2135AFC082721 – The Beast Under the Bed
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Mark 7:17-23 – 17 When he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about the parable. 18 He said to them, “Then do you also fail to understand? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile, 19 since it enters, not the heart but the stomach, and goes out into the sewer?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.) 20 And he said, “It is what comes out of a person that defiles. 21 For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, 22 adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. 23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”
James 1:17-20 – 17 Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. 18 In fulfillment of his own purpose he gave us birth by the word of truth, so that we would become a kind of first fruits of his creatures. 19 You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger; 20 for your anger does not produce God’s righteousness.
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope, Belovéd. Surely you must be thinking, after reading that title, “The Old Man has finally fallen off the cliff and landed in the loony bin.” My dear friends, that is indeed a possibility, so let me show you what I mean. Let’s begin with why I picked these Key Verses. We’ll start with the parable mentioned. Jesus had just taken the Pharisees to task for cheating parents out of the support they should have been giving by saying that the resources for that care have been set aside as a sanctified gift for God and therefore the parent should not expect any access to those resources. Of course, those greedy children using this excuse gave perhaps a small offering to the Temple, but the rest went for their own pleasures. Jesus scolded them for making a big show out of “keeping The Law” and by criticizing Jesus’ disciples for not performing the ritual hand-washing before eating. Such behavior, they said, defiled the person and what the person ate. Jesus was showing the Pharisees that they had made The Law a threatening and even frightening barrier set up to hold them away from the goodness of worship in the Temple. This barrier was like the Greek mythological creature Cerberus (← Check it out!), a “religion” monster that blocked the Jews going in for worship or coming out with blessings. The Law had become a monster under the control of the three political powers then – The Pharisees, the Sadducees (opposing political parties), and the Priests (the executives who owned the right to pass judgment). To put it in frank terms, that really ticked Jesus off! He blasted the masters of that monster many times, and Belovéd, that really ticked them off, too! It got them angry enough to start plotting to kill this rebellious, blaspheming, trouble-making upstart from some hick village in Galilee.
Jesus was most angry about this monster forcing God’s children away from God’s gifts of Love, and Peace, and Joy – all the things promised to those who kept The Law – but denied to those children of God by greedy, sinful, vain men who valued prestige and power over justice and mercy. I think all of us can recall times when we absolutely knew something terrifying was right over there in the closet, or under the bed, or behind the curtains. Our moms and dads would comfort us, show us it was just a shadow or an imaginary shape. No monsters would get past the loving protection of our parents! … except maybe for that one that lived under the bed and was invisible, and might even be friendly enough to touch if we just patiently waited for it to talk to us. Then, just as we drifted off to sleep, we heard it roar into life and knew it really was a monstrous beast under the bed. After that jolt of fright, many of us ended up spending the night in our parents’ bed. That reality indeed was God’s gifts of Love, and Peace, and Joy. It was full and free access to all that is Good – every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, (↔ Music Link) and that is True because it is not imaginary, not false evidence, not under the control of anyone but God.
My Belovéd friends, we really do have a monster under our bed, but this one is not like the imaginary monsters that scared us as children. This monster is one that we try to make into a pet; but it’s a wild animal that will destroy us and all we have if we allow it to stay with us, to control us, to get in-between us and all that is Good. Those things are available to the Children of God through his Church, and we are told repeatedly that in that Church we are not to compromise with evil. Now, here comes a whole slew of Bible passages. Just read through them gallantly and then we can wrap this up. I want to start with how the monster was used to threaten Jesus and his Disciples during the Passion:
Matthew 26:59-65 – 59 Now the chief priests and the whole council were looking for false testimony against Jesus so that they might put him to death, 60 but they found none, though many false witnesses came forward. At last two came forward 61 and said, “This fellow said, ‘I am able to destroy the temple of God and to build it in three days.’” 62 The high priest stood up and said, “Have you no answer? What is it that they testify against you?” 63 But Jesus was silent. Then the high priest said to him, “I put you under oath before the living God, tell us if you are the Messiah, the Son of God.” 64 Jesus said to him, “You have said so. But I tell you,
From now on you will see the Son of Man
seated at the right hand of Power
and coming on the clouds of heaven.”
65 Then the high priest tore his clothes and said, “He has blasphemed! Why do we still need witnesses? You have now heard his blasphemy.
The monster is a liar and a murderer, and we want nothing to do with him. THERE IS NO REASON TO COMPROMISE OUR FAITH OUT OF FEAR BECAUSE THE MONSTER CLAIMS IT WANTS TO BE IN THE PEW WITH US! Here’s an example from the Apostle Paul:
1 Corinthians 5:9-13 – 9 I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral persons — 10 not at all meaning the immoral of this world, or the greedy and robbers, or idolaters, since you would then need to go out of the world. 11 But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother or sister who is sexually immoral or greedy, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or robber. Do not even eat with such a one. 12 For what have I to do with judging those outside? Is it not those who are inside that you are to judge? 13 God will judge those outside. “Drive out the wicked person from among you.” This last Scripture quotation is from several passages in Deuteronomy where God orders that those who are evil must be purged from the midst (↔ Click Link) of the people. He will not tolerate evil where there should be only holiness! Brothers and Sisters, that applies to us. Are we so intimidated by this monster of accommodation, acceptance, and compromise that we feed and defend the beast under the bed?
