Sermon for August 30th, 2015
The reading: Mark 7
Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come
from Jerusalem gathered around him, they noticed that some of his disciples
were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them. (For the
Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they thoroughly wash their
hands, thus observing the tradition of the elders; and they do not eat anything
from the market unless they wash it; and there are also many other traditions
that they observe, the washing of cups, pots, and bronze kettles.) So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him,
"Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders,
but eat with defiled hands?" He said to them, "Isaiah prophesied rightly about you
hypocrites, as it is written, 'This people honors me with their lips, but their
hearts are far from me; in vain do they
worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrines.' You abandon the commandment of God and hold
to human tradition." Then he called the crowd again and said to them,
"Listen to me, all of you, and understand:
there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the
things that come out are what defile." For it is from within, from the human
heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, adultery,
avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. All
these evil things come from within, and they defile a person."
The message (sort of, I made quite a few changes while preaching,
I tried to update as best I could)
Today, perhaps more than any other time in history, we are a
very clean bunch of people. Washing is a normal part of our daily lives. Most
of us probably shower every day (or at least think we should.) Hand washing is part of our daily habits and
routines too. It’s something we do lots of times throughout the day, before and
after we eat, after we take the train, bring out the garbage, or use the
bathroom. We also clean fruits,
vegetables and other foods before we eat them. My wife Jen will always yell at
me if I eat an apple or some other fruit without soaking and washing it thoroughly
enough (a standard I hardly ever actually meet). The only thing she lets slide
is spinach and other organic things that come in a plastic tub which promises
“triple washed so you don’t have to”.
Here at church, if I remember, I use purell or some hand sanitizer after
the sharing of peace and before celebrating communion (not that I think you are
dirty or anything, it’s just a precaution). Many churches include a hand washing as part
of their communion ritual and traditions. When I do church services at nursing
homes or other places where people are usually sick or have weak immune
systems, I am certain to clean my hands at various times. One of the best examples I have of how
important hand washing has become was at my pastoral care training program at
NY Presbyterian Hospital. During the first day orientation and most other days
of the 10 week program, we were all told that the only real way we would be
removed from the program was if we failed to clean or sanitize our hands before
and after seeing each patient. Anything
else, being shy, not dong the assignments right, having challenges in talking
with people or difficulties in engaging people of other faiths, were all things
they could and would help you work through and figure out. In today’s hospital system plagued with
easily preventable infections, poor hand cleaning habits were not something
they could deal with.
It can sound odd that Jesus takes such issue with people
washing their hands and things from the market. Of course, we are not talking
about washing for hygiene here. Modern germ theory, the idea of bacteria, basic sanitation or
even the concept of smelling bad did not really exist 2000 years ago when Jesus
has this conversation with the religious leaders. I’ll admit, the foods in the markets that
Jesus and his followers shopped in were not covered in all of the chemicals,
pesticides and pollution most of our food is bathe in today but no one would
have had any idea if it was. This
conversation between Jesus and the religious authorities of the time had
nothing to do with what we think of cleaning, it was about ritual washing, a
process of making things acceptable for Jewish use.
Most of us are familiar with the 10 commandments, we think
of those 10 rules as the law. There are
over 600 other laws in the Old Testament as well, covering what you can and
cannot eat (most well known in the cannot eat were pork and shellfish), who you
can touch (physical contact with non-jewish people was prohibited), ritual
washing of food, hands, head and feet and ways to purify or cleanse yourself if
you did violate one of these prohibitions.
The spiritual idea behind these rules was that every time
you washed your hands, avoided a certain food or performed a particular ritual,
it would remind you of God’s love and God’s actions in history (the big stuff
like the exodus from slavery in Egypt, the words of the prophets, the call of
Abraham, the claiming and receiving of the promised land and great kings like
David and Solomon). The law was meant to
help people organize their day, work and very life around God’s presence, love
and the hope of God’s promises. It was
also a way to create a group identity and help people maintain traditions when
they were not in Jerusalem (during times of exile, all of these rules could be
followed and your connection to the faith could be maintained).
Jesus criticism was that over the centuries, obeying these
rules had become quite a show, complete with special water, containers and
rituals. The religious authorities
developed more and more complex and intricate ways to follow the rules and
judge if others did. Instead of operating as a tool that pointed to God, the
rituals themselves became the focus. Once
you completed them properly God was somehow satisfied and there was nothing
else you needed to do. That was not okay. This is an idea repeated by James in his letter
that we heard an excerpt from: “Religion
that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans
and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world” Jesus
and James are both saying something along the lines of “washing your hands and
cleaning food is nice but what about the stuff that costs you something, what
about caring for those in need, telling people about God’s love, living a life
of faith, avoiding things that distract you and others from God, the point of
the law is God’s love for us and God’s command for us to care for each other,
not to wash your hands 27 times a day.
It can challenging for us to see how this is relevant for us
today. Very few people could name all of the laws and we are not under those
laws anyway (our relationship with God is centered around Jesus and his
resurrection). At the same time, we could all use ways to be reminded of God’s
love, God’s power and God’s presence in a suffering world. I like to think of
today’s reading as an invitation for us
to make faith like washing our hands, to make prayer, thanksgiving and
reflection on God’s love things we do all the time, that we see as necessary
for our health and wellness. We are
invited to organize our day around God’s love, to live lives where helping
others, worshiping, sitting with and studying God’s word, sharing with those
in need, using our resources in wise service to God, caring for neighbors and
strangers, praying, advocating for the voiceless and working to make things
better are as common and natural a part of our day as washing our hands.
