The First Week of September
We Read…
If we’re supposed to love what God loves, what does Scripture point us to? In our passages for this week, we read about righteousness versus wickedness. Our psalm tells us that God loves righteousness but hates wickedness. That’s a solid start to help us know how we should feel about the two! In James, we learn that an angry person doesn’t produce God’s righteousness, so we’re warned against being quick to anger. Instead, we’re challenged to listen, see the people on the outside, and be devoted to loving and caring for others like God has loved and cared for us. That can be easy to say but much harder to live out!
In Mark 7, Jesus is trying to move people past their devotion to law and rules, instead showing them that God’s commandments to love God and love neighbor should come before all other things (especially the rules created by humans alone). What they used to see as wicked, unclean, or defiled may not be so. Jesus is trying to reorient their lives and hearts around God instead of around checking boxes and following rules. God’s righteousness doesn’t come from anger, but it also doesn’t come from simply following enough rules.
Song of Solomon 2:8-13
8 Listen! It’s my lover: here he comes now, leaping upon the mountains, bounding over the hills. 9 My lover is like a gazelle or a young stag. Here he stands now, outside our wall, peering through the windows, peeking through the lattices. 10 My lover spoke and said to me, “Rise up, my dearest, my fairest, and go. 11 Here, the winter is past; the rains have come and gone. 12 Blossoms have appeared in the land; the season of singing has arrived, and the sound of the turtledove is heard in our land. 13 The green fruit is on the fig tree, and the grapevines in bloom are fragrant. Rise up, my dearest, my fairest, and go.
Psalm 45:1-2, 6-9
1 A marvelous word has stirred my heart as I mention my works to the king. My tongue is the pen of a skillful scribe. 2 You are the most handsome of men; grace has been poured out on your lips. No wonder God has blessed you forever!
6 Your divine throne is eternal and everlasting. Your royal scepter is a scepter of justice. 7 You love righteousness and hate wickedness. No wonder God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of joy more than all your companions! 8 All your clothes have the pleasing scent of myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon. The music of stringed instruments coming from ivory palaces entertains you. 9 The royal princess is standing in your precious jewels; the queen stands at your right, dressed in the gold of Ophir.
James 1:17-27
17 Every good gift, every perfect gift, comes from above. These gifts come down from the Father, the creator of the heavenly lights, in whose character there is no change at all. 18 He chose to give us birth by his true word, and here is the result: we are like the first crop from the harvest of everything he created. 19 Know this, my dear brothers and sisters: everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to grow angry. 20 This is because an angry person doesn’t produce God’s righteousness. 21 Therefore, with humility, set aside all moral filth and the growth of wickedness, and welcome the word planted deep inside you—the very word that is able to save you. 22 You must be doers of the word and not only hearers who mislead themselves. 23 Those who hear but don’t do the word are like those who look at their faces in a mirror. 24 They look at themselves, walk away, and immediately forget what they were like. 25 But there are those who study the perfect law, the law of freedom, and continue to do it. They don’t listen and then forget, but they put it into practice in their lives. They will be blessed in whatever they do. 26 If those who claim devotion to God don’t control what they say, they mislead themselves. Their devotion is worthless. 27 True devotion, the kind that is pure and faultless before God the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their difficulties and to keep the world from contaminating us.
Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
1 The Pharisees and some legal experts from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus. 2 They saw some of his disciples eating food with unclean hands. (They were eating without first ritually purifying their hands through washing. 3 The Pharisees and all the Jews don’t eat without first washing their hands carefully. This is a way of observing the rules handed down by the elders. 4 Upon returning from the marketplace, they don’t eat without first immersing themselves. They observe many other rules that have been handed down, such as the washing of cups, jugs, pans, and sleeping mats.) 5 So the Pharisees and legal experts asked Jesus, “Why are your disciples not living according to the rules handed down by the elders but instead eat food with ritually unclean hands?” 6 He replied, “Isaiah really knew what he was talking about when he prophesied about you hypocrites. He wrote, This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far away from me. 7 Their worship of me is empty since they teach instructions that are human words. 8 You ignore God’s commandment while holding on to rules created by humans and handed down to you.”
14 Then Jesus called the crowd again and said, “Listen to me, all of you, and understand. 15 Nothing outside of a person can enter and contaminate a person in God’s sight; rather, the things that come out of a person contaminate the person.”
21 “It’s from the inside, from the human heart, that evil thoughts come: sexual sins, thefts, murders, 22 adultery, greed, evil actions, deceit, unrestrained immorality, envy, insults, arrogance, and foolishness. 23 All these evil things come from the inside and contaminate a person in God’s sight.”
We Think…
What stands out to you in these verses? Does anything confuse you or not make sense?
How do these verses compare to your own experience in life or the church? What are you considering? What questions come to mind?
James tells us that devotion to God means living out our faith - can we believe in God if we don’t change our actions?
Why did the religious leaders struggle with Jesus’s disciples eating with unclean hands?
We Feel…
What emotions are you experiencing today? How are you making space for these feelings?
Where have you seen God today or this week? What is pointing you to God (maybe it is something in creation, maybe a friend or adult that cares for you)?
What has God made new in your life? In your heart?
Have you ever cared for someone when they were at their lowest? Or has someone cared for you when you felt this way? How did that impact you?
In Mark, the leaders struggled to move away from their rules and couldn’t understand what Jesus was trying to say. Have you ever experienced a time like this?
We Believe…
Throughout Scripture, especially in the Old Testament, we learn about many practices to keep people clean or to separate those who were unclean so that they wouldn’t defile others. It took a lot of work to remember these rules and practices! The community had certain foods they couldn’t eat or touch, ways to handle people with sickness, and even restrictions on mixing fabrics. But when Jesus comes, he transforms these practices and rules. He straight up tells the people in Mark that what goes into your body doesn’t defile it. Instead, he is more concerned with the heart.
It might seem like a total disregard for tradition and what they believed, but Jesus is trying to show them what matters most. You can eat the right foods, wear the right clothes, and still have hate for your neighbor in your heart. You can sacrifice the perfect animal, stay away from sickness, and still treat your family like garbage. It’s not enough to follow the rules; we must let God radically change our hearts. Our lives, words, and practices will look different when our hearts are changed.
We Practice…
James 1:19 tells us, "everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to grow angry.” This week, intentionally practice one, two, or all three of these things. When you are talking with your friends and family, remind yourself to truly listen when they’re speaking. When you have the chance to sit at the lunch table with your peers, be slow to speak, especially when the conversation is going in directions you know you shouldn’t be adding on to. When someone pushes your buttons, or your parents ask you to do the dishes, take a deep breath and respond without anger. Maybe this is easy for you, and even trying one of these will challenge you daily, but take time to practice this way of living intentionally.
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