"The things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man 'unclean.' For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what make a man 'unclean.' "

"But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control." -- Galatians 5:22

         The conflict between Jesus and the Pharisees from Jerusalem begins over the issue of hand washing. This is one time when I take the side of the Pharisees. Of course the disciples should wash their hands before dinner! What's wrong with them?

         I needed to discover in my study that this dispute was not about the importance of washing up before supper; it was about a ritual of cleansing that was fairly obscure even in Jesus' day. Ritual hand washing was done only by the priests before they entered the temple for their time of service. In Jesus day there were those who wished to intensify the demands of the ceremonial laws, and at least some in Jerusalem felt it would be a good idea to enlarge the circle of hand-washers from just the priests to everyone; and from just going into the temple, to anytime anybody had a meal. This was probably not practiced in Galilee, so this accusing question directed at the disciples has neither scripture nor long practice behind it.

It also raised difficulty for a healer. Jesus, in healing people of all manner of disease, could have been accused of ritual defilement almost all the time. Jesus touched people when he healed them.

         R.T. France explains this principle of ritual purity: "In order to participate in their life and worship of God's holy people, a person must avoid 'defilement' which might arise through eating or drinking unclean food, through unclean bodily conditions, or through contact with unclean things or people. Any defilement had to be purified by ritual before a person was readmitted to the community."

         This may seem difficult for us to relate to today. But the core issue here was one of separation. The intent was to deal with the very real issues of sin, temptation and evil by separating good from evil, clean from unclean, harmful from beneficial, the worship of God from the worship of idols. This was done to protect people from harm and keep the relationship with God in first priority.

Separation is also important for us. We know that we try to protect our children from harmful influences. We make judgments about television shows, video games, movies and music. It is hard to draw the line sometimes. But we know we must try to separate young lives from influences that will harm them.

We also know that religious people have a tendency to separate themselves from the wider community. We set up a whole variety of barriers for people in unintentional ways that actually keep people from coming to church or from exploring the meaning of faith in Christ. So separation from the world is certainly not a dead issue for us, and sometimes we are on one side of the issue and other times on the other. We can be both protective and evangelical, and sometimes those seem in tension.

Rather than talk about the ways in which we cause separation from people who live in our community, I would like to share what one church is doing to bless and welcome its community.

There is a project at Atonement Covenant Church in Chicago that we began to get involved in yesterday. A few of us went down there and did some painting, and we want to invite more of you to go in the weeks to come. Atonement is located in a crumbling area of Englewood in Chicago, and they have struggled to impact their community. As their church structure became more dilapidated, they realized the importance of how their church building looked to the community. So they fixed their roof and painted their building and made some other improvements. But then, rather than being the one nice building on the block, creating further separation, they decided to share with their neighbors, so they talked to each one and asked what they could do to help the whole neighborhood look better. They hired some unemployed men in the community and set about to paint houses, and fix porches. They are going to do the entire block, with the help of some volunteers from other Chicago-area Covenant churches. Then they began providing lunch for the children of the neighborhood. Soon they will begin some recovery groups for those struggling with alcohol or drug dependency.

That is reflecting the healer's perspective on a community. It focuses not on separation but on wholeness, and on redemption. It is the opposite of hand-washing rituals and their equivalent in our culture.

         For Jesus, the place where the very real problem of sin and evil is confronted is not in outward ritual separation, but in the heart. There is a problem with 'uncleanness.' Jesus recognized that. But he located the problem, not in the appearance of the hands, but in the condition of the heart. This came from his reading of the prophet Isaiah.

"These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men."

         So for Jesus the issue is found in the heart, which in the ancient world was the location of one's thinking and will and emotion. The heart was what determined the course of your life. And Jesus saw that when the thinking of the heart was separate from God, lost in self-will, then it became the source of sinful behavior.

Paul writes that when we live by the Spirit, there is a fruit that grows in the heart: a fruit of love. Leon Morris writes, "We know love in the New Testament sense only because we see it on the cross; to see this love is to be affected by it. We cannot claim it as our own. Being able to love others is not the result of discipline, it is a miracle." When we live by the Spirit, the fruit of love grows in the heart.

         Ted Nordlund is a Covenant pastor who works as a shepherd to pastors in helping them form their lives in Christ and keep their hearts tuned to God. In his latest newsletter he gave some reflections on gardening, and on the life of the heart that Jesus talks about here:

         "The most important aspect of a fruitful harvest is the ongoing presence of the gardener. Someone has said, 'the best fertilizer in the garden is the footprints of the gardener.' "

         What are the signs of the gardener in your life? Do you see the footprints of Jesus?

Our task is to give the gardener access to our lives. The task of the gardener is to produce the evidence of his life in us: "Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control."

         How do we deal with this reality that there are thoughts and attitudes and behaviors in our lives that do not reflect God's will? Do we try to hide those things? Do we give them a superficial washing and then let them grow and take over? Do we pretend a lot? Do we defend and justify sin in our lives?

         Jesus says all the external things people dream up in order to deal with sin really do not amount to much. A heart issue must be dealt with in the heart. It is a matter of access. If the gardener is not allowed in, then the weeds get pretty tall. If the gardener's footprints are not visible, if his pruning is not welcomed, then the fruit remains pretty small. But when the gardener is welcomed, when he truly has time in our hearts, and when we give him authority to care for us and set the priorities of our lives, then the miracle does take place. The love of God grows in us, and the unclean loses its power and is washed away.

         For the gardener is the Lord, who gave his life for our sakes. On the cross the stubborn power of sin is defeated, and a new life takes its place. The resurrection of Jesus is the victory of God over sin and death, and the gift of the Holy Spirit in us is the guarantee of life eternal.

         Welcome this gardener into your life. Give him access to all your heart, your thinking, your attitudes, your behavior, your checkbook, your dreams and goals. That is to say, be willing to develop a life in him where his footprints become very visible right at the heart; where you make decisions, where you form opinions, where you can hurt the most, and where you feel things most deeply. Guard that part from the crowd of tyrants who would be in charge, and from the loud voices that promise much but also make you fearful. There is one who is gentle, who cares for you and grows in miraculous ways the fruit of love.

         Amen.