In and Out
Pentecost 15, Proper 17
Fr. Tim Nunez
September 1, 2024
May my spoken word be true to God’s written word and bring us all closer to the living word, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Many years ago, a parishioner gave me a book for my birthday called The Maker’s Diet. The author suffered from Crohn’s disease, which is a chronic auto-immune condition that attacks the small and large intestine. After seeing 70 doctors and trying every diet, drug and supplement he could find without success, he decided to see what the Bible said about healthy living; diet and exercise and so on.
There's nothing quite like a gift that at once says, "I really care," and "You're getting fat."
What goes in may not defile, but it sure can hurt. I thought at the time it was a trendy diet, but it turns out that like finances and a lot of other areas, we find the Bible has very practical truth in it.
In Biblical times they didn’t even have high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, corn syrup solids, or hydrogenated oils. They didn’t have sugar, just honey. All of their breads were whole-grain, and they didn’t have so many starches. They had no highly processed foods, no food coloring and no preservatives, except salt. Their meats were leaner and they ate a lot of fish. They also walked everywhere and were very physically active.
The struggle for me, however, is not limited to picking the healthier and more natural foods. The tougher job is inside of me. Did you know Ben & Jerry’s makes organic, non-dairy ice cream? Did you know Publix has it on BOGO pretty regularly?
If I’m going to be healthy, I can’t quietly stand in the kitchen eating Ben & Jerry’s organic, non-dairy ice cream out of the container while Meg is getting ready for bed. I don’t. But I have.
We do need to think about what is going into us. Meg and I are so excited that we are baptizing our grandson Daniel today. He’s about three and a half months old. So far, he has only had his mother’s milk, which is the perfect food for him – now. Soon he’ll be like his cousin Sophia, who just turned 9 months old. Her parents are introducing new foods to her. She’s getting new flavors and new textures. She’s learning to manipulate her fingers such that they actually, we think, get some of the food into her mouth, where she stores it in her cheeks until, we think, she swallows it.
Then he’ll be eating like his big sister Mabel. She is 2½ and has lots of different foods, then like his older cousins Gabriel, Christian, Alex and Ariana, shifting to choosing his own foods, mostly chicken nuggets. Finally, he’ll be like his grandpa, whose choices led people to buy him diet books.
The same general pattern flows for everything we take in – what we see, what we hear, where we go – it’s all carefully managed for us at first, then we take on more and more choices. But Jesus warns us: What we take in is one thing. What we do with it, how we process everything and what comes out of us is quite another.
Some people think of freedom as the ability to do whatever they want. It infects a lot of teenagers like a virus. I call that 18-itis. It sounds like this, “I’m 18 and you can’t tell me what to do anymore.” That is technically true, but it’s a trap. It’s a trap! Freedom, true freedom, is not the opportunity to ruin one’s life.
True freedom is the opportunity to engage and enact responsibility, to take on the challenges that life presents, to fix problems where we see them to the extent of our ability, or to be part of the solution, not the problem. There’s a rising hierarchy in that. As we get ourselves under reasonable control, we can be in responsible relationships and build a family. If we have more capacity, we can be a benefit to our communities and so on.
At the top, and the leading edge of every level and every step, we recognize our ultimate freedom and responsibility rest in God.
This is, as James calls it, “the law of liberty.” To persevere, to be “doers of the Word,” not just hearers but doers who act, doers who make a real difference for Christ in ourselves, our families and the world around us. Not just attending church because that’s what people do or expect from us. Not just mouthing the words and going through the motions but to receive and share in this community of faith.
Religion is how we practice, enact, what we believe. We believe these words in this book, conveniently printed on your bulletin insert, are the Word of God. They get read from on high. We process the Gospel with the cross to the middle of the room. Deacon John holds it up high. I try to dig into it to help us all grasp it a bit better.
If we were not truly taking it seriously, why go through those motions? The challenge is in how we receive and enact Jesus. Not just his words, but him.
This is at the heart of our sacraments. We wash to get clean on the outside. We baptize to be cleansed on the inside so that we can step fully into the life of Christ. The waters of baptism are not significant because they clean a nice spot on a child’s head.
What’s important is the washing of the inside. God’s own presence, the power of the Holy Spirit, the person of Christ himself comes in and works on all the gunk in those really hard to reach areas.
The oil of Chrism used to seal and mark them as Christ’s own is not significant of itself. They actually used oil to protect sheep from pests. People did that too. Native Americans in this area – the Creeks and Seminoles - used bear grease to ward off mosquitos. A little dab won’t do ya. The sealing is by the Holy Spirit.
When we come to the altar to receive him in the bread and the wine, remember we are bringing ourselves. Our physical bodies are less than who we truly are, and we bring all that we are to his table, to lay at his feet, to offer ourselves to his purposes.
There’s a famous quote from Martin Luther. He said, “Apples don’t come from thorn bushes.” May Jesus continue to transform us into the people he’s calling us to be so that we might bear the fruit he wants us to give.
AMEN!