Preached by Sister Cecilia, Holy Wisdom Church
IS 29:13-16, Rom 11:33,12:1-5, Mt 15:1-14
The question in the gospel this morning represents a head-on clash between the leaders of the Jewish religion and Jesus. The scribes and Pharisees initially did not seem to have a malicious intent but seem genuinely bewildered by their cultural conditioning of keeping every jot and tittle of the law. In a very short time Jesus’ answers caused them to be shocked and outraged. Their law indicated certain ways of behaving and Jesus is saying other ways of behaving are better. It was a clash of two views of religion, two views of the demands of God. Jesus knew he was speaking for God but these leaders did not believe him. The reading from Isaiah this morning describes the problem. Their worship of God was from a human commandment learned by rote honoring God with their lips but not with their hearts. (Another time we can dwell on the rest of the gospel passage.)
You heard in the epistle Paul’s heart is so greatly affected that his theology turns into poetry. “Oh, the depth of the riches and the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How mysterious are God’s ways!” Paul sees the paradox that while God has given us minds to use to the very limit of human thought, that limit can be reached and all that is left for us is to accept what we cannot understand and then to be in a spirit of adoration. Paul, having done his best, leaves the rest to the love and power of God. He wrestled with the deepest problems theology had to offer and ends with the ethical demands which govern all of us. He finishes with his feet firmly planted upon the earth.
“Present your bodies to …God.” To the Greeks in the time of Paul what mattered was the spirit. The body was only a prison to be despised and even ashamed of. Christians in Paul’s time believed the body belonged to God was as valuable as the soul. The body is the temple of God- the Holy Spirit and the instrument through which the Holy Spirit works. Think of a church or cathedral. It is designed by the mind of an architect, built by the hands of craftsmen and then becomes a shrine for worship. The shrine is a product of the mind, the body, and the spirit.
We are influenced by our environment –by our world. Some of that influence is listed by Paul and the first thing he mentions to combat the conformity to the world is to strive for humility. An honest assessment of our own capabilities, without conceit and without false modesty, is one of the essentials of a useful life. Each of us has a task to do and it is only when we contribute the help of our own task that the body of the church functions well. We ought not be conformed to the values of the world but be transformed into discerning the will of God. That is the transformation which is good, acceptable and perfect. To worship and serve God, we undergo changes. The essence of our being changes so that our lives are not so self-centered but Christ-centered.
So as Paul indicated, we need to take all our tasks, all our ordinary work as an act of worship to God. The meaning of the word translated ‘worship’ changed gradually through the centuries but eventually came to mean the service to and worship of God. True worship is the offering to God of one’s body and all that one does every day. Real worship is not just the offering to God of a liturgy, however, noble, and a ritual, however magnificent, but the offering of everyday life because we see the whole world as the temple of the living God. We can and do say we are going to church today to worship God which those who have come to truly believe want to do. We need to also think, to actually realize, we also worship God, when we are going to the shop, the factory, the office, the garden, the school, the farm, the shipyard, the hospital, the funeral, the home--anywhere.
The ability we have to carry out our tasks are gifts from God. Let our use of these gifts be our contribution to the common good of all so that our hearts, not just our lips are full of the loving praise and worship of God.
Christ is in our midst!
