Matthew 15,10-20,2026
God of grace, as we gather to hear your Word, silence any thoughts that distract us. Open our hearts to receive the challenge and the comfort you offer in the name of Jesus Christ, your Living Word. Amen
From out of the heart come evil intentions
Jesus doesn’t mince words
His disciples had been talking with him about what should or shouldn’t be eaten
And he is telling them that the religious dietary laws don’t matter
It isn’t what you put into your mouth that is a problem
It is what comes out
And then he lists some of the things that come out of peoples’ mouths
The particular wrongs that Jesus lists are harmful
Murder is the one that leads off
But the other wrongs he lists are more day to day
Slipping in a relationship, or adultery and fornication
And then slander and false witness, which is essentially gossip
We used to sing this song when we were children:
“Oh be careful little mouth what you say
Oh be careful little mouth what you say
The father up above is looking down in love
Be careful little mouth what you say”
God doesn’t leave us with just that piece of advice to be careful of what we say
There is a plan in place to help us overcome the weakness that comes from within
The way to overcome the weakness from within is by giving one’s life to God
There are a few ways this lesson from today’s gospel reading can be developed
One could go on at length about the badness of people
Jesus has certainly given a good list of what our heart can inspire
Sometimes we can get too caught up in the wickedness of people
Yes, we are frail and weak and prone to error
But we are also created in God’s image
And we are loved by God
Because God loves us, a way is provided to make our redemption a reality
Because God loves us we do not need to be ruled by a heart that makes mistakes
One thing that a new heart helps us to do is to forgive
Carrying a grudge is a destructive thing for the grudge holder
Our lesson in Genesis today gives an example of forgiveness in action:
The ancient world had been hit by a famine
The famine was happening all over, except in Egypt
Joseph and the people of Egypt had enough to eat.
But in other countries people were starving.
Far away, in Canaan, Joseph’s brothers and sisters and his father Jacob had hardly anything to eat.
One day, Jacob said to his sons,
“I hear there’s lots of food in Egypt.
Take some of the donkeys and go to Egypt to see if you can buy some.”
So ten of the brothers left for Egypt.
Benjamin didn’t go because he was the youngest.
His father, Jacob, worried that Benjamin might get hurt on such a long trip.
When the brothers got to Egypt, they asked,
“Where can we buy food?”
“Go see the person who takes care of all the food,” they were told.
Of course, the brothers didn’t know that was Joseph.
When they had sold Joseph to the traders many years before that,
they didn’t think they would ever see him again.
Joseph knew his brothers right away.
Joseph was very surprised, but he didn’t say anything.
He was glad to see his brothers.
But Joseph was still angry at them for selling him to the traders.
Joseph felt both angry and happy.
He was all mixed up inside.
“I think you are spies,” Joseph said.
“Oh, no,” said the brothers.
“We’re just ten brothers who have come to buy food. We’re not spies.”
“If you are brothers, what is your father’s name?”
“Our father’s name is Jacob. He is living in Canaan.”
Joseph was so happy to hear that his father was still alive.
He had to stop talking for a while, and he turned away from his brothers.
He didn’t want them to see the tears in his eyes.
“Are there other members of your family?” Joseph asked.
“There is one more brother, Benjamin. But he was too young to come with us.”
“Any others?” Joseph was feeling angry now.
“Well, no. There was another brother, but he died.”
“What do you mean, he died?” Joseph was very angry.
The brothers just stood there.
They didn’t know what to say.
They were afraid to say they had sold their brother as a slave.
Joseph could see from the faces of his brothers that they were very sorry for what they had done.
“I am Joseph, your brother,” he said.
The brothers couldn’t believe it at first.
It didn’t seem possible.
Then they felt afraid.
“If this really is Joseph,” they thought, “he will be very angry at us for what we did to him.”
“Don’t be afraid,” said Joseph.
“I think God wanted me to be in Egypt.
God wanted me to help people so they wouldn’t starve.”
“Thank God,” said Reuben, the oldest brother. “Thank God!”
Then the brothers started hugging Joseph and Joseph was hugging them and they were hugging each other.
All of them were crying.
Finally Joseph blew his nose and said,
“Go back to Canaan.
Bring Father and Benjamin and the whole family here to Egypt.
I know a nice place where you can live.
And there’s lots of food here in Egypt.”
When the brothers had told Jacob for the 20th time about Joseph in Egypt, the old man finally believed them.
Suddenly he looked as if he was 20 years younger.
“Well,” said Jacob. “What are we waiting for? Don’t just stand around. Let’s go.”
As Jacob and all his family left Canaan,
God came and repeated the promise.
“Israel will become a great nation,” said God.
“And you will come back again to live in your own country.”
