“Where Is This Pollution Coming From?”

(Matthew 15:10-20)

Jesus then called the crowd together and said, “Listen, and take this to heart.  It’s not what you swallow that pollutes your life, but what you vomit up.”

Later his disciples came and told him, “Did you know how upset the Pharisees were when they heard what you said?”

Jesus shrugged it off.  “Every tree that wasn’t planted by my Father in heaven will be pulled up by its roots.  Forget them.  They are blind men leading blind men.  When a blind man leads a blind man, they both end up in the ditch.”

Peter said, “I don’t get it.  Put it in plain language.”

Jesus replied, “You, too?  Are you being willfully stupid?  Don’t you know that anything that is swallowed works its way through the intestines and is finally defecated?  But what comes out of the mouth gets its start from the heart.  It’s from the heart that we vomit up evil arguments, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, lies, and cussing.  That’s what pollutes.  Eating or not eating certain foods, washing or not washing your hands—that’s neither here nor there.”

              Well, I asked Renay to read today’s lesson from “The Message Bible” instead of the usual New Revised Standard Version because The Message edition is grittier and more graphic.  It makes us sit up and listen, I think.  Feel free to compare what’s in your pew Bibles.  The lesson today and what comes before are Jesus’ words that were remembered and that showed Matthew’s community a way to think about what was going on in their lives.  As we look at it today, it is Jesus telling us what, really, are the rules of the Jesus House. 

As is so often the case, and it’s certainly true in this story, the Pharisees have gotten it wrong.  They are breaking the rules of the Jesus House.  When the disciples tell Jesus what is being said about him, that the Pharisees had taken offense to what he had been saying, Jesus comes back swinging.  He says, “When a blind person leads another blind person, what happens?  Well, they both end up in the ditch.”  In other words, the religious leaders of the day were unable or unwilling to hear God’s call for change.  They were unwilling or incapable of letting go of the rigid rules that did not serve God’s people, that weren’t helping God’s people.  Many of those laws were rules for rules sake. 

              Jesus had come out telling his followers that he had a new way, and that was, that the rules of the Jesus House were simple: care for the needs of the people.  This was, and is, so straightforward and clear.  The Pharisees were breaking that rule.  They were not taking care of the people. 

              The religious leaders had been putting all kinds of energy into the dietary rules, for example.  And so, Jesus made that grand and sweeping statement, “The problem is not about what we put in our mouths.”  Breaking dietary rules is not what pollutes the house.  No!  It is what we regurgitate, what we vomit up, what comes out of our mouths.  That, even today–especially today–is what is polluting our churches, our culture, our politicians.  It is what is defiling our nation. 

              Jesus could not have been any more clear.  The rulers were more interested in their own rights and privileges instead of the needs of the people.  The Pharisees were more interested in who had ritually clean hands and who was allowed to handle the holy things. 

Let’s face it, traditions are only valuable and holy when they serve the people, when they see that the people have enough to eat and drink and have a quality life.  You see how Jesus was all about caring for the needs of the people, definitely not upholding laws that seemed to serve only those in power.  Jesus was looking out for the ordinary people, the powerless, the little ones.

              …So, you may wonder, what does this have to do with us today?  Glad you asked.  We need to be wondering, “How does present day policy around immigrants line up with Jesus’ harsh warnings to us?”  Well, hear this: “What comes out of the mouth comes from the heart, and this is the source of evil arguments that we are having.”  In other words, what we hear from the mouth is indicative of where the heart is.

              It seems these days to be a given that immigrants are bad, therefore they must be removed—that is, any immigrants except maybe those from South Africa, especially those from Third World countries.  We have accepted over many years that we must have policies to limit, to prevent, to control, to eliminate immigrants.  We need to be able to see through the lies that we’ve been fed.  The lie is that our friends from other nations are undesirable criminals.  We are told that they must be rounded up and thrown into detention centers that we have been busy building.  We’re told that it’s okay to separate hard working men and women from their families, to deport them to their dangerous nations, in spite of the perils they will face, in spite of the families that they leave behind. 

Folks, this is not who we are.  People claim that we are a Christian nation, guided by Christian ethics and morals.  But, our policies around immigrants fly in the face of what Jesus taught us about the Jesus House. 

              Jesus, in today’s lesson, is warning us Christians about lies that we have been fed.  We have been told that compassion in various situations is weak, that love is a cliché that we only talk about in church.  We’re told that living lives with love at the center is impractical.  It seems that speaking of love for all God’s children ends up meaning nothing in this “real” world that has been created around us. 

              Jesus is warning us about how we get hoodwinked by those in power, so they can hold on to their power—the heck with the rest of us.

              …Methodism was founded by John Wesley on principles of kindness and generosity.  He said, “Faith working by love is the length and breadth and height of Christian perfection.”  A famous quote of his is this: do all the good you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can.” 

In other words, the founder of our denomination was all about meeting the needs of the people, not ginning up the anger and resentment that exists within us by fooling us into keeping those who are lying to us in power.

              Here’s the bottom line folks: We Jesus People, we Christians, need to come from this very basic truth.  Our job in our time on earth consists of three things.  Number one: Love one another as we have been loved. 

Number two: show compassion to all God’s children. 

Number three: meet the needs of the people. 

That’s it.  It’s very simple, though not easy.  There is so much pressure to believe that our job is to take care of ourselves ONLY.  There is so much pressure to believe that those in power and those who have the wealth somehow have our interests in their hearts.  This is patently untrue. 

              …So…back to simple: Love, compassion, and care for the needs of the children, the invalids, the poor, the weak. 

Now I want you to listen to words from Pope Leo XIV on the World Day of Migrants and Refugees that was Friday, August 14^th.  This year he focused on the children.

“My thoughts turn to the words of Jesus that profoundly challenge our consciences: “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me” (Mt 18:5). It is not a question of numbers or statistics. The Gospel invites us not to calculate….  Every child, every human being, possesses an infinite dignity. Each is created in the image and likeness of God (cf. Gen 1:26); each is a presence of the Lord. Before every migrant child, we are called to make an act of humanity and faith…[for we are told] in the Gospel of Matthew: “I was a stranger and you welcomed me” (Mt 25:35)….

We cannot remain indifferent to the cries [of the children and all immigrants], nor can we become accustomed to such suffering.  [This is] an appeal to the responsibility of all [of us].

Even just one of these children calls to each of us…, to open our eyes and hearts to [listen] to his or her story, fears and dreams, [and in doing so, we can overcome] that detachment which reduces the human person to a statistic that does not directly concern us. It is an invitation to recognize the dignity of each child, even before considering the condition of being a “migrant,” and to safeguard his or her fundamental rights: the right to life, education and a standard of living that enables full physical, mental, spiritual, moral and social development.

Even just one of these children calls us, in the life of the Church, to transform welcoming from an abstract concept into a stable pastoral practice….  The entire Christian community is called to regard these children as its own sons and daughters, and to engage with the concrete story of each one of them. Christian communities should be encouraged to promote the integration of refugees and migrants and to value them as full members of the [church] family, fostering new educational and spiritual paths, including personalized ones, which go beyond the mentality of mere assistance. In particular, it is essential to prevent the isolation and rejection that often affect the children of migrants; and to promote opportunities for encounter and integration in which local young people and young migrants can support each other along a path of mutual respect, solidarity and friendship.”

              Today Jesus challenges us.  Pope Leo calls us to specifically reach out in a way that goes beyond our comfort zone.  I know that there are those among us who have been answering this call.  Let’s all show where our hearts are, and let’s not forget our mission: to love, to show compassion, to meet the needs of others.    Amen.