Sermon – Mark 9:30-37 – Afraid to Ask Jesus

Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard

Pitts Creek and Beaver Dam Churches

Sermon – Mark 9:30-37 – Afraid to Ask Jesus

25th Sunday of Ordinary Time

September 23, 2012

We are continuing today to look at the interaction between Jesus and his disciples as found in the Gospel of Mark. The disciples are beginning to figure out who Jesus is. They started out thinking of his as a teacher as they gathered at his feet. But as they watched Jesus heal the sick and perform miracles they realized that something else was going on. Jesus was more than a teacher; he had to be a prophet. But as we saw last week the disciples also tried to control Jesus by calling him the Christ and expecting him to lead a revolution against the Romans. Jesus wanted them not to talk about this and then revealed to them the truth: He was about to suffer and die and they would follow him to the cross. This wasn't the news they wanted to hear, but they continued to follow Jesus.

Three disciples then followed Jesus up a mountain where they saw Moses and Elijah, and saw Jesus transfigured. It was here that the disciples began talking with each other about Jesus, but were afraid to ask Jesus the questions that were mounting in their minds. We will get to what's happening here, but first let's pray.

“Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen.” (John Calvin)

In the first lesson you heard this morning Jesus explained for a second time that he will die, and in three days will rise. The disciples have no idea what Jesus is talking about. They are completely confused. And they are afraid to ask Jesus for an explanation. I have been wondering about this all week. Why would these disciples be afraid to ask Jesus about what is happening. They saw him transfigured with the prophets, and they heard his teaching about resurrection. Surely they had lots of questions. Why didn't they ask Jesus to explain what's going on.

Of course don't we do the same. An illness strikes and what do we do? Do we take our questions to Jesus? Not really. Our first step is usually to go to the doctor or emergency room to get the experts to answer our questions. There is noting wrong with this. It is good to get medical advise. But at some point, don't we have to turn to Jesus with our questions and concerns. Why would we sometimes be afraid to bring our questions to Jesus?

To understand why the disciples are afraid to ask Jesus questions we have to go back one story in the Book of Mark. After the transfiguration Jesus encountered a mother whose boy had a evil spirit. The disciples who had remained behind and did not accompany Jesus up the mountain to see him transfixed, had tried to exorcise this demon, but they failed. Jesus immediately cast out the evil spirit from the boy, but later the disciples ask him why they had failed. These disciples had been sent out to cast out demons. They had been able to do it before, but with this demon they were unable. Jesus told them that the problem was their lack of prayer.

You see in order to be able to ask Jesus the hard questions when disaster is upon you, you have to draw upon a lifetime of the practice of prayer. This is why it is crucial for you to pray every day. If you want to play golf you have to practice every day. If you want to play the guitar you have to practice every day. If you want to pray for someone who needs a prayer you have to practice praying every day.

This is why we have daily prayers every day from Tuesday – Saturday at 6am. You have a time and place every day to meditate on scripture and pray from yourself, others, the church and our community every day. I know that 6am is not the right time for everyone in the congregation. So I urge you to find the right time and the right place for you to pray every day. For some you should pray when you get up in the morning. For others pray before you go to sleep at night. Pray before meals. Whatever you do set a regular time every day for prayer and develop the discipline to pray every day. As we pray every day we will find that we develop the ability to ask Jesus questions, and in the meditation of scripture we hear the Spirit's response. Doing this every day brings to us the skill of asking Jesus our difficult questions and the confidence that God will respond with the answers. The lack of daily prayer prevents the disciples from asking the hard questions of Jesus. Had the disciples engaged in daily prayer they would have had no problem casting out the demon from that boy. Had Peter, James and John engaged in daily prayer they would have had no problem asking Jesus for the meaning of the transfiguration and resurrection. But they didn't, and so they were left with their questions unanswered and this led to further problems which we will see in Mark 8 beginning at verse 33.

33 Then they came to Capernaum; and when he was in the house he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the way?” 34 But they were silent, for on the way they had argued with one another who was the greatest. 35 He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.” 36 Then he took a little child and put it among them; and taking it in his arms, he said to them, 37“Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.”

