September 2, 2018            Righteousness                               

This week, our nation mourned the passing of Senator John McCain. In past few days, he was celebrated as a man of honor, justice, and peace. Past presidents and other commentators noted how he could disagree with others, without questioning their patriotism, how he worked with people of opposing parties to do what was best for America, and how he championed the cause of those unjustly oppressed by the powers that be.

John McCain himself would say that he was no saint, that there were many choices he made that he regretted and that he would change, and that when he was remembered, that people would think of him as someone who loved his country, and was a public servant. And one of the phrases that John uttered, that many remembered, when John disagreed with a legislation that he felt was inadequate, he would say that “America” was better than this. John had a vision for this country, and that vision came from his own sense of courage and patriotism and faithfulness, that came from a lifetime of living these ideals.  

Earlier this week, as I met with the local ministers to read through the texts, I focused on a thread of verses in our lectionary, that I believed spoke about the same thing.

From Deuteronomy this verse, “For what other great nation has a god so near to it as the LORD our God is whenever we call to him?  And what other great nation has statutes and ordinances as just as this entire law that I am setting before you today?”

The author of Deuteronomy’s intention was to unite the values of God’s justice and compassion, with what it meant to be a great nation. And it is a people who recognize the power of this spirit, and practice it themselves – as our epistle lesson notes – “being not just hearers, but doers”, who pass it on to their children and children’s children, that makes for a great and longstanding nation.

And from the gospel, “there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.”  For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.

Jesus speaks these words in the midst of an argument with the Pharisees about what it means to be clean and therefore righteous. The rules of cleanliness are a means to exclude and to look down upon all who do not practice the jewish religion, especially those who are foreigners and the poor.  The parallel in America today to this, is the way people judge each other as clean or unclean, by their political party, their wealth, their status, their culture, religion, or from what nation their ancestors came.

Jesus rejects the use of God’s law as a means to exclude or oppress others, and pointedly tells the people, that it is the spirit in which they live which makes them clean or unclean. And I would add, it is that Spirit in which we live, that makes us citizens not just of this nation, but of the greatest nation of all, the kingdom of heaven.

         And that’s the good news of Jesus Christ.