Peace

A man and his wife had an argument, and they were so angry they stopped talking to each other. That evening, the man realized he had to get up at 5 a.m. the next morning to catch a flight. He wasn’t good at getting up early, and he needed his wife to wake him up. But he didn’t want to be the first to give in and start talking. They would be like he lost. So he left a note where he knew his wife would see it, “please wake me up at 5:00 a.m.” The next morning, he wakes us at 9 a.m., he missed his flight, and he is furious that his wife didn’t wake him up. Then he sees a piece of paper next to him in bed that says, “It’s 5:00, wake up.” 

We all want peace in life. We want our relationships to be easy. We want all of life to be easy. But sometimes we do things that make life harder for ourselves. We let the worst stuff inside us do whatever it wants. And then we pay for it. 

Part of the American Dream is we want the freedom and money to do whatever we want, and we also want enough money to get us out of trouble when we do whatever we want. Something in all of us that wants to be in a position where nobody tells us what to do. But this leads to regrets. 

We get in our own way. How do we say, “No!” to the emotions that compete for control? How do we say “No!” to behaving according to emotions that maybe make us feel like we won, but that make our lives more of a mess? There are toxic voices, evil things, that come from within and get us in trouble.  

Life is better, and really It is so much easier when you look inside and monitor the voices that speak to you, and choose to not let the toxic voices take over. 

Once Jesus was asked by the religious leaders: “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don’t wash their hands before they eat!” You might think, come on Jesus, wash your hands before eating! But there was no tap water back then. You didn’t have near as much water as we do. But the religious leaders felt you need to wash your hands, because maybe you accidentally broke a rule, and you want to cover your bases and ritually cleanse yourself just in case. 

Jesus replied to them “And why do you break the command of God ‘Honor your father and mother?’You say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is “devoted to God,”’they are not to ‘honor their father or mother’ with it.  The religious leaders wanted more money given to them. So, they helped people get out of taking care of their parents, so they could give more money to them. The religious leaders were concerned more about themselves than about other people. 

Jesus was upset because the Pharisees make God sound very petty. They make it seem that God is very concerned with insignificant details: “you didn’t do this right. You didn’t wash up right!” As if God has a point system, and he is watching how you keep laws. God is not as concerned with the law, as he is how you treat the people he loves.  

Jesus quotes Isaiah: ‘These people honor me with their lips, 
but their hearts are far from me. So, these people, the religious leaders, are playing a game. They’ve turned religion into a game that they can always win. 

Jesus says, “Listen and understand. ¹¹What goes into someone’s mouth does not defile them,” God is not small, petty God who just wants to say “Gotcha!” God does not want to punish you for some accidental thing that goes into your mouth. Jesus says, “But what comes out of your mouth, that is what defiles you.” 

It sounds like Jesus was dismissing the dietary law. But he wasn’t.  

God is not most concerned with how our behavior affects him. God is concerned with how our behavior affects the people God loves.  

Jesus says to his disciples: “Don’t you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body?”  Ok, we got it, sometimes twice a day we see that. If you eat something wrong, it comes out pretty soon. Jesus says, “But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them.” That’s what puts you at odds with God, when what comes out of your mouth puts you at odds with the people God loves. Don’t worry about God being sensitive about the rules. That’s not the case. Here’s what to worry about: The things that come out of your mouth come out of your heart. The source of your problematic words and behvaior comes from within. 

Jesus says, “For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.”  The unwise things we do, the relationship killing things we say, they come from our heart. Jesus says, ”These are what defile a person; but eating with unwashed hands does not defile them.” 

Following God is not about earning points with God. It is about loving the people God loves. How you treat others is what pleases God. 

And when you follow God, what does that mean, what does a follower do? You humble yourself, and you’re the first to apologize. You learn to put another person first. You learn to give someone the benefit of the doubt.  You tell the evil thoughts inside you: “you are not the boss of me.” You look at the things that come from within: the icky thoughts: and you don’t pay attention to them or give in to them. You say, “I’m going to say what God wants me to say, I’m going to do what God wants me to, I’m going to be who God want me to be.” 

Think about how different your life could be, if you were looking at your heart, monitoring your thoughts, and everyone else was, too. You wouldn’t say or do some of the things you did. You would have less regrets. 

In the gospel reading today Jesus says, “Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden in light.” You can read that and think, a light burden sounds like a contradiction, like jumbo shrimp, or liquid gas? 

By light burden Jesus means, “it seems like you’ll lose if you follow me, but you end up gaining so much.” You lose the argument, but you keep a friend. You lose your life when you follow Jesus, but you save it. Jesus is telling us, follow anything else, follow the toxic voices and thoughts inside, and you never win. Follow me, and you will have rest.   

My homework for you this week is to think, when you’re tempted to let the worst of emotions come out, say to yourself, “I’m just going to love the people God loves.” And just say “No!” to whatever wants to come out from within. 

It’s tempting to just let loose with whatever you want to do or say. It’s tempting to let guilt or fear or jealousy cause you to do things you’ll later regret. But there is another way. Jesus offers a light burden. Consider your heart, consider your mouth, and let good come out of it. Let God-inspired behavior and words come from your heart. And to your surprise, you’ll find the peace of God, and you will find rest. Amen.                    July 5, 2020