So this is what happens when we don't pray every day. When we don't pray we only think ourselves. Pretty soon we convince ourselves that we are something special. We begin to think that we can answer our own questions. We don't need God. We can do it ourselves. But we can't. As soon as you lose your job or your spouse or your health or your home you realize that you can't do it yourself. This often leads to despair, unless of course, you have been praying every day. In that case you don't despair, you take it to God in prayer.

I once met in Korea a prayer women. She is known in her community and church as a woman who prays every day. When she was younger she prayed for eight hours each day. People from the church would come to her house asking for prayer. Now she older and has cut back to six hours every day. She urged me to pray three hours every day. She said this would greatly help my ministry. I haven't got there yet. And I find it difficult to go much beyond a half hour every morning. But that half hour with God every day is crucial for me to be able to pastor Pitts Creek and Beaver Dam churches. I have been told that some of you think my sermons are good. I don't know about that, but I do know that our daily prayers equip me to ask Jesus the hard questions as I study the text each week. And I trust that the Holy Spirit will give me the answers you need to hear.

When people are sick and in the hospital I am often called to come and pray with the family. I have often wondered why the pastor is needed to pray. Shouldn't the members of the church and especially the elders be able to lead prayer in these situations? Of course they should, but members of the church and elders can only pray in these times if they have already developed the skill of prayer by doing it every day. It's assumed that the pastor prays every day so we call him. I am privileged to be with your family in times of needs. Praying with you is something I love to do. But it is not my job to be the only one praying for your and your family. My job, as your pastor, is to encourage all of you to pray every day so that when your family needs prayer you are able to do it.

Prayer also helps us to open the doors of the church. As we pray each day we become more willing to accept into the church people not like us. In the world have little connection with the poor, disabled, alcoholics, drug addicts, freed felons, kids whose fathers, step fathers and mothers' boyfriends are all in jail. The only hope these people have is our prayer. So we need to pray for them every day and the more we pray for them, the more likely we are to welcome them into our fellowship.

So, I urge you to pray every day. Join us at 6am if you can. If you can't, find some other time and place to pray and do it. Pray together with your spouse and your children and grandchildren. Teach others, especially the children, the skill of praying every day. Pray for understanding of what Jesus is saying to us in scripture. Pray for the ability to cast out the demons which attack the vulnerable in our community. Pray for our church and its growth. Pray every day so that when the time comes and you need to pray you have developed the skill of praying and you're not afraid to ask Jesus your important question. Let's begin right now.

Father in heaven we ask that you send you Spirit to us today. Make us a church of prayer people. Place on hearts the burden of praying every day. Help us to develop the skill of praying for ourselves and our families. As we pray keep us focused on you so that we do not think more of ourselves than we should. Answer our questions and respond to our prayers. This we ask in Jesus name who is with us whenever we pray. Amen.

Sermon – Mark 8:27-38 – Who Is Jesus?

Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard

Pitts Creek and Beaver Dam Churches

Sermon – Mark 8:27-38 – Who Is Jesus?

24th Sunday of Ordinary Time

September 16, 2012

Today we are going to talk about what it means to know someone. There are many ways we can know another person. We can know his or her name but little else. On the other end of the spectrum we can know someone after being in a relationship for years. When we know someone we have expectations of how that person will act in different situations. By knowing someone we sometimes have the ability to get them to do what we want. Knowing others is an important part of being in community. In today's scripture Jesus is wondering about who people say he is. Jesus wants to know how people know him. Since we desire to be in a relationship with Jesus it is important for us to know who he is too. We will get to this important question, but first let's pray.

“Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen.” (John Calvin)

In the scripture you heard earlier, Jesus and his disciples are traveling and Jesus asks the question: "Who do people say I am?" From the disciples perspective this question is pretty easy. They had watched Jesus perform miracles, healing the blind, deaf and mute and feeding thousands with limited resources. These miracles indicated the Jesus was clearly a prophet of God. Maybe Jesus was John the Baptist or Elijah back from the dead. They knew Jesus only as a prophet, and all they expected was to see a miracle now and then.

