Our housekeeper is very good at keeping the rectory clean. But she also knows not to touch the food and leftovers that I have in the refrigerator. So, as I was putting away some food yesterday afternoon, I noticed some of ‘my’items in one of the crispers that had been there “longer than they should.” My question was: “Can you grow penicillin on kale?” I didn’t think so either. More disappointing was finding the leftover pizza that I thought would be great for a lunch, but when I opened the box, I was not sure if the grey looking stuff was a thin veneer of cheese over the sausage or part of something else… And, did you know that when you leave a lime in the back corner of the ice box for a couple of months (I’m not sure just HOW old it was) it become pretty much like a corkball – small, rock solid, and able to bend steel knives <<snap>> just like that. How can stuff that is so good get so bad so quickly? (Or maybe not so quickly, as the case is. This undoubtedly says more about how often I clean out my stuff in the fridge.) But it still turns my stomach when good food goes bad.
How does something so good, turn into something so bad is also the question with which today’s scriptures grapple. How can religion, which is such a good thing, faith, which is responsible for so much human flourishing, that helps so many people hope and hang on, go so bad? How does the practice of faith that has served and helped the poor and needy so well, – how does it sometimes become so toxic? And yet, we’ve all seen it. We’ve all seen it when the good of religion and faith and church, somehow turns bad inside and what comes out in anything but holy. We certainly get that in the extremes of religious practice – the genocide between rival “Christian” tribes in Africa, the beheadings of Isis and the destroying of historical and cultural landmarks of our days. Yet, in the normal practicing of faith, how do you tell when, like food left in the ‘fridge too long, your practice of the faith is spoiled? Today’s Scriptures give us at least three guiding criteria:
The first insight comes from James’ letter. He says clearly, “Be doers of the word and not hearers only. Religion that is pure … care(s) for orphans and widows.” How can we know if our practice of our faith is healthy and good and nourishing? James says that it leads us to compassionate action – to actually DO SOMETHING for the people of this world – especially those on the margins of society. James goes so far as to say that if my faith isn’t leading me to more compassionate, concrete actions, then it’s time to clean out the fridge.
Secondly, in addition to being “doer’s of the word,” Jesus says that healthy religion also has to focus on what happens in our hearts, on our interiority. He says, “This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” And it is “from within people, from their hearts” that come evil thoughts and sin.” Faith must make our hearts bigger. Unhealthy practice of our faith focuses too much on the exterior, on how I look to others. That begets the envy, arrogance and folly –that whole list of attitudes Jesus confronts. When I find myself asking: “Am I doing this the “right” way? – AND then judging those who are obviously doing it “the wrong way”; when I ask: Where is my reward for having sacrificed for God?” I know my heart is not where it should be. I suspect that it’s time to clean out the fridge.
Finally, Jesus again focuses us on one of the values deepest to his own heart: that healthy religious practice is inclusive. Those practices of the law which began is such a positive way: “What nation has laws like we have” that allow us to follow the path to God so completely – began to become an end, and not the means to the end of loving God and neighbor. His great critique of the religious practice of his day were these “human traditions” the Pharisees clung to. Following them all too often put them as the insiders – the saved, the elite – and others as unwelcome. It was too easy to create “a spiritual country club of the elite” instead of people of the gospel. When I find myself keeping people out of my sphere of love and influence, excluding them from my life and service, then it’s time to clean out the fridge.
The practice of faith, like the food in the back of my refrigerator, can go bad. Or it can be one of the most transforming things of all.
This week, look at the way that you practice the faith with that gospel question to guide you – does my love of God spill over to help those on the margins, does it expand my heart, and does it become more and more welcoming of all I meet. Or, is it time to clean out the fridge?