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Some Thoughts on the Liturgy
CHANGING WHAT IS WITHIN
+ Jesus
tells us today that the motive for doing things of religion must be to
change the inside
- that is, to get rid of the wicked
designs which come from within
- simply doing things of religion
with no change on the inside is empty reverence
- which is
defined as doing the things of religion with the wrong motives
- Jesus
says that purifying hands, sprinkling food, washing jugs is an instance of
“empty reverence”
-
they must be done with the motivation that the person must want to change
the heart, that is, the inside
+
There is a parallel for us in our 21st century church, I believe
- we do things of religion
- it is not the same
things that the Pharisees did, but we do other things:
- we have a
pretty strong ritual in the Catholic Church
-
making the sign of the cross, kneeling, tracing the cross on our foreheads,
lips and hearts, using holy water, gestures at Mass
-
many of us pray the rosary, say certain prayers, follow certain religious
routines
- as we take part in those Church
actions, we have to remember Jesus’ point:
- if those things are not
done to change the inside, to make us loving people, to attack the wicked
designs that come from within
- then it is
empty reverence to God
+ We have to ask the question of why we do the things of
religion
- is it really to change the
inside, as Jesus says, to be better more loving people?
- or is it more like
this—from a book of the 1960’s called “Good Old Plastic Jesus” by Ernest
Larson
- we may be
making religion a business, doing the “correct” things without really thinking about the inside at all, and
only doing the externals:
BY-LAWS
AND PROCEDURE OF RELIGION BUSINESS
1. The boss is God. He owns the Company. If you’re going to get anywhere, be a yes
man, play ball, it’s smart.
2. The purpose is to buy shares in the
Company. To buy, you go through
certain motions, keep certain laws.
You don’t have to really mean them, just do them: punch into church,
like a time-clock—it insures good standing.
3. Play the game and you get paid. The pay is grace. Build up a big bank roll. The boss, God, keeps close tabs on your
account. When the business deal is
over, he checks out the books; if you have enough grace, you get a place
called heaven.
4. The purpose of the whole affair—to keep
enough grace socked away so that in case the game comes to a sudden end,
you don’t come out a loser. And the
boss is pretty strict about the whole thing.
+ Religion can never be a business
- Jesus says that it is all about
changing the inside, making us better people
- our belief is that if we
come into contact with Jesus Christ, allow him to
take over our lives, allow him to become Lord and Savior
- no matter what
rules or laws or rituals we follow,
- we
will change the inside, and make us better
+ You
and I cannot judge the motives of anyone else
- that is an area that we really do
too much,
- but Jesus could
- he knew why the
Pharisees were questioning him: they had missed the idea of religion and
had made it a matter of empty reverence
- they were not
touching their insides at all
- what an insult it is to God to
have someone say and do God-like things on the outside
- and allow it to do
nothing in here (inside)
- I really like this statement of
Ralph Waldo Emerson: “What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny
matters compared to what lies within us.”
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