Let’s talk toilets!
Read
When he had gone back into the house, away from the crowd, his disciples questioned him about the parable. He said to them, ‘Do you not understand either? Can you not see that whatever goes into a man from outside cannot make him unclean, because it does not go into his heart but through his stomach and passes out into the sewer?’ (Thus he pronounced all foods clean.) And he went on, ‘It is what comes out of a man that makes him unclean. For it is from within, from men’s hearts, that evil intentions emerge: fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, malice, deceit, indecency, envy, slander, pride, folly. ’
Mark 7::14 ff
Reflect
Let’s talk toilets! Ok, it may not necessarily be something you want to talk about whilst eating breakfast but, hey, we all do it! And Jesus wasn’t shy about talking about human mess! “Can you not see that whatever goes into a man from outside cannot make him unclean,” he says, “because it does not go into his heart but through his stomach and passes out into the sewer?” You can’t be more direct than that! Yuk, human mess! But Jesus is actually wanting to talk about a different kind of human mess than what ends up in the sewer! He wants to talk about the mess that can come from our heart! And so he gives a long list of slurry! “Fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, malice, deceit, indecency, envy, slander, pride, folly.” Yes, human beings have the potential to do and be amazing things, to create so much beauty in the world, but we also have the propensity to make a mess of things. We don’t have to look far for evidence of the mess we make. As we get closer to the season of Lent it’s a good time to consider how we can be a force for good in the world, to control what we do, and how we affect others. “Peace begins with a smile,” said St Teresa of Calcutta. It’s such small things that we need to do in order to bring beauty to the world. So, perhaps today we can simply wear a smile, a smile which comes from a loving heart, and exudes a beauty and a peace which begins to undo the mess of our lives!
Pray
God our Father, yes, at times, we make a mess of things. Help us to acknowledge the slurry of our lives, and to seek ways of bringing the beauty of your love to the world. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
