In This House

Today’s message was written by guest pastor, Rev. Tasha Blackburn.

I am raising teenagers so there are a lot of “lively” discussions in our house. During one such discussion, my daughter shouted, “I have freedom of speech!” Guess what my husband and I said. In unison, we said, “Not in this house you don’t.” Sound familiar?

But this is not only a parenting issue, this is the life of our faith in a nutshell. In Mark chapter 7 Jesus tells the people that it is not what we take in from the outside that contaminates us. It is what starts within us and comes out that contaminates our lives. 

We want to stomp our foot and shout, “But I have freedom of speech!” I have the right to tell off the driver on the road. I have the right to give my co-worker a piece of my mind. I have the right to type whatever I want on my Twitter feed. But the truth is the same for you as it was for my daughter: not in this house, you don’t. Not in this faith family, not as a follower of Jesus: you actually don’t have that right.

When Jesus talks about what is on our insides contaminating us, rather than what comes in from the outside, he got at that teaching by talking about the cleanliness of pots and pans. 

In Judaism, at the time there were strict rules about how such objects were handled. It may sound silly but this was one of the ways they showed the world who they were, which family of faith they were in, which house was theirs. Those hygiene issues were an outward sign.

An outward sign, we do not have. As Christians, how we separate our food or wash our dishes will not tell the world much about who and whose we are. The outward sign we have is what we choose to say, and not say; how we choose to act, and not act. What we choose will either show the world how contaminated we are, or it will show the world whose house we live in.

Let’s pray: Holy God, help us not take your holiness casually. Help us strive to live as you wish while we are in your house. Help our hearts remain pure so that what comes out of us is a blessing to others and to you. In your name, we pray. Amen.