Many years ago, I was visiting my dad and Barb in Chicago in March. I learned on that trip that Chicago in March is one of the coldest places you can go in our country. The wind coming off the lake was intense, particularly where they lived close to the University of Chicago and the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago, where Barbara was teaching.

So, there I was walking along these Chicago streets on this brutal “spring” day, and I see this young woman walking to the university. Now, I guessed at the time that she looked very cute in front of the mirror that day before she left home. Her mini skirt, ankle boots, and bare legs with a light sweater on top looked like a new, snazzy outfit fresh from the mall. However, she looked decidedly less cute with the wind whipping her hair and skirt with icy rain that was no doubt biting into her legs. Personally, I was very grateful for my many layers of wool in that moment.

We’ve all seen this, no? Such cute styles and looks that do not translate into the real world, and it’s just awkward. Kids with thick black hoodies on 100 degree days and those same kids in shorts and t-shirts in the winter?

There is a certain time in our lives when our image in the mirror is the only important thing. The outside world doesn’t matter. Our better wisdom that would tell us to grab that umbrella, wear reasonable layers, have some reasonable shoes that won’t kill you – all that stuff we ignore for the sake of the image. Our better wisdom that is inside us gets drowned out by an external notion of what “cool” is.

Eventually we figure out that listening to that internal wisdom is the better guide. And then, miracle of miracles, our choices match the world appropriately and we are massively more comfortable. So is everyone else around us, btw.

While we mostly have this part of living figured out by our mid-20s, the mismatch between our choices and what is actually good and right for us to do in all the other things if life can take a lot longer to get right. We all struggle to do the right thing at the right time for the right reasons. And we struggle all the time.

We often struggle with a mismatch between our insides and our outsides; between what we feel, believe, or need, what we actually do, and how that actually meets the reality of the world.

Ideally this would all line up. Ideally our inside realities, our behavior, and the needs of our world all fit and make sense together. And as followers of Jesus, ideally this means our insides and behaviors are meeting the needs of our worlds in way that are loving, full of hope, and supports all the good things –  justice, beauty, peace, healing, and safety for ourselves and all those around us. That is the ideal, that all the goodness of God is alive in us, our behavior demonstrates this, and the needs of the moment are actually met.

Easier said than done for a species of beings who need to be alive for 20 some years before we figure out how to wear correct clothing for the weather. Bless our hearts!

This is one way to think about what salvation is in our lives – that we are transformed into being humans with an inside reality that is redeemed and healed so that God’s love and wholeness in us flows into how we live for the care and good of all.

In James’ letter, he says “For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like.” He’s talking about folks who hear the Word and then don’t apply it, don’t wrestle with it, and don’t let it change them from the inside out.

In all fairness, it’s so very easy to forget the Word after Sunday. I don’t necessarily remember my own sermons, and I write them. So, don’t feel bad like you’re the only one who forgets. We all do. The idea isn’t necessarily to remember, but to be changed. James writes, “But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act – they will be blessed in their doing.”

The key word there to me is persevere. We need to wrestle with the Word. We need to listen with a heart that is willing to change, with a heart that knows that it doesn’t already know all the things.

I guarantee you the young woman freezing in Chicago that day would have told her mother that:

1. the weather wasn’t that bad
2. she was an adult
3. she knew what she was doing

She knew what she knew. She looked in the mirror, thought that it fit whatever need she had about how she looked that day, and she wasn’t going to let something as simple as the weather change her mind.

The funny thing is the mismatch between her fashion choices and the outside world would not be applauded by the editors of Vogue. Such a fashion faux pas! Poor thing.   

In our readings today, James, Jesus and Moses are all trying to save us from the same fate!

They are all pointing towards living in alignment with what is ultimately good for us. Living in accordance with the Ten Commandments is good for us. The Law itself isn’t the problem. What Jesus is pointing towards is that we are all quite capable of living out the Ten Commandment (mostly) while not being loving, generous, or in some way not meeting the needs of the moment. It’s a bit like wearing a mini skirt with bare legs in Chicago’s brutal days of March.

Mini skirts? Cute!

Bare legs? Great!

That combination in March in Chicago? No bueno.

All the elements need to align. They need to fit together.

So, in the gospel, the disciples are eating with “defiled” hands. Knowing Jesus and his crew, these good Jewish men probably had good reasons for not ritually washing their hands. And it probably involved loving a neighbor or including someone who, by tradition, they should not have been eating with. That’s what we already know about them. They didn’t rebel for no reason.

Jesus did not care about being perfect in behaviors, like being ritually pure, nearly as much as he cared about whether people were being loved and included.

Jesus cares about the quality of our inside realities and how well our inside realities are expressed to meet the needs of the world. He cares about behavior, sure. But he cares a lot about the alignment of what is inside and how that is expressed for the sake of the world.

Being focused on ritually clean hands at the expense of meeting real needs is sort of like being focused on wearing that adorable outfit despite Chicago’s March weather. There’s nothing wrong with the outfit, but the context matters. There’s nothing wrong with traditional practices of ritual purity that remind folks of God’s centrality in our lives, but context matters. There’s a time and a place for these things. And for Jesus, the priority is always love, inclusion, and justice. Just like when we get older and wiser, our fashion choices prioritize matching the weather. Not only is it more comfortable, it’s a better look. Your free fashion advice for the day!

The invitation here is to wrestle with the Word – to engage in our faith, to pray, to be open to God’s action in our lives and in our hearts and in our bodies so that we are changed for the sake of the world. God’s love bubbling up in us not only heals us but heals the world as it flows out through our actions. Jesus’ love and life in us aligns us to live for the sake of love, peace, and justice for all people and all creation.

For most of us here, we wear clothes that more or less match the weather, right? But where in our lives is our behavior or our choices not lining up with the needs of the world? Where is our behavior not reflecting our faith? And what is the source of that lack of alignment? Is it in us? Is it our fear? Are we feeling judged? Are we full of shame? What in us needs God’s loving attention for healing in us so that we can live fully in the flow of God’s love?

Try bringing the needs you find in yourself to your prayers. Talk with someone about it. Journal about it. We don’t need to stay stuck.

You deserve to live in alignment of God’s love flowing through you, just like you deserve a warm coat and pants in the biting rain. Let that dis-alignment that you’re thinking about right now show you where you need healing and God’s attention in your life.

Just like the clothes we choose, our behaviors and choices are indicators of whether we are living in alignment with our values and whether we are living in a way that God calls us into. God’s healing is gentle and kind, so in the spirit of God’s way in our lives, may we all too be kind in our self-reflection as we ask for grace, forgiveness, renewal, and healing for the sake of the world.

AMEN