Many people today see Jesus as a prophet. We go to Jesus whenever we need a miracle. So when a loved one is sick, or you lose your job, or you can't pay your utility bill you turn to Jesus for help. This is not a bad thing to do. It is good to turn to Jesus when you need divine help with an earthly problem. But if we only see Jesus as a miracle worker when we need one then we have a very narrow view of him. We don't know Jesus very well. So we have to spend more time with him in prayer and study of scripture to get to know him better.

Jesus hoped that his disciples would know him better than that. They had been with him for a while. They had heard his teaching and witnessed his behavior. Surely they would have a more complete understanding of who Jesus is. So Jesus asked them: "But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?" And Peter relied: “You are the Christ.” And Jesus response to this was not to deny it, but to warn Peter and the others about making this public.

One aspect of knowing someone is that you have some control over that person. For example after years of marriage spouses know each other so well that you know what to say and how to say it to get your spouse to do what you want. The same thing is true about Jesus. Once we know Jesus, in a certain way, we can control him to an extent. This is what Jesus was concerned about. If he was known as the Messiah or Christ then he would be expected to be a political and military leader. And people would want the Christ to overthrow the Roman occupation. So if people knew that Jesus was the Christ they might try to use him for their own political purposes.

The way we know Jesus determines how we relate to Jesus. Some of us know Jesus as a character in a book we study on Sundays. If this is how you know Jesus your only expectation will be to be entertained with Jesus stories each week. And a Jesus who is just a character in story would have no claim on you lives. Others of us try to have a relationship with Jesus. We want Jesus to make us feel good like a friend. We want Jesus to help us when we need help. We want to be able to talk with Jesus in prayer whenever we want. But if we only see Jesus as a friend he make no demands on us.

If we truly want to follow Jesus we have to know fully who he is. We do this with regular worship, prayer and Bible study. And when we do this we find that Jesus is far more that just a character in a story. Jesus is far more than a super hero who does miracles when we need it. Jesus is far more than a political and military leader we can use for our own purposes. Jesus is greater than all of these, and tells us who he is in Mark chapter 8.

Mark 8:31-38 ³¹ He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. ³² He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. ³³ But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. "Get behind me, Satan!" he said. "You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men." ³⁴ Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. ³⁵ For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. ³⁶ What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? ³⁷ Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? ³⁸ If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father's glory with the holy angels."

So who is Jesus? He is the Son of Man. This is a reference to the Book of Daniel and the vision of a human descending from the clouds into heaven and before the throne of God. According to Jesus, this Son of Man would be rejected by the religious authorities of the day and would suffer and die. This is not at all what Peter expected. He knew Jesus as the Christ who would lead them to glorious victory over the Romans. Peter was determined to control Jesus and get him to do what he was expected to do as the Christ. But Jesus would not be controlled by Peter.

And Jesus won't be controlled by us. Jesus will not be just a character in a story. Jesus will not be just our friend when we need one. Jesus will not be just a super hero with a miracle now and then. Jesus will not be controlled by us. Instead, Jesus is determined to suffer and die.

What Peter and the other disciples have to come to grips with is that Jesus cannot be controlled. Rather they are followers of someone heading to suffering and death and therefore they are heading to the same fate. And the decision they have to make is whether or not their faith is so important that they are willing to follow Jesus right up to the cross. How would we make this decision? Are we willing to suffer and die for our faith? Peter and the other disciples could not follow Jesus all the way to the cross. They stayed with him until Jesus was arrested and then fled. Like them we will stay with Jesus until it gets really tough and then we are gone. Like the disciples suffering and death are too much for us unless we get to know Jesus a little more.

The disciples who fled that night of Jesus' arrest did not know fully who Jesus was and so they were afraid. Three days later they saw an empty tomb and again ran away in terror. They were afraid until they saw and heard the resurrected Jesus. And then they knew fully who Jesus was. Jesus was the Son of God. Suffering and death had no power over him. And so if we follow this Jesus suffering and death will have no power over us either. This is really good news. As followers of Jesus Christ we need no longer fear suffering and death.

