Sermon for Sunday, September 1, 2024 || Proper 17B || Mark 7:1-23

Today we’re going to spend the bulk of the sermon breathing through a guided meditation. We’re going to invite the Holy Spirit in through our inhalations; then, with our exhalations, we will breathe out into the world the values of a life lived following Jesus. But before we get to the meditation part, just a little background.

Our reading this morning from the Gospel according to Mark is one of the most chopped up lessons we get all year. If you look at the citation in your program, you’ll see the passage is three different chunks of verses from Mark Chapter 7. And I challenge you to tell me where the missing chunks go. It reads pretty seamlessly as presented. But, for some reason, two important bits are left out. The first left out bit comes right after Jesus’ accusation of the Pharisees: “You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.” Right after this, Jesus gives an example. His opponents have devised a way to get out of caring for elderly parents by giving their resources to the temple, and Jesus sees this as a despicable breach of the commandment to honor father and mother. His overarching critique is that his opponents have, over the centuries, reduced their faith to a series of rituals, rules, and loopholes that are devoid of any power to change people’s hearts and lives.

The second bit this chopped up version of Mark 7 leaves out is Jesus retreating with his core disciples and teaching them what he means by “defilement.” Food that goes in goes right back out again. That’s not what defiles a person. Rather, “It is what comes out of a person that defiles.” And then we return to the last sentence of today’s reading where Jesus lists off twelve actions and behaviors that cause suffering.

It’s true that our actions and behaviors can have a negative impact on our lives, our relationships, and the world. It’s also true that our actions and behaviors can have a positive impact. No matter what we do, we cause ripples of impact to spread out from us, which intersect with the ripples coming from others. There is no way to live in the world without influencing it for good or ill. In this passage, Jesus talks about the negative impact of behaviors like theft, deceit, and slander. And his words made me wonder what he would have said if he had flipped it all around. What if he had talked, not of defilement, but of blessing? For good things come from the heart as well. And we can invite the Holy Spirit to help us send those blessings out into the world.

I’d like to shift gears now and move into a seven-part breathing meditation, as we ask for the Holy Spirit’s aid. Please get as comfortable as you can in your hard-backed pew. Put your feet on the floor if that’s comfortable for you. Hold your hands loosely in your lap. Close your eyes if you wish. In this meditation, we are going to breathe in the Holy Spirit and breathe out the blessings of God. At the end of each short section, I will invite you to breathe in a special way. Breathe in, then breathe in again, filling your lungs, expanding your insides, and noticing how much room within you there is for the Spirit to fill. So we breathe in, then breathe in again. Hold for a moment, then exhale for twice as long as you inhaled.

Here we go.

We pray for Peace
Peace in our hearts
Peace for a hurting world
Peace as the presence of justice
Peace that surpasses all understanding
That quiets our minds and dismantles our defenses
So we may embrace the unarmed power of peacemaking
Breathe in the Holy Spirit
Breathe in more
Breathe out peace

We pray for Joy
Joy in our roots
Nourishing our souls
Joy that is deeper than happiness or sorrow
Joy that is complete because it imbues
Our finitude with God’s eternity
Our creative sparks with God’s creative fire.
Breathe in the Holy Spirit
Breathe in more
Breathe out joy

We pray for Wonder
Wonder who is the child of Joy
Wonder that embraces awe without explanation
Wonder that sees God’s hand
In the scurrying beetle
And in the painted sky
Wonder that connects us to the child within
The child who plays and imagines
Because the child is made in God’s image.
Breathe in the Holy Spirit
Breathe in more
Breathe out wonder

We pray for Compassion
The will to suffer alongside others
The desire to open ourselves to pain
So we might embrace the depths of our relationships
Compassion as our compass
Guiding our hearts
To the true north of tenderness
Breathe in the Holy Spirit
Breathe in more
Breathe out compassion

We pray for Faith
Faith in God 
In each other
In ourselves
Faith as overflowing trust
Faith that wavers and holds
That withers and blooms
That weathers the storm
Faith as the energy of commitment
And the cornerstone of contentment
Breathe in the Holy Spirit
Breathe in more
Breathe out faith

We pray for Hope
Hope that softens hearts
Unshackles wrists
Strengthens legs to walk the long path
Hope that lives in the now
And finds the future from which God calls
Breathe in the Holy Spirit
Breathe in more
Breathe out hope

And finally, we pray for Love
Love – that watered down word
That’s so much more than affection
Love as the reflection of God’s goal
God’s motive force
Creation’s substance and flow
Love that bends the knee in worship
And rends the heart in grief
And sends the apostle forth
To proclaim the good news
Love as the weaving power of God
Breathe in the Holy Spirit
Breathe in more
Breathe out love

Breathe in the Holy Spirit
Breathe in more
Breathe out love, hope, faith, compassion, wonder, joy, peace
Amen

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Photo by Ian Stauffer on Unsplash.