Today's readings are Deuteronomy 19.1-20 and Matthew 15.1-20.
Garbage in, garbage out - is this a rule for holy living? I suppose it can be a rule for holy living, but it is an inferior rule. Here's a partial reason for that. How many rules do we need? What kind of information and influences are we taking in on purpose? What do we get simply by being in this world? Can we avoid them all? And if we do avoid them all, does that make us holy? In fact, we see in Matthe 15 that a change in behavior doesn't necessarily signify a change in heart. We can clip the leaf clusters from a poison ivy vine, handle the vine, and still get poison ivy. And like poison ivy, we are toxic.
The garbage that comes out of our lives shows what was inside. What kind of garbage do we see? How do we respond to hardship? Do we act with a hard heart and become bitter? How do we respond to blessing? Do we find ways to treat that as a cures too? How do we see our good works? Maybe we compare ourselves to others and thus proclaim ourselves holy.
In the most holy person we find evil. Should we wash our hands and purify ourselves from uncleanness? Yes, but it is not enough. Moreso we plead that our Lord will wash our hearts. May the Lord bring out good fruit from our lives.
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