In his letter to the Hebrews, the Apostle Paul again points out the difference between regret and repentance. Repenting changes us. Regret merely disguises our sinful intentions. Hebrews 12:16-17, 25 – 16 See to it that no one becomes like Esau, an immoral and godless person, who sold his birthright for a single meal. 17 You know that later, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, even though he sought the blessing with tears.
25 See that you do not refuse the one who is speaking; for if they did not escape when they refused the one who warned them on earth, how much less will we escape if we reject the one who warns from heaven! Who ya gonna call? It had better be Jesus, and not the caretakers for the beast. That monster is no “ghost” to be busted. This monster intimidating us is from the demonic force that controls the masters of the monster. Jesus makes it clear that we must not let those forces inhabit his Church. We who call upon the name of the Lord are to be his and only his to the degree that nothing which must stay outside the Church is allowed to inhabit the inside of the Church. Hebrews 3:12-19 – 12 Take care, brothers and sisters, that none of you may have an evil, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. 13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” so that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we have become partners of Christ, if only we hold our first confidence firm to the end. 15 As it is said, “Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.” 16 Now who were they who heard and yet were rebellious? Was it not all those who left Egypt under the leadership of Moses? 17 But with whom was he angry forty years? Was it not those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? 18 And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, if not to those who were disobedient? 19 So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.
“Unbelief” is the growling of the beast. It is a false warning to stay away lest we be devoured. It is the monster that must be cast out from the Church, not the humble believers seeking Love, and Peace, and Joy – “Every kind of gift given that is good, and every one received that is perfect in its kind comes from above.” This magnificent sentence is thought to be the fragment of some Christian hymn. Two words are translated by our one word “gift”; the first is more accurately the act of giving (dosis), the second the gift itself (dōrēma), and the effect of both together is an affirmation of the statement of God’s benevolence. If we besmirch that gift, reject that gift, hand it over to the monster and its masters, we stand to lose everything. We invite the starving fox into the henhouse, the ravening wolf into the sheepfold, the menacing kraken into the safe harbor. We are called to live In Christ Alone. Why would we do such foolish things?
We do them because, in our pride and fear of being accused of prejudices, biases, and partisanisms we compromise on biblical values. We probably will get clobbered with Galatians 3:28 – 28 There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. I understand that. I also understand that this passage requires closer reading than we usually give it.
First, to whom is the Apostle Paul writing? This letter is to the Christians of the Church in Ephesus. He is writing to the Church which is one in Christ Jesus. Those who are claiming the confidence of living Christian lives but who are also sexually immoral or greedy, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or robber those whom Jesus identified as those who have evil intentions such as fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. When we have persons in the Church who
- advocate murder (euthanasia, abortion, capital punishment),
- commit adultery (openly or secretly perform adulterous acts),
- commit fornication (openly commit sexual acts with themselves or other persons of the same or different gender),
- theft (tax evasion, hacking, stealing from the poor or from one’s employer),
- pride (braggadocio about one’s prowess, denying their abuse of others),
- idolatry (to honor and revere a creature, image, or object in place of God, such as celebrities, plants, animals, or geographical locations like mountains, or power, pleasure, ethnicity, ancestry, political or religious prestige, and of course money)
… if those things are invited, allowed, tolerated, encouraged, even ordered IN, BY, AND THROUGH THE CHURCH, WE HAVE GONE HORRIBLY ASTRAY!
It is we who must speak out to the Church – our brothers and sisters in Christ – about the same things the Apostle Paul warned about: Fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, male prostitutes, sodomites, thieves, the greedy, drunkards, revilers, robbers – every kind of wickedness, evil, covetousness, malice, envy, vaunted pride, murder, strife, deceit, craftiness, gossips, slanderers, God-haters who are insolent, haughty, those who are gluttonous, boastful, inventors of evil, rebellious toward parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, and ruthless. They know God’s decree, that those who practice such things deserve to die – yet they not only do them but even applaud others who practice them. (See Romans 1 and 1 Corinthians 5) To that list we must shamefully add murders of millions of innocents – babies, elders, political enemies, ethnic pogroms, and intentional destruction and failure of stewardship for our only home, Earth. We do well to remember these warnings:
Isaiah 5:20-21 – 20 Ah, you who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! 21 Ah, you who are wise in your own eyes, and shrewd in your own sight!
Wisdom 2:23-24 – 23 for God created us for incorruption, and made us in the image of his own eternity,24 but through the devil’s envy death entered the world, and those who belong to his company experience it.
John 8:44 – 44 You are from your father the devil, and you choose to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks according to his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
2 Corinthians 11:3 – 3 But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by its cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.
Cast out the beast under the bed! Do not be deceived by the wiles of the Devil or the fawning of the demons. We must suit up in the Full Armor (← Check it out!) of God and get in there and fight on our knees. The beast is real, dear ones. Don’t let The World convince you otherwise. Do not confront it with your anger. You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone [in the Church] be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger; for your anger does not produce God’s righteousness. Banish the beast. REPENT AND PROCLAIM THE GOSPEL BY LIVING IT.
Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever —
at your service, Belovéd!
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Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture passages are from the New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE) New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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