Possibly the best example of someone who knew Jesus so well he was not afraid of suffering and death was Ignatius was the Bishop of Antioch. Ignatius live in the middle of the first century around the time of the writing of the Gospel of Mark. He was arrested for his faith and while on his way to Rome to suffer and die he wrote the following in a letter to the Church of Rome:

“4:1 I write to all the churches, and I bid all men know, that of my own free will I die for God, unless

ye should hinder me. I exhort you, be ye not an unseasonable kindness to me. Let me be given to the

wild beasts, for through them I can attain unto God. I am God's wheat, and I am ground by the teeth of wild beasts that I may be found pure bread [of Christ]. 4:2 Rather entice the wild beasts, that they may

become my sepulchre and may leave no part of my body behind, so that I may not, when I am fallen asleep, be burdensome to any one. Then shall I be truly a disciple of Jesus Christ, when the world shall not so much as see my body. Supplicate the Lord for me, that through these instruments I may be found a sacrifice to God.” http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/ignatius-romans-lightfoot.html

I urge you to continue to get to know Jesus. Read about him as a character in stories you find in the Bible. Develop a relationship with him as a friend you can talk to him in prayer whenever you want. See him as a super hero who responds to your prayers. And eventually come to know him as your savior who takes away your fear of suffering and death and replaces it with the hope of resurrection.

Lord Jesus, help us to know you better. Wherever we are now take us deeper into knowledge of who you really are. Remove from us all fear of suffering and death. And give us the hope of eternal life. Amen.

Sermon – Mark 7:24-37 – Deaf and Mute Hear and Speak

Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard

Pitts Creek and Beaver Dam Churches

Sermon – Mark 7:24-37 – Deaf and Mute Hear and Speak

23rd Sunday of Ordinary Time

September 9, 2012

Whenever I am preparing for a worship service or a Bible study I always look for something unusual in the text I am studying. Usually something surprising or unexpected can be found in everything you read in the Bible. I think the reason for this is that the Bible is a book about God, and if we spoke about God in ordinary ways God would seem quite ordinary. But if we use words in unusual ways then the effect is to surprise us and help us to know the God whom no words can fully describe. We see this clearly in the first scripture that you heard this morning. There are many unusual aspects of this story which cause us to scratch our heads and wonder, “What's going on here?” We will unpack all of this, but first let's pray.

“Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen.” (John Calvin)

The first unusual thing we see in verse 24 of Mark 7 is that Jesus is traveling outside of Galilee and has gone into Gentile territory. He is probably near the port of Tyre on the Mediterranean sea. This would be somewhere in modern day Lebanon. The first question we have is: Why did Jesus go there? And we don't have any real good answers for this. Mark simple states that Jesus has gone there and gives us no reason. This is unusual so we have to pay attention. Another thing that is surprising is that we don't know if the disciples are there or not. Most of the book of Mark is the story of how the disciples came to know who Jesus was. But here there is no mention of them. Where are they? We don't know. This is another good reason to pay attention. Something is going on here. We are told Jesus wants to keep his presence secret so he is hiding in a house. So why has Jesus traveled so far and why does his not want anyone to know where he is? This gives us a lot to think about.

Then a very unusual thing happens. A Greek woman, a non-Jew, a gentile, finds Jesus and asks him to remove an evil spirit from her daughter. How did this woman find out about Jesus, and why is he talking with a gentile? Remember from last week how the Pharisees and Scribes from Jerusalem were concerned about ritual holiness. They would have said to Jesus that meeting a gentile woman like this would make him unclean. Of course Jesus is not concerned with any of that. He is occupied with carrying out his Father's will. So he is meeting with a gentile woman and says the most unusual, unexpected, and surprising he thing he ever said. Jesus insulted the woman. He called her a dog. How does this fit in with what we think we know about Jesus?

To understand what is going on here we have to picture the setting in our minds. Jesus is sitting in someone's house. A woman comes in and sits at his feet. We don't know if any of Jesus' disciples are there or not. But we do know that this woman is at that moment a disciple sitting at the rabbi's feet. The woman is a disciple and Jesus is the teacher.

