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...CHANGE::The Rev. Canon Gregg Riley will lead us in Holy Eucharist Sundays: September 16, 23 and 30th. We will have Morning Prayer on Sunday September 9. Services are 10am with fellowship time following our service.
...There will be a vestry meeting following our service and congregational fellowship on Sunday, Sept 16. We will be finalizing plans for our Stewardship Campaign which will begin in late September.
15 PENTECOST, PROPER XVI - B
-18 MARK 7.1-8, 14-15, 21-23
Our gospel reading for today
brings us back to Mark. For the past five weeks, we have been following Jesus
in John’s gospel from the feeding of the 5000 to his confrontation with the
Jews in the synagogue at Capernaum.
Here we are in the aftermath
of Mark’s account of the feeding.
Many have been healed by
simply touching the hem of Jesus’ garment as he passed by. His fame has spread
from Galilee to Jerusalem causing some Pharisees and scribes to seek him out.
They find him in the company of his disciples while they are eating.
They stand back and watch as
his disciples eat taking notice that they do not observe the customs and
traditions of the Jews, that is, they eat without washing their hands. They are
surprised that Jesus’ disciples do not keep the “tradition of the elders.” If
he, Jesus, were truly the Messiah, they must be thinking, surely, he would
teach them to do so and lead by example.
The tradition of the elders
is a body of the interpretation of the Mosaic Law, which for the Pharisees and
scribes was as authoritative as the Law and often superseded it. The Jews of
Jesus’ day were scrupulously careful to cleanse the hands before partaking food
to avoid ritual uncleanness, and very definite regulations were laid down as to
the manner in which they should be done.
It was necessary, for
example, to pour a minimum quantity of water over the hands up to the wrists
twice, care being taken that none of this water should flow beyond the wrist,
lest it flow back and render unclean the hand again. If one’s hands are to be
washed by another, the hand must be held with the fingers pointed upward.
“So the Pharisees and scribes
asked him, ‘Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the
elders, but eat with defiled hands?”
The Jews were paying
disproportionate attention to such external matters, you see, and rated them
higher than the weightier matters of law, judgment, mercy and faith. Thus,
Jesus counters their question with a rebuke, “You abandon the commandment of
God and hold to human tradition.” Ouch! That must have stung these religious
leaders and teachers of the law where it hurts the most.
Today’s encounter with the Pharisees is the
final stage of Jesus’ Galilean ministry, and the final breach between his
conceptions and those of the Pharisees and scribes. While the earlier causes of
friction had arisen because of his miracles and, so far as scripture and
tradition went, mainly out of one healing on the Sabbath, we are now taken to
face wider problems of ethics.
In his counter, Jesus shows very clearly that
the things that defile the soul and poison the wellspring of life are moral and
spiritual in character, such as mean motive, arrogance and self-righteousness,
intolerance and envy, impurity and uncleanness. These are the insidious forces,
which corrupt human life, not failure to wash the hands in a prescribed way.
Jesus is saying, much to the
chagrin of the Pharisees, that a man cannot be “defiled” in the full sense of
the word, he can only defile himself. “For it is from within, from the human
heart,” Jesus said, “that evil intentions come.” The issue here is not the
observation of Jewish customs and traditions, which Jesus certainly does not
prohibit.
At issue is the setting of
human traditions contrary to the commandments of God. The prophet Jeremiah was
given God’s message centuries before the time of Jesus that God was going to do
a new thing. He would write his laws on the hearts of men.
Anybody can do lip service to
God. However, it is another thing altogether to live according to God’s laws
and commandments. James speaks to that in today’s Epistle. “Be doers of the
word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves…for doers who act will be
blessed in their doing.”
James is speaking of “religion
that is pure and undefiled, that is true religion. Jesus is speaking of the
same as well, whose motive is nothing less than the Love of God. If God does
not live in our hearts, then our religion is in vain.
In addition, it is easy to
fall into the trap of observing customs and traditions, without being truly
religious, even going so far as to “preach human precepts as doctrines.” To do
so is to deceive the human heart, as James puts it, and what goes for religion
in this sense is worthless.
If God does not live in our hearts, evil
intentions arise and manifest themselves in evil deeds. Look at the world
around us. As we read and listen to the nightly news we are constantly being
bombarded with evil intentions that have become manifest. We shake our heads in
disbelief and ask ourselves who would do such a thing?
We deceive ourselves if we
fail to admit that evil exists. Because it does exist is all the more reason
for those of us who strive to live according to God’s laws and commandments to
be “doers of the word” and not hearers only. We need the Love of God “grafted
into our hearts” if we are to succeed in living the new life to which we have
been called.
Otherwise, our efforts will
be hollow. The world would be a dark place indeed if it were not for the light
of “true religion” practiced and lived out by those who believe in the goodness
and love of God, by those who have experienced God’s grace and love in their
own lives, and who are willing to share the love of God with the world in which
we live until the day when He who is Resurrection and Life comes again in power
and great glory to judge.
The Church is built on
scripture and tradition. However, in no way does tradition trump the Word of
God but at its best is an expression of what we believe about God as manifested
in our worship of Him - worship that begins with the Collect of Purity.
“Almighty God unto whom all
hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid, cleanse
the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, that we may
perfectly love you, and worthily magnify your Holy Name, through Jesus Christ
our Lord.” AMEN+
