Fix Them as an Emblem on Your Forehead Deuteronomy 11:18-21, 26-28, Psalm 31, Romans 3:21-25a, 28, Matthew 7:21-27 May 29, 2005, Year A, Proper 4 The Rev. William V. Livingston, Rector Church of the Resurrection, Starkville, Mississippi Gracious God, as we live our lives, give us the wisdom to live our lives well. Give us the grace to build our lives upon the solid foundation of your truth. Give us the courage to walk your way, that narrow way that leads to life. Keep restoring your image in us. Keep guiding us in your way. Set us upon the rock. Amen. Leaving Jackson, I stopped for gas at the station with lowest posted price. Several vehicles were waiting at each pump. After waiting in line, I pulled back allowing the car in front of me to pull out, before I could pull up to the pump, a car passed me and pulled up to the pump. I grabbed the door handle to unleash my testosterone explosion when Diane gently touched my arm reminding me I have an Episcopal shield on the front of the car, one on the back windshield with Priest printed on it, and specifically that I was wearing my clerical collar. I had the outward markings of a priest, but without Diane's gentle touch, I was prepared to act unpriestly. You shall put these words of mine in your heart and soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and fix them as an emblem on your forehead. . . Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gate. I spent much of the summer of 1998 in Israel where I first experienced mezuzahs, small cylinders containing tiny hand-written scrolls of the Shema and today's Old Testament reading and mounted on the front gate or door of most homes, and first saw Orthodox Jews wearing tefillins, small leather boxes containing handwritten portions of the Torah, with one tied around the forehead and one on the left biceps attached to a long leather strap wrapped around the arm and hand. This is taking today's Old Testament reading literally. Not meaning to condemn this practice, nor universally question the faith or motive of those who practice these traditions, but is one to assume that posting a mezuzah on ones front door makes the household holy and/or reflects the holiness within the house and that wearing a tefillin makes one holy and reflects the holiness of the wearer. This is no more true than wearing crosses or WWJD - what would Jesus do - bracelets or putting crosses by our front doors or in our homes makes us holy or necessarily reflects our faith. It is no more true than wearing a collar makes one holy or prevents ones testosterone level from directing ones actions. Each of today's scriptures addresses the issues of faith and our relationship with God. In Deuteronomy we find what is known as deuteronomistic theology: See, I am setting before you today a blessing and curse: the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I am commanding you today; and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn from the way that I am commanding you today, to follow other gods that you have not known. In a grounded relationship with God, even in difficult times, the psalmist experiences God as being a rock and a fortress of protection. In Romans, Paul reminds us that we all sin and fall short of the ideal and, therefore it is not sufficient to internalize the words of the law in order to realize divine aims and be conformed to divine action. Instead, faith for Paul is the means by which one participates in the righteousness of God. Our NRSV translation refers to this as faith in Christ but a more accurate translation is faith of Christ. Relationship with God comes not through stating claims that God made the world in 144 hours or arguing claims about Jesus but comes through both what Jesus did and the relationship with God which he faithfully lived out. When we translate it as the faith of Christ the emphasis, instead of on us, more properly remains on Christ and the Holy Spirit so that his faith lives in us. It is his faith living in us that transforms us and makes a new creation. Christ's faith living in us definitively affects both our doing and believing. Such faith is not the posting of a list of rules nor a public statement of carefully structured axioms. This faith is shaped by Scripture to understand God, ourselves and all creation. This faith is grounded in the centrality of Jesus Christ. This faith is a radical trust in and centering in God, and is what supports us when knowledge runs out. This faith is sure and certain hope in the face of uncertainty. The Deuteronomist's concern with internalizing the words of the law and Paul's concern with internalizing the revelation of God in Jesus come together in the passage from Matthew. Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven. Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like the wise man who built his house on rock." Faith has to be more than wearing a cross or WWJD bracelet, more than fixating on politically hot moral issues in order to pander to a specific group of voters, more than assuming that by making certain belief statements we automatically have our ticket to heaven punched. If our goal is only public acknowledgment or getting our ticket to heaven punched, we have already missed the message. Such faith is like building a home in Orange Beach with wonderful color schemes and a great view of the Gulf but building it on sand. Our parishioners who own coastal condos know the importance of solid foundations after last summer's hurricanes. Such superficial faith is like rental property I own in Clinton. It sits on Yazoo clay which expands when wet and severely contracts when dry and has to re-leveled after extended droughts. Similarly, it so easy to think faith is only about doing good deeds. It is all too easy to busy ourselves about the work of the church without stopping to reflect on whether we are obeying Jesus. It is all too easy to busy ourselves with programs to help the poor while neglecting them and not seeing them through the eyes of God. It is all too easy to prepare sermons while neglecting prayer. It is all too easy to do good things in Jesus' name while neglecting Jesus. It is all too easy to want to fill empty pews without seeking to transform lives. Our actions must come from hearing Jesus, that is, receiving Jesus' teaching and witness, to internalize his words, to dwell on the divine ideals and aims made manifest in Jesus so that they become the inner constitution of our own experience. It is that coming-together of inner constitution and outer action, internalizing the presence of God and externalizing it as godly working, that constitutes the "authority" of Jesus' teaching, the authenticity of his witness that strikes his hearers as being so different from their scribes. As we enter into the same sort of relationship with God that Jesus himself had, by re-enacting in our experience the eternal objects exemplified in Jesus and made available for nurturing in the Christian community and sacraments, we become more able to show forth that authority and authenticity themselves. That is the meaning of active faith. Are we to take these texts literally and post them on our doors and strap them to our foreheads and arms, or are we to allow the Holy Spirit to fill our homes, to shape everything about our lives and to use our hands? If not grounded in a deep abiding relationship with God and a commitment to proclaim the Gospel, then my clerical collar is only a piece of plastic around my neck. If not grounded in a faith shaped by Scripture, in the centrality of Jesus Christ and a radical trust in and centering in God, the crosses we wear around our necks are pieces of jewelry - which as one priest, when buying a cross for his wife, learned from a sales at a posh jewelry store: "You can get a plain one or one with this little man on it." If we are not grounded as we say in the Morning Collect for Guidance in a relationship with God in whom we live and move and have our being, we come to this altar to receive bread and wine and not nurture and reconciliation. It is time for more rock and less talk. It is time to experience Scripture not as a spectator but as a participant.