Today we are beginning our Christian education programs for all ages and we have dedicated our teachers. These are all very dedicated volunteers who struggle with scripture each week and then allow others to join in the struggle. This is how we gain greater understanding of our faith. Faith, our belief in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is a gift from God. Understanding that faith is the result of a process which includes regular worship, prayer and study of scripture. You have received this gift of faith from God. And it is important for you to be involved in one of our Bible studies so that your understanding of faith will be nurtured and grow. You have two opportunities for Bible study each week. Every Sunday morning there are Bible studies for people of all ages before (after) worship. And on Wednesday evenings at 7 I lead a Bible study at the town church. To grow in your understanding of your faith you should be involved in a least one of these opportunities.

So let's sit in on the Bible study Jesus is leading in a house in Tyre with a disciple, a gentile woman sitting at his feet. She has asked Jesus to exorcise an evil spirit from her daughter. Jesus realizes that with this request she has received the gift of faith from God, but this faith must be nurtured so that she will grow in understanding. Jesus, the teacher needs to get his student thinking. So he says something that will provoke her. What Jesus uses a racist statement which the woman have probably heard from other religious leaders, "First let the children eat all they want," he told her, "for it is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to their dogs." Jesus' purpose is saying this was to get her engaged, get her blood boiling so that she could go beyond her own limited understanding of faith. As she struggled with this she said, "Yes, Lord," ... "but even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs." Jesus has helped her to understand that God is compassionate. God loves both the Jew and the gentile. Jesus has already demonstrated God compassion by feeding 5000 Jews with just five loves of bread. In a few days Jesus will again demonstrate God love by feeding 4000 gentiles with just seven loaves. And immediately Jesus demonstrated God compassion by driving out the evil spirit from the woman's daughter. And so as we increase in our understanding of faith we too will experience God's great love and compassion for us. This is what Rabbi Jesus was teaching this woman in a house in Tyre.

So far we have looked at the role of a teacher with Jesus as our model. Jesus challenges us to think deeply about our faith so that we will experience and know more about God. Our teachers do the same thing week after week in our Bible studies and Sunday School classes. But now, let's turn the page and see what happens to students who attend Bible studies.

Mark 7:31-37 Then Jesus left the vicinity of Tyre and went through Sidon, down to the Sea of Galilee and into the region of the Decapolis. 32 There some people brought to him a man who was deaf and could hardly talk, and they begged him to place his hand on the man. 33 After he took him aside, away from the crowd, Jesus put his fingers into the man's ears. Then he spit and touched the man's tongue. 34 He looked up to heaven and with a deep sigh said to him, "Ephphatha!" (which means, "Be opened!"). 35 At this, the man's ears were opened, his tongue was loosened and he began to speak plainly. 36 Jesus commanded them not to tell anyone. But the more he did so, the more they kept talking about it. 37 People were overwhelmed with amazement. "He has done everything well," they said. "He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak."

So whenever we attend Bible studies amazing things happen to the students. Some students come to Bible studies and don't pay attention to anything. It is as if they don't hear anything that is said. But according to Mark we don't have to worry about this because Jesus himself with open their ears. Other students come to Bible studies and are afraid to participate. They sit there quietly, and don't say anything. But there is nothing to worry about because Jesus will loosen there tongues. So if you are afraid to come to Bible studies because your not sure if you will understand what is being said or because you are afraid to participate, don't worry because Jesus is there to help with the your hearing and speaking.

So there is no excuse. Everyone here needs to attend a Bible study and sit at the foot of Jesus. Expect you assumptions to be challenged and your passions to be aroused. Expect that you will struggle with the text. But be assured that Jesus wants you to understand scripture and will unstop your ears and loosen your tongues so that your understanding of your faith will grow and you will experience the great love and compassion of our God.

