“The Disciple’s Path, Part 1: A Matter of the Heart” by the Rev. Dr. Don Wahlig, September 1, 2024, Year B / Pentecost 14 (Proper 16) -  Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23 / Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-9

THEME:  Practice gratitude to develop a more loving heart.

I have a somewhat unusual question for you this morning.  What do you hang on the walls of your bathroom?

If you are like most people, you probably hang pictures or little mirrors. But for some of us, the bathroom is a prime place for a little, well, you know, bathroom humor.

I recently went online to see what sorts of humorous signs and pictures other people hang in their bathrooms. There is quite a range, I can tell you. And not all of it suitable for a Sunday sermon. 

Here are some examples. There is one sign that says, “Bathroom rules. If it runs out replace it. If you lift it up, put it down.” That’s just good etiquette, right? 

Another sign shows a drawing of a roll of toilet paper. The message says, “No job is finished until the paperwork is done.” Clearly from someone with a bureaucratic background.

Finally, for those of a more bookish inclination, there is a sign that says, “Shhh. I’m reading.”

In the manse, we have some funny signs hanging in our bathroom, too. One of them says, “Wash your hands and say your prayers, ‘cuz Jesus and germs are everywhere.” 

After I read our Gospel text this week, it occurred to me that Mark is telling us to wash more than just our hands, and not only at meal time. That is the very point that Jesus makes to a group of Pharisees who have come to challenge him.

They come to him with a complaint. They want to know why he and his followers do not follow the ancient custom of washing their hands before meals. Jesus’ response proves that he understands the Jewish law better than they do. He also understands the Pharisees better they understand themselves.

God gave Israel the law to strengthen the people’s relationships with him and with one another. The idea was that Israel would live out the law in daily life, walking closely with God. This would be a witness to the other nations around them, bringing glory to God.

The law stipulates that priests must wash their hands before they perform sacrifices in the Temple. The Pharisees took that a step further. They taught that all Jews must wash their hands before meals, in order to make meals in the home sacred, too.

To be clear, hand washing at home was only a tradition. It was not a requirement of the law. The Pharisees elevated it to a legal requirement as a measure of extra holiness. The logic behind this does make some sense. 

Pharisees were concerned that carelessness in minor matters of practice could easily become major breaches of the law. So, they instituted this practice of hand-washing, and others like it, as a sort of buffer that ensured that the law itself was always observed.

But there was a problem. In treating minor matters of practice like major issues of law, they lost sight of God’s intent in giving the law in the first place. Hand-washing in the home became the means of alienating and excluding people, rather than strengthening their relationships with God and oen another.

As Jesus said, the entire law can be summed up with one, great commandment: love God with all that you are, and love your neighbor as yourself. This is God’s ultimate purpose in giving Israel the law. But by focusing so narrowly on peripheral religious practices, the Pharisees have lost sight of God’s relational purpose.

This is what Jesus means when he criticizes them for failing to understand true holiness. Both defilement and holiness come from within, he says, not from without. 

His point is that our heart is where our purpose lies. True holiness begins when our purpose is love, because love is God’s central purpose, too.
  Over these next three Sundays, we will be focusing on discipleship. Specifically, where Christian discipleship comes from, and what it looks like when it’s walking around in the world. Today, if you will forgive the pun, we go to the very heart of the matter.  Faithful discipleship begins with a loving heart. 

So often, we hear that love must be pursued. We all know of friends and family who are seeking love. Afterall, it is a fundamental need. Loving and being loved is essential to being a happy, healthy human being.

Not surprisingly, there is a billion-dollar, worldwide industry devoted to matchmaking. There are hundreds, of online and in-person dating services. They all promise to help people find the love they are seeking. 

But seldom do we hear the fundamental truth that the best way to go about finding love is to exude love. You and I are made in God’s image, and, as the letters of John tell us, God is love. So, naturally, we gravitate toward people whose words and actions clearly come from a loving heart.

That is true of romantic love. It is equally true of Christ-like agape love that is the hallmark of the Christian disciple.

There is a story that is sometimes told about the apostle John. John as a pillar of the early Church. After Jesus’ death and resurrection, he worked tirelessly to spread the gospel. He established churches all across Asia Minor, where Turkey is today.

John also formed a community of Christian disciples located in the coastal city of Ephesus. He led this community until he was a very old man.

In his old age, his disciples had to carry him to church. As his body aged, his voice became weaker, too.  It was more and more difficult for him to offer much in the way of teaching. 

When he did, it was usually the same simple message, the message that Jesus gave to his disciples. "Little children, love one another." 

One day, John’s younger disciples became a little annoyed with him.  They knew he was a great teacher, but they were frustrated because they always heard him saying these same, seemingly simple words. Finally, one of them said, "Teacher, why do you always say this same thing to us?"

John replied, “Because it is the Lord's commandment. If it alone is kept, it is sufficient."

Friends, as disciples of Jesus Christ, loving one another is sufficient for us, too. But that brings up a question.  If loving one another comes from a loving heart, then how do we cultivate a loving heart?

That is what I have been thinking about this week. 

Then I came across something rather startling from an unexpected source. It turns out that the secret to love is gratitude. And there is biological science to back this up.

Researchers at Harvard recently found that gratitude releases oxytocin, often called the “love hormone.” This rush of oxytocin builds a greater connection, a stronger bond between people.

So, if we want to develop a more loving heart, practicing gratitude is the key. The place to start is by being grateful to God for some of the most basic things. We breathe.  We walk. We think. We touch. We eat. We sing. We dance. We see.  

We see the beauty of the natural world all around us, the creation that God made to sustain us and give us joy, all because he loves us.

These are reasons to be grateful to God, and our gratitude draws us closer to him. As Psalm 139 puts it, “I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.  Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.” 

And, by God’s grace, we can walk in God’s eternal presence, now and always.  That is salvation, and it too is cause for great gratitude. 

In Jesus Christ, you and I have been given a faith stronger than doubt, a hope beyond despair, and a love that conquers death itself. Here, too, our gratitude draws us closer to God.  As our gratitude grows, so does the love in our hearts.

We take that love with us when we walk out in the world.  Our habit of gratitude for God’s love extends to those we come across. We are grateful for them. We meet them where they are, and we try to understand their lives and their needs. And then we do something about it, sharing the hope of the gospel in what we say and what we do. 

This is how our gratitude becomes their gratitude. And our loving hearts overflow into theirs. This is what real discipleship looks like in practice.

So, friends, when you consider your life as Jesus’ disciple, let’s start by asking these two questions. For what, and for whom are you grateful? What is happening in your heart, as you do this?

I suspect we will find that the author Kristin Armstrong was absolutely right when she wrote, “When we focus on our gratitude, the tide of disappointment goes out and the tide of love rushes in.”

That is the sign we should hang on our bathroom walls.

And it is the message our lives should declare as disciples of Jesus Christ. 

May it be so.