{"id":3407,"date":"2006-09-04T12:35:00","date_gmt":"2006-09-04T12:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/elizaphanian.com\/?p=3407"},"modified":"2006-09-04T12:35:00","modified_gmt":"2006-09-04T12:35:00","slug":"excrement-smeared-across-a-church-wall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/elizaphanian.com\/?p=3407","title":{"rendered":"Excrement smeared across a church wall"},"content":{"rendered":"

(Yesterday\u2019s sermon \u2013 texts: Psalm 15, James 1.17 \u2013 end, Mark 7 1-8, 14-23)<\/span><\/p>\n

I would like to begin my remarks this morning by sharing a story with you from my school days. I went to boarding school, and in my boarding house there were around 50 boys aged between 13 and 18. One day, when I was around 15, excrement was discovered smeared across the walls of the toilets. The housemaster gathered us all together in the common room, and you can imagine the state of nervous excitement in the boys as we gathered to await punishment. Yet the housemaster \u2013 after making clear how angry he was \u2013 said \u2018I have never believed in asking other people to do something that I am not prepared to do myself\u2019 \u2013 and he then took a mop and bucket and cleared up the mess.<\/p>\n

That story has always stuck in my mind, for two reasons. The first is that it is clearly a wonderful example of real leadership \u2013 but that\u2019s not what I want to talk about today. What I want to talk about is the yuck factor, for that is the second reason why it has remained in my memory.<\/p>\n

The truth is that we all have purity taboos; these days they often masquerade under the description of \u2018hygiene\u2019 \u2013 but even if a situation is hygienically sound, we may still have all sorts of qualms. There is something very basic and human about a reaction of disgust, it is something that can overwhelm us unless we are careful.<\/p>\n

I think that this is central to what Jesus is emphasising today \u2013 in the context of a debate about these purity laws he says twice: what comes out of a man is what makes him unclean. In other words it is our language that should be provoking the yuck factor \u2013 we should have same reaction to our words as to misplaced bodily functions, for in spiritual terms, how we speak is a vital question, it is central to the life and health of a spiritual community \u2013 in particular, our language about other people: gossip.<\/p>\n

There are very clear and consistent and strong biblical injunctions against gossip:<\/p>\n