Rethinking Morality

Sermon – “Rethinking Morality”

Preached by Dr. Daniel R. Anderson-Little

Mark 7:1-23

February 12, 2012

 Cole Porter’s great jazz standard “Anything Goes” begins with these words:

In olden days a glimpse of stockingsWas looked on as something shocking,Now, heaven knows,Anything goes.

The song is about the loosening of standards and morals in modern society: what once seemed an inviolable moral standard, is no longer.  And seemingly, anything goes.Jesus, in our Gospel lesson this morning, finds himself in a similar moment.  The story begins with religious leaders observing Jesus’ disciples eating with defiled hands—that is, they haven’t properly washed their hands before eating.  We must remember this didn’t elicit a medically-based “Ewww!” from the Pharisees and scribes, but rather a moral outrage.  God had commanded that God’s people be ritually upright, that they follow certain rules and regulations so that they might be a holy and pure people, set apart to worship a holy and pure God—and proper hand-washing was one of those ways of making sure you were morally pure.Jesus seems to be suggesting that this moral standard is now to be considered archaic and passé, that his disciples are no longer bound by such outdated moral laws.  For those of us who live in a religious system that does not have purity codes and moral laws concerning food and preparation of food and ritual cleansing of hands before eating, this story seems pretty unremarkable.  Since our religion has never forbidden certain foods, has never determined how we are to cleanse our hands or our bodies, we can’t hear the moral outrage that Jesus’ words elicited in the Pharisees and scribes.  But for the religious leaders of his time, this was scandalous; for by challenging one part of the moral code, Jesus can be understood to be challenging all parts of the moral code.  He seems to be putting himself and his followers on a slippery slope where today it is hand-washing and tomorrow, well, as Cole Porter wrote, “anything goes.”This morning, I don’t want to examine this story from within the confines of Jesus’ world, but within the confines of our own.  By redefining morality for his time, is Jesus redefining morality for our time?  We may think that we don’t concern ourselves with such picky and mundane moral codes as hand-washing, but moral codes do not exist to be picky—they exist to help create purity, they are articulated and enforced to promote holiness in God’s people.  And to not perform those things which are deemed to be moral, or conversely do to those things which are deemed immoral, is to sin.  So when we rethink morality, we are not just talking about small daily ritual actions; we are talking about our relationship to God.  To be immoral or to fail to be moral, is to sin and to be outside of God’s will.  This morning I want us to rethink morality because that is what I believe Jesus is inviting us to do in this passage from Mark.First, an observation: morality, like nostalgia, ain’t what it used to be.  Literally.  Think with me for a moment about the past 150 years or so in our country.  What, like the hand-washing of Jesus’ time, was once considered an issue of morality and now no longer is?  I have in my possession two books of sermons preached by my great-great-great-great uncle the Rev. Jacob Little.  Parson Little was a great scold in his day—at least in the New Year’s Day sermons that were collected into these books.  Some of his scolding holds up today—he railed against the evils of slavery and was a committed abolitionist.  Some of his concerns are now embarrassing—he was deeply troubled by the annual increase of what he called Popery—that is, Roman Catholicism.  And much of what concerned this relative of mine was morality.  And what was immoral?  I am sure it was many of the usual suspects that we would include in our own time—especially sexual immorality—but ol’ Jacob, in addition to his advocacy of emancipation also advocated with equal vigor temperance—that is the complete and utter rejection of strong drink.  He lamented the number of taverns and bars in his parish and equally lamented the poor support among his own parishioners for the temperance movement.  Jacob also considered dancing to be a moral evil because it unnecessarily inflamed the passions of the young.  That brand of immorality now seems so quaint and archaic, but not in Jacob’s day—it was the meat and potatoes of his preaching.  So what happened to these great moral evils?  And while we’re at it, what happened to our attitudes about and our moral codes of conduct around divorce which just 60 years ago were held with the similar conviction?  And if we thought about it, I am sure we could come up with other moral codes as well—the hem line of women’s dresses and skirts, the way women wear their hair or cover their heads, the way children were not to speak but to be spoken to—these were not just bound up by style and taste, but were, at their heart, moral issues.Is it just that new generations have become lax about these things—that these moral codes of old are too difficult to enforce?  Are we on that proverbial slippery slope that will lead us all to our eternal perdition?  Is it that we as human beings just don’t like being told what to do, and given a chance we will cast off all restraint? And where will it end?  If we no longer consider same-sex marriage to be immoral (and isn’t that what’s really at the heart of that debate—for I am not aware of any legal or practical reason not to allow persons of the same gender to enter into the same legal contract and benefits that straight persons do), what’s next?  