Thus far we have seen the role of teachers and students in Bible studies. Now we will take a look at what happens when the Bible study is over. After Jesus unstopped his ears and loosen his tongue, the formerly mute and deaf man began telling everyone he met what Jesus had done for him. This is how churches grow. People in churches attend Bible studies and grow in their understanding of faith. This gives them a greater awareness of what Christ is doing in their lives. They find that God's love and compassion far surpass their expectations. And they tell many people what has happened to them. A large number of people want to experience this for themselves so they too want to attend Bible Studies. And the next thing you know is that the room where the Bible study is meeting is too small because of the large crowd that assembles. Let's pray for this.

Father in Heaven I ask that you put a burden on the hearts of each person in this congregation to be a part of a Bible study. Help us as church to be ready to offer Bible studies to all who need and want it. Help our teachers to present your Word in provocative ways so that understanding with grow. Help our students the hear what is being taught and express their thoughts with their tongues. As we study the scripture help us to experience God's overwhelming compassion and love. And fill us with your Spirit so that we can tell the world what you are doing here in this church. We pray this in your Son's name. Amen.

Sermon – Mark 7: 1-23 – The Source of Evil

Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard

Pitts Creek and Beaver Dam Churches

Sermon – Mark 7: 1-23 – The Source of Evil

22^nd Sunday of Ordinary Time

September 2, 2012

Good morning. Today we begin a look at some of Jesus' teachings as recorded by Mark. Jesus has been going through his home region of Galilee preaching, teaching, casting our evil spirits and healing. His ability to heal is so extraordinary that huge crowds are assembling to hear and possibly touch him. On one occasion already Jesus has fed 5000 people with five loaves of bread and a couple of fish. Jesus' reputation as a great healer has spread all the way to Jerusalem. A group of religious leaders, pharisees and scribes, have come from Jerusalem to find out what's happening. We will look closely at this encounter between Jesus and the religious leaders from Jerusalem, but first let's pray.

“Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen.” (John Calvin)

In the scripture you heard earlier, from the seventh chapter of the Book of Mark, the pharisees and scribes have discovered that Jesus' disciples are not washing their hand before eating. The pharisees believe that hands are “defiled” and so must be washed before eating. What this brings to our mind is the memory of our mother's telling us to wash our hands before eating. This was a matter of cleanliness. If you have been out in the field harvesting potatoes or if you have been out playing baseball, or if you have been playing with your hamster then it is a real good idea to wash your hands before meals. Our mother's were right when they told us to do this. But this is not what the pharisees are talking about.

The word “defiled” has noting to do with cleanliness, whether your hands are clean or dirty. Rather it refers to making something holy. Your hands and my hands are very ordinary things. We used them for very ordinary tasks. As I write this my hands were resting on a computer keyboard. Sometimes my hand holds a fork, or grips a steering wheel, or pushes a button on a TV remote. Hands are the most ordinary we have. But what if we could make our hands holy? Our hands would be holy if we set them aside for God's purposes. This what the scribes and pharisees were trying to do.

The Jews of the first century lived under Roman occupation. There were not many ways that they could publicly profess their faith. They had to be careful not to offend the Romans. So the religious leaders came up with an idea. They wanted people to experience God in their homes. To do this they told the people that just as priests would wash the sin off their hands before sacrificing on the altar, so too could ordinary people, with ordinary hands, make those hands holy by washing them before eating. Hand washing was their method of taking something ordinary and making it holy.

We are doing the same thing today. We have gathered around a table with plates, cups, a pitcher, some bread and juice. These are all very ordinary things that we use every day. But by using them at a time and place of worship, which we have set aside for God's purposes, they too become holy.  And since these things are now holy God can use them to help us to both remember the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross and to seal upon us God's gift of salvation.

When the pharisees and scribes asked Jesus why he and his disciples did not wash their ordinary hands to make them holy as they had been teaching people to do, Jesus responded by quoting the prophet Isaiah. What Isaiah is teaching is that something becomes holy not because we want it to be holy, but because we are obedient to God. If we do what God wants then we are holy. If we do not follow God's will then we remain defiled, and there is no amount of hand washing that will change that. The problem is hypocrisy, we outwardly pretend to be holy, but our hearts remain defiled.

