The Pharisees and Scribes cried out, "Why do your disciples not follow the traditions of our ancestors, but instead take food without purifying their hands?" (Gospel). 22 nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B September 2 nd, 2012
First Reading: Deuteronomy 4:1-8 So now, Israel, give heed to the statutes and ordinances that I am teaching you to observe, so that you may live to enter and occupy the land that the Lord, the God of your ancestors, is giving you. You must neither add anything to what I command you nor take away anything from it, but keep the commandments of the Lord your God with which I am charging you. You have seen for yourselves what the Lord did with regard to the Baal of Peor how the Lord your God destroyed from among you everyone who followed the Baal of Peor, while those of you who held fast to the Lord your God are all alive today. See, just as the Lord my God has charged me, I now teach you statutes and ordinances for you to observe in the land that you are about to enter and occupy. You must observe them diligently, for this will show your wisdom and discernment to the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, Surely this great nation is a wise and discerning people! For what other great nation has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is whenever we call to him? And what other great nation has statutes and ordinances as just as this entire law that I am setting before you today? Psalm 15:2-5 Those who walk blamelessly, and do what is right, and speak the truth from their heart; who do not slander with their tongue, and do no evil to their friends, nor take up a reproach against their neighbors; in whose eyes the wicked are despised, but who honor those who fear the Lord; who stand by their oath even to their hurt; who do not lend money at interest, and do not take a bribe against the innocent. Those who do these things shall never be moved. Second Reading: James 1:17-27 Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. In fulfilment of his own purpose he gave us birth by the word of truth, so that we would become a kind of first fruits of his creatures. You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger; for your anger does not produce God s righteousness. Therefore rid
yourselves of all sordidness and rank growth of wickedness, and welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your souls. But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like. But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act they will be blessed in their doing. If any think they are religious, and do not bridle their tongues but deceive their hearts, their religion is worthless. 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. Gospel Reading: Mark 7:1-23 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 said to them, You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition! For Moses said, Honor your father and your mother ; and, Whoever speaks evil of father or mother must surely die. But you say that if anyone tells father or mother, Whatever support you might have had from me is Corban (that is, an offering to God) then you no longer permit doing anything for a father or mother, thus making void the word of God through your tradition that you have handed on. And you do many things like this. 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.
When he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about the parable. He said to them, Then do you also fail to understand? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile, since it enters, not the heart but the stomach, and goes out into the sewer? (Thus he declared all foods clean.) And he said, It is what comes out of a person that defiles. 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. Homily The great debate going on in this week s Lectionary readings is whether followers of Jesus are bound to follow every jot and tittle of the law, whether they may add or subtract from the law, the issue of following tradition, or whether there may be change and adaptation to our current world. We realize that among current day Jews, there are disagreements on these very issues. And among Christians, there is a huge range of opinions running from following scripture and tradition very closely to what has been termed a more generous orthodoxy by others. In the First Reading we have a prologue to the Deuteronomic law. It was traditional in ancient legal codes such as the Code of Hammurabi to prohibit changes. But as we study the Hebrew tradition, we can see that the core teachings of the law as seen in the Commandments never changed, and yet there were changes over time in what might be termed cultural rules or purity laws. An important concept is that there will be changes and adaptation to the present age, but it must be done responsibly and undertaken to better observe the intent of the law under changed conditions rather than merely changing or adapting to suit one s own interests or preferences. The line may be thin and grey and hard to draw sometimes. But generally speaking, you will see that the core laws and commandments are maintained over time while the so-called purity laws are modified. Within Christianity, discerning what is the will of God and the Holy Spirit was established to be debated and settled by councils of apostles and leaders of the Church. We have the story of the first council in the Book of Acts, where the issue was whether Gentiles would be required to follow Torah and be circumcised in order to be Christians. Definitely, the existing Hebrew Scriptures and tradition would have resulted in a decision toward compliance and becoming Jews. This was the original position of James, who was the head of the Jerusalem Church. But Paul, Barnabas, and Peter viewed the situation differently, that Gentiles should not be required to follow all the traditions and requirements of Judaism. In the end, the position of Paul won out but there was a compromise on what would be required. The Gentiles were asked not to eat meat from pagan temples, or to drink blood, and to avoid fornication, which in that
era commonly had to do with sexual relationships as part of cultic practices in pagan temples. Hence, we have the first example of traditional rules being modified. The decision was not that of James, who was the head of the Mother Church in Jerusalem. It was a consensus built by prayerful consideration of what was most essential to maintain Jews and Gentiles being able to sit at the same Table with one another as brothers and sisters. Thus, the model for authority in the early church was the council, and this was the model for the next thousand years. We in the ECC are attempting to go back to this early model to guide our decisions. It is clear that this early Christian tradition had at its basis Jesus own precept of following the intent of the law, going to the heart, and not merely slavishly following a form of religion without the heart. He was criticized for healing on the Sabbath. The disciples were accused of not following rituals of washing before eating, but Jesus said that it is what comes out of a person that defiles, not what goes into him. The same conflict and debate continues 2,000 years later where the many different groups of Christians tend to focus on their preferred forms, their own unique brands of purity laws, rather than going to the heart of the Torah and the Gospel and loving those around them as Jesus would do. Jesus was critical of the law when it was used to obscure the need for obedience to its purpose. Just as the first century Apostles had to discern what was most important and to compromise their tradition in order to achieve the larger goal of inclusivity of those outsiders who wished to follow Jesus, we too must study and work to discern what is essential in our faith practices. What universe exists without your laws that keep moons from careening off into space, stars from crashing into black holes? Could we ever live for one instant, or move or have our being if you, God, Creator of the universe, did not hold each of us ever in your mind and smile on us? Lord, let our hearts not be far from you.
Help us reach out to our neighbor, even when we are busy or tired. Let us tear down walls when we d rather let them stand. Stretch us, please. Whether we are visiting a prisoner, offering a smile, feeding the hungry, be within us so that whatever we do, we do with your love. Let the world know we are your disciples not because our hands are clean, but because they are soiled with the mark of your people. Amen. Prayers only. Copyright 2012, Anne M. Osdieck. All rights reserved. Permission is hereby granted to reproduce for personal or parish use