That is how the people called “Israel” came to be living in Egypt
The description of Joseph’s inner struggle is one that we all can understand
We know what we should do
And we know what we want to do
Often they are two entirely different things
The way to do what we should is to find God in the situation and to see what God would have us do
Joseph was angry with his brothers
He also knew that because he was in Egypt that God was able to use him to bring food to a hungry world
Joseph knew God and so was able to forgive and to help his family
Our reading in Romans tells us that God did not reject his people
That is, even if we mess up God still loves us
And God will work through the mess we make in order to have his plan accomplished
The ultimate proof of this is that God sent Jesus to be our teacher, our holy friend, our redeemer, our Lord
In the gospel that we read today
Jesus is giving a reminder of the problem he came to fix
The problem is wayward human hearts
From our hearts come the impulses to make mistakes
God has a plan for that too
I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. (Ezekiel 26:36)
Therefore if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. 2 Corinthians 5:
‘I will give them a heart to know Me, for I am the LORD; and they will be My people, and I will be their God, for they will return to Me with their whole heart. Jeremiah 24:7
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Psalms 51:10
“And I will give them one heart, and put a new spirit within them And I will take the heart of stone out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, Ezekiel 11:19
The solution to human waywardness was always for God to give a new heart
To give the people a living and vibrant faith
In our gospel today Jesus lays out the problem
The problem of a heart that can motivate wrong behaviour
In countless other lessons he gives the solution
To drink of living water
To be born again
To know that one does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God
Having had the opportunity to come to God
To worship
To offer our discipleship
We hope and endeavor to have what comes out of our mouths be glorifying to the God we serve
As the hymn writer says:
Breathe, O breathe thy loving Spirit into every troubled heart!
Let us all in you inherit; let us find that second rest.
Take away our love of sinning; Alpha and Omega be;
End of faith, as its beginning, set our hearts at liberty.
We read in the epistle of James
“Be doers of the word and not hearers only”
If that is how we try to live, what should we do and be?
We are those who have learned to live on every word that proceeds from the mouth of God
Those who show by word and deed that the word of God has fed them and given a new heart
The smallest thing can make the biggest difference
When Jesus said what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart
He listed false witness and slander with murder
We need to be careful with our words
The writer of the epistle of James reminds us that the tongue is small member of the body,
And as a small rudder can turn a large boat
So can the tongue do great good or great damage
We have God’s loving spirit breathed into our hearts
And so we are able to release the wrong that tempts us and be more like the God we serve
Sister Helen P. Mroisa tells the story of the power of words of encouragement
She had been a school teacher
One day in a junior high school math class she could sense that the students were out of sorts
They were unable to focus on the lesson and quick to snipe at one another
She had them write down the names of all the students in the classroom on paper and then write down all the nice things they could about each one
She then had the students hand the pages in to her,
This was on a Friday
She then took the pages home and made a copy of all the nice things said for each member of the class
Monday morning the pages of encouraging things were handed to each student
The exercise settled the class and the spirit of unhappiness was gone
It was not for many years that Helen discovered what the impact of a few hundred positive words was
One of the boys in that math class was Mark
Mark was a young man who was killed in the Viet Nam war
At his funeral Helen spoke to Marks’ parents who showed her the well-worn list he had kept from that junior high school math class
It was becoming shabby
It had been folded and re-folded a multitude of times
He had held onto it for 10 years or so and had cherished and read it often
Others from that class who were at the funeral spoke of the ways they had kept and re-read their lists too
A few words written by young adolescents that were a lasting and positive factor in the lives of an entire class of young people
The tongue is a small member yet is boasts of great exploits (James 3: 5)
Death and life are in the power of the tongue (Proverbs 18:21)
Words have great power
By them we may destroy another person
Or by them we may build up
Let this be our prayer
“Breathe on me breath of God
Fill me with life anew
That I may love what you love
And do what you would do ”
LET US PRAY
Our Holy Friend,
we gather this day as your people,
seeking hope amidst the hardships of this world.
We know that sometimes we are overshadowed by fear,
by persecution, greed, hatred, and sadness.
God help us to know that when we are lonely or saddened by this world,
your heart also breaks.
Remind us that like Joseph and his brothers, you too weep with us.
Sometimes, God, we know we are slow to forgive others and that we hold grudges for too long.
Help us to let go of bitterness that is in our hearts and help us to be open to the ways you are calling us to show mercy and grace to each other.
We know that there are people in our communities and in our world who are suffering from physical pains as well as pains of the heart.
Help us to know how to help.
And help us to know that our prayers, our care, and our presence is often better than letting things be left at arm’s length.
We each have spaces in our own lives in which we are longing for forgiveness from you, O God.
Help us in the silence of our hearts to now name our deepest longings and prayers. (Silence)
We gather all of these prayers, both spoken and in silence, and we sing to you, our dearest friend,
Amen.
Bless
As you go, know that we are forgiven, loved, and chosen people.
Go – living into your fullest self, helping others to do the same.
Go, blessed by God, the maker of us all;
the Christ, the one who travels with us; and the Spirit, who binds us together.