This has important implications for us as we gather around this table. This table and the Sacrament of Lord's supper is holy only to the extent that the word of God that is proclaimed and the Holy Spirit which is present brings about transformation in your lives. If you are experiencing this transformation you will know it because you find yourselves becoming more and more like Christ. Our early morning prayers are holy because the lives of the participants are transformed. The same thing happens in our Bible studies and Christian education programs and worship. Our music is holy if the members of the choir experience this transformation in their lives. This church is holy when the members of the church believe that following God is the most important thing they do. Listen to how Jesus explained all of this to his disciples.

Mark 7:14-23 ¹⁴ Again Jesus called the crowd to him and said, "Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. ¹⁵ Nothing outside a man can make him 'unclean' by going into him. Rather, it is what comes out of a man that makes him 'unclean.'" ^{16 17} After he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about this parable. ¹⁸ "Are you so dull?" he asked. "Don't you see that nothing that enters a man from the outside can make him 'unclean'? ¹⁹ For it doesn't go into his heart but into his stomach, and then out of his body." (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods "clean.") ²⁰ He went on: "What comes out of a man is what makes him 'unclean.' ²¹ For from within, out of men's hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, ²² greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. ²³ All these evils come from inside and make a man 'unclean.'"

According to Jesus, hypocrisy is the source of evil in the world. Evil is the result when we pretend to be holy when we are not. It is better not to come to church than to come here pretending to be holy and then livings lives that do not please God. This is great evil. If you choose to remain a sinner then do so without coming to church and thinking that somehow this makes you holy. If you know if your heart that you do not obey God and have no intention of doing so then don't come to this table because if you do that act would be evil in sight of God. But if you truly repent your sins with a heartfelt desire to obey God's commandments than be assured that transformation is taking place, you are growing in the fullness of Jesus Christ, and you are become holy. And if you are becoming holy then this table becomes holy and you are welcome to come around it.

I have been a pastor now for five years and I have met many people who once attended church but now stay away. As a talk with them I have found that the reason they left the church was that they were tired of being hypocrites. They would attend church every Sunday carefully hiding their sin. Some were cheating on their spouses. Some were stealing from their businesses. Some were filled with hatred for the poor or those of another race. They felt guilt and hoped that coming to church would help. But time and again they found that with their ordinary lives filled with sin it was impossible to become holy just by sitting in church. For some coming to church convicted them of their sin and they experienced the transforming effect of the gospel making them holy and turning away from sin. Sadly, others sat in church and felt like hypocrites. They were unwilling to change, and when their sin became known they were too embarrassed to come to church anymore.

I have been thinking this week about whether or not the United States, as a nation, is being transformed by the Holy Spirit into something that God can use for His purposes. At times there seems to be so much evil, so much violence that hypocrisy seems to be where we are. But this week I listened to Condeleeza Rice speaking to the Republican National Convention. She told a story of her mother unable to take her into a movie theater or restaurant because they were black. But in spite of all of this her mother told her that if she worked hard even a black girl from the south could one day be president. And we have seen this black girl become Secretary of State. And we have elected a black man as President. Neither of these would be possible in American unless the Holy Spirit was at work transforming us into what God wants us to be. And so I am convinced that God is with us, blessings us and guiding us into a bright future.

Each of us has this choice to make. As we sit here in church we can be transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit working through the proclamation of the word of God. We can be convicted of our sins and truly repent turning from sin and turning toward God. Or we can sit here in church knowing that we are hypocrites, sinners pretending to be holy, and when we are found out and our sin exposed we can run away like roaches when the light is turned on. God is offering this gift to you today. Confess your sin and repent and transformation will begin immediately. Make the right choice. Turn from sin and embrace holiness.

Holy Spirit we ask this day that you come into us through the proclamation of the God's word and through the bread and juice of this sacrament. Begin the transformation of our lives. Help us to confess and turn away from our sins. Help us to become holy so that we are no longer hypocrites and no longer have a need to pretend to be holy, because with you in us were become holy. Amen.