This "Ditch the Label" video invites us to wonder are we living a lie on Social Media?
This sermon was preached on the 15th Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 17B) at the Episcopal Church of the Holy Apostles. You may watch the video of this sermon by clicking here. The readings which inspired the sermon were the following:
Song of Solomon 2:8-13
Psalm 45:1-2, 7-10
James 1:17-27
Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
Holy God, may my words be your words and when my words are not your words, may your people know the same. Amen.
There is an anti-bullying charity called Ditch the Label. A few years back this organization published a video about the lies that people tell on Social Media. These are not “fake news” lies, but rather lies that people—even friends—tell one another.
In the video, one scene features a young woman jump out of bed in the morning to wash her face, fix her makeup, and return to bed where she takes a picture that she posts to show, “I woke up like this,” even though she did not. Another segment shows a series of people making great life decisions like going on a bike ride, getting organized at work, and drinking a healthy juice—except all of those pictures were staged; they did not tell the whole truth. Still another clip depicts a group of friends all on their smart phones at a restaurant, then after they ask the waitress to take a picture of them together smiling, one posts the photo with the caption “quality time with friends”—really?
This video has been seen over 23 million times on YouTube, and it displays the all too popular trend of people double-dealing on social media about what they are doing, or feeling, or even who they are! We might recoil at the thought of doing this—lying about how we’re having the best time ever sipping our Triple, Venti, Half Sweet, Non-Fat, Caramel Macchiato, fibbing about how we killed our crossfit workout this morning or capping about how we are lit and have W rizz, or whatever Gens Z and Alpha are saying. Even if we shutter at the thought of being outright duplicitous, it is all too common for each of us to make small edits to how we portray ourselves in the world. When we do this we shield the darkness that is inside, so that no one else sees it—and I do not mean online, but in real life—IRL.
The hard truth is that you and I have dirt within us. No, I don’t mean because we have consumed soil, like how Les Miles used to chew grass on the sidelines at LSU—Happy Football Season, by the way! When I say we have dirt within us, I mean all have sin within them, and when I say sin, I mean distortion of relationship with God, self, neighbor, and Creation.
Sinful is not how we were made, we were made in God’s image, but the hard truth of our brokenness is quite apparent in the reckoning that we collectively have endured in recent years. Even trusted news anchors, beloved actors, world-class athletes, and church leaders both within and beyond the Episcopal Church have wickedness within them. You have come to church today, and that is commendable, especially on Labor Day Weekend, but it doesn’t mean that you are exempt from what I am saying. Even though I am standing here in this pulpit, I’m not excused from it either. We are not a gathering of pious saints better than everyone else, no we are a group of recovering sinners just like everyone else.
I would love to tell you that there is a silver bullet or a secret pill to stop you and me from causing others pain, making mistakes, or distorting relationships—all those things that Jesus listed in today’s Gospel lesson, but that’s just not true. As Elisabeth Johnson, a Lutheran professor and missionary wrote in a commentary on this Gospel lesson, “No law or tradition can protect us from the darkness that lurks within our own hearts. We can try to project a squeaky clean image, but one way or another, the evil within will find its way out. The highly edited version of ourselves, the façade that we present to the world, will crumble sooner or later.”[1] These words ring so clearly of truth, and they describe something that is not new. The Pharisees of long ago exemplified this very behavior too.
Often Pharisees are trashed by preachers and good Christians alike. Horrifyingly though, we are more like them than we might know or admit. You and I are here because coming to Church brings us closer to God, it gives us a good foundation for building solid lives, and it provides us a way to say thank you to God. All of these things were true also of the Pharisees. When Jesus chastised the Pharisees in today’s Gospel lesson, he did so not because they were faithful, nor because they thanked God, nor because they guarded traditions, although often that’s what preachers talk about on days like today. No, Jesus was frustrated because even the most well-intended traditions, religious laws, and spiritual practices cannot cordon us off from the dangers that exist within our own souls.
If you and I are honest and not just focused on how we present ourselves to the outside world. If you and I instead see who we are then, we will see the distorting behaviors from this Gospel, not in someone else, but in ourselves. That’s right I will see fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, and folly in myself. And you will see it in yourself, too. No amount of editing on social media can take those things away. No law can protect us from them. No rules can shield us from those things. Nor can even the best spiritual practices keep us from experiencing that darkness within us. Although religious traditions and practices can be helpful in living our lives; they cannot do what God alone does—they cannot do what Jesus made clear in this passage.
The bits about the law and sin from today's Gospel lesson may cloud our understanding, but Good News shines through this passage. Namely, our Cosmic Christ, the Son of God clearly gleams a truthful light within each of us. Christ Jesus sees all those things that exist in the darkness in us. And yet, God Incarnate did not, does not turn away. Jesus could have run for the hills—or I guess to heaven—when he recognized that human beings were fallen, broken, and corrupted. But, that’s not what he did. Even when we edit ourselves online and in real life, Christ Jesus knows our truth—what resides within the hidden recesses of our hearts, what fibs we tell online, what sins we cannot help but endure. And even knowing all this, Jesus loves us still. He loves us always. Jesus most obviously showed this in his actions of including the outcasts, loving the unlovable, and reaching out to the unreachable. The most religious, the least religious, the unreligious—all are loved by this one who came to show us what true religion looks like—LOVE.
The good news, the best news, is what we know to be the truth in Christ. Even in the shielded side of our souls that we want no one else to know about, God is there, and God is loving us. Even when we as human beings betray, torture, or kill the Christ in one another over and over again, God is there, and God is loving us. Even when we experience others transgressing against us, God is there, and God is loving us. God’s response now and always is to be with us and to love us. But, we cannot, we must not simply rest on this overwhelmingly Good News, this treasure that is God’s love. Instead, allow that love to take over your life, allow it to overcome you, allow it to transform you into a new creation, a new being, a new you.
[1] Elisabeth Johnson, “Commentary on Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23” from The Working Preacher Website.
[https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-22-2/commentary-on-mark-71-8-14-15-21-23-3, published September 2, 2018, accessed August 27, 2024].
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