Will eventually, truly, anything go? And if that is where we are headed, do we have Jesus to blame?  For it seems like he put us on that slippery slope.Yes, actually I do think we have Jesus to blame for this ongoing rethinking of morality—for that is exactly what he is doing in this story.  Jesus says that it isn’t external things that determine our purity or holiness; it isn’t the strict adherence to rules that makes us right with God; but rather morality is determined by what is on our inside.  And what is it on our inside that Jesus is so concerned about?  Relationships.  That is what that odd little meditation on honoring mother and father and Corban is about.  Jesus says that if you claim that the support that you give your parents counts as your offering to God, then you are violating both your relationship with your parents and your relationship with God—you are playing them off one another—and that, Jesus says, is immoral.  Both relationships, with parents and with God, are precious and holy and both need our attention and our intention.  So in that regard, Jesus is not lowering the moral bar, but he is raising it.  For Jesus, morality isn’t simply a code of dos and don’ts, but it is a way of thinking, a way of living, a way of being.  For Jesus, morality gains its shape and purpose as it is lived out in our relationships, as we honor and cherish the image of God in one another.  And what does that morality look like?  Rather than being guided by external rules and codes of conduct, it means that morality is based on mutuality, forgiveness, forbearance and love.I want to describe to you one of the most moral relationships I ever encountered—and I share this story this morning because you will quickly see that many in the church and the wider society might consider this relationship “immoral” from the outset.  “Phyllis” (not her real name) was a member of the last church that I served.  Phyllis was in her early 50’s when her husband died of cancer.  Phyllis and her husband were good friends with John and his wife, and John’s wife died of cancer at about the same time as Phyllis’s husband.  In the ensuing years, because they were already good friends and because they enjoyed each other’s company, Phyllis and John would sometimes go out together in the evening.  Over time, a love between them blossomed—and eventually they decided to move in together.  They never seriously considered marriage as both of them felt they had already married the loves of their lives and because they both had adult children and didn’t want to mingle their estates together, only to have to untangle them when they died.  Getting a marriage certificate seemed like a lot of fuss and bother to ratify the relationship that already existed between them.  I spent a good deal of time with Phyllis and John—and it was clear that they loved and cherished each other—they looked and acted like most married couples I knew.  After a few years, Phyllis was diagnosed with cancer.  John, who had already lost his wife to cancer, took care of Phyllis, doing all of the unpleasant, mundane things that one must do when a loved one has cancer.  Phyllis got weaker and weaker and eventually she died.  John, with Phyllis’s adult children, planned her funeral.  It was a beautiful event that was a fitting conclusion for a beautiful relationship.  I must confess, never once in my knowing them, did I ever wonder why they didn’t get married or did I think that they should.  Some might have considered their relationship to be immoral, to be sinful—after all, they were cohabitating without the benefit of marriage.  But the thing is, theirs was a most moral relationship.  It was tender and loving and in the end, so faithful.So is this just another example of the slippery slope?  Should Phyllis and John have been married so as to be pure?  Were these two, and many more like them, just living in sin and if they had really considered what they were doing would have been ashamed of themselves?  I think Jesus pushes our thoughts and even our conclusions in a different direction.  The question isn’t, are we following the rules—the question is, are we living in relationships that reflect God’s purpose?  Are we reflecting God’s love and God’s forgiveness?  Many will argue that such relationships can only be authentically lived out in a marriage between one man and one woman, but is that the only case?  Can we be godly, can we be holy, can we be pure if we don’t follow the moral rules but live with fidelity and love?  I am convinced that the answer to those questions is yes, but they require something more of us—a deeper commitment to the God who is revealed to us in relationship, and an openness and honesty about all of our relationships.  I don’t really believe that Jesus is pushing us in a direction of anything goes.  Rather I think he is calling us to a deeper care for one another, to a more profound respect for ourselves, to a closer walk with God—each day, in every relationship that we live out—be it with our spouse or partner, be it with our children or parents, be it with our teachers or students, be it with our waitress or barista, be it with the poor person begging on the streets.  Each day, God calls us to live moral lives and to be moral.  Our challenge and joy is to discover and rediscover each day how we are to be moral so that we might grow closer to God and one another.