for some of the biggest names in the Hollywood film industry. But Mengers was not a nice person; she was ruthless and manipulative. Instead of locating future talent, she stole stars from other agents. She forced actors out of her agency, and many left because of her abrasive personality. Mengers told Barbara Streisand when Streisand left, “I don’t want to be your friend if I can’t be your agent.” The title of the book comes from the phrase Mengers ended every phone conversation with: “Can I go now?”

Application: A loving person does not end conversations by saying “Can I go now?”

 

WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed

Call to Worship
Leader: Let our hearts overflow with a goodly theme.
People: May our tongues be like the pen of ready scribes.
Leader: Your throne, O God, endures forever and ever.
People: Your royal scepter is a scepter of equity.
Leader: Let us love righteousness and hate wickedness.
People: May God anoint us with the oil of gladness. 

OR

Leader: Let us worship the God who is Spirit and Truth.
People: We lift our voices to the God who dwells in us.
Leader: God created us from earth and from Spirit.
People: We are God’s earth people who are filled with God’s Spirit.
Leader: Let us open our inner selves to our loving God.
People: Cleanse us within, O God, and we shall be clean.

Hymns and Sacred Songs
“How Like a Gentle Spirit”
found in:
UMH: 115
NCH: 443
CH: 69

“He Leadeth Me, O Blessed Thought”
found in:
UMH: 128
AAHH: 142
NNBH: 235
CH: 545
LBW: 501
W&P: 499
AMEC: 395

“Breathe on Me, Breath of God”
found in:
UMH: 420
H82: 508
PH: 316
AAHH: 317
NNBH: 126
NCH: 292
CH: 254
LBW: 488
W&P: 461
AMEC: 192

“The Gift of Love”
found in:
UMH: 408
AAHH: 522
CH: 526
W&P: 397
Renew: 155

“Seek Ye First”
found in:
UMH: 405
H82: 711
PH: 333
CH: 354
W&P: 349
CCB: 76

“Take Time to Be Holy”
found in:
UMH: 395
NNBH: 306
CH: 572
W&P: 483
AMEC: 286

“I Am Thine, O Lord”
found in:
UMH: 419
AAHH: 387
NNBH: 202
NCH: 455
CH: 601
W&P: 408
AMEC: 283

“We Are Climbing Jacob’s Ladder”
found in:
UMH: 418
AAHH: 464
NNBH: 217
NCH: 500
AMEC: 363
STLT: 211

“Create in Me a Clean Heart”
found in:
CCB: 54
Renew: 181

“Change My Heart, O God”
found in:
CCB: 56
Renew: 143

Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982 (The Episcopal Church)
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African-American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
STLT: Singing the Living Tradition
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship

Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God who created us as earth creatures filled with our own Spirit: Grant us the grace to understand the importance of our inner lives so that we may then attend to the matters of our outer lives; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.

OR

We praise you, O God, for placing your Spirit within us. Help us to focus on the health of our inner lives as much as we do on our outer lives. Help us to keep them both in balance as we follow the Christ. Amen. 

Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins, and especially our failure to attend to the needs of our inner lives.

People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We are very concerned about appearances. We want people to think well of us respect us. We find comfort in thinking of the good things we do -- it helps us to feel good about ourselves. We are less worried about what is really inside us. If we don’t kill someone we think we are doing well, even though we have hate in our hearts towards them. We don’t think of ourselves as thieves, even if we covet what someone else has. Help us to remember that the cup must be clean inside as well as out. Call us back to Jesus, that we might be made new in the Spirit and live from the goodness within. Amen.

Leader: God created us to reflect the Spirit that was placed within us. We need to work at keeping ourselves clean inside so that Spirit can shine out. God is here to help us do that. Receive God’s love, grace, and forgiveness.

Prayers of the People (and the Lord’s Prayer)
We worship and adore you, O God, creator of all that is and the Spirit that fills all creation with your goodness. You created us in your image and filled us with your Spirit.

(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)

We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We are very concerned about appearances. We want people to think well of us respect us. We find comfort in thinking of the good things we do -- it helps us to feel good about ourselves. We are less worried about what is really inside us. If we don’t kill someone we think we are doing well, even though we have hate in our hearts towards them. We don’t think of ourselves as thieves, even if we covet what someone else has. Help us to remember that the cup must be clean inside as well as out. Call us back to Jesus, that we might be made new in the Spirit and live from the goodness within.

We give you thanks for all the ways in which we experience your love and grace in this world. We thank you for family and friends and for our sisters and brothers in the Church. Most of all, we thank you for your own Spirit that dwells within us and among us. 

(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)

We lift up to you the brokenness of your world. We know that many do not feel the presence and peace of your Spirit at work in themselves or anywhere in the world. Help us to be part of your presence, that they may come to know your loving, grace-filled presence in their lives. 

(Other intercessions may be offered.)

All these things we ask in the Name of our Savior Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray together, saying:
Our Father . . . Amen.

(or if the Lord’s Prayer is not used at this point in the service)

All this we ask in the Name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.

Children’s Sermon Starter
Show the children a cup, but only let them see the outside of it. Talk about how clean it is. Ask them if they would drink from a cup like this. Then show them the inside, which is filthy. Would they drink from it now? Jesus said some people are like this cup -- they look fine on the outside, but inside they are mean and hateful. We don’t want to be like that. We want to be clean inside and out. 

 

CHILDREN’S SERMON
Do, Do, Do
by Chris Keating
James 1:17-27; Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

Focus: God invites us to put our faith into action by being “quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger.”

Items needed: a small white board/erasable board and marker

The hardest part of going back to school for me was adjusting to the rules. After a summer of being able to sleep late, play outside all day, and do lots of fun things, it was not always easy learning how to sit still, pay attention, and not get up to sharpen my pencil whenever I wanted. Perhaps the children can imagine what life might be like if we didn’t have rules, while also remembering that sometimes rule-following is hard.

Sometimes rules are not written down but just make sense. For example, what if your pastor decided to get up and walk out of the sanctuary before the sermon? Maybe there’s not a rule about that, but it would be very strange and not helpful. Other rules, however, are very important to follow -- and it is important to learn them.

No red lights? Cars could just rush on through busy streets and cause accidents.

Don’t want to pay for something at the store? Pretty soon the stores would run out of things to sell.

Don’t want to stay in school? That’s pretty tempting maybe, but eventually we would get really bored of not learning and not being able to see our friends.

Rules have purposes! Invite the children into a time of conversation by asking them to think of some good rules to live by. Write their ideas on the white board. (If your church uses the Ten Commandments in worship, this would be a good time to introduce them to the children.) What types of rules help us do the things God wants us to do?

Explain the gospel reading to the children, helping them to understand that people in Jesus’ day were confused. They thought his disciples were being disrespectful toward God by not following the rules they thought were important. Jesus explained that the most important rules are to love God and to love our neighbors. James puts it this way: “Be doers of the word and not only hearers.”

Have them repeat that verse, and then ask them to think about what that means. It could mean that we practice our faith -- just the way we might practice an instrument -- so we can put God’s love in action. That way we’re not just following rules, we’re helping people discover God’s love. In fact, James said it was important to care for children who have no families... how might we do that today?

We can show others God’s love by coming to worship, helping people who are in need, gathering food for the hungry. How are some ways that people in your church are “do-ers” of the faith?

Close in prayer, asking God to help us all become people who put faith into action.

 
* * * * * * * * * * * * *         


The Immediate Word, August 30, 2015, issue.

Copyright 2015 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.

All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.