Father Riley's homily from September 2, 2018

Breaking News:  

...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of the interpretation of the Mosaic Law, which for the Pharisees and scribes was as authoritative as the Law and often superseded it.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+