Eucharistic Gospel Reading for Sunday of Proper 17: Year B
“There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile, but the things that come out of a person are what defile.” (Mark 7:15)
The word defile here is used in the sense of sinfully polluting the person and turning them from the purity of God. We consume nothing that makes us more sinful, or turns us away from God. Yes, poisonous food will kill us, rotting food will make us sick, and the abuse of alcohol and, or, drugs will make us drop our discipline and do bad things. But our hearts, that is, our minds and souls are not defiled by them, but rather, just not followed. This is why we need to take our Church into ourselves.
So I’m going to take an English alphabetical exchange here and move from the word defile to the word define. Exchanging the “l” for an “n” in the word defile and it will help us to better understand the meaning of this Gospel lesson. Instead of d, e, f, i, “l”, e; we have d, e, f, i, “n,” e. There is a difference.
When asked to “define” her Church, Maya Angelo, American spiritualist and poet, responded, “I do not define my Church, my Church defines me.” We are our Church wherever we are. It is our Church that goes inside us and says to ourselves and to the world, who we are and how we are to behave, before God, and before the World. So I say, let your Church come out and define who you are. We are our Church, and our Church is who we are. Our Church is about love, love for all people.
If our Church is off course, we do not get it back on track by abandoning it. We ask God to help us to straighten our path so that our faith tradition honors our Lord Jesus Christ. We are a work in progress and our hearts are guiding us to that holy place.
Please keep up your thoughts and prayers and hopes for Ukraine and Russia, Israel and Palestine, and our schools. And, as we listen to what the Spirit of God is saying to us, let us live to love and serve, and to teach others to love and serve, while pondering anew what the Almighty can do. John
Let us pray: (For the Church, BCP p. 816)
Gracious Father, we pray for thy holy Catholic Church. Fill it with all truth, in all truth with all peace. Where it is corrupt, purify it; where it is in error, direct it; where in anything it is amiss, reform it. Where it is right, strengthen it; where it is in want, provide for it; where it is divided, reunite it; for the sake of Jesus Christ thy Son our Savior. Amen.
onewhoponders 