Proper 17, Yr B (2024) The Rev. Karen C. Barfield

Proper 17, Yr B (2024)                                                            The Rev. Karen C. Barfield

Song of Solomon 2:8-13                                                     St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church

James 1:17-27

Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

In the name of the one, holy, and living God:

in whom we live, and move, and have our being.  Amen.

“Arise, my love, my fair one,

            and come away….” 

The Pharisees were not bad people.

In fact, they were quite the opposite.

They were ordinary people doing their best to live a holy life.

They had adopted rules…

ways of living daily, ordinary life…

traditions that they observed in order to draw closer to God.

So, when the Pharisees and some of the scribes came from Jerusalem and gathered around this holy man Jesus…

a man also raised according to Jewish customs,

     they did not understand why some of Jesus’ disciples were eating

without first washing their hands.

Washing before eating was one of the traditions of the elders;

everyone knew that.

So why weren’t Jesus’ disciples observing these ways of holy living?

According to the Pharisees,

it was a recipe for disaster.

But then again, that was their issue with Jesus as well.

Jesus wasn’t providing a very good example.

 He was healing (which is working) on the Sabbath,

touching lepers and dead people,

      eating with tax collectors and prostitutes….

None of these were following the proper order of things.

So, if these disciples didn’t mend their ways and follow the customs,

they would never draw close to God!

Yet, Jesus provides a strong rebuke to their objections.

You hypocrites, he says.

       You say the right thing

and observe the traditions that are supposed to draw you into closer relationship

with God and your neighbor,

      and yet in your hearts you are not loving. 

That is what matters!

That is the whole point of the traditions you observe:

to love God and your neighbor.

It seems Jesus was saying that the why had become replaced by the what!

The “why” was union with God:

exemplified by the love of God

            and love of neighbor.

The “what” was the tradition:

in this case, the washing of hands before eating.

The goal is a love relationship…

            a love relationship between lover and beloved,

      whether Divine

   or human

or both.

Listen to these words from the Song of Solomon as if we were saying them about God:

“The voice of my beloved!

            Look, he comes,

leaping upon the mountains,

            bounding over the hills.

“My beloved is like a gazelle

            or a young stag.

Look, there he stands

            behind our wall,

gazing in at the windows,

            looking through the lattice.

“My beloved speaks and says to me:

‘Arise, my love, my fair one,

                        and come away….’”

I propose that this relationship was the goal of the traditions of the elders,

including the washing of hands and pots.

Can you hear the joy and wonder:

            “Arise, my love, my fair one,

                        and come away….?”

Can you hear the infusion of love and passion,

of excitement and freedom?

What we need to guard, Jesus says, is not the externals--

            the rules or the traditions,

       at least not simply for their own sake.

What we need to guard, Jesus says,

is our hearts.

Jesus asks us to examine the state of our hearts in relation to God and our neighbors.

What is living in our hearts?

Is it anger and resentment and pride?

            Or is it love and wonder and respect?

I wonder if when we focus on the “proper order” of things,

            whether it be religious traditions,

                        or simply the traditions of our community or family…

       we can get bogged down in the order and discipline

and become angry and resentful.

We lose our ability to live in wonder and spontaneity…

            the way Jesus often seemed to live and approach the world.

Yes, there are “rules” and ways of doing things,

            but the whole goal of those is love of God and love of neighbor.

When our daughter was young,

she loved to dress up in multiple layers of clothes.

Often when going to church,

 she would put on her butterfly wings

        that had little ribbons hanging down with bells on the ends.

When she walked down the aisle,

everyone knew who was coming.

One year on Easter Sunday at the cathedral,

I was serving the chalice at the altar rail.

      The organist was directing the choir in a grand Easter anthem.

Unbeknownst to me,

            standing directly behind the organist in the middle of the chancel

      was Alexandra,

butterfly wings and all,

                                    waving her arms through the air directing the choir.

After the service,

 I was told that she did quite a good job keeping tempo.

Ever since Alexandra was born,

music has flowed through her.

That morning, aside from the proper “order” of worship…

    the Spirit of God possessed her to stand up and celebrate with the choir and organist.

Some might have been irritated, I don’t know,

            but I consider it a gift

     that God’s spirit,

     in music,

captured her heart,

        and she responded with joy and wonder.

Just a few chapters after today’s reading in the Gospel of Mark,

one of the scribes comes to Jesus and asks,

       “Which commandment is the first of all?”  (Mk 12:28)

Jesus says: “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one;

you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,

and with all your soul,

and with all your mind,

and with all your strength.’ 

The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 

There is no other commandment greater than these.”  (Mark 12:29-31)

Arise, my love, my fair one,

            and come away….

We are being wooed by our God…

            invited to respond to love with love…

     to love God

               and our neighbor

                        whole-heartedly.

Out of this right relationship…this relationship of love

            comes right action…loving action.

We hear in today’s reading from the Letter of James:

“Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above…

he gave us birth by the word of truth,

      so that we would become a kind of first fruits of his creatures.” (James 1:17-18)

We are created by a loving and compassionate God

to extend God’s loving embrace to the world in which we live.

When we hear words such as those from the Song of Solomon,

it is easy to remember and feel embraced as God’s beloved.

But it is not always so easy to remember,

especially when we are inundated with news of violence and anger and hatred

       or we are harmed in some way by someone, whether known or unknown.

We each have moments when we forget

or simply don’t believe

that we are God’s beloved:

        created out of Love in order to love.

Life is complex and oftentimes hard.

And yet, God continues to love us and to woo us…

            granting us every good gift for our benefit and for the benefit of others.

On Sunday mornings we gather together to be fed by God’s Word…

            Yes, including those who join us online…

      we all gather together as the one Body of Christ!

We are each nurtured by the community of faith,

       reminding each other that all are part of one Body,

encouraged to repent when we wrong others and ourselves

      and then are restored to Communion.

Our calling is to desire as God desires:

to love God and one another,

to seek one another’s healing and wholeness...

    to go bounding over mountains and hills and invite others to new life.

This is no easy task.

We need the assistance of God and each other to accomplish these things.

God, the lover of souls, invites all to come,

have a seat,

 eat,

      and be refreshed.

Arise, my love, my fair one

and come away….

Come away to abundant life!  Amen.