Sunday, August 12

Sermon: "Physical Remedy for Spiritual Dirt"

Scripture: Isaiah 1: 1, 10-20

Reverend Larry M. Gerber

 

Recent studies show a link between clean hands and a clean conscience. Isaiah tells us that God's form of hand sanitation is more than skin-deep!

We all know that the first defense against that summer cold or some other funky disease involves keeping your hands clean.
 
New studies have shown that the connection between cleanliness and godliness goes way deeper than having everyone keep their germs to themselves. Dirty hands, in fact, seem to correlate with a dirty soul.

Researchers Chen-Bo Zhong of the University of Toronto and Katie Liljenquist of Northwestern University define it as the "Macbeth Effect" after the famous scene in Shakespeare's play where Lady Macbeth obsesses over washing her hands after committing cold-blooded murder. Guilty consciences, it seems, seek hygienic hands. Zhong says, "When people feel morally challenged, they literally feel as if they are dirty."

Zhong and Liljenquist conducted several experiments with college students, separating volunteers into two groups. In the first group, students were asked to recall times in the past where they had acted unethically, while the other group was asked separately to remember incidents where they had done the morally right thing.

In one round of experiments, each group was then asked to fill in the blanks to complete words such as W__ __H and S__ __P. The students who had been contemplating their bad behavior were more disposed than the others to spell out WASH and SOAP rather than WISH and SOUP. The first group of students were also more likely to pick an antiseptic wipe over a pencil when offered the choice of either as a gift.

Zhong and Liljenquist realize that they aren't on to something new here, just confirming what people across many cultures have known for centuries. Whether you are in Beijing or Boston it's not unusual to describe a person who commits a crime as having "dirty hands." Cleaning one's hands is a kind of psychosomatic way of cleansing the soul ? a concept that has its roots in a wide variety of spiritual practices.

"All of the major religions of the world incorporate physical cleansing at the core of their religious ceremonies," notes Zhong. "To approach God, you have to cleanse yourself physically." Whether it's a baptismal font in a medieval cathedral, a mikvah in the ruins of Qumran, or a place for Muslims to perform ablution before entering a mosque, water has long been the physical remedy for spiritual dirt.

The Bible often uses the image of cleansing as a remedy for the guilt of sin, though it has less to do with ritual than with a change of attitude of the heart and action with the hands. Isaiah's prophetic words came straight from God (Isaiah 1:2), warning the people of Judah and Jerusalem that impending disaster awaited unless they returned to God ? not just by going through the motions of ritual worship, but through a complete cleansing of a community life stained by the sin of apostasy and injustice.

When we read the story of Isaiah is it any wonder that we fear the state of the world today, even the state of America..unless you return to God???

Isaiah had been called to be a prophet "in the year that King Uzziah died" (Isaiah 1:1; 6:1). Uzziah had been a strong king who enjoyed military success, but that success led to pride. Usurping the authority of the priests, the king violated protocol by offering his own sacrifice on the altar of incense in the temple, which resulted in the divine curse of leprosy ? a disease that made him ritually unclean for the rest of his life (2 Chronicles 26).

Subsequent kings who reigned during Isaiah's ministry fared little better. Jotham would serve adequately, but failed to remove the "high places" of pagan worship (2 Kings 15:35). Ahaz went so far as to "cast images for the Baals" and seemed to have sacrificed his own son by fire in a pagan ritual in the Hinnom Valley outside the walls of Jerusalem, a practice that was especially repugnant to God (2 Kings 16:1-4; 2 Chronicles 28:1-4). Hezekiah would reign faithfully for 29 years, providing a positive chapter in the royal lineage, but would be followed by Manasseh who reversed many of his father's policies and led Judah farther away from God (2 Chronicles 29:1-33:9).

If we, in America, call ourselves the New Jerusalem, perhaps we need to take heed of this scripture.

While apostasy seemed to be a recurring theme throughout the reign of the kings of Judah, the sins of the nation itself went deeper. Isaiah, speaking for God, issued an indictment against the nation, equating Judah and Jerusalem with "Sodom" and "Gomorrah," those ancient cities that even today symbolize wickedness. While the sins of those cities are often equated with sexual depravity or inhospitality, the reference here has a different connotation. For prophets like Ezekiel, Sodom's sin was primarily about pride, excess and especially failing to meet the needs of the poor and needy (Ezekiel 16:49). As abhorrent as idol worship was to God, Isaiah made the point that injustice, particularly toward those most vulnerable in society, was an even greater sin.

The Judahites continued to offer sacrifices in the temple for atonement for sin, but Isaiah made it clear that God had no interest in ritualistic worship devoid of acts of justice. The "multitude" of blood sacrifices, the bringing of "offerings" and the observance of "festivals" and other "solemn assemblies" had become a "burden" to a God who desired worship to be translated into action (Isaiah 1:10-14). Even the prayers of the people would go unanswered because the "hands" of the people were "full of blood" (v. 15).

Like a Lady Macbeth walking around with hands still figuratively dripping the evidence of murder, Judah herself had bloody hands stained by injustice toward the poor, particularly the "orphan" and the "widow" ? injustice marked by unspecified acts of violence and/or indifference (v. 17).

Where do we stand as Americans today, as Christians today, when it comes to justice for the poor. Do our actions speak as loud as our words??.feed the hungry, heal the sick?.

Orphans and widows were especially vulnerable in Israelite society because they had lost the male head of the household who was responsible for protecting them. Without that protection, they were easily exploited and abused. Judah herself was in danger of being oppressed by outside powers because she had failed to protect those entrusted to her care. Caught "red-handed" in their systemic injustice and oppression, God commanded the people to "wash" themselves and make themselves "clean" by removing and ceasing to do the "evil" that had stained them.

This washing was not just a ritual cleansing, but an active scrubbing of the social system where the people would "learn to do good, seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, [and] plead for the widow" (v. 17). Picking up this theme in the New Testament, the writer of James would later put it this way: "Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world" (James 1:27).

While washing one's hands may provide a temporary feeling of physical and moral cleanliness, true spiritual sanitation involves more active attention to the things and people that are important to God. We might call this the "Pilate Principle" ? the idea that once someone washes his or her hands of a personal sin that's where their obligation stops.

God made it clear to the people of Judah that this kind of narcissistic atonement wasn't going to get it done. Picking up the language of the law court, God called the people to "argue it out" with him. Their red-handed sins would be cleansed ? turned from blood-red stains to the white purity of "snow" and "wool" if, and only if, they were "willing and obedient" to God's call to justice (Isaiah 1:18-19).

On the other hand, if they were to "refuse and rebel," continuing in their oppressive ways, God reminded them that the "sword" was poised to drop on them in the form of foreign invasion, turning the oppressors into the oppressed (v. 20).

Much of the focus on sin in our churches concerns personal misdeeds and certainly that's a dimension to which we need to pay attention. Each of us needs personal cleansing and renewal for the sins we commit against others and against God.

What we need to remember, however, is that sin has a larger corporate dimension. We have to be willing to look at the systems in our society that marginalize the poor and vulnerable and work for justice. Anytime we hear that some group of innocent persons is being victimized and we fail to do something about it, we are the ones who are stained.

What issues of justice in our country, in our community, are we, as the Christ Body, failing to address?

What can we do to begin the process of cleaning it up?

Seek justice and act upon your words???

 Source:

Harder, Ben. "Practicing moral hygiene: Study links guilt and the urge for clean hands, (Now pass the towelettes, please.)" The Washington Post, October 10, 2006, HE01.