Sermon for the Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity - Philip Plyming

So far this year we have had a number of scandals in which leading figures in the media, politics, sport and the church have been held publicly to account for their actions. It is a welcome trend that post-Harvey Weinstein and the advent of MeToo movement those who hold power are less able to behave as they wish with no fear of scrutiny or accountability. I would like to say unable but I don’t think that is true – at least not yet.

In our Bible readings in Morning Prayer last month we followed the story of King David, and we read the tragic story of his abuse of Bathsheba and contract killing of her husband Uriah, only to hear God through the prophet Nathan holding David to account. So perhaps the Bible got there first.

However welcome though the greater accountability must be, it combines with another contemporary trend, namely cancel culture, to leave us thinking that the world is divided into goodies and baddies. The baddies, including those who have been held to account and those whose views and behaviour are out of line with what is considered socially acceptable, are cancelled while the goodies settle into their comfortable seats on the moral high ground.

For those of us who are religious, and whose religion is done very publicly and smartly as is the case here at Durham Cathedral, we need to recognise that this is a particular risk. Surely, we must be on the right side of the moral dividing line?

Jesus’ words in our gospel reading, however, come as something as shock. In addressing religious leaders Jesus is anything but meek and mild and gives them a real rollocking (that’s a theological term if anyone is interested). But he also gives a challenging message to the crowd as well, one which would have made them scratch their heads and think, and probably needs to do the same to us too.

I think there are two parts to his message that we need to think quite carefully about it.

First, Jesus says that we need to focus on the internals rather than the externals. The Pharisees and scribes, who have travelled three days up from Jerusalem and are very much in audit/inspection mode, notice that Jesus’ disciples are not fulfilling the purity laws concerning eating, which were the norm at the time. They challenge Jesus about it, in a way that is clearly much more aggressive than a polite enquiry.

Jesus is clearly riled. For his answer he reaches back beyond the tradition of the elders to the prophet Isaiah himself, who spoke of people who did the externals right but in so doing put human traditions above God’s ways.

The point is: Jesus says that the challenge is not your hands; its your hearts. Clean hands are not the point, but having a right heart that is one which is humble, penitent, loving and godly. You can focus so much on the externals that you miss the really important internal matter, which is the state of your heart.

Second, Jesus says that the problem of the human heart is much bigger than we think. Having said that the problem is not what goes into the body but what comes out of the heart, Jesus gives a list of what comes out. It’s not a pretty list and I don’t think you’ll want me to repeat it. But what we do need to notice is that there are some pretty big evils there that come into the category of crimes today: theft and murder to name but two. But there are some much more respectable sins: envy, pride and folly to pick out just three. Nowhere near as public but for Jesus just as problematic.

One of the personalities who was caught out and sacked recently said in response that nothing illegal had taken place. And we might burnish our egos with a similar cloth: I am not a lawbreaker. But Jesus doesn’t let us off as easily. I have to recognise the pride in my heart that stops me repenting. I have to recognise the envy in my heart that makes me want to be another person’s shoes without losing any of the gifts God has already given me. I have to recognise the folly of decisions I make when I see God’s ways and choose another path.

The good news, you’ll be pleased to hear, is that the story does not end there. As we gather round the Lord’s table this morning and take Holy Communion together we are reminded of how the story of Jesus continued, that the one who said these words followed the Pharisees to Jerusalem and there was betrayed, tried and crucified. But as he said the night before he died that this was his body and blood given for us, so we are reminded that Jesus died, not for the crimes of some, but for the sins of all.

We come to the Lord’s table to receive Christ into our hearts not as self-justified and self-justifying religious people, but as penitent and forgiven sinners. And we pray that our hearts will be both cleansed afresh and filled anew so we can walk the way of true of religion, as James said in our first reading, which is to care for those in need and live holy lives in the world.

I do not believe we are called to soft pedal on accountability or back pedal on the seriousness of crime. With respect to the former, I think no-one, however much power they hold, should be beyond reproach and, with regard to the latter, it is not difficult to see how the sentences given out to those who caused violent damage and civil disorder last month are justified.

It is simply that Jesus challenges us to see the bigger picture here, a picture which is less a lens through which we look down on others and more a mirror in which we examine our own hearts. As we do so I pray that we will grow in humility and repentance so that the worship we offer, and the lives we go out to live, are touched and shaped by the generous, forgiving, never-ending love of God.

Very Revd Dr Philip Plyming,
Durham Cathedral
1 September 2024