The people of the town were away from the church on the hill. It was not Sunday, and there was no funeral. They were about the business of life, in spite of the wet weather.

A hard rain can wash the dust off the hands of the living as easily as off the stones of the dead. But no amount of falling water from the sky will cleanse the hidden thoughts of our hearts or the debris of bad intentions.

This is not to suggest to that which is outside of us is unimportant. We do need to take care of outward and visible things. We wash our clothes, our cooking vessels and our bodies. We clean the spaces in which we live and work. No doubt we all have our own routines for doing this. But we certainly tend to feel better about ourselves when our clothes and our bodies are clean.

If we feel this way about our physical surroundings and being, doesn't it makes sense that people would seek to feel that their very lives were clean ­ that they stood washed and righteous before God?

This is what the Pharisees were seeking ­ to be clean.

This is why the Pharisees had water set aside in special jars. There was a ritualistic way of washing one's hands so as to be clean before God. It was a long established practice with the momentum of ancient things. But rituals are a doorway not a destination. The journey is not in the work of our hands but by the pilgrimage of our hearts.

Rituals can be empty, or at odds with reality. It does no good to wash one's hands if the place needing cleansing is inside of us. Clean hands are not a substitute for a clean heart. This was what Jesus was talking about when he responded to the Pharisees who challenged the religious practices of Jesus' disciples.

We could wash our hands in silver bowls before the altar and still not be clean. We could stand in the rain with our arms held up until we are soaked to the bone but the memories of things done and left undone will remain like a deep stain that will not wash away.

It is not what we see, or present, on the outside that defiles us. It is the missteps of our own hearts. No amount of well-executed ritual will make us right with God. We are not saved by whether we choose to sit or stand at the Eucharistic prayer. But God does promise to dwell with those who desire to have God within them. Whatever we may appear to be doing from the outside, we either make the time and space in our hearts for God, or we don't.

How easy it is to adhere to outer ritual and ceremony while wandering away in our hearts and minds. How hard it is to truly look into our own darkness and to invite the light of God into every corner of our world and being.

The temptation for the Pharisees, and for us, is to settle for the semblance of holy living: to be satisfied not simply with half a loaf but with something that isnšt even bread. But we are not fed by appearances. And God is certainly not fooled by appearances.

We need to be discerning, too, so that we might see beyond how things appear. Our life and times are full of subtle whisperings, misdirection and eager encouragement to those about to lose their way. The author of the Letter to the Ephesians classified these influences as "the cosmic powers of this present darkness." We too contend against more than flesh and blood. The challenge to real Christian living is woven into the fabric of our culture.

William Willamon, a professor at Duke University, puts it this way:

"Our world recognizes the subversive nature of the Christian faith and subverts us by ignoring us. The world has declared war upon the Gospel in the most subtle of ways, so subtle that sometimes you don't know you're losing the battle until it's too late.

In the oddest of ways, the Gospel brings about a head-on collision with many of our culture's most widely held and deeply believed values. Being a Christian today is not natural nor easy," Willimon says.

We are being enticed to consume half-truths, distortions and lies about life so that we might serve something other than God. But one of the biggest lies, one of the most subtle temptations of our age would have us believe that we can rely on our individual power alone. We are invited to subscribe to the creed that we will find security and satisfaction by pursuing our own desires as the highest goal and stand alone.

These illusions weaken and divide us. Anyone who knows military strategy or martial arts knows that the first thing to do to defeat a group is to get them to split up.

In a commentary on the letter to the Ephesians called THE FORCES WE FACE, Ray Stedman described the subtle workings of this power in this way:

"The devil has the ear of mankind. Scripture calls him, "the god of this world," {2 Cor 4:4}. The world listens to him, to everything he says. But the devil does not tell the world the truth but a lie, a very clever, a very beautiful, a very attractive lie which makes the world drool with desire. But the end of his lie is destruction, murder, death! -- death in all its forms, not only ultimately the cessation of life, but also death in its incipient forms of restlessness, boredom, frustration meaninglessness, and emptiness. Whom the devil cannot deceive he tries to destroy, and whom he cannot destroy he attempts to deceive. There is the working of the devil," Stedman points out.

Whether we call the enemy emptiness, the great deceiver, or Satan, we must surely recognize that there is a power at work in the world. Being a Christian is too difficult a way to walk alone. We need to be encouraged and equipped by the company of others and a strong connection with God.

It is too easy to settle for the mere appearance of holy living, or to abandon the quest all together and to go in search of the siren song of other satisfactions. As Willamon said:

"It's tough out there. You better not go out there alone, without comrades in arms, without your sword and your shield. So we must gather, on a regular basis, for worship. To speak about God in a world that lives as if there is no God.

We must speak to one another as beloved brothers and sisters in a world which encourages us to live as strangers. We must pray to God to give us what we cannot have by our own efforts in a world which teaches us that we are self-sufficient and all powerful. In such a world, what we do on Sunday morning becomes a matter of life and death. Pray that I might speak the gospel boldly," Willamon declared.

We will not stand the assault if we separate. We need more than willpower to survive.

U Thant, former Secretary General of the United Nations was a witness to the wholesale brokeness of the world. He asked,

"What element is lacking so that with all our skill and all our knowledge we still find ourselves in the dark valley of discord and enmity? What is it that inhibits us from going forward together to enjoy the fruits of human endeavor and to reap the harvest of human experience? Why is it that, for all our professed ideals, our hopes, and our skills, peace on earth is still a distant objective seen only dimly through the storms and turmoils of our present difficulties?"

I suggest that it is because there is more going on than appearances suggest. We are involved in a conflict that will effect us whether we admit its existence or not. The forces that want to defeat us will try to drag us down whether we name them or not.

But we are not without defense. The armor is listed in Ephesians. Folly and wickedness cannot stand up against truth and righteousness. We will find both sword and shield through prayer and the knowledge of scripture. When we stand together, with God, we shall not be moved.

We may be in a conflict with eternal consequences but we have thousands of years of spiritual counsel from which we can draw. And we have only to pray to open a direct connection with the creator of all that is.

There is nothing that the world has to offer that is worth surrendering our souls.
There is nothing happening on the outside that can cause us to hand them over.

Let us be strong in our faith, whether the world acclaims us or puts us in chains.
Let us seek to have God within us and move outward from there.