Pentecost 15                            September 1, 2024
Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23            Pastor Wolfe

God’s guide to worship: Hearts of faith not rules of men

Ask 100 different people what the best way to worship God is and you’ll probably get 110 different answers. Black robes. White robes. No robes. Pulpit. No pulpit. Organ. Piano. Guitar. Accordion. (Yes, I’ve seen some churches in Wisconsin with full-blown polka services.) And no, please don’t ask.

Every generation goes through the same discussion just with different issues. Two or three generations ago the question was English or German? Before that it was standing or sitting? Two hours for a service or just a “lazy” hour and a half? When I first became a pastor in 2005 the battle over worship in some church bodies had become so divisive that national headlines called them worship “wars.” Some said it had to be this way. And others said it absolutely couldn’t be that way. And through it all Satan laughed as people left the church over matters God cares nothing about at all.

As Lutherans, we always go back to Scripture to see what God says. And what would God say about these wars and arguments over worship? I think he’d say our arguing is a waste of time. What matters about how we worship has nothing to do with how we worship. It’s all about the hearts behind it. And even more than that, our worship as a group together is meant to be a union of our worship from the heart individually. God’s guide to worship would be all about the hearts of faith that praise him every day, not the rules of men that matter little.

Of course, our struggle between tradition and heart isn’t unique to us. This is exactly what Jesus was confronted with in our text. The Pharisees were those outwardly “great” religious men. The ones that parents would have pointed out to their kids and held up as examples of faith. (At least that’s what they looked like.) Here they are joined by some men who are called experts in the laws and traditions of the Jews. People who made it their life’s work to know the details of what God’s people were supposed to do, and how. One of those areas of tradition included ceremonially washing your hands before you eat. And not just that you should wash your hands, but how.

Now ceremonial washing was a big part of God’s directions for worship for the Old Testament Jews. But you know what? As many rules as there were, and as many about ceremonial washing as there were, God didn’t give any about washing hands before you eat. Not a single one. So how does a tradition like that begin, and become so important? It’s speculation, but I think it begins with good intentions. Imagine a Hebrew father telling his son the importance of keeping our mouths clean of cursing and our hands clean of sin as he teaches his young child to wash his hands before eating. I think most traditions, no matter how offensive and repugnant to true faith they may be today, began with good intention and purpose.

How many similar traditions do we have today? Which candles we light for communion Sundays? When we stand or sit in worship. The times of our services. Sunday school, the Easter sunrise service, Silent Night at Christmas Eve. None of those are commanded by God. They’re traditions of men. Now many of our traditions serve a good purpose and are intended to help keep our faith vibrant and healthy. For years in our house we taught our children to pray before meals. Now, as teenagers, they often remind me to take a moment and thank the Lord. I wear the white robe on Sundays to remind me that I’m not speaking for myself but for Christ, and the stole that reminds me of his yoke that I carry as his messenger.

The problem comes when the keeping of these manmade traditions becomes a rule that overtakes any kind of obedience from the heart. When the “doing of the thing” becomes more important than the heart of the doer. Then the benefit of the tradition is lost.

That’s what had happened with this tradition of handwashing. So when the Pharisees and experts in the law ask Jesus why his disciples eat with so-called “unclean” hands he replies with Scripture. Jesus says to them, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: ‘These people honor me with their lips but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.’”

The Pharisees and the people of their time had fallen into Satan’s trap. This good tradition of washing that once reminded them of their own sinful hearts, had become a law unto itself. In the verses that our text skips, Jesus points out another Hebrew custom called “Corban” in which the priests allowed the Jews to give money to them instead of using it to take care of their elderly parents. God’s clear command to honor our parents had become less important than a rule of men. Ironically, in order to follow the tradition of their fathers, these Pharisees had fallen into the same sin that Isaiah had chastised their fathers for. It’s not a small point that God says “these people” instead of “my people” in that passage.

There is comfort in tradition. There’s nothing wrong with it at all. But we’re just as susceptible as the Pharisees to letting tradition overtake our hearts. Not just in public worship but in every facet of our following of God. And over time our joy built on the gospel of Christ becomes religion based on obedience to the laws. We go from faith to fear. From grateful service to begrudging slavery. If you’ve been a Christian for a while, and feel like it’s all about the rules, listen to Jesus today tell you it’s not about the rules at all. It’s about the heart.

Verse 14:“Again Jesus called the crowd to him and said, ‘Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. Nothing outside a man can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them… For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come – sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance, and folly. All these evils come from inside and defile a person.”

Outward traditions don’t matter because Jesus knows that what defiles us is what comes out of us, not what goes in. The sinful heart that loves myself more than my neighbor. That honors me before it honors God. From that evil, selfish heart come the sins that separate us from each other and from God.

So what does he do? God gives his people a heart transplant. When the Holy Spirit calls us to faith and gathers us into his family he creates a new, clean heart within us. Our dead hearts of sin can’t be removed this side of heaven, but God crucified those dead hearts with Jesus on the cross. In faith he gives us a whole new heart that beats with love for God in joy and peace and hope. A heart that inspires us not to religion and rules, but to faith and service. Worship that isn’t defined by outward things at all, but is measured in faith and Spirit. In love and forgiveness.

God’s guide for worship doesn’t have much in it at all in terms of what we do in our services. It just doesn’t matter if we have giant screens in front or hymn boards with numbers on them. It doesn’t matter if we sing old hymns or new songs. If our music is too fast or too slow or just right. None of that matters. It’s all just hand-washing. Whatever we do, we want to do it well, but none of it goes to the heart of the matter at all…

The heart of the matter. That’s what Jesus would talk about. He’d remind us to put our hearts into our faith. To follow him in life not in going through the motions or following the rules for the sake of following the rules. He’d point to his nail-scarred hands and his empty tomb and draw our eyes heavenward to what really matters. He’d place his hand on our chests to feel the hearts beating with faith. He’d call us away from the world and it’s idea of what followership means, and by his love he’d inspire us to a life of service because we can, not because we must.

That’s what true worship looks like. He’d want our hearts into worship here as we sing with gusto and joy, even if we sing off key. He’d want our hearts into it as we speak and confess our faith with conviction and assurance. He’d want our hearts into it so that we hate even the idea of having to miss this time with the Lord and with each other. Fellow members of God’s family of faith, God has given us new hearts. Let’s put our hearts all the more into our worship. Here and out there. His heart is our heart. His life is our life. His will is ours to follow in faith. God bless us as we follow him. Amen.