Cries of the Heart: the self righteous cry

Cries of the Heart: the self righteous cry  083015                                                                                                                  from Mark 7 and James 1 lections

Before scripture, children’s message, and benediction :  we will hear it with our ears, understand it with our brains, claim it with our hearts, do it with our hands, walk it with our feet, say it with our mouths

Today is the last of our summer series on Cries of the Heart.  I hope you have heard a word from your own heart and for your own heart.   And I hope you have heard the cries of God’s heart too.

Today’s word from Jesus draws attention to our tendency to be self righteous, to think we’re pretty good, coming to church, maybe reading our Bible, serving on church committees, mowing the lawn or whatever, saying and believing all the right things, and looking good on the outside…..appearances are very important in our culture.

   But Jesus in his inimitable way, goes right to the heart of life, and focuses on what’s inside us – the state of our souls, the attitudes of our minds, the motivations of our hearts.

St. Benedict says, listen with the ear of your heart; one of our small groups is even called Heart Listeners

So today, let’s listen to our hearts, literally first—hand on chest, or neck or wrist.   Find a pulse….now slow yourself down with some deep breathing…….

The letter of James encourages us to be ‘quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger’—like Jesus, the author is concerned about integrity:  be and do what you say you are, live what your heart believes.  As Jesus confronted people with the gap between their outward practice and their inner attitudes, the outside good looking stuff and the inside ugly stuff,  so James calls us to integrity.

This little letter had a rough time in Christian history: there was a long struggle to get it accepted as part of the Bible, first because it was concerned with practice of faith, not so much about grace, which St Paul had so strongly emphasized; and because it has little mention of Jesus…..then because there was a raging debate in the early church about ‘right beliefs’  -- dogma, doctrine—and this little epistle didn’t much care about right belief, more about right practice – out of right heart--  ….care for those in distress, and practice what keeps you focused on God.

Most of us are brain people; we THINK we need to focus on what our BRAIN believes.   This leads to self-righteousness—believing in our head all the right things can mean we think we’re always right.  But James points out where this leads: to the biggest western deception of the self-made person.  James says all good things come from God: in Christianity the selfmade person is a lie.

Jesus and James both point out that the brain isn’t the center of our life in faith; the heart/soul is.  And brain, soul and practice all need to match.

Never mind all those who say they have the right answers…..watch those who practice the Jesus and James Way: care for the distressed and connection with God.

And be aware that as Christians, and church-goers, people will watch us, our hearts and brains and actions.   What will they see?  This is a pretty crucial question as we look to the future as a congregation….

The church is a place to help us become whole, integrated, ‘matching up’.

It’s not a place to make us feel good, though it does

It’s not a place to give an escape from life’s busyness, though it does

It’s not just to challenge and grow our spiritual lives, though it does

It’s not in fact all about us at all.

It’s to seek and show God….to be known for listening hearts, careful speech and loving attention to the distressed.

Are we?  How might we be?